“Then we had best be going,” said Hugh, “since soon they will be here with or without their warrant.”
“Ay,” answered Sir Andrew. “Here are the papers. Take them, Hugh, and hide them well; and if any accident should befall you, try to pass them on to Richard that they may be delivered into the King’s hands at Westminster. Say that Sir Andrew Arnold sends you on business that has to do with his Grace’s safety, and neither of you will be refused a hearing. Then act as he may command you, and maybe ere long we shall see you back at Dunwich pardoned.”
“I think it is the Claverings and their French lord who need pardon, not I,” said Hugh. “But be that as it may, what of Eve?”
“Fear not for Eve, son, for here she bides in sanctuary until the Frenchman is out of England, or perchance,” he added grimly, “under English soil.”
“Ay, ay, we’ll guard the maid,” broke in Master de Cressi. “Come! to saddle ere you be trapped.”
So they descended to a back entrance, and through it into the courtyard, where the four armed men waited with six good horses, one of them Hugh’s own. Here he bade farewell to his brothers, to his father, who kissed him on the brow, and to Sir Andrew, who stretched his hand above his head in blessing. Then he turned to Eve and was about to embrace her even before that company, when Sir Andrew looked at him, and, remembering the penance that had been laid upon him, he but pressed her hand, whispering:
“God be with you, sweetheart!”
“He is with us all, but I would that you could be with me also,” she answered in the same low voice. “Still, man must forth to battle and woman must wait and watch, for that is the world’s way. Whate’er befalls, remember that dead or living I’ll be wife to no man but you. Begone now ere my heart fails me, and guard yourself well, remembering that you bear in your breast not one life, but two.”
Then Hugh swung himself to the saddle of which Grey Dick had already tested the girths and stirrup leathers. In another minute the six of them were clattering over the stones of Middlegate Street, while the burgesses of Dunwich peeped from their window places, wondering what knight with armed men rode through their town thus early.
Just as the grey dawn broke they passed the gate, which, there being peace in the land, was already open. Fifteen minutes later they were on the lonely Westleton Heath, where for a while naught was to be heard save the scream of the curlew and the rush of the wings of the wild-duck passing landward from the sea. Presently, however, another sound reached their ears, that of horses galloping behind them. Grey Dick pulled rein and listened.