Warwick Deeping

“ I ask you, John Giffard, not to put me forth."
She spoke very simply, almost like a child, but he judged that there was some unforgettable thing hidden behind those eyes of hers. He was stirred within himself because of her, and that which was born within him was not mere pity.
"I shall not put you forth," he said, "and yet——"
She echoed him: "And yet?"
"The forest is not always merciful. There is a certain lord here, Fulk de Corbil, who holds the right of hunting the King's deer for three days each year. There is no king now but Roger Mortimer, and this Fulk de Corbil is his man. ”

“ In a minute Fulk de Corbil lay dead at his feet, and he and Judith were staring at the dead man and at each other.
Then she flung out her hands and spoke in a strange, awed voice.
"What have you done, what have you done, for my sake? This man was Roger Mortimer's creature, and Mortimer will not spare you."
She stood rigid, staring at the dead man.
"Of course, of course"—and her eyes flashed—"it was I who slew him, John Giffard, and I shall say that it was I who slew him. No one need ever know. I came here to slay him, because he betrayed my father—betrayed him to his death. ”

“ Three days passed, and John Giffard had warned his men. "Your ghost is nothing more than a poor leper. I spoke with him in White Hart Walk. He will do no harm now that the fence month is over."
There had been trouble in Dewlap Woods. Ragged rascals had broken in there and slain a deer, for Mat of the Moor had found a blood track and the slots of a deer, and a place where men had trampled the bracken. Giffard knew no such thing as fear, and, being the son of a mesne lord, he held that a gentleman should be first when hard knocks might be expected. ”

“ The leper hesitated.
"There is an old woman who keeps a cow and a few pigs on the other side of the forest. She sells me milk and bacon and bread. Do not be angry with her, lording. We do not go near one another. She puts the food under a bush, and I go and take it, and leave money."
"And where do you sleep?"
"In the bracken. I am used to the open sky and the dew. And at night I look at the stars. They are the eyes of heaven, and they do not fear to look upon me."
Giffard would have questioned him further, but his horse was growing restless, and he feared the beast might bolt. ”

“ He took Fulk de Corbil by the heels, dragged the body further into the wood, and left it lying in the tall bracken. The dead man's sword and bow he thrust into a hollow tree. Fulk de Corbil's horse had stopped, and, standing at the edge of the glade, was turning its head and trying to lick the place where Giffard's arrow had wounded it in the shoulder. ”

“ No one may carry a long bow or an arblast within the forest, save the King's forester and two such men as he shall name. Two nights ago a deer was slain."
She looked at him steadily.
"Deer! Think you I hunt the deer? No, that need not vex you."
"And these clothes and that leper bell?"
"I am afflicted. My face may seem fair——"
He disbelieved her utterly, and she saw that he disbelieved her.
"Maybe you speak not of the body, but of the heart?"
"A leper at heart! Thank you, John Giffard! Is it a leprous thing to hate someone because of a life that has been squandered? No. ”

“ Even the repulsiveness of this outcast made his loneliness seem more terrible and tragic. What must life mean to such a creature as this? And perhaps he thanked God for his own youth, for his own clean brown skin, and for the right to look unabashed into the eyes of a man or a maid. ”

“ Nor is it on record that Fulk de Corbil was ever found. The forest folk believed that someone had slain him in the forest, and they had hated him enough to let well alone.
But they spun many tales about John Giffard and his lady. Some said she was a lord's daughter who had fled away disguised as a leper, because some lord would have married her by force, and John Giffard had caught his mate.
Mat of the Moor would roll his head from side to side and cross himself when he told how he had once shot an arrow at John Giffard's lady, taking her for a ghost. ”

“ He had brought his own bow with him, and he strung it, ready. There was the sound ot some big thing galloping, and Giffard saw a hart royal come up the glade and pass the tree where Judith lay hidden. She let the hart go by and loosed no bolt at it.
Giffard rose to his knees. If she had let the hart go by, was she waiting for the man who hunted it?
The hounds appeared, running in a bunch, with a fierce old dog leading them. They passed, and the noise of their padding feet was followed by the galloping of a horse. Giffard knew Fulk de Corbil's ways. ”