Reading Online Novel

Pilgrims of Promise(117)



The man cried out and fell forward with Heinrich’s sword jammed into his chest. While struggling to jerk his blade free, the one-armed baker was quickly pounced upon by the reeve and another and knocked hard to the ground.

“I’ll kill you, y’fool!” cried a deputy.

“Hold!” begged Herwin. “Hold easy!”

With a loud cry, the reeve struck Heinrich on the head with his flail, knocking the man unconscious. He then spun around to Herwin. “I should arrest you as well, you and your son. You’ve harbored a fugitive.”

“We didn’t know.”

“Aye, y’did know! You know Wil and his father well, and you know the boy’s been charged with murder. You’d a duty to summon me! That makes you guilty.” Reeve Edwin was panting. He was a man of middling years and had served as Weyer’s reeve for a decade. He had always liked Herwin, however, and as his breath returned to him, so did his reason. “Why didn’t you send for me?”

“I… I had barely spoken with them when you came to the door. Who sent you?”

“I did!” It was Horst, the yeoman occupying Heinrich’s hovel. The man cursed and rubbed his jaw. “Boys?”

One son answered. “Fitz is cut in the belly!”

Horst stumbled to his son’s side. “That one-eyed fool!” he cried. “I’ll kill him where he lies!”

Reeve Edwin spun about and stuck the end of his flail against Horst’s chest. “Nay. He’ll be taken to Runkel. You’ll not have at him nor his lad.”

Horst spat and cursed. “My son lies with a belly wound.”

“Then load him in yer cart and get him to the abbey! But leave me with these.”

The two glared at one another in the darkness until Horst yielded. Edwin then ordered Herwin to tie Heinrich’s ankles together and to wrap the man’s arm to his side. The reeve then hurried over to his fallen deputy and groaned. “Ach, mein Gott! Ludwig’s been killed.”

Another deputy hurried to Edwin’s side on wobbly legs, still rubbing his jaw where Wulf had pummeled him. The two bent over the dead yeoman and cursed. The reeve yanked Heinrich’s sword from the man’s chest and threw it on the ground. “Baker, you’ll surely swing as well,” he muttered.

Several peasants with torches had emerged from their hovels and now stood gawking in a curious circle around the reeve, his deputies, and their two prisoners. Behind them, crouching deep in the shadows, were Alwin and Tomas, recently arrived from delivering Otto to the Magi. They had hurried back to the village and had been drawn to the sounds of struggle. Now they found themselves utterly unable to help their captured friends.

Edwin ordered four onlookers to carry the body of Ludwig to his wife. “And give her the killer’s sword. She can sell it for her keep.” Heinrich’s sword was laid across Ludwig’s corpse, and the grunting men carried the body away.

“Now, you others. Hear me. We’ve captured Wilhelm, son of Heinrich, and he’ll be hanged for murdering his mother … and maybe for others as well.” The folk murmured.

“And it seems our missing baker’s come home. He’s murdered Yeoman Ludwig, and he’ll dangle with his son.”

That news drew loud gasps of disbelief. “Heinrich’s come home?” cried one.

“Where has he been?”

Numbers of them hurried to stand over Heinrich and Wil, where they stared at the two in the dim torchlight. Wil scowled and countered a few mocking words with answers of his own. But those looking at Heinrich were stunned. “Are you sure ‘tis him, Reeve?”

“Aye. ‘Tis him, sure enough. Ask Herwin.”

The frail fellow nodded. “Ja, it is he. ‘Tis m’old friend come home.”

The folk stared at the one-eyed, one-armed, bearded man in disbelief. “He’s different. He’s old and … and …”

“And he looks like a freeman,” grumbled one.

The others nodded. “Aye. Look at his clothes. And they say he had a sword.”

“Well, he’s come home now!” mocked one.

“Aye. He’s come home to hang.”





Alwin and Tomas stayed hidden until the reeve had carted his prisoners away and the curious peasants had returned to their hovels, shaking their heads in disbelief over the night’s events. Stealthily, the knight approached Herwin’s door and knocked quietly. The trembling thatcher opened it slowly, and then, astonished, he bade the knight and Tomas inside. “Come quickly!” he whispered.

Once inside the hovel, Alwin listened carefully as Herwin offered what details he could of the matters at hand. He and Tomas gave a sketchy review of the past year’s events and assured the man that the baker and his son would not be abandoned to their troubles.