Read Online The Bleeding Land by Giles Kristian - Free Book Online

hair, black as a raven’s wing, fell about her pale face in soft, tear-tangled curls, and Mun could see plainly why his brother loved the girl, why he had risked their father’s wrath by their secret betrothal. Though Tom was still a fool to ask her hand in marriage when he had no means to support himself let alone a wife.
    ‘They hurt him, Tom. They struck Jacob too.’
    ‘Do not worry for Jacob, Miss Green,’ Mun said, ‘he is safe at Shear House. Our sister Bess will see to the boy.’
    ‘Thank you for coming, Edmund. And God bless you, Sir Francis,’ she said, her voice muffled against Tom’s chest.
    Whilst Tom soothed Martha, Mun glanced about him in the candle-lit murk. The parlour had been much disturbed, with furniture, books and ornaments strewn across the floor. It was a small, modest house and though their father was yet catching his breath after the ride, Mun knew what he would be thinking. He would be wondering at his son’s folly in supposing a marriage to this country minister’s daughter would ever have received his blessing. For what property could the widowed churchman bring as a dowry to the marriage? And yet Mun could not deny that the girl was a beauty, and a woman’s beauty could hold a man in thrall. His father would see that, too. By Mun’s reckoning, advanced years had not cooled his father’s blood so much that he would not see how a young man could be stripped of sense by Martha Green’s full red lips, clear white skin and slender waist.
    ‘They will take him into the village,’ Mun said, meaning Lathom, for they were nearer there now than Parbold. ‘To stir up the wasps’ nest.’
    Sir Francis nodded. ‘I’d wager they’ll ride to the church, too, for they’ll be looking for proof of Minister Green’s popery. If they don’t already have it.’
    ‘Of course they do not have proof!’ Martha exclaimed, pulling away from Tom to scowl at Sir Francis, who raised his hands by way of an apology.
    ‘Bolt the door,’ Tom told her, gripping her shoulders, his eyes locked on hers. ‘We will ride after them and make them give your father up. Do not open to anyone until we return, do you understand?’ She nodded. ‘Did they put your father on a horse?’
    Martha shook her head. ‘I don’t know. One of them held me as they tied him and took him out. Miles Walton,’ she spat.
    ‘Did he hurt you?’ Tom asked, glancing at Mun for they both knew Walton. Whenever Henry Denton was throwing his weight around Miles Walton could normally be found nearby.
    Martha pursed her lips. ‘No,’ she admitted, and Mun noticed an expression pass across his brother’s face that looked a close relation of disappointment. He means to make them pay anyway, he thought.
    ‘They can’t be moving fast if George is bound,’ Tom suggested.
    Mun agreed. ‘And they have their prize thus no reason to hurry. We’ll catch them, Martha,’ he said, following his father towards the door.
    ‘All will be well, my love,’ Tom said, kissing Martha’s lips.
    ‘Let’s ride, brother,’ Mun said, his words prising the young lovers apart, and Tom’s jaw firmed once more.
    So, leaving Martha Green standing in the doorway, her breath pluming in the frosty night, the three of them mounted sweat-lathered horses and rode west along Briar Lane, their mounts’ hooves thundering. Hawthorn, blackthorn and field maple crowded into the well-worn track, shadowy dark masses that threatened to swallow these intruders who dared to be abroad in the dead of night. In Mun’s peripheral vision bats swirled and darted above the hedgerows, no more than silent blurs, and amongst the wash of wind past his ears he heard owls hooting and screeching high up in elms whose bare crooked branches were laced with frost and glittering in the moonlight.
    And after two miles they found them. Six men, six horses and all of them, man and beast, surprised to see others on the road . They had rounded Briar Lane’s last sinuous curve before it