denise was so much the saint and the lady of the goldspur woods that the country folk had almost ceased to wonder whence she had come, and what her past had been. she was sancta denise to them, a woman to whom they went when they were sick or in trouble, who came and prayed for them, and smiled on their children with her miraculous eyes. all the woodland folk in the hundreds round looked on denise as a saint, a child of mystery who dwelt up yonder amid the great beech trees under the clouds. offerings were left before her gate, milk, bread, eggs, and herbs, the offerings of the poor. if there was digging to be done, or the grass to be scythed in the glade, some of aymery’s villeins would be there at dawn, working like brown gnomes in the dusk of the breaking day. four times a year a pedlar brought her the gold thread for her orfrays work, for denise had wonderful hands, and her embroidery had been worn by queens. the money that she earned denise spent among the poor, and she might have walked from rye to shoreham, and no sussex man would have laid hands upon her, save to touch her gown for a blessing.
olivia, aymery’s mother, alone had known denise’s history, and olivia was dead. some had said that she was the “love child” of a great lady, others a “ward” who had fled from the king’s court rather than be married to some creature who had offered the king money. but denise was denise, and her past was of no account, though any hind could have sworn that she was no peasant’s child. the cell in the beech wood had been built for her by dame olivia, and the ground about it turned into a garden. denise had become part of the woodland life, a tender and mysterious figure that threw a glamour over the hearts of all.
her coming had been soon after the great famine, when the crops had failed after a wet summer. death had passed over the land like a plague, and in the towns the dead had lain for days unburied. the famine had left sickness behind it, sick women, and sick babes at the breast, as though the whole countryside had grown feeble for lack of bread. denise had come down from her cell in the beech wood, a veritable lady of compassion. it was not the bread that she had given, but the pity and the tenderness that had enshrined her in the hearts of all the people. it was as though she had magic power, a glory given of god and the virgin. men soon spoke of miracles. sick children were brought to her, and water taken from her holy spring. the abbots and priors of the south heard of her, and more than one “house” considered the value that might be set upon a saint.
perhaps denise’s power lay largely in her youth, for she was no ulcerous and lean recluse, but a woman in the morning of her beauty, a beauty that was strange and elfin-like, rich as an autumn in red leaf. she had but to look at men, and they felt an awe of her; at children, and they came to her like birds to a witch. the hair under the grey hood had the colour of copper, with tinges of red and of gold. her eyes were between amber and the brown of a woodland pool, her skin so clear and white, despite the sun and the wind, that men believed her heart could be seen shining like a red gem beneath. denise was tall, and broad across the bosom. her fingers were so long, and slim, and white, that the superstitious believed that pearls might drop from them, and that not even the brown soil of her garden could cling to those miraculous hands.
denise carried her pitcher to the spring the morning after they had brought waleran’s boy to her with an arrow through his heart. she stripped herself at the pool, and washed her body, scooping up the water in her palms, her hair knotted over her neck. denise’s naked figure might have stood as the symbol of her womanhood, clean, comely, unshadowed by self-consciousness. it was part of the infinite mystery of things, a mystery that dwelt in denise’s heart, and gave her power over women and over men.
her brown eyes were sad that morning as she slipped on her white shift and her grey gown, and went back under the beech trees to her cell. with the fragrance of the wild flowers and the dew came the consciousness of the rougher world within that world of hers. she remembered the flames of the night before, waleran’s dead boy, the savage anguish of the man breaking out into bitterness and laughter. what more might not happen in the deeps of the woods? denise was no ignorant child, she had lived in another world before olivia had built her the cell under the goldspur beeches.
denise said her prayers, worked awhile in her garden, and then brought out her orfrays of gold, and sat in the doorway under the deep shade of the thatch. but though her fingers were busy with the threads, her mind was full of a spirit of watchfulness and of unrest. she felt as it were the stir and movement of another world beyond the towering domes of the trees. she had a premonition that someone would come through the wood that morning. it would be a man, and yet not grimbald. denise’s hands were idle awhile, and her brown eyes looked thoughtfully into the deeps of the wood.
nor was it very wonderful that aymery’s thoughts should turn towards denise as a man struggles through the thick of a crowd when he sees a beloved head in danger. he and grimbald had been at the burying of waleran’s boy, but aymery had left grimbald and the rest, and ridden back to goldspur to see denise.
the trampling of his horse’s hoofs through the dead beech leaves came as no surprise to the woman who sat with the orfrays work of gold in her lap. she had watched her own mind, till, like a crystal, it had been full of the man’s coming. often in her life denise had been able to foresee the faces of those dear to her, and to feel friends near while they were still far distant. she had the gift of inward vision, though the power became lost to her later when she had suffered many humiliations.
aymery rode out into the sunlight of the glade, and denise could see that he was armed. a surcoat of apple green covered the ringed hauberk, though the hood of mail was turned back between his shoulders. aymery rode his big black destrier that day, and not the rough nag he used for hawking and cantering over his lands. he looped the bridle over the post at the gate, and came up the path with the air of a man who has more in his heart than his lips might utter.
denise let her work lie idle in her lap. she had had no fear of aymery from the first, his face had become so familiar that it seemed part of the life round her, like the trees, or the hills, or the distant sea. yet from the instant that he opened the wattle gate that morning, a sense of strangeness took hold of both of them. each felt the change and wondered at it, so simple in its significance, and yet so strange. the shadow of a cloud lay over them for the first time. the more intimate hour had come when the man looked into the woman’s eyes and thought that thought which opens the eyes of the soul—“if any harm should befall her! if that dear head should suffer shame!”
“we have buried the boy,” he said. “that will be the beginning of a long tale.”
there was something satisfying about aymery, a man who carried his head high, and looked fearlessly at the horizon. he had a quick yet quiet way with him had aymery of goldspur. shirkers and cowards were afraid of those grey eyes of his, for they were not the eyes of a man to be trifled with or fooled.
he spoke to denise, resting his hands on his sword, and looking at the golden orfrays work in her lap. she was leaning against the door-post, her face in the shadow, thought and feeling as intimately one as the rose and the scent of the rose.
“the woods are no longer safe. peter of savoy’s riders will be with us again. waleran will see to that.”
denise’s brown eyes had a tremor of light in them.
“have you proved me a coward?”
“we are cowards, denise, where others are concerned. what do the days promise us? waleran could not hold his house against those hired swarthies, nor can i mine; i am not fool enough to doubt it. a few arrows bearded with burning tow, the thatch alight, and the smoke and the flames would make us run like rats. it will be war in the woods where our bows can serve us, and where their men-at-arms cannot ride our peasants down.”
denise did not answer him for a moment. her hands were turning over the embroidery in her lap.
“i have lived with you all in the sunshine,” she said. “and now that trouble comes you would have me run away!”
“what man would not wish it?”
“but you——”
“i—i am the worst of all.”
she dropped her head suddenly as though hiding the light and colour that had rushed into her eyes and face.
“i am not afraid,” she said.
“i am”—and he shut his lips on the words—“it is human to be afraid. if you knew this scum of gascons, flemings, and what not, you would wish them well beyond the sea. would to god that we could whip them out of the land. but what would you! we cannot pull down such a rock as pevensey with our hands. these castles that the king’s men hold for him are too strong for us to meddle with. it is they who will do the meddling, and what do these hired men care for what we honour? you will be on the edge of a pit here. women are best away when swords are out.”
he bent towards her, looking down into her face, his manhood shining out on her, strong and honest, denying itself the right of a romantic beast.
“come with me, and i will guard you against all christendom.” a weaker and vainer man might have spoken in such heroics. aymery knew what he knew. denise would be safer away from him when such men as waleran were to be his brethren-in-arms.
“i tell you the truth, denise, because——”
she looked up at him suddenly, and their eyes met. denise saw the deeper truth, that great mystery of life that cannot hide itself from the eyes of a woman.
“lord, what shall i say to you?”
he spread his arms.
“say nothing. do what i, grimbald, all, desire. i have good friends at winchelsea. you will be safe there. the king wishes to win the cinque ports over. he will not be rough with them, as yet. they are too precious to be ravaged.”
denise looked at the sky beyond the boughs of the beech trees, letting her hands hang over her knees.
“lord,” she said, “i am still obstinate. i have lived among you all.”
“denise, i also am obstinate.”
“i would not have you otherwise. and yet, how can i shirk the truth that i shall be deserting you all the moment trouble comes?”
he smiled at her, and shook his head.
“should we be the happier if you fell into the hands of peter of savoy? no. that is unthinkable! i would rather see you—dead like waleran’s boy—before they carried you into pevensey! good god, you, to be touched by such hands!”
denise understood all that was in his heart. she crossed herself as though against the evil things of the world.
“lord,” she said, “let there be this promise between us. if goldspur is threatened, then—i will do what you desire. when the people take to the woods, i shall feel less of a coward. they shall not say that i fled from a shadow.”
and thus it was agreed between them, aymery riding back through the woods towards goldspur, the face of denise more wonderful to him than it had ever seemed before. aymery had come by the truth that morning, and the world had a mystery—the mystery of the tenderness of spring.
close by goldspur village, on the edge of the manor ploughlands, he met grimbald, who had come in search of him. the priest’s face had the look of a stormy and ominous sky. he took aymery’s bridle, and turned back with him towards the village.
“waleran has gone towards pevensey,” he said. “we must be ready for a whirlwind when such storm-cocks are on the wing.”
