So Great A Love by Flora Speer

too.
    “Do hurry,” Aldis urged them. “We are much
later than we intended and Matthew will be worrying about us.
Margaret, bend your head down so I can remove that gold net without
unfastening your hair. Won't Ermengarde be furious when she
discovers it being worn by a servant?” Aldis stifled another giggle
behind one hand.
    Having retrieved the gold mesh hairnet, Aldis
left to deliver the red and the blue silk gowns, the hairnet, and
the pair of face masks to the servants who were to wear them for
the remainder of the festivities. With luck, and if Gertrude kept
quiet, in all the confusion in the great hall the servants would be
taken for Margaret and Catherine for at least an hour or two. When
the servants were unmasked at midnight along with everyone else who
was in disguise, the deception would be at first considered a great
joke, which ought to further delay questions about the whereabouts
of Margaret and Catherine.
    A few minutes later the two friends emerged
from the garderobe wearing plain, dark woolen gowns, with their
hair covered with linen wimples, of which Margaret owned a large
supply. They had decided while working out the details of the plan
on the previous night that Catherine's distinctive red-gold hair
would give her away, so until she was out of Sutton Castle she was
to assume the disguise offered by the head-covering of a married
woman.
    Leaving the garderobe, they hurried along a
short corridor leading to a flight of stairs down to the
storerooms, and thence to a door in the lower level of the keep
that opened onto the inner bailey. Though it was only
mid-afternoon, the winter sun was setting and the shadows were
lengthening across the bailey which, as Margaret had expected, was
almost empty of people.
    “My father cannot think there is any danger
of attack during this holy season,” Margaret said, “and so most of
his people will be inside, enjoying themselves.” She was proven
correct. There were only a few guards about and they did not
question two women dressed like servants and bent upon a hasty
errand.
    As Margaret and Catherine emerged from the
inner gatehouse to the outer bailey where the stables were located,
they were met by the six men-at-arms who had come to Sutton with
Catherine to protect her along the way. Aldis was already mounted
and the men held a pair of saddled horses ready for the other
women. One of the men quickly threw a dark, hooded cloak over
Margaret, swathing her from wimple to toes. Another man covered
Catherine in the same way with a second cloak.
    “You don't really need to disguise
yourselves, but it's always best to be cautious,” Matthew, the man
who was leader of the men-at-arms, said to them. “So many other
parties have been coming and going today that the guards are
letting folk move freely in and out of the castle until
nightfall.
    “Also, I took it upon myself to see to it
that the guards have been able to celebrate the coming nuptials
with wine that was generously, though unknowingly, supplied by Lord
Phelan. I do not think they will concern themselves overmuch with a
small group of people who are leaving, and we have been careful not
to mention any of your names in connection with this group. But I
don't think we ought to delay much longer, for the gates will be
closed and locked when darkness comes.”
    Matthew had judged the guards accurately. No
one questioned them. A few moments after the women were mounted
their party rode unchallenged through the main gate of Sutton
Castle and into the gathering twilight, into cold, windy
freedom.

Chapter 4
     
     
    With a full moon rising early to light their
way the little band led by Matthew rode through the late afternoon
and into the night, until the moon had set and humans and horses
were weary. As the moon sank into the western sky Matthew called a
halt by a stream edged with ice. While the men-at-arms tended to
the horses, Margaret, Catherine, and Aldis tried to walk some
warmth into their chilled