The Gallows Curse (47 page)

    In
the centre of the room was a huge wooden bed curved up high at either end. A
wooden cupboard leaned drunkenly against one wall and against the other was a
long table on which stood a flagon and goblets, together with platters of
spitted duck, hare and heron and a glistening haunch of venison. Crowning the
table was a roasted hog's head with savage fangs, its face blackened with
grease and soot to resemble the coarse dark coat it wore when alive.

    The
walls of the chamber were painted with scenes of hunting. Bulls were being
slaughtered with spears. Bears pawed wildly at the arrows sticking out of them,
and men and women dressed in skins cowered from the swords that were hacking at
them. Each of the triumphant hunters was naked, their muscles taut as they ran
towards their victims, their scarlet mouths wide with the cries of battle.

    Even
as Elena stepped forward, she was aware of a strong animal stench filling the
room, overpowering the smell of the roasted meat. With a shudder she remembered
the creatures in the cellar. The stench was not nearly as strong or rank in
here, but there was no mistaking some creature was or had been in the room.

    In
the same instant as the thought struck her, Elena heard a deep snarling. Before
she could locate where it was coming from, she glimpsed a movement as something
hurtled towards her from behind the bed. She flattened herself against the wall
as the creature sprang up, only to be dragged back in mid-air by the chain
around its neck. It fell with a heavy crash on the floor before scrambling to
its feet, glowering and panting. The creature was black as the Devil's hounds,
with short, close fur and eyes ringed with yellow. It looked for all the world
like a cat, but that was impossible, for it was the size of a wolfhound. The
muscles on its shoulders rippled under the fur. After a moment or two it slunk
back behind the bed.

    'What
is that?' Elena whispered, her heart still pounding from the shock.

    Luce
wrinkled her nose. 'Ma calls it her witch's cat. But if that's a cat, the mice
that brute hunts must be the size of bloody badgers. It's all right though, the
beast can't get free. That chain would hold a charging boar, as I keep trying
to tell
him.'

    She
gestured to the corner of the room furthest away from the cat, and for the
first time Elena realized there was someone else in the room. Finch sat in the
far corner of the chamber, his legs drawn up to his chin and his head buried in
his arms.

    'He's
got to get dressed in that. Ma's orders.'

    She
pointed to the floor where a long drape of dark fur lay crumpled. The hair was
dense and short, and it looked as if it had been made from the skins of numerous
rats sewn together.

    Elena
crept across the room with her back pressed against the wall to where the
little boy sat, and squatted beside him, stroking his hair. She kept a nervous
eye on the bed, but the creature remained crouched behind it, though she could
hear the rasp of its hot breath as it panted.

    'Are
you scared, Finch?' Elena asked, her own voice none too steady. 'Is that why
you won't get dressed?'

    Finch
nodded, but didn't raise his head.

    Luce
put her hands on her hips. 'I keep telling him, if he's not ready when the man
comes, Ma'll more than likely feed him to that beast herself.'

    Elena
glared at her. 'That isn't helping! Course he's scared. Anyone would be with
that thing in the room.' She turned back to Finch, coaxing him softly. 'But
Luce is right, the cat's on such a stout chain that not even a dragon could
break it.

    And
besides, look at all that meat on the table. The man couldn't eat all that,
that's for the cat, that is. That's what it can smell, not you.'

    As if
it understood the word
meat
, the great cat snarled from behind the bed,
and the little boy cringed still further into the corner. He stared desperately
up at Elena, his face blotchy with tears.

    'But
what's the man going to do with the . . . cat? Maybe he'll let it go.'

    'He
won't,' Elena said soothingly. 'He'd be too afeared the creature would turn on
him. And besides, Ma wouldn't let him, she'd not want that thing roaming round
scaring all her customers away.'

    'But
why's it here then?' Finch persisted.

    Elena
glanced at Luce, who shrugged. 'Gets some men excited,' she said.

    Elena
wasn't sure she even understood that herself, though by now, listening to the
giggling tales of the other girls, she had learned a great deal about what
excited men. Very little of it made sense to her, but she knew that a giant cat
was by no means the strangest.

    With
her thumb, Elena rubbed away the tears on Finch's Softly rounded cheeks. 'The
big cat can't reach you. It's just as safe as when it's in one of Ma's cages.
And you're not afeared of those caged beasts, are you? Remember, you told me it
was safe to walk by them. Please, Finch, you know you have to do what Ma says.
We all do. If you just let me help you dress, everything will be all right, I
promise.'

    It
took a lot more coaxing and pleading before Finch finally allowed Elena to
strip the clothes from his thin little body and pull the fur over his head so
it hung from him like a little tunic. He stood still as she dressed him, his
arms as limp as a rag doll, his head bowed, as if he knew there was no point in
putting up any kind of fight. Elena saw the old dead look creep into his eyes
and knew he was trying to shut her out, to shut out everything and close
himself off until it was over. She knew that, because she had done the same
thing that night in the pit at the manor, when she thought they were going to
hang her. Sometimes, when the body is chained and cannot escape, the only thing
you can do to save yourself is to let your mind fly away instead.

    They
had just finished when the big cat began to growl in a deep, throaty rasp, and
a few moments later Elena heard the sound of heavy footsteps approaching the
room.

    The
door opened, but this time the big cat didn't spring up. It walked as far as it
could on its short chain to the side of the bed and stood there, its ears
pricked and tail held high.

    Ma
entered, followed by a dark-haired man.

    'Is
the boy . . . ?' she began, then broke off as she caught sight of Elena
kneeling beside the child. Her eyes flashed in alarm. 'Luce, I thought I said
you were to get him ready.'

    'I
couldn't, Ma. He'd only get dressed for her.'

    'Disobedient
brat, is he?' the man said, taking a step forward. 'All the better, Mistress
Margot, I'll take great pleasure in schooling him.'

    'He
doesn't need schooling,' Elena snapped. 'He was afraid, that's all. That
beast's enough to scare anyone.'

    'That's
quite enough,' Ma said quickly. 'Off you go now.'

    Elena
turned towards the door, but the man stepped in front of her, barring her way.
He seemed oddly familiar to Elena. His features were well fashioned and his
hair was almost as black as the great cat's, but it was his eyes she
remembered, grey and cold as a November sky.

    He
seemed to know her too. He was staring at her as if he couldn't quite place
her. 'What's your name, girl?'

    'Holly,'
she murmured. Then suddenly she realized who he was. Before she could control
herself a look of fear flashed across her face. She tried to compose herself,
but the man was staring even harder at her.

    'I'm
sure we've —'

    Ma
Margot clapped her hands briskly. 'Out, girls, quickly now, I'm sure this fine
gentleman is impatient to get on with his fun, he doesn't want you two
chattering on, ruining his evening'

    She
shooed the girls towards the door.

    'Now,
sir, you'll find everything you need in that cupboard and if there's anything
else you desire, I'll have Luce stand at the end of the passage and you can
call her to fetch it.' Ma wagged a stumpy finger at little Finch. 'You do
exactly what this gentleman tells you or you'll have me to answer to.'

    The
last thing Elena glimpsed was the child's terrified face as he watched the man
cross to the bed.

    At
the end of the passage, Ma grabbed Luce and thrust her against the wall with a
force that made the girl cry out.

    You
stay there, all night if needs be, case he wants anything— that'll teach you to
disobey my instructions. When he's ready to leave you take him straight to the
door. Don't let him go wandering around. And if he asks about Holly here, you
tell him that she used to work in the market in Norwich till she came here. You
got that?'

    'Yes,
Ma.' Luce nodded earnestly, rubbing her bruised shoulder.

    Ma
led Elena downstairs and outside, pulling her well away from the staircase to
the chambers before stopping again. 'You should never have gone in there. I
couldn't refuse a man like him. It would have made him think we'd got something
to hide. But if you and Luce had done what I said, he would never have seen
you. You know who he is, I suppose?'

    Elena
was trembling. 'I think he might be. . . Lord Osborn's brother.'

    'Yes,
Hugh of Roxham. Talbot recognized him at once. Now Hugh knows he's seen you
before, but it's plain he's not sure where. How often have you met him?'

    'I...
I saw him in the Great Hall the first evening Osborn came to the manor, but
only at a distance and he never spoke to me. I didn't think he'd even noticed
me for there was a crowd of servants.' Elena gnawed at her knuckle. 'Do you
think he's come here looking for me?'

    'He's
not asked about a runaway, and even if he has somehow discovered Raoul came
here the night he died, he can't know you were the girl who pleasured Raoul...
or murdered him,' she added with a glower. 'There's no reason to think he was
looking for anything more than pleasure, and where else would any gentleman
come for that but here? Ma Margot's is known far and wide as the best. So if we
all stick to the same story, we can convince him he's seen you on the streets
in Norwich, that's why you look familiar. It's as well we dyed your hair.
You've not told Finch anything about yourself, have you, like where you come
from?' Ma grasped Elena's hand, digging her long nails into the flesh. You'd
best tell me now if you have.'

    Elena
winced, but shook her head. Ma searched her face for a long time, then grunted
and dropped her hand. 'Go on, get yourself to bed and be sure to keep out of
sight till Luce tells you he's gone.'

    But
Elena didn't move. 'Ma, what's Hugh going to do to little Finch?'

    'What
he does is no concern of yours,' Ma snapped. 'But you'd best pray that he gets
so much pleasure from it that it puts any thoughts of you right out of his
head.'

    'But
he's not going to hurt the boy, is he? He's so very small.'

    Ma
frowned and Elena shrank back, thinking she was about to lash out. But when Ma
spoke there was an unusual gentleness in her voice.

    'A
little, that's inevitable, but I warned him not to go too far.'

    She
looked up at Elena, a pained but savage expression in her yellow-green eyes.

    'All
things pass, my darling, that's what you've got to hold on to. In just a few
short years Finch will be a young man. He'll be able to do what he likes then
to old men and women too who'll be only too willing to make fools of themselves
and lick the ground he walks on just for a smile or a tender caress from a
beautiful young man. It'll be them suffering then, not him. Trust me, one day
you'll feel sorry for them.'

    'But
that won't wipe out what happened to him,' Elena said. 'He'll remember it.'

    'Oh
yes,' Ma said with grim smile, 'he will always remember, I'll see to that, and
one day he will make them pay dearly for what their kind did to him. That's when
he'll know he has beaten them all, and I can promise you he will enjoy that
moment better than the finest banquet ever set before a king. Survive, my
darling, that's all you have to do, just survive, and if you can, then time
will give your revenge.'

    Raffe,
peering impatiently out of the casement in Lady Anne's chamber, finally saw her
emerge from the stables and cross the courtyard below him. She looked weary,
hardly surprising after her long journey. She'd been away almost two weeks at her
cousin's home and every day Raffe had grown more anxious for her return. He
glanced over the yard towards the gate. Osborn had sent a messenger ahead to
announce his return from court that very afternoon. Raffe prayed fervently he
wouldn't arrive until he'd had time to talk to Anne.