Page 103 of Exile's Return

Leah’s thin lips tightened. ‘The Colonel is enraged,’ she said. ‘I have never seen him like this.’

‘I have,’ Kit said, holding her gaze with his own.

Leah sighed. ‘I try to be a good Christian and not think ill of people.’ Her gaze flicked to Agnes. ‘Despite what you might think.’

Kit studied her face. ‘We can’t always help our hearts, can we?’ he said softly.

Leah started as if he had pricked her with a knife.

Kit looked up at Agnes. ‘Mistress Turner is, I suspect, more than a little in love with the good Colonel,’ he said.

‘You are talking nonsense,’ Leah replied, her acerbic tone restored. ‘I need your help here, Mistress Fletcher. There is water in that flask and clean cloths.’

Agnes wiped most of the mud from Kit’s haggard, unshaven face and turned her attention to his arm. ‘Nasty,’ Agnes remarked, looking at the angry, seeping gash that Leah was attempting to clean with another cloth.

Kit glanced at his arm and flinched. ‘At least you don’t faint at the sight of blood,’ he said.

‘No. Why? Who does?’ Agnes asked.

‘My wife. She’s utterly useless when it comes to tending to my hurts.’

Kit closed his eyes and endured Leah’s efficient ministrations in silence, his lips compressed into a tight line.

‘You’ve done that before,’ Agnes said.

Leah looked up. ‘In the last years of the war,’ she said, ‘the King’s men took refuge in our town. The fighting was fierce and many were wounded. I was only a girl but we all had to lend what aid we could. I saw things no girl of my age should see.’

Kit’s eyes flickered open and he laid his right hand on Leah’s arm. ‘Thank you, Mistress Turner.’

The woman glanced down, her eyes widening at the sight of his crooked fingers, but she said nothing.

‘As I said, I only do what I consider my Christian duty.’

‘Perhaps you may find it in your Christian duty to provide us with some blankets. This woman,’ Agnes rose and crossed to Peg, ‘is blameless and yet she is treated like a common criminal.’

Leah turned her attention to Peg, crouching down beside her. ‘Mistress Truscott, can you hear me?’

When Peg didn’t respond, Leah looked up at Agnes. ‘Her senses are addled?’

‘As yours would be, had you been treated as she has.’

Leah sighed. ‘I thought I knew Tobias…’ she began but broke off.

She rose to her feet and turned to face Agnes, once again the Leah Turner Agnes knew, stiff and unbending and convinced of the rightness of her cause.

‘I will find some blankets,’ she said. ‘But I would entreat you to spend your time in prayer and contemplation, Mistress Fletcher. You do not wish to face your God without repentance in your heart.’

‘Repentance for what?’ Agnes’s voice rose. ‘I have nothing in this life I repent or regret.’

Leah’s brows drew together. ‘You are a whore, Mistress Fletcher. You shared your bed and your body with a man, not your husband.’

Two men, not my husband.

Agnes thought of Daniel and a physical ache clutched at her heart. God, keep him safe, she prayed as Leah bent over Peg, trying to wash the worst of the mud from the woman’s face and hands.

Chapter 45

Daniel, Jonathan, and Sarah waited until dark before leaving the relative safety of the cottage. As they skirted through fields and coppices, Daniel wrestled with the nagging fear that Sarah may have been leading him into a trap. Instinctively, his hand tightened on the hilt of Kit’s sword, the reassuring weight of a loaded pistol tucked into his belt and the press of his knife secreted in his boot.