Wolf Wood (Part Two): The Dangerous years by Mike Dixon

shouting in Breton. She opened an eye and saw feet. Blood ran into her eyes. The crew was yelling for them to shut the porthole. Everything was confusion and noise. Alice was talking and Steven was crying. The pain in her face got worse.
    'It's not serious.'
    Alice's voice was drowned out by swearing. The Bretons couldn't get the porthole shut. Wood from the other ship was jammed into it. Henriette winced as her cheek was probed.
    'You are lucky not to have been badly hurt.'
    Alice pulled something from the wound.
    'There's nothing to worry about.'
    'I'm not worried,' Henriette protested. 'I want to know about Robin.
    'Robin is helping them tie the porthole shut.'
    Henriette craned her neck and saw him tugging on a rope. She was lying on a pile of sacks. The boat was racing ahead on an even keel. She could hear the wind in the sails and the swish of water against the sides. The Bretons were cheering. She guessed they had beaten off their attackers.
    Robin came and lay beside her. With the portholes shut it was pitch dark. Alice was somewhere with Steven and Harald. The Bretons were on deck. She snuggled up close and felt his breath on her neck. Girls of her class were often married by her age. Alice had waited until she was almost thirty before Steven was born. It had taken her so long to find her man. Henriette felt a surge of pride. She was only sixteen and her man was beside her.
    They had lain together before and returned kisses. Robin had been reluctant to take their love making further. He said she was too young and of noble birth. That was ridiculous. Her family were pirates and she was not too young. She needed a man to protect her. When she pressed against him she felt his passion. It was hard and pulsating with life. They could both die before the night was out. Henriette resolved that she would not die a virgin.
     
     

Interlude
     
    Cardinal Henry Beaufort continued his relentless campaign against Duke Humphrey. Henry Bolingbrook was hanged, drawn and quartered and the Witch of Eye was burnt at the stake. In November 1441, the duke was forced to divorce Eleanor who was convicted of sorcery and imprisoned. Six years later, in 1447, Duke Humphrey was arrested for alleged treason. He died in custody five days later. Cardinal Beaufort died in bed a few weeks later.
    The French overcame their differences and reorganised their forces with a central command. In August 1449, they embarked on the reconquest of Normandy and plunged the English into retreat.
    The Gascoignes and the Perrys were well established in France. Henriette was married to Robin Perry and they had two children. Harald Gascoigne was a senior official in the English administration and Robin was an officer in the Duke of York's army.
     
     

Chapter 7
     
    Ba yeu x
     
    April 15th 1450
     

    Alice stood on the battlements and watched as a trickle of soldiers made their way between the two massive towers that guarded the main gate of the City. Earlier that day, the English had suffered a crushing defeat at Formigny, a small village ten miles away. An army of five thousand had been caught in a pincer movement and routed.
    Her immediate concern was for Robin who had gone out with a scouting party and had not yet returned. He was now thirty-one and a very different person from the bashful country boy she met when she first arrived in Sherborne. Robin spoke good French and had learnt to write the sort of English that was fashionable in Westminster. He reported directly to the Commander of the garrison, Matthew Gough. Like everyone else, they feared for their future.
    Their original intention had been to move to Gascony and settle in Bordeaux. The people of that region were staunchly independent and regarded themselves as subjects of the English king. Like the Bretons, they had resisted the French for centuries. Now it looked as if they would soon become French like the people of Languedoc to their east. They had once been part of the Mediterranean world. Two