Read Online Gisborne: Book of Pawns by Prue Batten - Free Book Online

and making sure the straw she stood on w as thick and cushioned her legs from further problems.
    ‘No foot, no ‘oss,’ I whispered as I gave her t he last of the apple-core saved from a windfall Gisborne had scrumped on the road.
    ‘She’s a beautiful mare, Ysabel.’ Guy stood behind me as I tightened the linen holding a poultice to her leg.
    ‘She is.’ I rubbed her between the ears. ‘Papa arra nged for her to be waiting for me at Cazenay. She’s of Barbary bl ood, fast and fleet and she’s only twelve. She would be a goo d broodmare. Maybe back at Moncrieff. She needs time to mend, Gisborne. I need to poultice her daily.’
    ‘Ysabel, we have no time, you know this.’
    ‘But…’
    ‘We need to rest now. And I shall make sure that Khazia is tended, but you need to realize that this is truly a disaster…’
    ‘I think you make too much of it. Disaster for Khazia surely, but us?’
    Guy took me by the arm and led me to an inn. I thought it was a step forward that he didn’t just deposit me with more good Sisters for a day and a night of prayers and the confessional. But the fact we had rooms side by side at the hostelry meant little as I went over and over the si tuation that Guy had revealed earlier. My home was under threat. My father’s ines timable wealth had diminished. Guy implied it was because my father grieved for my lady mother but his words lack ed conviction and I wondered at the real truth .
    We ate a simple meal from one of the booths lining the street , a small game pie and some ale.
    ‘Khazia,’ Guy said, ‘is a problem.’ He flicked pastry flakes from his surcoat and rubbed his hands together to remove the last crumbs.
    ‘I disagree… ’
    ‘I know how long it can take a horse to repair from a torn ligament, Ysabel. To push Khazia would be a cruelty.’
    I swore to which Guy raised an eyebrow, and I threw the remains of the food to a passing cur where it disappeared in two gulps. ‘Khazia needs a day or two, that is all, no longer. She’s strong. ’
    Guy scoffed. ‘You’ve seen the road. She’d be lame in half a league . Be rational. ’
    ‘W hat do you suggest ? ’ I snapped.
    ‘There is a way round this.’
    ‘Tell then, because I’m damned if I can see it. We must wait day s , that’s all there is to it.’
    ‘No.’ He looked down at his hands. ‘We can get new horses.’
    ‘What!’ The enormity of what he sa id almost knocked me backward. ‘And leave Khazia in Rouen. You jest.’
    ‘No, I don’t. W e must leave on the morrow so we have no choice. I can see no other way around this.’
    I walked away from him but knew he followed close as we headed back to the inn.
    ‘You ask me to do something that hurts, Gisborne. On top of all I have lost and appear to be losing, you ask me to get rid of a horse I have had for eight years, a friend.
    ‘A friend who was n ot so important that you thought little of what you might do to her by galloping her downhill at Cazenay .’
    ‘You bastar d,’ I swung round and lifted a h and that he caught in mid-arc, but I shook him off. ‘How dare you presume t o know what I feel for Khazia! That day at Cazenay my mind had slipped sideways with grief for my mother. But I know what I think now and I know that you ask too much.’
    ‘Ysabel,’ he lowered his voice and at any other time I might have said he was being solicitous. He opened the door of the hostelry and I passed through. As we c limbed the stairs he continued. ‘You need to get to Moncrieff and soonest. We have no idea w hat we might find at the coast with the weather. Above all else that is an imponderable. We can sell Khazia and buy a good horse to get you to the boats quickly. Sell that one in Calais and buy a ride in England. No, no,’ he pressed my arm. ‘Don’t say it. I know what she means to you but it is the only answer.’
    I knew he was right if urgency was what propelled us. But i t seemed to me that i f there had been extreme need for speed before,