Knight's Move by Jennifer Landsbert

Author:Jennifer Landsbert
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2000-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

When she reached the little cottage where Judith and her father lived, Hester found Alured laid on the low pallet which served as his bed, shivering as if he were lying on a bed of ice, while his skin burnt to the touch. His breath was laboured and the sound of his wheezing filled the room.

‘How long has he been like this?’ she asked Judith, who was pale with anxiety and tiredness.

‘Since yester eve, my lady. At first I thought he’d sleep it off, but it grew worse as the night drew in. I don’t know what to do for the best,’ said the poor girl, biting back a sob, her eyes red-rimmed and watery.

‘Don’t worry,’ Hester reassured her, putting an arm around her skinny shoulders. ‘You won’t have to manage on your own now. You’ll have plenty of people to help you with nursing. And Breda is bound to have some potion which will do Alured good.’

Hester sent one of the village children up to Abbascombe Manor with a message for Maud to send clean bedlinen and some broth. If Alured was too ill to eat, Judith certainly needed some nourishment after her long vigil. A few minutes later, William arrived with Breda. The old woman shuffled through the low door of the dark cottage, her hands stained with the juice of the berries she had been collecting, her wrinkled face tanned like leather by the sun.

‘M’lady,’ she said with a nod to Hester. ‘Judith, you poor lass, don’t take on. We’ll see your father better yet. Now, let’s have a look at ’im. Alured, can you hear me?’ The sick man made no sign of acknowledgement, but just continued turning his sweating head from one side of his wet pillow to the other.

‘Mmm,’ Breda said to herself as she felt his brow. ‘Mmm. Ol’ Breda reckons she can help him,’ she said at last, nodding at Judith. ‘Don’t you worry, girl, he can pull through this. He’s a strong man, Alured, still in his prime. I’ll be off to get my herbs and we’ll have him right again soon.’

Hester followed Breda out of the cottage. ‘Do you need some help in preparing or carrying?’ she offered.

‘Thank you, m’lady, another pair of hands would be of use.’

Hester walked with Breda towards her cottage, longing to speed the wise woman’s gait, but Breda always walked with the same shuffling steps, her old legs tired from many years of tramping round the countryside in search of the special ingredients for her potions and ointments.

Stepping out of the spring sunlight and into the one room of Breda’s low-roofed cottage, Hester found herself surrounded by unfamiliar shapes and smells looming out of the sudden darkness. As her eyes adjusted to the change in light, she could pick out bunches of leaves, grasses, roots, and seed-pods hanging from the beam which stretched above their heads, some still fresh, some dry and brittle, all with their individual odours competing to fill her unaccustomed nostrils. There were leather bags and pouches and even the carcass of a dead rabbit hanging from the beam.

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