The Swift and the Harrier by Minette Walters

The Swift and the Harrier by Minette Walters

Author:Minette Walters [Minette Walters]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Published: 2021-09-02T00:00:00+00:00


Richard received them with an absence of fuss, as if filthy, dishevelled people appeared at his door every day. He greeted Jayne and William as old friends, and took John’s hand warmly, expressing pleasure to meet him. Certain they were in need of food, he took them to his dining room and instructed his cook to bring whatever meats, cheeses, butters and breads she had in her pantry. The result was a veritable feast compared with the thin, tasteless broths that had been their diet for weeks, though Jayne enjoyed the beaker of cool, fresh milk the most. Cows were a luxury that a town under siege could not afford.

News of the Royalist retreat had reached Bridport ahead of them, but Richard was keen to hear every detail of what had caused Prince Maurice to break camp. Between them, John and William did their best to enlighten him, describing the Royalists’ inability to breach Lyme’s defences and the rumoured approach of Essex’s Parliamentary army, but he found their explanations wanting and turned to Jayne instead. ‘To what do you attribute the prince’s departure, my dear?’

‘The same as you, I imagine,’ she answered thoughtfully. ‘Sickness. Two deserters spoke of camp fever and infection, citing a figure in excess of two thousand deaths, and it’s inconceivable that so many died in the fighting when John tells me Lyme lost only one hundred and twenty. I haven’t forgotten your lessons on war, Richard. The greatest killer is not the sword or the cannon, but the squalid conditions in which men live.’

‘And William tells me you introduced such a strong regime of cleanliness in the hospital that it was copied by other physicians in the town.’

Jayne eyed him suspiciously. ‘I must be losing my hearing,’ she murmured. ‘I could have sworn he spoke only of the garrison’s brave defence of the ramparts.’

Richard chuckled. ‘He told me four weeks ago. He’s been most assiduous in keeping me informed of your welfare and achievements, and I in turn have done the same for your parents. You’ve won a lot of praise for your efforts, Jayne, and while Sir Henry continues to maintain his support for the King, he’s immensely proud of what you’ve accomplished.’

Perhaps unreasonably, Jayne felt a surge of impatience with Richard and William. She had wanted to tell her father the story in her own way, not have it controlled and translated by others. ‘How could you know what I was doing four weeks ago?’ she asked William.

‘I visited Lyme three times before I came in on Lord Warwick’s ship.’

‘By what means?’

‘At night in a rowboat from Charmouth. Lord Warwick employs me to give and acquire information and wouldn’t tolerate me for long if I failed in my duty to him.’

‘I never saw you there.’

Humour gleamed in his eyes. ‘You did the night you treated the soldiers outside the gaol. I would have spoken to you if I hadn’t feared the prisoners would report our meeting to Prince Maurice. I made my visits in darkness and left before dawn to avoid my boat being spotted.



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