Hester shivered, but plucked up her spirits. "I shall tell Neil." She looked up at Magnus. "I ... thank thee, stranger. I ... cannot thank thee enough."

"Time enough for thanks, when we are all away clear. Already we tarry too long; any seeing thee in converse with us will grow suspicious. I shall see thee in the gloaming."

"Aye. I thank thee. Till then." Hester turned away. She went a few steps down the path, glanced back with misgiving, saw Magnus's gaze still upon her, flushed, and hurried away.

"Not the way she had planned to have it happen, I'm sure," Rod murmured.

"Oh?" His son turned a bland smile on him. "What did she intend, then?"

"Why, to have you fall madly in love with her, so that you couldn't bear to be without her. That way, she would have been sure you would have taken her away. Then, at the last moment, she would have asked if her childhood friend Neil could come along, and you would have been jealous as hell, but you would have done anything she'd asked."

Magnus smiled, amused. "'Tis like to a scene from a play upon a stage, is't not?"

"You think that wasn't what she had in mind?"

"It most definitely was."

Rod smiled. "Glad we can still agree occasionally. But just to err on the side of caution, how about I be the one to meet her?"

"Nay." Magnus frowned. "Dost thou think me unable to ward mine own heart?"

"Let's just say it's going to be less suspect for us to meet them separately than for you to be seen chatting with each one, just before they take off for the tall timber."

"A good thought, but I think they'll be more suspicious of thee than of me-for with myself, they will suspect only dalliance, where with thee, they'll suspect escape. And 'tis no answer to my question. Thou dost still think me defenseless before a pretty face, dost thou not?"

"Well, not just the face."

Magnus laughed, true and unfeigned mirth, to Rod's great relief. "No fear, my father. She never had so strong a hold upon my fancy as all that. In truth, she scarcely had even a pinch. I assure thee, I have been harrowed by experts, 'gainst whom she is the veriest amateur."

"Well ... I'm glad to hear that," Rod said slowly; but there was an undertone to the boy's words that chilled him. "Just so you're able to recognize your one true love when she comes along."

"If she doth come," Magnus said, his voice flat. "I misdoubt me an such a woman doth live. Yet if she doth, I hope I'll not have so calloused a heart that it will not respond to her touch. For all others, though, I warrant I'm proof against them."

Rod hoped he was right-but the words did have an overtone of arrogance to them.

They hiked back to the tavern and had dinner; then Rod inquired about lodgings for the night, just to establish a cover. The innkeeper looked worried, but told them that he had no beds for strangers, since they came so seldom. ^-He did, however, say they might ask the bishop for the privilege of sleeping in the village hayloft.

"Thanks, but I wouldn't want to trouble him," Rod said. "We'll camp out in the fields-we've done that before. Besides, that way we'll be all set to strike out again tomorrow morning."

"I can offer porridge, to break thy fast," Corin assured them, perhaps a little too quickly.

"Thanks." Rod gave him a bright smile. "We'll take you up on that. G'night, now."

He waved a hand as he went out the door. Magnus did the same, and they strolled away from the inn. "Well done, my father. Thou mayest be certain the bishop will know of our `plans' within the half-hour."

"That long?" Rod feigned surprise. "Well, let's find us a chunk of pasture with a nice view, and put on a good show." They found pasture land not too far from the church on the hill, and not too close to the livestock, and spread out their blanket rolls. There they sat and chatted as they watched the sunset, passing a wineskin back and forth. No one needed to know that they took only sips from it, not gulps. When the rosy glory had faded into dusk, Magnus lay down while Rod went off, none too steadily, toward the nearest thicket-but as soon as the leaves screened him, his step firmed remarkably.

He stepped into the forest, found a likely looking sapling, then called Fess. He took a special dagger from the saddlebag, pressed the right rivet, and a scarlet beam shot out of the ruby on the pommel. Rod moved it slowly across the base of the sapling. Smoke rose as the laser cut, and the sapling came free. Rod let up on the rivet, put the dagger away, and stripped the twigs off his new quarterstaff.

Then he slipped around the village to come out near the threshing floor. Neil was waiting, ostentatiously sweeping the boards. Rod strolled past him, whistling. Neil thoughtfully put away the broom, picked up a small pack, and followed.

Meanwhile, Magnus tossed and turned, then got up and went down to the nearby stream to have a drink. He went on over the rivulet, though, slipped into the brush along its border, and followed it around behind the hill with the church.

As he stepped out of the leaves, he saw Hester waiting, nervously swinging a parcel. His mouth tightened in chagrin--the pack was as good as an advertisement that she intended to run away. But as he came closer, Magnus revised the notion-she had kept it down to something that could believably be a gift of food to a travelling friend. He mentally gave the girl points for brains. "Good eve, Hester."

She jumped. "I-I had not seen thee come up, Magnus. Good e'en." She glanced upward and behind her; looking that way, Magnus saw a figure in a black robe watching them-one of the nuns, keeping an eye on the chastity risks. "Let us stroll," he said. "So long as we are on our feet, and away from cover, surely they will not cavil."

Hester smiled a little. "Nay, surely. Whither shall we wander?"

"Everywhere and nowhere, so they shall see-but we shall tend south and west." Magnus proffered his arm. "Wilt thou walk?"

Startled by the courtesy, she took his arm, and they ambled off into the gloaming. "My conscience doth trouble me," Magnus said, "at thought of thy parents' distress when they find thee fled."

"They have given me their blessing," she said, with the afterechoes of shock. "They each have told me they longed to go, even as I have, when they were mine age."

"I rejoice to hear it." But Magnus's tone was hard.

"Have no fear, they'll speak not a word! Neither of them would wish to see me shamed in the pillory-and they are such firm friends of the bishop that I misdoubt me an he'll blame them for my wayward flight."

Magnus nodded, relaxing. They strolled on into the evening, managing some very strained small talk. Magnus started trying to work in every old joke he knew, and sure enough, to her they were new-so she was laughing quite merrily, when she looked up to see the heap of bare dirt, and the three men standing near it. Her good humor vanished on the spot, and she stared, eyes huge, suddenly trembling.

"There is naught to fear," Magnus said gently, "and here is thy young man. Go to him, now."

She glanced up at him once, flashed a grateful smile, and hurried over to Neil, to be swallowed up in his embrace. Roble watched them, his face bleak, then looked away-but Rod covertly eyed Magnus, and saw the tiny tightening of the face that betrayed emotion held in check. His son hadn't been quite so carefree about Hester as he had pretended. If nothing else, it was a blow to his pride.

The lovers broke apart, and Hester turned to Rod. "How shall we. . ."

"Hist!" Neil raised a hand, looking off into the darkness. "I hear the watch!"

They were all still, and heard a distant murmur of voices-but Rod and Magnus, listening to minds, heard several men talking about the bishop's orders for extra vigilance this night, because certain corrupted souls might try to flee to the forest, the domain of Satan. "Thou hast keen ears," Magnus said.