‘I’m not going to kill you,’ I assured him. ‘But you can give me your rings. I’ll have those. Your helmet and scabbard too.’
Godric glanced around him, but he was surrounded by Frenchmen and there was no way he could escape.
‘Do it,’ I said.
Reluctantly he divested himself of his helm and weapons, laying them down carefully on the ground beside him. I stood over him, my sword still drawn, watching carefully in case he possessed any hidden blades – knives on a belt underneath his tunic, perhaps – and was foolish enough to try to use them. As soon as he’d removed them all, I instructed Hamo and his men to carry them to our boats, together with as much as they could carry of the goods we’d brought with us. We didn’t have time to take away everything, or to strip the corpses of their possessions. Already what I thought was a faint smear of grey was beginning to appear on the horizon. It might have been my imagination, but I wasn’t willing to take that chance. I wanted to be well away from here by the time day was upon us.
‘A few of them managed to get away,’ Eudo told me when he and Wace returned from their pursuit. ‘They fled into the marsh-channel where we couldn’t follow them.’
Another reason to leave this place as quickly as possible. Soon they would rouse their countrymen and return, no doubt in larger numbers. Indeed reinforcements might already be on their way. The clash of steel and screams of the dying would carry easily across the marshes. If there were any sentries on watch on the other side of the channel, they would surely have heard us.
Wace handed me the coin-pouches that had formed part of our bait, which he and his knights had managed to recover from where they’d fallen amongst the enemy dead.
‘It’s mostly all there,’ he said. ‘We might be a few pennies short, but not many.’
Probably some had been spilt during the fight. Their loss didn’t concern me all that much. Our capture of the Englishman ought to bring us reward enough to pay for everything this expedition had cost us, hopefully with a good amount left over too, although the king’s treasurers weren’t known for their generosity.
‘On your feet,’ I told him. At first he did not respond, and it took Pons striking him across his shoulder-blades with a spear-haft to jolt him into doing as instructed. I wished I’d thought to bring some rope with which to bind his wrists, but he didn’t look the sort who was likely to put up much of a fight. Not after seeing so many of his countrymen cut down before his eyes.
I shoved him in the back to start him moving as, guided by Baudri, we made our way back across the islet towards where Hamo and his men were waiting with the punts. They had worked quickly, dragging the small vessels down from the thicket and pushing them out into the shallows so that they were already afloat by the time we arrived.
‘Whatever price you demand for my release, my uncle will pay it,’ Godric said as we reached the shore. ‘I swear it.’
‘Why should anyone pay a single penny for the sake of a wretch like you?’ I asked with a snort as we splashed our way through the murky knee-deep waters out to the boats.
‘I’m his only nephew, and the closest to a son that he has.’
‘Many men hate their sons,’ I replied. ‘He might not want you back. Besides, how are we supposed to get word to him?’
Godric had no answer to that, and since he wouldn’t get into the punt willingly I had no choice but to shove him over the gunwale. He gave a cry as he tumbled forward, landing awkwardly on his side. I took my place next to him, where I could keep a close watch over him.
‘Don’t speak another word unless you want to feel my blade between your ribs.’ I laid a hand upon the knife-hilt by my waist. ‘Do you hear me?’
He said nothing, and I took that to mean that he did. Wace and Hamo in the other boats were already pushing off from the shore and I gave the signal to Serlo, who once more had the punting-pole, to do the same. And so we left the island of Litelport behind us. Not half an hour could have passed since I’d spied what I thought was the first glimmer of dawn, but already the skies were noticeably brighter.
We were barely a dozen boat-lengths out from the shore when Godric, speaking more quietly, began again: ‘My uncle—’
‘I heard what you said,’ I interrupted him, before he could go on. If he had any sense at all he’d have realised it was far better for him to shut his mouth and not to provoke us further.
‘But, lord—’
He broke off as I grabbed the collar of his tunic. ‘Tell me, then,’ I said. ‘Who is this uncle of yours, who’s so wealthy that he can afford to waste good silver for your sake?’