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  And Elizabeth? Did she fit with these women? She wondered if she could stand up under Judith’s scrutiny.

  They purchased horses as soon as they stepped ashore in France and Judith led them southwest. For the last day Judith had been agreeing with everything the men told her. Once Bronwyn punched Elizabeth so that she looked up at John Bassett when he swelled out his chest as he lectured Judith. Tam also gave Bronwyn curt orders. Sir Guy spoke only once to Elizabeth.

  Glancing up at him through her lashes, looking demure and angelic, she asked him how his toes were. The giant’s scar whitened and he walked away. Bronwyn held her ribs as she nearly split her sides laughing. Judith, when told the story of Sir Guy’s toes, gave Elizabeth a look of admiration and speculation.

  Alyx merely tuned her lute and that act seemed to show whom she thought was going to win the power battle.

  John Bassett rented rooms in an inn not far from the duke’s estates, the one the locals said he was residing in at present. The three men had to leave the women alone as they went to search for the husbands. John looked as if he were going to cry when he met with stubborn silence as he begged Judith to swear to God that she would wait for the return of the men.

  “Must I put a guard on you?” John asked, exasperated.

  Judith merely looked at him.

  “I’ve a good mind to take you with me, but we’ll have to split up and it takes more than one mere man to control a hellion like you. There should be a special saint to guard husbands like Gavin.”

  “You’re wasting time, John,” Judith said patiently.

  “She’s right,” Guy said, not looking at any of the women.

  John caught Judith to him, kissed her forehead. “May the Lord protect you.” With that, the three men left.

  Judith leaned against the door and let out a deep sigh. “He means well. Now, shall we get to work?”

  Elizabeth soon came to realize what a magnificent planner Judith was—and she knew how to use her gold. She hired a total of twenty-five people to spread word of the world’s greatest singer and the universe’s most exotic dancer. She planned for the excitement of expectation to be feverish by the time Alyx and Elizabeth appeared, for she wanted all eyes on them while she and Bronwyn slipped away.

  In the early afternoon, Judith dressed in rags, blackened one front tooth with a nasty mixture of gum and soot and delivered fresh-baked bread to the duke’s castle. She came back with wonderful news.

  “Miles is alive,” she said, scratching and discarding the filthy clothes. “The duke always seems to have prisoners and he always keeps them in the top of the tower. This tastes awful!” she said, scrubbing at her teeth. “It seems the whole Lorillard family are masters of torture and right now they’re working on the girl.

  “I’m sorry, Elizabeth,” Judith added quickly. “From the gossip, I don’t know if she’s still alive or not, but the two men are.”

  “What about Miles’s wound?” Elizabeth asked.

  Judith put out her hands, palms up. “I couldn’t ask directly and all I could find out was that the prisoners are always kept in the top of the tower.”

  “That should be easy,” Bronwyn said. “We merely attach wings to our horses and fly to the top.”

  “There’s a staircase,” Judith said.

  “Unguarded?” Bronwyn asked.

  “The door to the rooms where the prisoners are kept is guarded but another stair branches up to the roof.” Judith slipped a clean shift over her head. “There are windows in the rooms and if we could go down from the roof…”

  Only Bronwyn was aware of the tight white lines forming at the corners of Judith’s mouth. At times Judith seemed fearless, but she had an absolute terror of high places. Bronwyn touched Judith’s arm. “You stay and dance to Alyx’s music. Elizabeth and I will lower ourselves and…”

  Judith put up her hand. “I could as likely dance as I could make the horses fly. Alyx would be singing, I’d never be able to keep the rhythm and I’d start looking at the tables and thinking of how many storage bins were needed for that much food. I’d probably forget to dance and start ordering the servants about.”

  All three women unsuccessfully tried to suppress giggles, both at Judith’s accuracy and her forlorn expression.

  Judith rolled her eyes at them. “I’m strong and I’m small and I can most easily go down a rope and slip inside a window.”

  No amount of talking could persuade Judith of any other course and soon they sat down to rest, each with her own thoughts of the dangers to come. Elizabeth never spoke of her fear of the men touching her and Judith’s terror of high places wasn’t mentioned again.

  As dusk approached, Judith sank to her knees and began to pray and soon the other three women joined her.

  Chapter 20

  ALYX WAS THE ONE WHO SURPRISED THE WOMEN THE most. For the last few days she’d had the least to say, had followed her outspoken, beautiful sisters-in-law without a suggestion or complaint. But as soon as Alyx had a musical instrument in her hands and was told to perform, she far outstripped her sisters in flamboyance.

  Judith and Bronwyn, dressed in filthy, concealing rags, blended into the procession that followed Alyx and Elizabeth. Elizabeth, strutting, already drawing attention to her well-endowed body, wore cheap cloth of garish, outlandish colors that would have attracted attention on their own.

  As soon as Alyx entered the Great Hall of the old castle, she let out a note that made everyone pause. Bronwyn and Judith had never heard the full volume of Alyx’s voice and they halted for a moment, listening with some awe.

  “I’ll give you a rhythm,” Alyx whispered to Elizabeth. “Follow it with your body.”

  Every eye was on Alyx and the beautiful woman beside her. Abruptly Alyx let her voice drop and once again the audience began to breathe, and with a mixture of laughter and applause, they began to move about. “Now!” Judith hissed at Bronwyn and the two women disappeared into a darkened hole in the wall.

  With their very heavy skirts flung over their arms, they tore up the old stone stairs, up two flights, three flights, and as they neared the top, a noise made them flatten themselves against the wall. Listening with every pore, they waited for the guard to pass the opening.

  Judith pointed to a crack of blackness on the left, away from the vigilant guard. They slipped into the opening with a whisper of sound. Rats squealed in protest and Bronwyn kicked one of the nasty things back down the stairs.

  At the top of the stairs was an overhead door—a locked door.

  “Damn!” Judith whispered. “We need a key.”

  But before she even spoke, Bronwyn went to the narrow trapdoor and began to run her hands along the edges. As she reached the far edge, she turned and gave Judith a triumphant smile, her teeth and eyes showing white in the darkness. Bronwyn threw an iron bolt and the door swung up easily. One loud squeak made them stop but they heard no sound of footsteps on the stairs. They squeezed through the opening and were on the roof.

  For a moment they paused and breathed deeply of the clean night air. As Bronwyn turned to Judith, she saw the little woman was looking at the battlements with fear in her eyes.

  “Let me go,” Bronwyn said.

  “No.” Judith shook her head. “If something happened and I had to pull you up, I couldn’t do it. But you can lift me.”

  Bronwyn nodded as she saw the sense in Judith’s words. With no more sound, they removed their outer, coarse woolen skirts and began uncoiling heavy rope from the underside. Judith had paid four women to spend the afternoon sewing these skirts. Now the moonlight shone on their skirts of plaid, blue and green for Bronwyn, golds and browns for Judith.

  As soon as Bronwyn’s rope lay in a coiled heap, she went around the roof of the round tower to peer down from the crenelated battlements. “There are four windows,” she informed Judith. “Which one holds Miles?”

  “Let me think,” Judith said, rope on her forearm. “That window is over the stairs, the opposite one facing the sta