With a suddenness that took him by surprise I lunged at Thomas Pennard, catching him a blow between the eyes. His hair was singed, and a brand appeared on his forehead which made him scream and drop his knife, clapping both hands to his wound. The other three, unnerved by the incident, hesitated for a second or two before Anthony Pennard leapt forward to retrieve the fallen blade, but I had been too quick for him, placing my right foot on top of it.
‘Run, Cicely!’ I yelled. ‘For Heaven’s sake, run!’
But she had already made her move — not towards the entrance of the cave but to fling herself at Gilbert Honeyman, her arms coiled about his neck in a strangle-hold. He had been fumbling for the dagger at his belt but was forced to abandon any attempt to draw it in order to shake off his assailant.
Meantime, Anthony Pennard had made a bid to unsheath his own weapon, but was foiled by a glancing blow from my scorched and smoking stick. At the same moment, out of the corner of one eye, I saw Gilbert Pennard reach into the chest behind him and grab a heavy silver candlestick, which he brandished like a club.
And here I made a terrible mistake. In order to parry the blow which he aimed at me, I slid my right hand further along my cudgel to bring it into a defensive, horizontal position; but the blackened end was still smouldering and the charred wood burned my flesh. I let it go with a resounding curse, but through my pain I kept sufficient wits about me to retain my grasp of the the other end.
Gilbert Honeyman had at last managed to loosen Cicely’s grasp, and with a final heave sent her sprawling on the ground. In a sweat of fear and fury, he raised a ham-like fist and would have dealt her a murderous blow had she not rolled clear and scrambled quickly to her feet. I was only vaguely aware of all this, however, my attention being focused on Gilbert Pennard and his candlestick. He was aiming for my head, and, ignoring the agony of blistered palm and fingers, I again took hold of my cudgel with both hands, just in time to save my skull from being crushed.
But in doing so I had shifted my stance, exposing the knife which Thomas Pennard, still in something of a daze, was nonetheless able to stoop and retrieve. His father had also managed to draw his dagger, as had Gilbert Honeyman, and once again all four men were advancing towards me, their evil intentions writ large on every face.
Using my stick to hold them at bay, and completely unconscious now of my painful right hand, I stepped back the two or three paces which in the past few moments I had allowed to open up between me and the wall of the cave. Four pairs of eyes were fixed unwaveringly on my person, and I realized with awful clarity that even if I could lay one man low, I could not escape the vengeance of the others. Only a miracle could save me …
Even as the thought entered my head, Thomas Pennard tripped over one of the many stones and small boulders which littered the ground. He recovered his balance almost immediately, but the accident had caused him to fall a step or so behind the rest. In consequence, he could see that Cicely, whose existence had been temporarily forgotten in the general desire to dispose of me, had copied his own example and armed herself with another of the weighty silver candlesticks. She was already creeping up on Master Honeyman when Thomas shouted a warning.
‘Gilbert! Watch out! Mind your back!’
The effect of this was to deflect the attention of both the Bee Master and his namesake Gilbert Pennard, who each whirled about, knives at the ready. Taking advantage of their momentary distraction I swung my cudgel with all my strength to the side of Anthony Pennard’s head, felling him to the ground, and I knew that he was unlikely to rise again for some little time.
One down, but there were still three to go.
I heard Cicely scream. She retained her hold on the candlestick, but was now using it as best she could as a means of defence against Gilbert Honeyman’s lunging dagger. I forced myself away from the wall, expecting opposition from the Pennard brothers, but to my astonishment Thomas had dropped to his knees beside his father, while Gilbert stooped over the pair of them, arms hanging limply at his sides.
I staggered across the cave’s uneven floor towards the Bee Master, who turned to meet me, calling upon the Pennard brothers to assist him. Although I was able for the moment to keep him at cudgel’s length, I knew that I must lay him low before either Thomas or Gilbert Pennard recovered his senses. At any moment now, their anxiety for their injured father must surely give way to concern for their own safety, for as far as they knew Cicely and I were the only two people who could deliver them into the arms of the law.
Still holding Gilbert Honeyman at bay and judging my moment to strike, I saw one of the brothers slowly raise his head and shake it, like a man gradually awakening from a dream. I could delay no longer, or I should throw away my unlooked-for advantage. I raised my cudgel but my adversary, moving with extraordinary speed, ducked in under my guard and rushed forward with his knife aimed straight at my heart. I twisted out of his path with less than an inch to spare, at the same time catching him a glancing blow to the side of his head. It was not a serious knock, but together with his own momentum it brought him crashing to the floor where he lay gasping for breath.
But it was a losing battle. The two Pennard sons were now coming for me, each armed with a knife, and even if I managed to hold them off, Gilbert Honeyman would not be winded for long.
I yelled again, ‘Run, Cicely! Run!’ And this time she obeyed. She must have realized that there was nothing else she could do to save me, and that if she at least got away, whatever my fate, the villains would be brought to justice. She scrambled towards the entrance to the inner cave and vanished into the darkness of the passageway beyond.
And then I heard her scream, a high-pitched, desperate cry that was broken off abruptly. The Pennards stood rooted to the spot, like men who had looked upon the head of the Medusa. Gilbert Honeyman, who had risen halfway to his knees, also stiffened into immobility, as frozen as the stone waterfall behind him. But the silence which had succeeded that Banshee wail was suddenly broken by the reassuring murmur of men’s voices and a gasp of relief from Cicely. A moment later she reappeared in the cave.
‘Roger! Roger! It’s all right! Edgar Shapwick is here with the Sheriff’s men!’
* * *
There is a certain satisfaction in bringing the guilty to justice, and I feel sure it is God’s Will that evil men and women should be punished for their crimes. Yet in all the years that I have acted as an instrument of that Divine Intent I have found very little pleasure in doing it; except, perhaps, on one or two occasions when those concerned have been wicked beyond all possibility of forgiveness. But for the most part, it has been my experience that nearly everyone has some good in him or her which, had things chanced differently, might have kept that person on the straight and narrow path to redemption.
You can tell that I am getting on in years, my children, for only the elderly pontificate in this self-righteous fashion. Nevertheless I have written no less than the truth, for always the innocent suffer with the guilty, snared in a web of other people’s making — innocents like Dame Gildersleeve, who had not only lost both her sons but had to endure hearing one of them posthumously branded as a thief. She might also have been deprived of her livelihood with Mark and Peter dead, had not Cicely decided to remain with her aunt and take on the running of the business.
That girl knew nothing about parchment-making, but I had no doubt that she would learn. Someone in many ways little older than a child had run into that cave, but a woman had come out — a woman who had proved to herself her own courage and worth, and who was ready to tackle the world. I felt almost sorry for Sergeant Armstrong when he eventually arrived in Glastonbury, expecting to find the same easily biddable daughter from whom he had parted.