A Woman of the Road Read online

  “As to moral qualms?” Aventis folded his arms.

  I started, thinking this odd coming from him.

  “Not a one,” I said, “so long as no one was hurt. After the life I’d led, I desired companions . . . adventure . . . and, and—”

  “—gold,” Aventis finished, then recited: “‘And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places.’”

  I stared into his black eyes. How could a man of piety fall as low as I? But before I could frame my query, he preceded me with: “Your sex did not dissuade you?”

  “No.”

  I stood up, taking care to cover myself.

  “There have been women tobys before—” I said.

  “‘Moll Cutpurse.”

  “Her name was Mary Frith.”

  “And Lady Katherine Ferrers,” he said.

  “I understand she was merely bored.”

  “Still,” said Aventis, “God rest her thieving soul.”

  “Amen.”

  I bowed my head.

  “Well,” he said, resheathing his sword. “If Jeffries has agreed to accept you, that’s as good as the king’s seal to me. You have proved yourself one of us a full four times.”

  “Five, if you could the cookhouse,” I said.

  I saw Aventis sigh, then grit his teeth.

  “That brings up a rather prickly matter,” he said.

  I waited as he approached until we stood just inches apart. I became all too aware of my nakedness beneath his trailing black cloak.

  “Hide your secret well from Carnatus,” he told me. “If he should by chance discover it, he will shoot you dead. Likewise be cautious of Gad.”

  “You will not betray me?” I asked, hesitant. Just because he was handsome did not mean he could be trusted.

  “Why should I?” he countered. “You are a fine companion, and they hardly grow on trees. There have been others before you—all men—who could not withstand the rigors of life on the road. You, however, thrive on it, and have a mighty incentive: you’ve no place else to go.”

  “Thank you,” I whispered, allowing a strange emotion—gratitude—to sweep through my unclothed body.

  “Here.”

  Aventis leaned down to gather my things, then threw them to me in a bundle. Before he turned his back, he did something surprising: dropping to one knee, he gracefully kissed my hand.

  “Margaret—Megs—you are a true credit to our company. Only be sure not to part with your shirt whenever you are in company.”

  Four “Men” In a Bed

  I dressed unseen by his eyes. When I’d finished, we both took our steeds and went in search of the others. It did not take long, for behind the hollow came the sound of hooves.

  When Carnatus came into view, his grin was so wide that his teeth gleamed in the sun.

  “What of fair Barbara?!” he cried. “I’truth, lad, it seems you’ve been gone for hours!”

  He clapped me hard on the back while Gad threw me a smirk.

  “A gentleman never tells,” said Aventis, “and we are all gentlemen here.”

  “True,” Carnatus sighed, then turned back to me. “Did you at least get something from her beside her virtue?”

  “Alas,” I said, “she won.”

  “Tell me,” said Gad, leaning from the back of Carnatus’s saddle. “Was she uncommon shapely? Did she have magnificent breasts?”

  “You heard your master,” I told him. The last thing I wanted was a discourse on the female form!

  “I’m gut-foundered!” Carnatus proclaimed. “Jeffries, find us a place to dine before I eat your horse!”

  “There is a small inn nearby, the Crown,” Jeffries said with a wink at me. “I believe that their ale will sate even you, Carnatus.”

  The giant licked his lips. “I can almost taste it now!”

  Jeffries led us from the Great Western onto a less traveled path. It was but the matter of an hour before the Crown’s man held our horses. With thoughts of Claude fresh in my mind, I made sure to stride off quickly.

  “Ah, Captain Jeffries!” the innkeeper cried as our company traipsed through the door. “So glad to see you’ve brought friends.”

  Unlike father, this man was small, and still had most of his teeth. I looked around; it much like the Whale, with its fire and mismatch of chairs. I did note that their ale selection seemed especially good. Always the tapster, I thought.

  “Thank you, Goulding,” said Jeffries, as the man led us to a corner table. “Let us have some spitted oysters, one or two steamed carp, four legs of mutton, and a mess of buttered eel!”

  “Throw in some fowl,” said Carnatus. “And two tankards of ale for me.”

  “Plus your finest wine,” said both Aventis and Jeffries.

  Goulding bowed and departed. I realized then just how truly famished I was after the contest with Barbara. I smiled over at Aventis, who sat across from me, his boots nearly touching mine. Though he might appear gaunt and ascetic, to me, he exuded warmth.

  When our dinner arrived, we set upon it like starving wolves. I smiled at the young serving girl, knowing full well her trials.

  I was glad that we lingered downstairs before the cheerful brick hearth. One could learn a great deal at an inn, and what I learned was this: never sit down to cards with Carnatus! He made a small fortune from other patrons while playing Spoil Five. I did not understand the game, but Carnatus grinned mightily when he “robbed” the trump at will. Aventis and I shared a glance. It was a comfort to know that we had the same turn of mind.

  At last, the church bells outside struck midnight, and Goulding led us up to what I hoped would be our chambers. Of course, it was a chamber and like the one at the Whale contained but one large bed!

  “I am spent!” declared Carnatus, putting up his weapons and stripping down to his long white shirt. He crashed onto the bed so hard that it leaked a few feathers.

  “Easy,” said Jeffries. “That bed must accommodate us four.”

  Carnatus nodded from his pillow.

  “Gad, fetch me some brandy!”

  “Yes, sir.”

  The lad scurried out the door.

  “I confess I am ready for sleep,” said Jeffries, placing his doublet and breeches onto a small iron trunk. “I imagine that you, Megs, are weary, after the morning’s rigor.”

  He gave me a knowing wink as he glanced questioningly at Aventis.

  “Watching Megs ‘in the saddle’ has made me tired as well,” said Aventis. “The lad could teach us a thing or two.”

  “Doubtful,” Carnatus grunted. “He says his blade is rather small.” Before Gad could return with his drink, he was fast asleep.

  Aventis listened for his snores.

  “I know,” he said quickly to Jeffries.

  “Ah,” said the captain, “I thought there might be a chance. You will say nothing, of course.”

  He inclined his head down toward Carnatus.

  “Naturally,” said Aventis. “Our friend still regards women as either wives or whores.”

  I felt anger rise within me.

  “There must be a middle ground,” I said. “Where we are merely allowed to be.”

  “Pay Carnatus no mind, Megs,” said Jeffries. “So long as he remains ignorant, all will be well.”

  “And if he were not ignorant, all would be well,” I said.

  “We cannot change his thinking,” said Jeffries. “For now, let us rest.”

  Using both hands, he pushed Carnatus over and settled in by his side.

  “Aventis,” said Jeffries, “keep a close eye on Megs. If Carnatus rolls onto her, she will be crushed like a shell.”

  “Yes, sir,” said Aventis, bedding down to Jeffries’s left. There remained but a small space for me—to the right of Carnatus. I sought to switch my position, but there was no more room.

  “You’re in no danger,” Aventis whispered. “Carnatus sleeps like the dead.”

  I nodded as Gad re-entered the room. Hearing his master
snore, he dispensed with the brandy himself, then lay down on the floor.

  I glanced over my shoulder at the sleeping giant beside me, praying that twelve pints of ale were enough to keep him still . . .

  Yet sometime during the night, I heard him stir.

  “Jus’ one more throw,” he muttered, still half-asleep. “Three to one I win.”

  My eyes flew open. I lay there stiffly, praying he would ignore me.

  “Hey,” he said.

  In horror, I felt his arm go round my shoulder, then fall down to my breast!

  “How ‘bout a go?” he said.

  “Carnatus!” I hissed. “It is I, Megs!”

  Now his eyes opened. Seeing me, he looked abashed.

  “Megs! Beg pardon. Dreaming of some doxy.”

  He removed his arm and rolled over.

  I found my skin bathed in sweat as I let out my breath. Though Carnatus did not wake again, I remained on guard for the rest of the night.

  Aventis Meets His Match

  My shirt dried out by morning—as did Carnatus from his ale. Still, I could not stop yawning and my eyes drooped with fatigue. Damn that fool Carnatus! How could such a wide man possess a mind of narrowness? If he could but set aside his prejudice, what a world it would be!

  I knew this was not likely to happen soon. Waiting for the others to leave, I quickly dressed, then joined them downstairs. My mood was brightened by a breakfast of bread and cheese, washed down with bottles of beer.

  “Where do we venture today?” Carnatus asked as he speared a fat loaf with his knife. He could have consumed the whole, along with a wheel of cheddar, as easily as he breathed.

  “The Road to Bath,” said Jeffries. “We shall not give up.” He gave me a playful nudge. “Today, let us ensure that as a band of robbers we rob.”

  “And are not shot at,” said Carnatus.

  I looked down at my still ripped cuff.

  “I’truth, I could not agree more!” I said.

  “Goulding, make sure to ready our horses,” Jeffries ordered.

  “Yes sir.”

  The small innkeeper slammed out the door, yelling. Just after the church bells tolled ten, we were on the Heath.

  “It seems endless,” I said to Jeffries.

  “Yes,” he answered. “Though I have plied this trade for years, even I have not seen it all. They say it is twenty-five miles square.”

  I whistled and believed him. Though the landscape was monochrome, yellow to every horizon, it gave me a strange sense of comfort, for in a way, the Heath was now home.

  But it was not all tranquility. Rounding a bend, we came to a stark landmark, the first that I had witnessed: it was a highwayman, or what was left of him, his skeleton wrapped in chains and hanging from a high wood gibbet.

  Though I had long heard of these “cautions,” the actual sight of one caused my throat to seize.

  As the bones creaked in their irons, Jeffries halted our company.

  “I knew him,” he said sadly. “John Hind. He was one of the best, but a woman betrayed him.”

  “When do they not?” growled Carnatus.

  “Men betray women as well,” I said. I had to restrain an impulse to slap him.

  “Ha! Give me an instance!” he said.

  “They force women to wed!” I cried. “Or marry them for money. They treat them like chattel—to be beaten and abused—and it’s all sanctioned by law!”

  “Megs—” said Aventis, giving me a shake of his head.

  “A reg’lar firebrand, eh?” said Gad.

  I took a deep breath as I attempted to calm myself.

  “Begging your pardon,” I said to Carnatus. “Perhaps I had too much drink. But I think we can all agree that such mistreatment is equal.”

  “Very well,” Carnatus shrugged, turning away from the sight of Hind. Then I saw his back stiffen as if he heard a sound. “What’s that?” he asked.

  We all listened, then heard wheels crunching rock just a few yards down the road. This was soon succeeded by the sight of a fine golden coach. The seal upon this one was curious: that of a crowned lion and a horse with a single horn. The gilt overlay of its body was topped by sharp gold insignias, while five soldiers rode on its box. The driver, in wig and stiff livery, sat upon a red cushion. While I whistled in admiration, Aventis’s face went white.

  “Here lie our hopes!” cried Carnatus, pulling up his black mask. He swept upon the coach like a falcon, causing its team of six to come to a jumbled halt.

  “Carnatus!” Aventis shouted, “did we not all agree—?!”

  “Too late,” said Jeffries. “Let us extricate him from what could be a disaster!”

  The two of them galloped forth, and by the coach, I heard some words exchanged. Puzzled, I too affixed my mask and loped to the side of my friends.

  Then I saw something fantastic: after Aventis dismounted, he actually removed his mask! What could he be thinking? Did he wish to end up like Hind?

  “Madam.” He addressed the draperies shielding the coach’s window.

  As they slowly opened, they revealed the head and shoulders of a woman. She was young, and while her eyes were dark and pretty, her teeth protruded slightly. If her beauty did not enrapture me, her ornaments certainly did: from her ears hung two pearl pendants each in the shape of a teardrop, with four strands of pearls dangling from her neck. There were yet more white gems worked throughout her hair. It seemed a whole bed of oysters had given their lives for her!

  After a moment, the woman spoke.

  “Conde del Castillo,” she said, addressing Aventis, and I could tell from her accent that she was not English-born.

  “My apologies, Your Majesty,” he said, kneeling in the dirt of the road.

  “I am not yet queen, my friend. I merely visit the country where I will soon preside. Por favor, Bernardino, do not grovel to me.”

  “Thank you, madam,” he said, getting up and wiping his breeches.

  “So this is what you have come to,” she said with a kind of sorrow. “You, of a fine ancient family, “become a—how do you say?—homem de estrada.”

  I well knew, as did everyone else, that this woman, Catherine, was betrothed to Charles. I also knew that she was Portuguese and a Catholic, and therefore not to be trusted.

  “It is already hard for our people,” she told Aventis. “Wherever we go, we are oppressed.”

  So, I thought, Aventis must be from Portugal!

  He nodded sadly as he looked in her face. I saw Carnatus squirm in his saddle, impatient to lay his large hands on that treasure chest of pearls.

  Propelled by some mad impulse, I kicked my own horse forward.

  “I beg pardon, ma’am,” I said from behind my mask, “but we must cease this parlay at once. Your enemies will report that you consort with outlaws.”

  “Thank you, sir,” Catherine said in her soft accent. “As she turned again to Aventis, she gave him a rueful smile. “I miss our days in Lisbon when you used to visit me daily.”

  The rest of our company froze. Jeffries’s eyes went wide and even Carnatus winced.

  “God’s legs!” Gad exclaimed from behind his master, “as sure as I’m alive, the queen and Aventis were dancing the Paphian Jig!”

  A silence descended on the road, broken only by the creak of leather.

  “Hmph,” said Catherine, tossing her ringleted hair, “as I assume you wish to live, you will not repeat this tale. Not even under duress.” She gave us all an encompassing stare. “Are we agreed?”

  Her manner, at once imperious and womanly, could only have come from . . . well, I suppose a future queen.

  “You have our word, ma’am,” said Jeffries. “Of this meeting, no man shall speak.” He thought for a further moment. “Or woman.”

  Carnatus bowed from his saddle, and even Gad removed his hat.

  “As for you, conde?” she asked. “Is what passed between us never to leave your lips?”

  “I swear it with my life,” said Aventis, bending h
is gaunt frame low. She offered him a white gloved hand, and he kissed it . . . perhaps for a moment too long.

  Though no one there could have guessed, I felt a stinging rivalry—and with Catherine of Braganza, no less! I knew I had no right, no claim on Aventis’s heart besides my own, which was unspoken.

  Carnatus was first to speak as the royal coach rolled off with its phalanx of guards. His mind, as always, was occupied by one of three topics: food, gaming, or treasure.

  “Aventis,” he said, “I saw her hand you something. Pray, what is it?”

  “This.” Aventis said.

  As he unfolded his glove, the rest of our company gasped, for he displayed a diamond brooch so large that it blinded!

  “This is worth a dam’d fortune!” said Jeffries. “Five hundred guineas at least!”

  “Can your friends ‘dispose’ of it?” Carnatus asked, breathing hard.

  “Oh yes,” said the captain. “They will pry forth the diamond and do with it what they will. It matters not to me—as long as we receive half the value!”

  “Huzzah!” Carnatus shouted. I hadn’t seen him this cheerful since I’d complimented him on his member.

  “Let us make for the heart of London,” Jeffries told us all. “Deliver this gleaming rock and be paid.”

  “Agreed!” Carnatus cried, trotting off beside the captain like a personal guard.

  I hung behind with Aventis, too flustered to speak. After a good half-league, he slowed his horse and turned to me.

  “I suppose,” he began, “you question why I, a lowly highwayman, am on intimate terms with our future queen?”

  “Not especially,” I answered. “You are the Conde de Something and you knew her from Lisbon. I take it you are also from there?”

  Aventis shook his head.

  “Spain,” he said. “Though my family settled here in the time of Queen Mary. Since then, England has seen great changes—all of them bad for me. Now, with the Corporation Act—”

  I must have borne an expression that bespoke of utter ignorance.

  “Of course, why would you have reason to know? Under the Act, no man may run for office, be it even rat catcher, without first receiving the sacrament. From the Church of England.”