A Lily on the Heath 4 by Colleen Gleason Page A

she searched for hunting birds, Judith was known to climb trees or over rocky terrain into small mountains in order to find their nests. It was no easy task, but one she enjoyed on most occasions. There was something exhilarating about being so high in a tree she could see for what seemed like leagues…not to mention wearing clothing that allowed such freedom of movement.
    “Now, lady, I’m getting too old to folla you up into them branches,” Tessing told her when she informed him of her plans. They stood in the mews while she gathered up the items she needed for her task.
    “And right you are,” she told him. “You’re to stay on the ground so if I fall, you can catch me.” This last she said with a jest and he rolled his eyes and shook his head, tsk ing.
    “If’n yer pap was alive, he’d send me up after ye anyway,” said the elderly man. “Old bones or nay. Tell me if’n one hair on yer head was bent, I’d be hung by m’toes.”
    “And now you’re jesting with me, Tessing, because we all know all my hair is bent and curly,” she teased her mentor. “And asides, Papa used to send me up in the trees for him when the branches were too delicate to bear his weight.”
    “An’ he’d be on the ground the whole time, pacin’, waitin’ to catch you if’n you fell.”
    “And I never did,” she reminded him, swinging a small leather bag over her shoulder. Inside was a hunk of cheese, two apples and some dried beef. She’d tucked a skin of watered-down wine into her belt. Now she took two live mice and a vole from the cages where Tessing kept them and stuffed them into a small wooden box-cage. The small rodents would be good bait for her trap, or food for a young hawk if she needed it, and then her captured bird could ride back in the empty cage. “I want you to stay here anyway, Tessing. Someone must take care of Hecate, Gall and Petrus. You know I may not return until late tonight, or even tomorrow.”
    The nearest forest that could be inhabited by raptors was a two hours’ ride away. But it was near a shallow ridge of rocky hills, and there was a good chance one or both places would offer a selection of nests for Judith to raid.  
    “Sir Piall is coming with me,” she told him when he began to protest. “And dressed as a boy like I am, and him as a simple man-at-arms, the two of us will attract no unwanted attention. We’ll ride quicker if it’s only us, and I am not about to be naysaid,” she finished, her voice going a little steely. “This is a special gift for the queen, and I must find the right hawk. If I don’t find one today or on the morrow, then I’ll go back on another time.” Though she didn’t say so, Judith was determined not to return until she found the best hunter…even if it meant sleeping on the ground. Hence the heavy cloak.
    Tessing tsk ed again, but his mistress had spoken and Judith knew she made good sense. “Very well. Don’ break any of yer bones, my lady,” the old man told her. “Or Tabatha will have my head because I didn’t go with ye.”
    Since Tabby was Tessing’s granddaughter, Judith suspected he was correct. “I vow to return with no broken bones,” she told him, and pressed a kiss to his warm, weathered cheek. Then she was back out in the sunlight where Piall waited with their horses.  
    Sir Piall was one of her men-at-arms, currently at court with her from Lilyfare, but he’d been on many hawk-hunting trips. He knew what to expect from the excursion, and as well, he was an excellent warrior and a kind man. Judith was no rock-head when it came to her safety and that of her mare and hawks. She trusted Piall as implicitly as she trusted Sir Holbert and Tessing.
    Because of her clothing, she was able to ride astride; although with the long cloak covering her and the back of her mount, no one could tell. When she and Piall rode past the training yard where the men sweated, clanged, and clashed, no one seemed to recognize or even notice her hidden