B0078XH7HQ EBOK Read Online Free Page B

judgement, and Edwin hastily helped himself to more bread and sauce before it all disappeared. He listened with care as he savoured the food. Some of the nobles had changed their allegiance back to the young King Henry – and to the regent, who was ruling for him until he was older – and decided to fight against Louis. They didn’t really want a Frenchman as king, they just thought that anyone would be better than John. The earl was one of these men, and last month he had made a truce with the regent.
    Robert waved his spoon in the air as he concluded. ‘And today the regent has summoned all men who are loyal to him to muster and march to the relief of Lincoln.’
    Edwin felt that he understood a little more clearly after this explanation. ‘So the French forces hold Lincoln?’ He had no idea where Lincoln was, but he had heard of it, and it wouldn’t do to sound too ignorant. He hoped nobody would ask him any questions.
    ‘They hold the town but not the castle. Look, I’ll show you.’ Robert enthusiastically started to rearrange cups and dishes in order to illustrate his point, but gave up when he saw the confused faces around him. He sighed. ‘All right. Let us speak more simply. From what I could gather from the messenger’s words today, Louis holds most of eastern England except the strongholds of Dover, Windsor and Lincoln.’ He banged his finger down in three places on the table. ‘He himself is currently in London,’ – another bang – ‘but his army is at Lincoln.’ And another. ‘The town has surrendered but the castle within it is still resisting, so we will march to relieve them and hopefully destroy much of the French army behind Louis’s back.’ He thumped his palm down flat, as if to emphasise the finality of it all.
    He made it sound so simple. Simon’s eyes were shining at the thought, although the earl would presumably make sure that the boy came nowhere near the combat. Still, all three of them would march away with the earl while Edwin would have to remain here at Conisbrough. The darkness, which had been hovering around the edges of his consciousness, threatened to return.
    Robert finished his meal and looked across at Martin. ‘Come. We’d better get back across in case our lord needs us before he retires.’ The four of them rose from their seats and left the hall, Edwin to return to the village and the other three to climb up the stairs and across the bridge to the keep. The earl did have a luxurious great chamber – one of the wooden buildings inside the inner ward which would soon be rebuilt in stone – but Robert had once told Edwin that since his wife had died two years before, the earl had preferred the plain quarters of the keep’s bedchamber when he was at Conisbrough, leaving the more opulent apartments to his widowed sister. Edwin supposed that was fair, although he knew little of how the nobility arranged these things. Simon yawned and dragged his feet as they left the building, and Robert gave him an affectionate shove to get him going. ‘Let’s hope the earl doesn’t need you for anything else tonight, or you’d probably pour his wine all over him.’ He grinned at Edwin. ‘Mind you, all three of us are such sound sleepers that our lord practically has to set his dogs on us to rouse us in the mornings!’
    They walked across the courtyard, and Edwin turned towards the torchlit gatehouse to the accompaniment of a sleepy goodnight from Simon, a nod from Martin, and a promise from Robert that he would try to visit on the morrow if he could manage it. He nodded to the night porter and walked out through the outer ward, down the road and into the quiet, still street of the village towards his parents’ house, where he could see a rushlight still burning in expectation of him. He slowed his pace as he neared the house, the dread returning in waves. He knew what he would have to face when he got there. He couldn’t do it. The compulsion to turn and run was so