But as soon as he let go of her, she fled. He laughed as she ran along the path and into the trees. A moment later he heard her give a cry of shock. He stayed where he was, and Alan brought her to him, her arm twisted behind her back so that her chest stuck out invitingly.

Ralph drew his knife, a sharp dagger with a blade a foot long. “Take off your dress,” he said.

Alan let her go, but she did not immediately comply. “Please, lord,” she said. “I’ve always shown you respect-”

“Take off your dress, or I’ll cut your cheeks and scar you for ever.”

It was a well-chosen threat for a vain woman, and she gave in immediately. She began to cry as she lifted the plain brown wool shift over her head. At first she held the crumpled garment in front of her, covering her nakedness, but Alan snatched it from her and threw it aside.

Ralph stared at her naked body. She stood with her eyes down, tears on her face. She had slim hips with a prominent bush of dark-blonde hair. “Wulfric never saw you like this, did he?” Ralph said.

She shook her head in negation without raising her eyes.

He thrust his hand between her legs. “Did he ever touch you here?”

She said: “Please, lord, I’m a married woman-”

“All the better – you’ve no virginity to lose, nothing to worry about. Lie down.”

She tried to back away from him, and bumped into Alan, who expertly tripped her, so that she fell on her back. Ralph grabbed her ankles, so that she could not get up, but she wriggled desperately. “Hold her down,” Ralph said to Alan.

Alan forced her head down then put his knees on her upper arms and his hands on her shoulders.

Ralph got his cock out and rubbed it to make it harder. Then he knelt between Annet’s thighs.

She began to scream, but no one heard her.

35

Fortunately, Gwenda was one of the first people to see Annet after the incident.

Gwenda and Peg brought home the laundry and hung it to dry around the fire in the kitchen of Perkin’s house. Gwenda was still working as a labourer for Perkin but now, in autumn, when there was less to do in the fields, she helped Peg with her domestic chores. When they had dealt with the laundry they began to prepare the midday meal for Perkin, Rob, Billy Howard and Wulfric. After an hour Peg said: “What can have happened to Annet?”

“I’ll go and see.” Gwenda first checked on her baby. Sammy was lying in a basketwork crib, wrapped in an old bit of brown blanket, his alert dark eyes watching the smoke from the fire gathering in curls under the ceiling. Gwenda kissed his forehead then went to look for Annet.

She retraced her steps across the windy fields. Lord Ralph and Alan Fernhill galloped past her, heading up to the village, their day’s hunting apparently cut short. Gwenda entered the forest and followed the short path that led to the spot where the woman did laundry. Before she got there she met Annet coming the other way.

“Are you all right?” Gwenda said. “Your mother is worried.”

“I’m fine,” Annet replied.

Gwenda could tell something was wrong. “What has happened?”

“Nothing.” Annet would not meet her eye. “Nothing happened, leave me alone.”

Gwenda stood squarely in front of Annet and looked her up and down. Her face told Gwenda unmistakably that there had been some calamity. At first glance she did not appear to be physically hurt – though most of her body was covered by the long wool shift – but then Gwenda saw dark smears on her dress that looked like bloodstains.

Gwenda recalled Ralph and Alan galloping past. “Did Lord Ralph do something to you?”

“I’m going home.” Annet tried to push past Gwenda. Gwenda grabbed her arm to stop her. She did not squeeze hard, but nevertheless Annet cried out in pain, her hand flying to her upper arm.

“You’re hurt!” Gwenda exclaimed.

Annet burst into tears.

Gwenda put her arm around Annet’s shoulders. “Come home,” she said. “Tell your mother about it.”

Annet shook her head. “I’m not telling anyone,” she said.

Too late for that, Gwenda thought.

Walking Annet back to Perkin’s house, Gwenda ran over the possibilities in her mind. Clearly Annet had suffered some kind of assault. She might have been attacked by one or more travellers, though there was no road nearby. Outlaws were always a possibility, but it was a long time since any had been seen near Wigleigh. No, the likeliest suspects were Ralph and Alan.

Peg was brisk. She sat Annet down on a stool and pulled her dress down over her shoulders. Both upper arms showed swollen red bruises. “Someone held you down,” Peg said angrily.

Annet made no reply.

Peg persisted. “Am I right? Answer me, child, or you’ll be in worse trouble. Did someone hold you down?”

Annet nodded.

“How many men? Come on, out with it.”

Annet did not speak, but held up two fingers.

Peg reddened with fury. “Did they fuck you?”

Annet nodded.

“Who were they?”

Annet shook her head.

Gwenda knew why she did not want to say. It was dangerous for a serf to accuse a lord of a crime. She said to Peg: “I saw Ralph and Alan riding away.”

Peg said to Annet: “Was it them – Ralph and Alan?”

Annet nodded.

Peg’s voice fell almost to a whisper. “I suppose Alan held you down while Ralph did it.”

Annet nodded again.

Peg softened, now that she had got the truth. She put her arms around her daughter and hugged her. “You poor child,” she said. “My Poor baby.”

Annet began to sob.

Gwenda left the house.

The men would be home soon for their midday dinner, and they would quickly find out that Ralph had raped Annet. Annet’s father, her brother, her husband and her former lover would be mad with rage. Perkin was too old to do anything foolish, Rob would do what Perkin told him and Billy Howard probably was not brave enough to make trouble – but Wulfric would be incandescent. He would kill Ralph.

And then he would be hanged.

Gwenda had to turn the course of events, otherwise she would lose her husband. She hurried through the village, speaking to no one, and went to the manor house. There, she hoped to be told that Ralph and Alan had finished their dinner and gone out again; but it was a little too early and, to her dismay, they were still at home.

She found them in the stable behind the house, looking at a horse with an infected hoof. Normally she was uncomfortable in the presence of Ralph or Alan, for she felt sure that whenever they looked at her they remembered the sight of her kneeling naked on the bed at the Bell in Kingsbridge. But today the thought hardly entered her head. Somehow she had to make them leave the village – now, before Wulfric found out what they had done. What was she going to say?

For a moment she was struck dumb. Then in desperation she said: “Lord, there was a messenger here from Earl Roland.”

Ralph was surprised. “When was this?”

“An hour ago.”

Ralph looked at the groom who was holding the horse’s foot up for inspection. The man said: “No one came here.”

Naturally, a messenger would have come to the manor house and spoken to the lord’s servants. Ralph said to Gwenda: “Why did he give this message to you?”

She improvised desperately. “I met him on the road just outside the village. He asked for Lord Ralph, and I told him you were out hunting and you would be back for dinner – but he wouldn’t stay.”

This was unusual behaviour for a messenger, who would normally stop to eat and drink and rest his horse. Ralph said: “Why was he in such a hurry?”

Inventing excuses extempore, Gwenda said: “He had to get to Cowford by sundown… I didn’t make so bold as to question him.”

Ralph grunted. The last part was plausible: a messenger from Earl Roland was not likely to subject himself to cross-examination by a peasant woman. “Why didn’t you tell me this earlier?”