Page 106 of Exile's Return

‘Kill them!’ Leah screamed.

‘My dear, it’s not quite that easy to just kill people these days,’ Ashby said. ‘There is also the little question of my property that I want returned. Search him.’

The two soldiers did a quick and efficient job of liberating Daniel of his knife.

‘It was a good plan of mine to use your friends as bait, Lovell. Now I shall leave you to consider your position. I think we could all do with a good night’s sleep. This time you will find the door locked and two of my best men on the other side of it.’

The door slammed shut, leaving Daniel, Agnes, and Kit standing in the middle of the room.

Chapter 46

As the darkness closed in around them. Daniel swore volubly and Agnes heard the crack of wood, followed by a grunt of pain.

‘Hitting the table will only give you a sore hand,’ Kit remarked. ‘Mind if I sit down?’

Agnes blinked a few times, allowing her eyes to become accustomed to the darkness once more. Daniel’s shadowy figure stood only a few paces from her and she caught at his arm.

‘Daniel? This was not your doing.’

He tensed beneath her fingers. ‘Tell me why it’s not my fault. I brought you all here in the pursuit of what — a few gold coins?’

‘It was not just the gold,’ she said. ‘I underestimated Tobias Ashby. I thought he had more humanity.’

Daniel huffed out his breath. ‘If you had seen him calmly order my father’s death you would not think that.’ He fumbled with the cords of his cloak. ‘I think someone has a greater need of this than me. Where’s Peg?’

Groping in the darkness, they found the old woman, curled in a ball. Agnes took the woman’s head onto her lap as Kit wrapped her in the cloak.

‘I’m sorry to be a trouble,’ the woman muttered.

‘It’s all right, Peg. It’s our fault. We should never have involved you. Are you warm now?’

‘Better,’ Peg replied. ‘Still so cold.’

Agnes felt for the woman’s life beat.

She took a quick breath. ‘She is very weak,’ she whispered to Daniel.

‘We have to try and keep her warm,’ he replied in a low voice. ‘Give her to me.’

He took the frail woman in his arms, holding her close against him.

‘It’s been…a long time…since an ‘andsome young man held me in arms,’ Peg murmured.

Agnes smiled into the dark.

‘So, Mistress Truscott, what do the pages of my future say now?’ Daniel said.

Peg chuckled. ‘They’re set now. Your future’s here.’

‘What does that mean?’ Agnes said.

‘Peg read my fortune in the palm of my hand,’ Daniel said, ‘but she said my future had not been written yet.’

Agnes leaned her head against Daniel’s shoulder and gently stroked the woman’s face and hair, wiping tears away from the cold cheeks. The long, slow, cold minutes passed and Agnes closed her eyes, allowing herself to doze only to be jerked awake as Daniel shifted his position.

‘Agnes, I think she’s gone.’

‘What do you mean?’