Jocelyn nodded. ‘He did, my lord. I found some small bones.’
‘Which way is he going?’
‘Towards the coast.’
‘I guessed as much. He’ll be travelling very slowly, if he’s on foot. We should overhaul him.’
‘That’s easier said than done, my lord. Starculf will be more difficult to spot than he would be on horseback. There are ditches all over this land and lots of other hiding-places to choose from.’
‘Then let’s join forces and search them,’ said Ralph. ‘Shall we?’
Jocelyn the Anchorite hesitated. Irritated that his own pursuit of the quarry had been interrupted, he understood the advantage of additional pairs of eyes. He also had some admiration for Ralph Delchard, who had somehow found him in his refuge. That argued skill and patience on his part. He could be useful.
‘Very well, my lord,’ he said at length. ‘But there’s a strict condition.’
‘What is it?’
‘You can have Starculf-but I get the elephants.’
Ralph needed no time at all to consider the proposition.
‘Agreed,’ he said.
Olova was so angry that she waved her fists in the air. Skalp calmly stood his ground.
‘He was here?’ she said in disbelief. ‘Starculf was here?’
‘Only briefly.’
‘Why didn’t you tell me?’
‘There was no need for you to know,’ he said.
‘There was every need, Skalp. Think of the danger he put us all in. Everyone is out searching for him. If he’d been caught here, we’d all have been arrested for hiding him from justice.’
‘He wasn’t caught.’
‘He might have been.’
‘He wasn’t, grandmother,’ he asserted, sourly. ‘I hid him too well.’
‘From me as well as from everyone else,’ Olova scolded. ‘How could you do such a thing, Skalp?’
‘He was our friend.’
‘What sort of friend puts us at risk like that?’
‘There was no risk. I saw to that.’
‘Well, I should have been told about it. Only yesterday, I gave my word to Master Bret that Starculf hadn’t been near us for ages. You turned me into a liar.’
‘You told the truth as you saw it.’
‘Yet all the time, Starculf was lurking nearby.’
‘Somebody had to help him.’
‘Why did it have to be you?’
Her grandson fell silent. He respected Olova and would do her bidding without the slightest complaint most of the time. But he had an independent streak and it had shown itself clearly now. Because she rarely stirred from her hut, he had dared to conceal a fugitive from the law on her land. It shocked her. Olova would have been happier if she had never heard the name of Starculf again. It brought back sad memories for her.
‘Why did it have to be you?’ she repeated.
‘I felt that I owed it to him.’
‘You owe him nothing.’
‘Yes, I do,’ he said, vehemently. ‘And so do you, grandmother. You were delighted when you heard that Hermer had been killed. I saw the joy in your face. It was Starculf who put that joy there. Don’t forget that. But for him, Hermer would still be alive, doing to other girls what he did to Aelfeva. Is that what you’d have wanted?’
‘No!’ she cried in distress.
‘You saw what happened to Aelfeva.’
‘Don’t remind me.’
‘I was the one who found her body, floating in the water,’ he reminded her. ‘That’s what Hermer drove her to, Grandmother. He had Aelfeva’s blood on his hands.’
‘I know that.’
‘Then you should be grateful to Starculf.’
‘I am-in some ways.’
‘Hermer deserved to perish,’ he said, harshly. ‘His master took our land from us and he himself took Aelfeva. Was it Hermer who came here to apologise?’
‘No, it was Starculf.’
‘And because he spoke out, he lost his place.’
‘That still doesn’t mean you should have harboured him, Skalp,’ she said, sternly. ‘And you certainly shouldn’t have done so without my knowledge. My property may have shrunk in size but I still own a little land and you get your living from it. That means you’re accountable to me. Do you understand?’
‘Yes, Grandmother.’
‘Nothing takes place here behind my back.’
He gave a nod. ‘I’m sorry.’
‘I’d never have known if one of the children hadn’t spotted a stranger coming out of the bushes. But I do know now, and I realise that you betrayed me.’
‘I had to help Starculf. He was only here for a night or two.’
‘I don’t care if he was here for no more than an hour. He put us all in danger.’
‘Starculf put himself in danger for our sake.’
‘That was his choice.’
‘I couldn’t turn him away.’
‘Why not? Is he more important to you than I am?’
‘No, Grandmother.’
‘Be honest,’ she pressed, glaring at him. ‘Do you put Starculf above me?’
Head on his chest, he shifted his feet and gave a noncommittal shrug. When he looked up at her again, his face was expressionless and his voice dull. ‘I’ve got to get back to work.’
‘Where is Starculf now?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘Is that the truth?’
‘Yes, Grandmother.’
‘What am I to say if they come looking for him again?’
‘Nothing,’ he advised, sullenly. ‘Nothing at all.’
Starculf moved more slowly by day, keeping to the ditches or hugging the occasional outcrops of hedgerow. The warm weather was a mixed blessing. Against the pleasure of being dry again he set the danger of being more visible in the bright landscape. Though the fields seemed to be devoid of almost any moving creature apart from sheep, he knew that a sharp pair of eyes could pick him out from a considerable distance. While a posse might not spot him so far off the beaten track, a shepherd or a cottar or someone else working on the land might pick him out and report his whereabouts. He travelled in short bursts, keeping low and running towards the next available cover. He was tired but he pushed himself on, ignoring the water that squelched under his feet in ditches that were still soggy from the previous day’s rain. Birds watched his furtive progress across the countryside and put their comments into plaintive song. A fox was disturbed out of its den. Smaller animals also fled from a man who was himself in flight.
They were a mile away when he first caught sight of them over his shoulder. Starculf counted nine of them, moving steadily forward in a line that stretched out across a hundred yards or more. The sun glinted off the helms that most of them were wearing. They were methodical. He sank down behind a tree stump to watch them. Under the guidance of the rider at the end of the line, they rode at a brisk trot as they searched for signs of the fugitive’s route. Eventually, one of them stopped near a ditch and called out. The others quickly converged on him. Starculf crawled away on his stomach until sloping ground took him out of their sight. Getting to his feet, he sprinted in the direction of a field of wheat that stood unharvested. They were on to him. He needed a refuge.
Ralph Delchard dismounted to see what Jocelyn the Anchorite had found. Crouched on the ground, the latter pointed to footprints in a patch of muddy ground near the ditch.
‘I think he came this way, my lord,’ he said.
‘Someone did,’ agreed Ralph. ‘We’ve no guarantee that it was Starculf.’
‘Who else would be in such a remote place?’
‘Another anchorite, perhaps?’
Jocelyn acknowledged the jest with a rare smile, then dropped down into the ditch. He went back along it for some way before clambering back up the bank. When he reached the others, his feet were wet but his face was glowing.
‘He’s definitely been here,’ he announced. ‘There are footprints all the way along the ditch. It must be Starculf, trying to keep out of sight.’
‘He’s close,’ decided Ralph, scanning the horizon. ‘I feel it.’
‘So do I.’
‘How far can a man get on foot in a day?’
‘It depends how much guilt is weighing him down.’