The King's Daughter by Barbara Kyle

Author:Barbara Kyle
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: General Fiction
ISBN: 9780758225450
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 1995-01-01T08:00:00+00:00

20

Change of Pla

Thornleigh coughed. It felt like claws ripping his gullet. Throat’s swollen. Must be coming down with something … so cold here.

He sat watching a work party across the ward, a cellarman overseeing two prisoners toss bodies onto the charnel-house cart. “The corpse cart,” the prisoners called it. Though he’d been down here for only a day and night, he’d learned that much. The unchained ones had scuffled aside when the cart came, superstitious about being near it.

The cellarman had brought a torch, illuminating this patch of the ward, and Thornleigh could now see the filth that in the gloom he’d only smelled. Clumps of urine-spongy straw. Verminous nests of rags inhabited by equally verminous humans. And corpses. Watching the work party inthe twitching torchlight, he thought it looked like some macabre pantomime of Satan’s minions tidying up in hell.

He hugged himself more tightly, but nothing stopped the shivering. Late last night he had found this spot, an alcove matted with black straw, and he’d huddled here, a couple of red-eyed rats watching him from the corner. It offered a little warmth, but nothing stopped the shivering. All night he had drifted in and out of sleep, exhaustion dulling his brain into slumber until nightmare visions jolted him awake again. Cold as he was, his eyelids burned like hot sand, and his throat was as parched as a becalmed ship’s deck under a baking August sun. A pail of water had been brought to the door around noon and Thornleigh had gulped down several ladles full, but that was hours ago. Now, he dreamed of water even when awake.

Two nearby prisoners—new arrivals energetically arranging their meager belongings—had been quietly arguing in the corner, and now one of them raised his voice. “I tell you, it’s war! There’s a hundred thousand Spaniards let loose on our shores, and this fellow Wyatt’s out to stop ‘em!”

“What’s Spaniards to me?” the other groused. “Will Wyatt come to London town is all I want to know.”

“Good Christ, what care the likes of you if he come to London or if he battle the bastards on the beaches?”

“If he come to London mayhap he’ll burst down New-gate’s doors and set us free.”

“And why in Christ’s name would he be doing that with a hundred thousand Spaniards on his arse!”

Wyatt, Thornleigh thought, shaking his head. The rebels had taken their stand against the Queen five days ago, and yet, to him, what did it matter now if Wyatt won or lost? I’ll be leaving this foul prison only to hang.

Yet Honor was for the rebels; he could not forget that. Honor, always so quick to bristle against tyranny, always ready to assist anyone suffering under that tyranny. So generous. So brave. Even her writings—the anonymously published pamphlets that absorbed her—even those words on paper, pleading for tolerance from Catholics and Protestants alike, glowed with her generosity of spirit.

He suddenly remembered her letter. He hadn’t been able to look at it before when the ward lay in gloom, but the cellarman’s torch now shed enough light to read.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.