Children of the May (Children of the May Book 1)

Chapter Twenty-Two: The Mist

fasts. We sat around the table and waited to see if Lady Bertilak would join us as she did most mornings, but, usefully, this was one of the days when she had business elsewhere.

When we were all gathered together Mordred closed the doors and asked for silence. Bellina and Accolon did not officially know of our plan to leave, and Aglinda and Alisander were still unaware of what we had been doing during our long days away from the castle.

‘Everyone,’ said Mordred, ‘some of us are going to get away from this island before the weather turns. We’re going to leave today.’

‘Finished your boat then, have you?’ said Accolon.

‘You’ve built a boat?’ said Aglinda. ‘Amazing.’

‘Yes, we’ve built a boat. Or rather Palomina and Drift have built a boat, and the rest of us have helped a little. We’re going to sail this morning, with anyone who wants to come. We can’t wait for Lord Bertilak’s return. The lady says he will be back soon, but she’s been saying that all the time we’ve been here. I think we all see that she’s speaking from hope rather than real expectation. I fear Lord Bertilak is lost somewhere. I won’t wait for him, and I’m sure we’ve all got things to do on the mainland.’

He raised his hand to stop Accolon interrupting. ‘Please wait for me to finish. Now, if you don’t want to come, that’s fine, but I would ask that you don’t tell Lady Bertilak where we’ve gone until we’re well away from the island. What do you say?’

‘I don’t see a reason why we have to leave so soon,’ said Accolon. ‘But I would like to return to my father and mother, if for no other reason than to tell them I’m still alive. I’ll come with you on the boat, as long as I can see that it won’t sink.’

‘It will not sink,’ hissed Palomina. ‘I know what I am doing.’

Palomides agreed. ‘My sister is expert in the building and repair of ships.’

‘And you’re not a bad seamstress either, are you, Saracen?’ said Piers fondly.

Aglinda was excited about the chance to go home, though Alisander was quiet; he’d been having nightmares about the storm and the shipwreck. But the only one to express a real objection was Bellina.

‘Oh could I not just speak to Lady Bertilak before we go? I would so love to ask if I could borrow some of her jewels.’ She had been spending a lot of her time with Lady Bertilak’s jewellery collection.

‘Come now, fair Bellina,’ said Accolon, siding with Mordred for the first time that I could remember. ‘I hear that your father is a very rich man. You must have an astonishing collection of trinkets.’

‘My stepmother does,’ said Bellina. ‘But she never lets me try any of them on. I hate my stepmother.’

‘I’ll tell you what then, my dear,’ said Accolon. ‘When we get back I shall have my father’s goldsmith search you out the most beautiful necklace in all the land, just for you. You can see how your father’s wife feels when you stop her from trying your jewels.’

This promise won Bellina over. Her eyes shone at the thought of having something over her stepmother, and she agreed to come with the rest of us. 

‘Good,’ said Mordred. ‘Now: go and collect what you need from your rooms. We’ll take this food and drink for the voyage. Palomina has read the maps – the mainland is about four hours to the east, if we get a decent wind.’ He smiled. ‘The sea is calm today, we should be home by nightfall.’

There was a general excitement as we made preparations to leave. Most of the group chose to change back into the clothes they had arrived in, although I noted that Bellina wore her cleaned ermine fur coat over one of the dresses our hostess had provided. I wondered if she had also sneaked a brooch or two of Lady Bertilak’s into her possessions – simply because she had forgotten she had them, of course. I didn’t want to slow us down, so I didn’t say anything about the probable theft; besides, it wasn’t as if we hadn’t stolen from our hostess to build the boat.