Plegmund’s eyes met mine. ‘M-Master?’
I didn’t know what to say. I saw the confusion in his expression, and how quickly it turned to hurt and feelings of betrayal, as he looked me up and down. I can only imagine what he must have thought when he saw me. How the last months had changed me. My hair was unkempt, my clothes were ragged, my face was smeared with dirt, and those were only the visible signs.
Plegmund didn’t speak. He didn’t need to. Neither did Hedda and Wiglaf, who’d stopped in the doorway, caught halfway between curiosity and fear. Judging me.
And they were right to. This time they were right. For finally I saw myself for what I was. I saw myself as they saw me.
And I realised what I’d been reduced to. What a base creature I’d become. Looting the Church, which for forty years had sheltered me and schooled me and fed me and clothed me, which had tolerated and forgiven my transgressions. My many, many transgressions.
‘Alas,’ said Wulfnoth, ‘as touching as this reunion is, we have more important things at hand.’
Hedda stepped forward. ‘You can’t take these things,’ he said. ‘They belong to—’
He broke off as Sihtric with his one hand seized him by the collar and lifted him off his feet.
‘They belong to us, whelp,’ he said as the boy gave a yell and kicked his feet and struggled against the big man’s grasp. He had to be twice the size of the poor lad.
‘Let him go,’ I said. ‘He doesn’t mean you any harm.’
Sihtric grunted but, to my surprise, did as I instructed, dropping Hedda to the floor, where he fell in a heap.
‘You should go,’ I said to the three boys as Hedda, his teeth clenched, rubbing his elbow, got to his feet. ‘All of you. Now.’
They didn’t move.
‘Didn’t you hear your master?’ Wulfnoth asked as he tossed a bronze censer into his sack. ‘Get gone!’
That’s when Father Osbert appeared in the doorway. I recognised him at once. A frowning, studious type who looked older than his years, he walked with a stoop due to the hours he spent hunched copying out passages from his books, and he had trouble seeing very far.
‘What are you doing?’ he asked the boys, blinking rapidly. ‘Why are you just standing here? We don’t have much time. They’ll be here soon!’
He peered into the darkness towards us. When he saw me his mouth fell wide open.
‘You?’ he said. ‘What are you doing here?’
After that everything happened so quickly that it’s all a haze in my memory. I’m not even sure in what order it took place. I remember Wulfnoth nodding to Sihtric, who slid his seax from its sheath and advanced upon Osbert and the students. I let go of the sack I was carrying and started forward in protest. I thought he was going to hurt them, and maybe he had every mind to. Meanwhile Gytha and Halfdan and the others were snatching up what they could of the rest of the treasure and stuffing it into their belt loops, into their packs, up their sleeves, wherever it would go.
Then Hedda hurled himself at Sihtric. I’m not sure why he did it or what he was thinking, but he did, fists flailing, yelling something I couldn’t make out.
Sihtric was faster. He lashed out with his seax, catching Hedda below the shoulder, ripping through his tunic, carving a gash down his arm. Blood spilt in God’s house, defiling what was supposed to be a place of sanctuary. The boy screamed in pain and Sihtric gave a savage grin, but not for long. Plegmund rushed at his flank, thrusting the torch towards his head before the big man could turn. The flames caught Sihtric full in the face. He yelled, dropped his weapon and stumbled back, blinded by the heat and the light, knocking over the lantern, which Halfdan had set down in the middle of the tiled floor. His hair was on fire and he was waving his hands like a madman, and still Plegmund came at him.
Gytha was rushing to her companion’s aid, trying to wrest the torch from the boy’s hands. Wiglaf had picked up the fallen seax and was swinging it wildly to fend off Cuffa and Cudda. Father Osbert had fled.
I should have done something. I don’t know what, but I should have done something. Instead I just stood there. Coward that I am, I just stood there.