"Get away from me." she said, and started tying up her things in a bundle.
I left her. I was half hopeful, half despairing.
I was not sure what she would do. Shortly afterwards she left the shop.
I was lying on my pallet. Meg had locked me in. She kept the keys now, and I was glad. It gave me a certain sense of security.
I was thinking of Gilly, wondering what she was doing. Had she gone to Crosby's Place? And what would the guards say when a woman with a bruised face and ragged none-too-clean garments asked to be taken to the Duke of Gloucester? She would be driven away.
Yes, but Gilly was not one to be easily thrust aside. Everything depended on whether she believed me. If she did, then she would persist. After all, as I had pointed out to her, she had little to lose and much to gain.
Would she ever get to Richard? If she mentioned my name ... Yes, he would surely receive her if he heard that. But how would she ever get near him?
Then ... I heard the shouts from below.
"Open up! Open up!"
Meg was calling. I heard Tom's voice. Through the windows I could see the torches. Then the door was burst open and I could hear people. They must be crowding into the shop. There were footsteps on the stairs.
A voice called: "Anne! Anne! Are you there!" It was Richard.
I was almost faint with joy. I beat on my door.
"Here, here ... Richard!" I called.
"I am locked in here."
Then I heard him shouting: "Where is the lady? Take me to her! At once, at once, I say!"
Footsteps. The key in the door. And there he was.
For a few seconds he did not recognise me, and instantly I was conscious of how I must look.
Then I cried: "Richard! You've come! Gilly found you. Oh, thank God."
I ran to him and he caught me in his arms. The joy of that moment, after so much degradation and humiliation, was almost too much to bear. I felt the tears on my cheeks. I was free. The nightmare was over.
Sanctuary
What followed was like a dream and I remember only snatches of it. The ecstasy of riding those night-quiet streets on Richard's horse; the bliss of being close to him; the honor of realising what I must look like in my greasy gown, my hair unkempt, my person redolent of the nauseating smells of the cookshop which had sickened me on my arrival and to which I had grown a little accustomed.
I was not the Anne whom he had known all his life; I was an unwashed, ill-smelling, dirty kitchen slut.
Yet he held me close to him. He was very tender but angry. I knew he was seething with rage. We did hot speak of that then but we should later.
As we rode through those streets I was thanking God and Gilly. She had done it. I would tell Richard that I had promised to reward her and I must be sure that she received that reward. She had made this possible; she had succeeded in getting through to Richard and it was due to her that he had found me.
He said: "I am taking you to St. Martin's. There you will be safe ... in sanctuary. No one can harm you there. The nuns will look after you. Later in the day I shall come to see you, then we will talk."
How well he understood! I did not want to talk yet. All I could do was say to myself: I'm free. It is over. I shall never be in that dirty kitchen again, never shiver on my pallet, listening for footsteps on the stairs. I meant to wash the stains from that place off my body and the memory from my mind.
I was taken into St. Martin's. I bathed and the clothes I was wearing were taken away and burned. My hair was washed. It was wonderful to feel it fresh and sweet-smelling about my shoulders.
I was given a grey habit to wear until I could have some of my own clothes.
I slept in a small cell with a crucifix hanging on the wall. It was luxury to me.
And later Richard came to see me.
"Anne!" he cried.
"You look like my Anne again though very demure. Like a nun. Never mind, you are back with me. I cannot bear to think of it. It fills me with fury."
"But you came. I knew you would come if only I could get a message to you. Gilly ... that woman ... I want her to be rewarded."
"She shall be. She has already been given food, clothing and money. Have no fear on that score. I am as eager to reward her as you are. Now tell me ... if you wish to talk of it. Or would you rather later? There is so much we have to say and we have some time now."
I told him briefly what had happened: how I had been driven away through the night because one of the maids had told me she had a message from him and that I was being taken to sanctuary on his orders.
"I must have been drugged," I said, "for I slept through most of the ride and when I awoke I was in that place."
He held me tightly against him.
"This is George's doing." he said.
"He is determined to prevent our marriage, because while you are unmarried he is your guardian, and has control of the Warwick fortune in its entirety. If you married half of it would come to you. That is the reason."
"If that is so, why did he not kill me?"
Richard was tense with emotion.
"He dared not go so far as that. Our brother has been lenient with him ... too lenient. George relies on his charm and the family affection ... but he could go too far and he knows that. George is a schemer but his schemes are often wild. He acts first and thinks afterwards. We have seen that before. His one thought would have been to get you away from me so that our marriage was not possible. In due course he would have come up with another scheme and then tried to put that into action in his clumsy fashion."
I shivered.
"Don't be afraid." he said.
"Nothing like this shall ever happen to you again. We are going to be married. There are only two obstacles to overcome. We must have Edward's consent and I know he will want my happiness. Then there is the dispensation from the Pope. We are akin, Anne, you and I. Well, there should be no delay about that."
"Your brother will try to prevent it. I'm afraid of him. Looking back, I think I always have been."
"I will take care of George."
"It is not good that there should be this trouble between you."
"It is not good but it exists. I could kill him. I am not sure I will not. When I think of how I was turned away when I came to see you ..."
Tell me."
"I was told you were ill ... too ill to be seen. You can imagine how I felt. I said, "However ill she is, she will see me." He said he could not allow it. It would endanger your life. Oh, what a hypocrite he is! Oh yes, I shall certainly kill him one day."
"And you went away and came back again?"
"I did. I said I would see you. I did not believe you were too ill to see me. I tried to force my way in but his guards surrounded me. I could see that one of us would come to some harm if this persisted. Edward would be angry. He had impressed on us both to remember we are one family and we must stand together.
"I came back again. This time I saw your sister Isabel. She was very distressed. She said you had run away and she did not know where you were. Then I knew the situation was really serious. I suspected my brother of some nefarious plotting but I could not think what. I insisted on searching Warwick Court. In fact I have been searching all over London. He always had his hangers-on ... people in his service. It has ever been like that. He likes to do things in secrecy, but he is quite without commonsense. I was frantic with anxiety."
"And when Gilly came to you?"
"Ah ... that woman. She had some trouble getting to me. Thank God she was not one to give up! She kept screeching your name. She cried out that they would be in trouble if they did not take notice of her and bring her to me, because she had news of you. At last she managed to reach me. I could scarcely believe her story, but I was determined not to pass over any possibility. So I came... and here you are now ... safe in sanctuary, thank God."