Читать книгу Winds of Fortune - John Jeffery Farnol - Страница 6
ОглавлениеTELLETH HOW (AND TO MY HORROR) CERTAIN DEBTS WERE PAID
We rode by bridle paths and unfrequented ways, for he seemed to know the country hereabouts as well or better even than I; and we went at leisured, ambling pace and rode in a silence unbroken save for the jingle of bits and creak of saddle leather, since whenso he attempted speech, I stared dumbly over him, beyond him, or turned my back on the wretch; thus, instead of offering further speech, he fell a-singing of some lewd rant full of "heavings" and "Yoho-ings" with mention of dead men, murder and the like, until at last:
"Oh, be silent!" I exclaimed.
"As any stockfish, an' ye will, ma'm."
"What do you intend with me?"
"You've heard."
"Is it money you want,—a ... a ransom?"
"No, ma'm."
"What then?"
"Yourself."
"But you nothing know me."
"Better than I did and shall do e'en better anon."
"You ... you will dare abduct me?"
"Ay, ay, ma'm, abduct it is and more's the pity."
"Oh, Villainy!" raged I. "Shalt hang for this!"
"Peradventure, ma'm, tho' let's hope not, for both our sakes. Howbeit, yonder lieth Shoreham and 'tis thither we go." Now as he spoke, I spurred my poor Rosabell in wild and desperate hope of escape, but, even as the mare reared, his brutal arm had plucked me from the saddle and I, prone across his knees, was fighting him, desperate with rage and fear; and even now this merciless tyrant must leer and mock at me, for:
"Easy now!" says he. "And oh, fie, shame on you, ma'm, for to be showing thus a modest sailorman your legs ... besides, I've already remarked their shapeliness alow and aloft—"
"Beast!" I cried, striking up at his mocking face; so he dropped me.
"Madam," said he in altered voice and look so changed that I caught my breath, "some day poor Japhet will be loving you very truly and with such reverence as shall be your own astonishment."
Then, riding after my mare, he brought her back.... And presently we were going on again through these solitudes where showed no living creature saving our two selves.
The kindly sun sank low and lower and with his going my courage began to fail me and my poor heart to beat (and ever more distressfully) for shameful dread of what this coming night must bring; though minding how he had viewed me with a gentleness so unexpected, nay almost reverent, in this I found me some small comfort ... and yet, as the evening shadows lengthened and grew, so grew my doubts.
"Ma'm," said he at last and suddenly, "you sigh very prettily plaintive and oft; now is this by reason of waxing passion o' love or yearning for supper? If 'tis love," he went on, seeing I deigned him no reply, "then, ma'm, here is thy Japhet; if 'tis mere lust for meat and drink, down yonder is snug tavern where they shall be duly satisfied."
Looking whither he pointed, I saw a little valley below us where, bowered amid trees, rose the roof and chimneys of a small inn that methought very remote and desolate; and the sight of this inn, its lonely situation where a woman's screams must go all unheard, this filled me with such dreadful apprehension that I approached it with a prayer upon my tremulous lips.
As we drew nearer, my companion set fingers to mouth and whistled shrilly, whereupon and almost at once two men approached who lifted arms in cheery salutation.
So came we to this inn or rather hedge tavern, which I saw bore a sign naming it The Jolly Woodman.
"Is our bird safe, Absalom?" questioned my companion of these two men who were staring up at me.
"Ay, ay, Cap'n!" answered one, a smallish, white-headed man, who yet seemed strangely young in despite of his silvery hair.
"Why then, go fetch the gentleman's sword," quoth the Captain, "and do you come with us, Ben, to take our horses." So saying, he led the way round to the back of the inn where was a yard shut in by barns and stables.
Here we dismounted and taking my hand (will I, nill I) he led me into a fragrant barn and so brought me where, couched upon hay pile, lay a very gorgeous gentleman, though his velvets and laces showed rumpled by reason of the cords that bound him from belaced throat to silk-clad ankles, while his face, half hidden in the long curls of his great periwig, was further hidden by the dingy clout that was tied about his mouth. Now even as I gazed pitiful upon this poor, so ill-used gentleman, the Captain chuckled and using my hand to point with:
"Ma'm," says he, his wolfish mouth twisted in its odious, sneering quirk, "you behold here a very person no less, ma'm, than my lord Viscount Barrasdale,—ay, look on him, for 'tis indeed the noble gentleman would have honoured you with himself in wedlock. Observe him, lady—these speaking eyes how fierce and fiery they roll; is it for love o' thee and thy worldly goods, or for instant bloody vengeance on thy poor Japhet? Himself shall pronounce. Ben, unloose him."
With a swift dexterity, the prisoner was freed of his cruel bonds, whereupon he rose and stood rubbing and chafing at arms and wrists, a tall, comely gentleman despite his scowling look, a masterful gentleman of full though commanding presence.
"What, Geoffrey," mocked the Captain. "I do protest thou'rt grown plump as partridge, Geoff—" Uttering a snarling, inarticulate cry, very dreadfully beastlike, this dignified gentleman leapt at his grim tormentor but checked as suddenly and recoiled before the narrow, twinkling steel that threatened to impale him; and sword thus in hand, the Captain mocked him still.
"Patience, Geoffrey! Thy day was and is gone; mine is—now! Absalom Troy!"
"Ay, ay, Cap'n."
"Heave the gentleman his bodkin!" I saw the white-headed man unsheathe and toss a naked sword at the gentleman's feet who, snatching it up, stood for a dreadful moment bending the supple blade this way and that, staring on the Captain's leering visage with a strange, fixed intensity; once he seemed about to speak but, as I held my breath, he leapt instead to such sudden fury of action that I shrank in terror, my eyes upon those clinking, whirling blades in horrified expectancy.
Now fain would I have closed my eyes but the murderous dart of those twinkling points held me as it were enthralled. I heard the man Absalom Troy beside me mutter a great oath and then the Captain spoke:
"I've cheated ye of your heiress, Geoff! See, there she stands to watch me brand ye for damned villain ... so play your best, Geoffrey! Pink me an' ye can, for, by God—" The flashing swords whirled furiously; I heard the white-haired Absalom laugh thin and shrill, and then the gentleman, dropping sword, reeled back, begemmed hand to his dreadfully marred cheek that dripped blood horridly.
"Soho!" quoth the Captain, sheathing his cruel sword, "there's my mark, Geoffrey; nor shall ye rub it off, no matter how long you live to plague this poor world. How think you, ma'm?" And he turned where I stood so faint and sick that now when I would have denounced and cried my abhorrence of him, his face blurred, the ground swayed dizzily beneath my stumbling feet and, for the first time in all my life, I verily and truly swooned away.
