‘Back to the road,’ Geoffrey ordered urgently, wondering whether they had been enticed into the woods on purpose, so as to leave the cart unattended.
But he need not have worried. The cart was unscathed and so was Hilde. Roger was sitting on it as she and Leah tended his arm, although he had refused to relinquish either sword or shield while they did so. He relaxed his guard when Geoffrey appeared.
‘It is just a scratch,’ he said.
‘Where are Cornald, Pulchria and Delwyn?’ asked Geoffrey, dismounting and inspecting Roger’s wound.
‘Here,’ said Delwyn, arriving suddenly enough to make Geoffrey jump. ‘I told you: I tend to hide at the first sign of trouble. And thank God I did. That attack was the most vicious yet.’
‘It was,’ agreed Roger soberly. He glanced over Geoffrey’s shoulder. ‘And here comes our brave butterer. It does not look as though he dispatched many bolts after we rode into the forest, and God alone knows what Pulchria was doing.’
Geoffrey spoke in a low voice, so only Roger and Hilde could hear. ‘One of the attackers was about to tell me all, but he was shot before he could speak. It may have been an arrow intended for me, but, equally, one of our companions may have loosed it. Sear, Richard and Gwgan were all behaving oddly when I found them, and now Cornald and Pulchria…’
‘What about Edward?’ asked Roger. ‘What was he doing?’
‘He is the one man who cannot be behind these attacks,’ said Hilde. ‘He was wounded outside Brechene – if he had ordered these ambushes, he would have been safe from stray arrows.’
‘What about Delwyn?’ asked Roger. ‘He is sly enough to organize raids on his fellow travellers, and he is desperate to lay his hands on the Archbishop’s letter.’
‘I agree,’ said Hilde. ‘However, I do not trust any of them except Edward. And that includes Alberic, who is missing still. So is Bale.’
‘You had better go and find them,’ said Roger to Geoffrey. ‘We cannot leave until you do, and every moment here is another moment for those villains to regroup and come at us again.’
Aware that Gwgan, Richard and Sear were following, Geoffrey rode back into the trees. Roger had been right to fear another assault, because Geoffrey encountered a group of men who were massing for a second attempt almost immediately. He tore into them, wounding three with his first set of manoeuvres. He was surprised when they did not scatter, and was then hard-pressed to hold his own when they came at him en masse. He was aware of Gwgan at his back, although he had no idea what Richard and Sear were doing.
But none of the attackers was equal to his level of skill, and it was not long before his superior talents began to tell. One man dropped his weapon and ran, and then suddenly it was a rout. Another paused long enough to lob a dagger, which would have hit Gwgan, had Geoffrey not deflected it with his shield.
‘Thank you,’ gasped Gwgan. ‘It would have been a pity to die so close to home.’
As the knifeman had come very close to killing Gwgan, Geoffrey suspected the counsellor was innocent of hiring the men. He was glad. He liked Gwgan and had enjoyed his company. He was pleased Edward was exonerated from suspicion, too, and supposed that if the ambushers were under the command of one of their companions, the only remaining suspects were Sear, Alberic, Cornald and Pulchria. And Delwyn, of course, who had ensured he did not suffer injury by hiding.
Sear and Richard arrived at last, and the remaining attackers fled at the sight of them. A sudden crashing in the undergrowth behind them made Geoffrey whip around with his sword raised, but it was only Bale. Cornald appeared from another direction.
‘The villains have all escaped, sir,’ reported Bale apologetically. ‘I tried to question one, but he declined to answer, so I cut his throat.’
‘And he was definitely not talking after that,’ said Gwgan dryly. ‘I tried to get one to talk, too, but Cornald shot him just as he was opening his mouth to reply.’
‘I shot him because he had a knife,’ declared Cornald. ‘He was beckoning you towards him so he could stab you. I saved your life.’
‘Did you also shoot the one I was talking to?’ Geoffrey asked him.
Cornald shrugged. ‘I may have done. It is difficult to recall what happened – it was all very fast and very nasty. I know I hit several, although I do not think I killed any others. All I can say is thank God we are almost home.’
‘Did I see you leap off your horse earlier, Geoffrey?’ asked Sear smugly. ‘You are lucky to be alive.’
‘I was trying to get answers,’ Geoffrey replied curtly. ‘Like Gwgan and Bale. I imagine we will all be safer once we know who these men are and what they want.’
‘They are just local felons,’ said Edward, coming to join them. ‘They cannot be the same ones who assaulted us before. Why would they follow us so far? It makes no sense.’
‘Unless one of us is involved in something nasty,’ said Richard, looking at no one in particular. ‘The attacks began in Brechene, so perhaps some bad business was conducted there. It was not me, because I was unwell. So was Gwgan. We had eaten that putrid fish soup.’
‘It was not me, either,’ said Sear. ‘I am not involved in anything unsavoury, because the King would expect better of me. Where is Alberic?’
They separated to look for the lost knight, and it was Richard who found him. Alberic was dead, his eyes gazing sightlessly towards the sky.
Sear accepted the death of his friend with no more emotion than a grimace, although he nodded his thanks when Geoffrey and Gwgan helped him put Alberic on the cart with Mabon. Afterwards, they all stood silently for a moment, until Roger reminded them that it would be unwise to linger longer than necessary. His warning galvanized them into action. Geoffrey, Roger and Gwgan reclaimed their horses, Leah packed away her medical supplies, and Hilde rounded up the frightened servants.
‘I say it again,’ said Edward, looking around with a shudder. ‘This would not have happened if my soldiers had been to hand. It was bad business that they were detained in Brechene.’
‘They would have made no difference,’ said Gwgan quietly. ‘These attacks have been ambushes, not frontal assaults. Your men would have done no more than provide additional targets for these archers to shoot at.’
‘You might want to talk less and ride more,’ said Richard sharply. ‘There is no more room on the cart for anyone else.’
It was good, if callous, advice. Geoffrey took up station between Roger and Hilde, ready to protect them again. The big knight was pale and quiet, a sure sign that they needed to find an inn where he could rest.
‘Did you see any of what happened?’ Geoffrey asked of Hilde.
‘Unfortunately, Leah was sobbing so loudly that I was afraid she would draw attention to us,’ said Hilde. ‘Most of my attention was on trying to keep her quiet. However, what little I did see told me that there was a desperation in them that was not present on previous occasions.’
Geoffrey looked at her. ‘I thought the same. Do you believe they were the same ones?’
Hilde nodded. ‘Yes, I do, and I would suggest their remit today was to ensure we did not reach Kermerdyn alive. They were also determined not to answer questions. One let Bale kill him rather than speak; another was too badly injured to move, and was clubbed to death by his fellows.’
‘Cornald shot a man Gwgan was trying to question,’ said Geoffrey uncomfortably. ‘And someone killed the one I was interrogating, too.’
‘It was a mess,’ said Hilde quietly. ‘It was difficult to tell what was happening, and all the time you were fighting, arrows were raining down from the trees. However, I suspect they could have dispatched Delwyn, Leah, Pulchria and me, had they really wanted. They focussed on you.’
‘On me, specifically?’ asked Geoffrey, supposing that Roger’s contention had been right that morning, and the trouble they had experienced since Brechene was connected to the letters. Or perhaps his orders to explore William’s murder and provide the King with a culprit and William’s secret.