‘So you are how old now?’
‘Twenty-four years.’
‘Twenty-four! That is a good age. A very good age. Lady Rosalind is much younger, though. You do not think that a problem?’
‘How old is she?’
‘Fifteen.’
‘Well past the age of marrying. It would be sad if she became an old maid.’
‘Ah. Anyway, you were saying?’
‘I was able to read and write, ride a horse, converse well with many people, do all the things I needed to do. I was, dare I say it, popular with my contemporaries and had few cares in this world.
‘Then, as my parents were both dead, I went to Willdon to live with my uncle and learn the business of being domain holder. I was dutiful; I learned about crops and people, animals and buildings, although I had little taste for these things. My only difficulty was Thenald, who was a cruel man. They were dark days for all; he was unflinching in the application of his rights, and diligent only in seeking out new ones. He discovered taxes long forgotten and imposed them without mercy. He taxed those who wished to marry; taxed again those wishing to grind corn. He found reasons to expel people from their holdings. He was suspicious and vengeful. He feared being attacked by those he had wronged. He hired more and more soldiers to defend himself, and so had to raise ever more money to pay them. The soldiers were billeted in every village and hamlet, at their expense, and he found the most brutal people to do his bidding.
‘I did what I could, but I knew that if I crossed him then he would dispossess me and I would be unable to give even the small amount of assistance I could offer by staying put. There was always the chance that he would die, and then I would be able to heal the wounds he had inflicted. So I kept quiet, which was a mistake. I should have challenged him, but he had the scholars of Ossenfud behind him.’
‘Why?’
‘Because he gave them money. So I thought, at least. In fact, he had no intention of passing the domain to me. He was going to give it to one of the colleges. They would continue the work of despoiling the land to enrich themselves, and extend their power further across the whole of Anterwold.’
‘Now, you see,’ the boy interrupted, ‘that is quite different from everything I have heard. I got the impression that these scholars were sort of peaceable folk, who didn’t hold with money, dedicated to learning...’
‘I suppose there are some like that, but only because they are kept in check by the domains and towns. Many are greedy for power. Gontal, Thenald’s cousin, is such a man.
‘My uncle could not talk to someone without betraying him. He promised Willdon to me, and to Gontal, and then he married Catherine. She is, as you noticed, beautiful and intelligent, but she proved herself to be ambitious and ruthless also. Thenald was bewitched by her, although I doubt she ever had any regard for him. I thought that she would at least be a dutiful wife and provide him with children, but I underestimated her. Within a few months my uncle was dead, murdered in the forest.’
‘Stop. How was he murdered?’
‘He went out hunting and was found a few hours later, stabbed to death.’
‘No chance it was an accident?’
‘It’s hard to stab a man on a horse by accident.’
‘So it is.’
‘Within the hour there was a cry after me, and all were saying I had done it. So I went into hiding.’
‘And you didn’t do it?’
‘I was nowhere near the spot, although I could not prove it. If I had been, I would surely have saved his life, even at the cost of my own. I did not like him, but he was one of my people, my family. I could no more have killed him than myself.’
‘So you were suspected because you stood to get Willdon, if you waited then Lady Catherine might have a baby, and you didn’t like him. These are all good reasons for thinking you guilty.’
He nodded. ‘Good enough for them to begin a court hearing, and find me so without even hearing my story.’
‘I imagine they decided that your disappearance was proof of your guilt.’
‘They were determined to find me guilty. The funny thing was that I did not want Willdon. It was never my dream. Gathering taxes and attending weddings and funerals. Listening to petty squabbles and complaints. Who would want such a thing who had any life in them? I would have done it, it was my duty, but I also wished my uncle a long life, for his life was my freedom.’
‘What did you want to do? Run around and play games?’
‘No.’ Here he smiled sadly and looked almost embarrassed. ‘I wanted to be a voyager. To see things no one had ever seen before. To go places, cross the seas even. To discover strange lands and unknown peoples. To find out who they are and how they live. You think I am foolish.’
‘On the contrary. I... I mean, my Lady Rosalind thinks exactly the same.’
‘Does she? Really?’
‘Oh, yes. Ever since she was a little girl, she has wanted to go on long sea voyages. To America and India. See the pyramids, the lions of Africa, the Great Barrier Reef. To watch the sun set into the Pacific Ocean, see the snows of the Himalayas...’
‘I have never heard of these places. But oh, dear young boy! You make me feel even worse. You make me love her more.’
‘Tell me what you would do. If she decided to have you, that is.’
‘I would gather a band of fellows. Good, stout men I could rely on. I would fit out a ship and we would set sail. She and I and them. Then south, looking out for settlements on the land which lies that way. We would see if there is a sea beyond that, and sail into it. We would stop every night and pitch our tents on a sandy beach. Talk to anyone we found. We would take someone who knows about drawing, to make sketches of the buildings and people we saw. We’d bathe in the sea and feast on the shore.’
‘And when you were done? What then?’
‘We’d never be done! Do you think the world is so small? We would go on and on, into the sunrise and back to the sunset, until we were too old to travel any more. We would grow old together, she and I, free of duties and obligations.’
‘Now we’re on to Ulysses.’
‘What?’
The boy let out a long sigh. ‘Nothing. It does sound lovely! What about monsters? Hostile natives?’
‘I’d kill the first, befriend the second.’
‘Food and clothing?’
‘We’d take what we could, buy what we needed. I would have money, you see. If only...’
Here his face fell once more. ‘If only I wasn’t a fugitive, penniless and hunted.’
‘You think Lady Catherine was responsible.’
‘Who else? She won the most powerful domain in Anterwold on my ruin.’
‘What are you going to do now?’
‘I want my name back. It will not be given, so it must be taken.’
‘That doesn’t sound good.’
‘It is as it will be.’
‘And that sounds meaningless.’
He glared disapprovingly, then softened his expression. ‘You do not understand, I think. Nor will you tonight. It is late. I wish to sleep, and you are yawning. Come, stay with me and share my bed.’
‘What? Absolutely not.’
‘Whatever is the matter?’
‘I couldn’t. No. That is a terribly bad idea. Really, it is. Terribly bad. I wouldn’t sleep a wink.’
Pamarchon looked bemused. ‘As you wish,’ he said. ‘In that case I will summon the servant to find you something else.’
‘This is my honoured guest,’ Pamarchon said when she returned. ‘You will look after him as you would me, or your own master. Better, in fact. He deserves the greatest courtesy, young though he is. Take him to a place where he can sleep peacefully.’