Where was she?
There! A few yards out, Aude’s head had reappeared next to a bundle of straw. Both were sinking.
Hugh kicked his heels, guiding the gelding into the water. The river shall not have her! The force of his feeling rocked him, but then he had long had a soft spot for Aude de Crèvecoeur. Despite appearances, her life had not been easy. This morning by the barge, Hugh had been occupied, but he had noticed her the moment she had stepped on to the quayside. And he was almost certain that, despite Edouard’s orders to the contrary, Aude had wanted to speak to him. She hadn’t wanted to speak to the surly deckhand who had removed her belongings from the barge—she had wanted to speak to him, to Hugh Duclair. Foolish, foolish girl.
Edouard’s sister, like Edouard, had a loyal heart, and he would be damned before he saw her bravery rewarded by drowning. There was enough injustice in Normandy without adding Aude’s death to the scales. Edouard’s strictures, his own resolution not to drag Aude into his affairs must, for the moment, be set aside.
‘Careful, Hugh, that river has power.’
Thanks to Hugh’s urging, his horse entered the water faster than was safe. Its flanks shuddered, its eyes rolled, it fought Hugh’s commands, but it obeyed.
Aude was clinging to an oar, a wavelet breaking over her. Her plaits had unravelled. Her hair streamed out, dark red against the cloudy water.
‘Let go!’ Hugh took the gelding in as far as he dared. It would help no one if he were swept away too. ‘Strike out for me!’
Hugh doubted that Aude could swim—no lady of his acquaintance could—but she seemed to understand that the oar would carry her away. She let go and surrendered herself to the water.
Determined to intercept her, Hugh angled his horse sideways. It wasn’t particularly deep here. The gelding was still on its feet, but the force of the water would have been too strong for a person to withstand. The rush of the river filled his ears.
Aude was blinded by water. Her mouth was full of brine and it was choking her. Cold. It was so cold. How could river water be so cold when the day was so warm? The horseman who had waded in after her—she could not see him clearly for the stinging in her eyes—must be quite mad. Her hair, too, was blinding her. She spluttered and choked.
The horseman was shouting, but Aude couldn’t hear him for the roaring—whether it was the roaring of the river or her own blood, she could not tell. Her lungs ached. Water slapped her in the face.
He was getting close, thank God. Her legs tangled in waterlogged skirts, her arms refused to obey her. Heavy, everything was heavy, pulling her down. But even as Aude felt herself sinking, she was carried towards him, the madman on the bay horse.
Yes! Only a little further.
‘Come on, Aude!’
He knew her name?
Feebly Aude kicked her feet—her shoes had gone almost as soon as she hit the water. Her toes scraped the bottom, but it was impossible to stand. Too fast, the river was running too fast.
She hit the horse’s flank, the horseman’s leg. Glimpsed red cross-gartering. Another wave tried to drown her. Blindly, she groped for a well-muscled calf and hooked her fingers into his cross-gartering.
‘Hold hard!’
A madman, clearly. Why else would he be commanding her to do the obvious? More water found its way into Aude’s lungs and a fit of coughing took her as he turned the horse and she was dragged ignominiously towards the river bank like so much wet washing.
On dry land, she let go and fell on her knees. Someone was talking. Aude couldn’t make out the words; it sounded as though bees were buzzing. Blackness was swirling at the edges of her vision, exactly as, moments ago, the water had swirled about her. She retched and retched again. Warm hands were on her shoulders, supporting her. He was sweeping her hair back to keep it clear of her face. Her chest ached.
‘That’s right, Aude,’ her rescuer said. ‘Get it out. All of it.’
Aude? More retching. Her stomach burned. And still he was holding her.
‘Better?’
Nodding, Aude sat back down, panting. She looked into his face.
‘Hugh!’
Hugh Duclair’s stormy blue eyes were anxious and his thumbs were making tiny caressing movements on her shoulders, but even as she watched the anxiety faded. He released her and shifted away. ‘Ma dame, I do not think you know me.’
‘Oh, yes, I do, I—’
‘Ma dame, your brother has forbidden you to acknowledge me.’
She gripped the frayed edge of his sleeve. It was that or reach for Hugh’s hand and the look in his eyes warned her that such a gesture would not be welcome. ‘Don’t be ridiculous, Hugh, you saved me! Besides, you proved you know me when you called me by name.’
Sighing, Hugh sat down on the bank beside her. He was almost as out of breath as she was. Someone else was riding up, a young man with another horse on a leading rein. His squire, Gil—Aude recognised him from last year. She flung a weak smile at him. Thank God, not all Hugh Duclair’s friends had deserted him.
‘In any case, I thank you,’ she said, as another fit of coughing overcame her. She put a hand to her throat, she felt hoarse. ‘I was never…never so glad to see anyone in my life.’
Hugh grinned and for a moment his face transformed and he was his old self. A handsome Viking of a man who was her brother’s closest friend; a man who was—thank goodness—utterly oblivious of the fact that while Aude had been a girl, she had put him at the centre of many a romantic dream.
‘No, my lady, I should be thanking you.’
Still panting, Aude shoved her hair back. ‘Me?’
Hugh’s sun-gilded head nodded in the direction of the port. ‘That was my sister in the barge back there.’
‘Your sister?’ Aude had heard of Louise, naturally, though she had never met her.
‘Yes, indeed. My one and only little sister.’ Hugh put his hand on his heart and his eyes held hers. He was regarding her so warmly that the heat rushed back into her cheeks and for a moment she could not look away. ‘Aude, I owe you more than I can say. My sister is—’
‘Hugh! Hugh!’
‘Gil?’
‘Some monks and a couple of the Abbot’s knights are heading this way.’
‘Merde, they cannot be allowed to delay us.’
Aude could practically see Hugh’s cares fall back on his shoulders: banished with time running out on him; concern for his sister; the loss of his baggage on that barge…
He pushed to his feet, and Aude found herself staring at a pair of strong male legs. His boots squelched.
‘I got you wet, Hugh, I am sorry.’ There was a cold lump under Aude’s breastbone. There was so much she longed to discuss with him, she wanted to wish him well…
But already Hugh was moving away. ‘It is of no matter,’ he said. ‘You have my eternal thanks. The good brothers will see to your welfare while I go and find Louise. And, Aude, if they should ask, remember that it is best that you do not know me.’ He gave her a brief bow, and in a couple of heartbeats he and Gil had gone.
Aude was sitting alone on the ravaged foreshore when the monks arrived to exclaim over her and offer her their assistance.
‘Haven’t you had enough of the river today, my lady?’ Edwige asked, curling her lip as she edged round a stinking tangle of fish nets. The wave