Sir George tamped tobacco into his pipe. He, like the rest of the garrison, was rationed to two bowlfuls a day. “I think Campion should leave.” He waved down his son and his wife who had both begun to talk. “Campion’s enemies are here and we no longer have Harry’s protection.” He turned his mild eyes to Colonel Washington. “I think she might get through their cordon by night?”

It was Campion’s turn to protest, but she was quietened. Sir George smiled ruefully. “If they capture you, my dear, then I suspect you may no longer have grounds for annulling your marriage.”

The thought was horrible. It chilled her. She saw the anger come on Toby’s face. He looked at Washington. “You say we can hold them, sir?”

Washington nodded. “There’s no guarantee, not in war. They might stay here forever! They’ve been at Corfe since God knows when. If Miss Campion can get out, then she should.” He paused because the Roundhead guns to the south had fired. He waited for the echo to die then looked at Toby. “Would you take her?”

Toby shook his head, unhappy with the course of the discussion. “I must stay here. I can’t leave my men.” Toby, as a Captain, commanded one quarter of the garrison. He shrugged, hating the moment. “James could take her. If they can get into the woods above the road, they’ll be safe.”

James Wright, the son of Lazen’s blacksmith, knew the country about the castle as well as any man. If any man could take Campion through the enemy lines, it was he.

Sir George smiled at her. “I don’t want you to leave, my dear.”

“She must,” Lady Margaret announced decisively.

Colonel Washington looked out of the window. “It won’t be tonight.”

Somehow the sentence shocked Campion. She did not want to leave, she did not want to be thrown out into the world, yet if she had to go then she had not realized it would be so soon.

Toby grunted. “No cloud?”

Washington nodded. “It’ll need a dark night. There’s too much moon. Will Wright agree?”

Toby nodded. “He’ll be happy to do it.” He smiled at Campion. “Jamie will get you to Oxford.”

She would become a fugitive, driven from this haven by the seal she wore about her neck. She could not escape it, her life was inextricably bound with the golden jewel, yet she wondered how long she would have to run from her enemies. They had followed her to Lazen, they were about to drive her forth, and she pondered whether there would ever be safety while she wore the broad axe of St. Matthew about her neck.

She sat with Toby at dusk, holding his hand as the sun sank in dazzling splendor above the water meadows, touching the looping Lazen stream with scarlet. There was no cloud. He smiled at her. “You won’t go tonight.”

“I don’t want to go.”

In the village a trumpet announced the evening duty. Soon, Campion knew, she would see the patrols in the water meadows, the new guards going to the sentry posts that surrounded the castle. Tomorrow night, if there was cloud, she would have to be smuggled past those sentries by James Wright. She leaned her head on Toby’s shoulder. “I don’t want to leave.”