Early the next morning, I changed into men’s clothing and made quick for the stables, asking the hands to ready my horse and leaving my pack bags with them. I went to the barracks, hearing drunken laughter loud inside. For a moment, if I shut my eyes, it were like I were walking into Tuck’s, and Rob would be beyond the door, Much would be bothering Tuck, and John would be alive.
Opening the door, I quick remembered it weren’t Tuck’s. The small group of men chasing spirits to the early morn went quiet, and a few of the more dutiful ones jumped up to attention. The others followed slower.
“Are Allan and David in here?” I asked one of them.
“They left,” he said.
“Left?” I demanded.
His shoulders lifted. “Forgive me, my lady. They keep to themselves most times.”
I frowned. “Which way?”
He pointed, and I thanked him and left. I went out to the yard, toward the gate.
Rounding the edge of the building, I heard a grunt and Allan rushed past me, tripping and falling flat on his back. “Goddammit, David!” he roared, touching his mouth, which were trickling blood.
“You—” David stalked toward him and they both caught sight of me. David went still and pale, and Allan groaned as he got himself off the ground.
“Gentlemen,” I drawled, crossing my arms.
“He started it,” David snapped out quick.
“I’ve no doubt. Are you two drunk?”
They shook their heads. I couldn’t smell the reek of alcohol on them, so I reckoned it were true.
“Care to tell me what this is about?”
Allan looked to David, and David looked back at him. It were Allan that shook his head. “No, fair thief.”
“Are you two able to ride?”
David’s face were growing red now, and I wondered if Allan had landed a punch of his own. “Yes, my lady,” they both said.
“Good. We leave as soon as you gather your horses and belongings.”
“Yes, my lady,” they said again.
Shaking my head at this new lunacy, I went back to the stables as they went into the barracks to fetch their things.
CHAPTER
We went up to Bath, and from there tried to stay off the main roads to make Oxford within two days of leaving Glastonbury. We would have stayed out of cities altogether, but we needed more food, and we were less likely to cause a stir in a large city than a tiny town.
Oxford were a huge city. It were close to London in size and activity, but it weren’t on a major waterway, just a river to carry goods in and out. We made the city by midday, and entering the city were strange—there weren’t many people about, and those we saw turned their eyes from us quick.
“What the hell is going on?” David asked.
Allan looked to me. “My lady, I’ve several contacts here, if you’ll allow me?”
I nodded to him. “Go find out.”
He turned his horse down a narrow street inside the city gates.
David and I continued on, riding toward the huge spires of the cathedral at the center of the city. Not far from the grand building, we heard shouts. Awful shouts, terrible cries of pain, punctuating a dark silence.
I spurred my horse, and found a large group of people that parted for the big beast coming up behind them. I slowed my horse as I broke into the circle. There were at least thirty people on their knees, staring at the ground with huddled bodies and tied hands, and in front of them, a man with a back of vicious red, bleeding stripes screamed as the whip struck down on his back again.
I leapt off my horse. “What is this?” I bellowed. “Who are you? What are you doing to these people?”
The victim collapsed against the whipping post as his torturer turned to me. Without words, the older man snapped his whip at me.
It cracked on the bit of my shoulder that ran into my neck, and I clamped down against the pain, twisting back as David jumped in front of me with his sword drawn. “Drop your weapon!” he roared.
“How dare you two interfere with my justice?” the man snarled.
“This looks nothing like justice,” I returned. The cut at my neck burned and I felt damp trickle on my skin. “I demand to know your name.”
“I am Lord Robert D’Oyly,” he snarled. “Master of Oxford Castle and the constable of this shire.”
“And why are you treating your people like this?” I stared around at the large, silent crowd, with eyes that wouldn’t meet mine, and wondered how the people could be so still as their loved ones were hurt. There were no other knights, no guards, just the people outnumbering this man and unwilling to act.
“They refuse to pay the tax. They will be punished for failing to serve the Crown!” He turned back to the quivering man in front of him, and raised his whip again.