Page 37 of Castle of Refuge

“No, my lord.” Her eyes were wide and she shrank away from him.

“You may carry on.”

He looked through the rest of the rooms. Just as he reached the last one, Mistress Wattlesbrook came up the stairs, breathing hard.

“She has gone.” Mistress Wattlesbrook continued to try to catch her breath.

“What do you mean?”

“Her bag and her clothing are gone, and she left her servant’s clothes on her bed.”

So she had run away. “She can’t have gone far.” He would send Sir Clement and the guards in different directions, and surely they would be able to find her.

He hurried down the stairs and found Sir Clement.

“She was here,” he told him.

“What do you mean? Audrey?”

“She was here and has only just left. But I want to make it clear that she is under my protection.”

“Why was she here? For how long?”

“She was sick and collapsed outside the castle. I did not recognize her, did not know who she was. After she recovered she stayed and worked as a servant here, and appeared to be running away from someone who wished to harm her. I assured her she was safe here.”

“Very well. As I already said, I will not force her to marry me.”

“Let us go and find her, then.”

Edwin rounded up his guards and they quickly set out to search for Audrey.

***

Audrey passed the pond where she and Lord Dericott had observed the swan and her babies swimming, then the spot where he’d fallen off his horse because of the belligerent badger. If she had to choose one man she thought was true and kind enough to marry, she would choose Lord Dericott.

But it hardly mattered what she thought of him, because he wouldn’t wish to marry her. She’d learned from the servants that he was marrying a Lady Ophelia, the daughter of an earl.

He would be disapproving of her now. Once Sir Clement told him about the girl he was supposed to marry, once he describedher and explained that she had left home to avoid marrying him, Lord Dericott would surely guess that he was speaking of her. What would he think of her? It twisted her stomach to imagine him thinking ill of her.

She turned to stare back at the castle that was mostly gray stone but with some half timber and plaster sections in between towers. Most people would surely not describe it as lovely, but to her it was. It was majestic and mysterious and unique, unlike anything she had seen before, and she loved it. It reminded her a bit of some of the buildings she had seen in London the one time her father had let her accompany him there.

Perhaps she would never see it again.

She went north, hoping she was heading toward her aunt and uncle. Once she had put some distance between her and Sir Clement, she could ask someone on the road how to get to Derbyshire. For now she followed the stream.

After walking for an hour, she wished she’d taken the time to go to the kitchen and get some food. Lord Dericott was free with his food, and Mistress Wattlesbrook never scolded the serving maids for taking a small repast between mealtimes. She could have taken some bread and dried fruit and even some cheese, and no one would have thought a thing of it. But now as her stomach growled at her, she wondered from where and how her next meal would come. She had no money, as she had not been paid any wages yet, and she owned very little of value that she might trade for food.

Perhaps she had been foolish to leave Dericott Castle. She could encounter more robbers like the ones who stole her money.Perhaps she should have gone to Lord Dericott and begged him to let her stay and work at the castle.

And what if Sir Clement never described her to him? Lord Dericott might not even realize she was Sir Clement’s wayward bride-to-be or that he was searching for her. Sir Clement might leave without ever knowing she had been there.

The farther away she walked, the more uneasy she felt about leaving.

Was it too late to go back? Certainly the other servants would be angry with her for shirking her work, but though Mistress Wattlesbrook might scold her, she would not mistreat her for disappearing for a few hours.

Audrey had not only left without food, but she also had not taken the time to retrieve her walking stick. She was looking around the forest floor for another suitable stick when a movement caught her eye. About two feet from her, slithering through the leaves, was a snake.

Audrey screamed, then clamped her hand over her mouth.