Great Maria by Cecelia Holland Read Free Book Online Page A

Saracen boats. At the edge of the marsh, Maria’s father was whistling to his dogs. She rode into the surf, up beside Richard.
    The curling waves broke around their horses’ knees. She sniffed the brisk salty wind. On the sea before them, the Saracen boats were crawling north.
    Richard reined his horse around her. “Let’s go. You are getting sunburned.” She followed him up the beach.
    By late afternoon, they were riding into the foothills, where the beach disappeared and the sea came in to the rocks and the cliff. They cut across the wooded hills, reached the road, and swung north along it. Soon after they left the trees, the evening fell over them. They rode into the deepening twilight. The tired horses walked with their necks stretched and their heads down. Richard laid his rein slack on his gray’s withers. Roger sang; the others joined in the refrain. Maria ate some blancmange she had brought wrapped in a napkin. She felt pleasantly sleepy, rocked by the white mare’s easy stride.
    Beside her, Richard said quietly, “Hold. Someone is coming.”
    They all drew rein. William called to the dogs. Maria’s father rode up on her other side. The men shifted around her, their horses suddenly restless. A little band of men was riding toward them.
    “Well met,” Odo called, and he and four men came up around them. Odo was smiling but his face was graven with harsh lines. “The darkness fell, and we decided to see what had become of you.”
    Maria’s father reached for her reins. She pulled the mare away from him, warned. Richard said, “Odo, you lie,” and his hand went to his sword.
    “Get him!” Odo roared.
    Maria’s mare reared up. A horse burst up past Roger, between her and Richard, and the man on its back hit Richard over the head with a club. Maria screamed. The horses fought and kicked in a tangle. Richard was doubled over his saddlebows. Beyond him, the man with the club wheeled his horse to strike him again.
    “Maria,” Roger shouted. “Run! Run!”
    She reined her mare around hard. All around her men were fighting. Her father was gone. She caught hold of the bridle of Richard’s horse. Two hands taller than her mare, the stallion half-pulled her from the saddle. Richard was slack across its neck.
    She dragged him forward, between horses, toward the open road.
    A knight loomed before her. He raised his sword but she was between him and Richard and he did not strike. She galloped past him, one hand in her mare’s thick mane and the other on Richard’s bridle. Iron rang behind her. She looked back: two riders were chasing her.
    “Richard,” she screamed. “Richard!”
    He heard her. He heaved himself upright in the saddle. Blood streamed down the side of his face. He wrenched his horse’s head out of her grasp. Wheeling, he charged back along the road.
    Maria reined in. The full moon was rising, and the evening grew bright as twilight. The fighting ranged along the road. Two men already fought on foot. A loose horse cantered away from her. Roger’s voice came to her, shouting something. The gray horse wheeled in a knot of darker bodies. Maria urged her horse forward. She wanted to throw herself barehanded into the fighting. Someone was crying for mercy. She would give no mercy. She galloped around the fighting, looking for her father.
    His bay stallion stood in the middle of the road. The old man lay on the ground a hundred strides behind it. The dogs surrounded him. She rode up and started to dismount but the dogs leaped at her horse, barking, and the mare began to shy and fight. Maria struggled with the horse. In the middle of the dogs her father lay motionless on his back, his head turned away from her.
    “Jonah! Lightning!” William rode up among the dogs, and they calmed down, their tails wagging. Maria made her horse stand. Two men on foot hobbled after William. They were roped together by the ankles. She dismounted and went up through the dog pack to her father.
    “Papa.”
    When she