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ward of the queen. We should not be here, and well you know it. I ask that you return me to my guardian, and that we forget we ever met.” My words fell like stones from my lips.
    A strange, bewildered expression came into his eyes, and for a moment he didn’t move. Then he drew himself up to his full height and said in a stranger’s voice that sent an arrow straight to my heart, “Indeed, you are right, my lady. Pray, accept my apologies. I shall take you back forthwith.” He put out his elbow stiffly, and I rested my hand on his sleeve as lightly as if I were touching a hot iron, and we turned and went back through the damp garden to the hall that we should never have left.
    I didn’t sleep that night but lay awake in the long darkness, weeping silently into my pillow, listening to Sister’s snores and counting the church bells that tolled at the end of every hour. Never would I forget the exquisite, piercing sweetness of the dance we had together, but time would heal this woe, and life would continue. I knew that because the books had told me so.
    Morning broke sunny and beautiful, but the bright song of the lark wounded me anew and wrapped me in a cocoon of anguish. He didn’t break fast with us, and I heard that he had ridden off before cock’s crow. I had no stomach for food, and I wouldn’t have nibbled at the slice of bread if Sœur Madeleine hadn’t forced me. We stood in the courtyard watching the groomsmen saddle our horses, and I heard the barking of the hounds with a wretchedness of mind I’d never known before. As bells rang for Prime, we set out on our way and the castle gate clanged shut behind us. The redbrick castle grew smaller the farther we rode, and our fellow travelers fewer. The cluster of timber houses around the castle gave way to a straggle of cottages, fields, and barns, and finally opened out into the lonely moors. As I gazed at the tall grasses and flowers basking in the sun, the quiet of this world after the bustle and noise of the castle sent anguish pouring through me, and I felt as bereft as if I rode in a wasteland. My palfrey’s hooves rang out on the road, clippity-clop, clippity-clop , and their steady pounding rose to a thunder in my ears. Unable to help myself, I slowed my pace and, dropping behind the others, gazed back past the summer heather to where Tattershall Castle lay.
    “Last night you couldn’t stop laughing and dancing, and now you are as silent as a mouse with a cat near,” Sœur Madeleine said, turning in her saddle. “What is the matter, ma chérie ?”
    I couldn’t reply. I felt as though I would never speak again. Tears lay on my heart and blinded my eyes. My palfrey caught up with hers, and I bowed my head so that she wouldn’t see my face.
    Sœur Madeleine reached out and pressed my hand. “You are young, my little one,” she said quietly. “Someday another will come and make you forget.”
    I raised my head and looked at her then, feeling that it was the first time I had ever truly seen her.

Three
A UGUST 1456
    IN DRENCHING RAIN, I RAN DOWN A HILLSIDE OF rocks and thorns, unable to stop. I didn’t know where I was going, only that I had to escape the creature pursuing me. Swept with sheer black fright, I threw a glance behind me, my heart pounding and blood surging in my ears, but in the darkness I saw nothing. Where is refuge? Where shelter? If this thing caught me, my fate would be unspeakable! The horror of the thought lent wings to my feet, but now the ground grew thick with mud, impeding the way. Gnarled branches twisted out from nowhere and gained ferocious life, sighing and grasping at me as I fled past in the darkness. I choked back my screams and kept running, tripping and nearly falling several times. All around me, loud sobbing cries and pitiful moans rent the air and sent panic rioting through me. I covered my ears so I would not hear them. Suddenly I could go no farther. Something blocked my path, yet strangely I felt comfort, not