Reckless Angel by Jane Feather

mud-puddled cobbles. The abandoned farmhouse, its blackened walls and roofless condition evidence of the fire that had driven away its inhabitants, loomed squat and slightly menacing in the misty gloom. She veered away across the fields toward the city of Nottingham lying some three miles distant.
    Daniel was at first not alarmed by Harry’s absence when he awoke a half hour later. Reasoning that she was either visiting the still-intact privy at the rear of the farmhouse or stretching her legs now that the rain had slackened somewhat, he strolled outside himself. The sky was black with cloud, not a glimmer of moon or starshine, and an autumnal chill struck hard in the dank air.
    A pitch-dark night was ill for traveling, he reflected, particularly when they were obliged to keep to the fields and woods. It was all too easy for a horse to miss his footing in a fox hole or blunder into the gorse and tear the skin of a hock. Mayhap they would be better advised to spend the night in this cheerless hole and risk a daytime journey on the morrow.
    Frowning as he tried to make up his mind, he returned to the barn and was surprised to find that Harry had not returned. “Wherever could she have gone?” he demanded of the air and his two companions.
    Tom shrugged, but Will chewed his lip and looked uneasy. “D’ye have some idea, Will?” Daniel asked, examining the young man carefully.
    A pink flush stained Will’s cheeks, conflicting dramatically with the shock of red hair. “I beg your pardon, sir, for saying this, but ye shouldn’t have spoken as ye did to her. Harry doesn’t take kindly to having her ideas dismissed in such fashion, not when she’s set her heart on something and believes it will work.”
    â€œNow, just a minute,” said Daniel in a slow, horrified realization of what Will was implying. “Are you trying to tell me that she has gone off in a passion?”
    â€œNay, sir.” Will scratched his head uncomfortably. “Not exactly. I think she has probably gone into Nottingham to try to acquire passes.”
    â€œGod’s good grace!” Daniel stared, horrendous images jostling in his head: Henrietta in her britches providing merry sport for a troop of lewd Roundhead soldiers in Nottingham Castle; Henrietta forced into revealing her true identity and that of her fugitive companions, together with their whereabouts; the imminent arrival of a troop of Roundheads bristling with pikes.
    â€œA wild, hoity maid,” adjudged Tom, sucking on a piece of straw. “We’d best be away afore she brings the ’ole New Model down upon us.”
    â€œWe cannot leave, Tom,” Daniel said sharply. “We cannot risk her returning and finding us gone.”
    â€œI will stay for her,” Will spoke up. “’Tis my responsibility, when all’s said and done. If it hadn’t been for me, she’d not have been here in the first place.”
    Daniel gave a mirthless laugh. “I am not convinced of that fact, young Will. Mistress Ashby had no intention of accepting the destiny planned for her. Following you provided romantic excuse to flee.”
    Will looked startled, as if such an idea had never occurred to him. “D’ye think she is not in love with me, then, sir?”
    â€œI think she believes she is,” Daniel said. “I do not mean to prick your vanity—”
    â€œOh, no, sir, you have not,” Will hastened to reassure him. “I confess ’twould be something of a relief if it were the case.”
    In spite of his present dismay, Daniel could not help smiling at this frank statement. Master Osbert was no stricken swain but the hapless victim of a considerably stronger will. He strode to the door, peering out into the blackness. An owl screeched and a small animal screamed in pain and fear. They were not reassuring sounds for hunted men. “Tom, you and Will ride from here some five or six miles