Elias heard Estrid and Agnes crying. The men retreated.
“If I see ye again,” Elias promised on a low warning growl, “my aim will be fer yer heart and then yer head. Open yer mouth and I will cut oot yer tongue. Nod yer head if ye understand.”
Bertram nodded. His body shook with anger at his humiliation.
“Now go.” Elias wanted to kick him all the way out of Sevenoaks. If the bastard hesitated, he would.
There was no hesitation when Bertram Chisholm ran away. He ran for his life and to tend to his arm. He would likely return and Elias would have to kill him. He would prefer not to do it in front of innocent women and an old man.
He turned around to look behind him and make certain everyone was unharmed. Agnes and Estrid wept in Richard’s arms. Simon was shaking his head at him. But it was Lily who smiled at him as if he were the answer to her prayers, at least the ones she used to pray before she was married.
“You have our thanks, Elias,” she said in her siren’s voice.
“Aye.” Richard broke free of Estrid and Agnes and went to him. When he grew closer, he leaned in to speak quietly by Elias’ ear. “She could have used you two years ago.”
Elias felt ill with guilt. Guilt he deserved. “Thank God she hadye, Richard,” he whispered back.
The apothecary nodded and clapped Elias on the shoulder then turned to gather his wife.
Chapter Five
It was a busy morning after they ate. Osbert called a meeting outside the shop, where Richard was asked to confirm the story they had heard about Bertram’s return and expulsion thanks to Elias the Lion Heart. (Estrid left nothing out of the telling.) The villagers gathered around Lily’s guest and filled his ears with questions. He answered each with patience and kind words, looking at home with so many people gathered around him.
Lily turned her gaze away from him and tried to pay attention to her work. She thought about going to him last night. She had heard him from her bed and got up to peek around the curtain between their rooms. He was sitting up in bed, looking around, calling out.
She’d hurried to him and nearly lost her strength when she looked into his eyes. He was terrified, seeing things she couldn’t see, hearing things she couldn’t hear. She’d tried to soothe him. He’d looked at her with wide, glassy eyes. Had he seen her? He’d risen from the bed and paced the room, haunted, so very haunted by demons. Brother Simon had awoken and tried talking to him, but Elias had kept his eyes on her, as if he didn’t hear his friend, or see Richard when her husband rose from bed.
Brother Simon had told her nothing this morning. He and Elias were friends. She respected his loyalty and hadn’t asked.
“He is extraordinarily handsome,” Agnes whispered, coming toward her with a furtive smile. “And quite brave.”
“Aye.” Lily didn’t realize she’d spoken out loud until Richard looked up at her from his work and smiled at her.
“Do you know if he is looking for a wife?” Agnes asked, smoothing her skirts, and then her long, golden locks. Agnes was six-yer-old Annabelle’s mother. She’d had her daughter a bit later in her life, at the age of twenty-six. The child’s father was a smith named Heath in a nearby village. He’d left her soon after she began growing fat with his child.
“The topic has not arisen,” Lily told her calmly, though her heart skipped every other beat. Elias and Agnes? It made her belly knot. She had no right.
Agnes finally left, after trying to strike up a conversation with Elias and not having any luck. They were able to get back to work and do whatever Richard needed.
They had let hopelessness fill them last eve but no more. They needed to keep pressing forward, jar every concoction and mark what it was.
Thankfully, Elias and Simon could read and write. Richard could also but she had never learned. She didn’t mind it. She knew the purpose for every herb, every root, every thing that grew. Her father had taught her some things and Richard had taught her the rest.
She hated seeing Richard so helpless today against Bertram. It broke her heart to think of anyone hurting such a frail old man. She was afraid of the savage but she was tired of his crushing dominance. She wasn’t his anymore.
She’d been foolish to anger him with Richard in his hands though. Bertram was dangerous and capable of anything.
But then Elias stepped in and stopped him…
Lily’s hands shook, making the clay mortar and pestle scape instead of smash.
She tried not to think of Elias but it seemed the more she tried, the more he filled her head. He’d stepped in and, with one fluid movement, sent his dagger into Bertram’s shoulder. He saved Richard’s life and then he thoroughly humiliated Bertram by rendering him helpless! Oh! She’d wanted to jump with joy at the time. She wanted to start leaping now.
No. She had to gain control over herself. She imagined her body was in shock from seeing Bertram Chisholm again. She seethed with fury. How dare he come back into her life and threaten her husband! A part of her wished Elias had killed him. She confessed to Father Benedict when he came for the meeting. But she didn’t feel any better. She guessed it was the other sin of lusting after a man who was not her husband that she needed to confess to. She couldn’t tell Father Benedict. She sighed. Perhaps she would confess to Brother Simon. He had special privileges with God, didn’t he?
Lily was so busy, she almost forgot to feed her husband and their two guests their supper. She hurried out the door and headed toward the house. When she walked past Elias, he put down the armful of hyssop he had gathered and cast a questioning look to Richard.
“My dear,” her husband called out.