"None! I swear! It was you. You… with your sinful ways… you have bewitched me!" Alcuin wailed.
His words seemed to displease the masked archer, who now released an arrow which dangerously whizzed above the priest's head, missing him only by a tiny fraction. Alcuin's voice died in the night, and all he could do was whimper softly. Emma assumed it might be cruel of her to rejoice in his misery, but she found she had no pity for him at this time.
"You're never to speak such words again," the hooded man said resolutely, not making any attempt at disguising his voice. "And if you ever do, I'll find you and I'll finish what I started."
The words reverberated loud and clear in the night, and Alcuin barely found his voice to whisper, "You can't! I'll tell. They'll find you."
"Tell what? That you were seeking to tup my wife in a house of ill-repute?" Arthen countered with a mirthless laugh. "Is this the tale you'll spin in the morning when they find you pinned to this door? Or will you screech you were bewitched?"
Alcuin was silent, as Arthen went on mockingly, "Just try to speak the words. Just try. My eye is keen, and my hand is swift. No sooner will the words come out of your lips than an arrow will finish the job it started tonight. Or should I already do thedeed and spare us all the trouble of waiting until tomorrow?" he added.
Emma felt anguish squeeze her chest, because not for a moment had they spoken of ending the priest's life. But it was just a brief instant, because she swiftly understood Arthen's hand and eye might be uncommonly keen, yet the heart in his chest was steady and true. The hooded man in his stories was not a cold-blooded killer, and he only meant to right the wrongs of this world. Arthen only meant to frighten Alcuin, and Emma knew for certain he would never stoop to killing.
"Please, sire," Alcuin sobbed. "I will not tell! I vow!"
"Not only will you not tell the truth of what passed. You will do well to leave behind this place you have defiled. We want none of you here. None of a wretch who only calls himself a priest."
Alcuin eagerly assented between sobs and hiccups, and at last Emma began to feel a shred of pity for him. He was mortally frightened, having become just a shadow of the arrogant, cocky man who'd threatened his parishioners with fire and damnation in church.
"Leave him be," she urged Arthen. "He's nothing to us now."
Arthen nodded at last, and they both turned their back on the sobbing priest, who'd started beseeching them to release him from his ordeal.
“How do you think he’ll fare all night?” Emma asked, because while she fully wanted to punish the priest, she could never bring herself to wish lasting harm upon another.
Arthen shrugged with an unconcerned wave of his hand.
“It’s a warm night, and other than a stiffness in the neck and in the joints, I daresay the wretch will fare far better than he deserves.”
Emma pictured the scene that the good people of their neighbourhood would come upon in the morning. Their priestpinned by arrows upon the door of a house of ill-repute. It was cruel vengeance, but after all no less than Father Alcuin deserved. A priest preying on his parishioners was the last thing anyone needed in this world.
“I was quite afraid there, you know,” she confided, when at last Master Archer and she had regained their home. “It was dark and I was afraid you’d miss and truly hurt him.”
“I never miss,” Arthen said in a level voice.
For a while they walked in silence, and Emma glanced sideways at the man she was only now getting to know. By the calm, confident way in which he'd conducted himself tonight, it seemed it was not the first time he'd attempted to right one of the wrongs of this world.
"The hooded man…" she started.
Arthen only shrugged. They'd reached their home, and he busied himself unlocking the door.
"What of him?" he asked in an unconcerned voice, as he was stepping inside the house.
"You… You did this before!" Emma whispered while she followed, understanding it was just as she thought.
"What? Pinning a priest to the door of a bawdy house? Nay," Master Archer answered in the same unconcerned tones as before.
It was obvious he was mocking her, and Emma opened her mouth to speak. However, she soon clamped it shut because she realized Rowena might have known of her husband's past deeds. Yet Master Archer shook his head with a sigh as he closed the door behind them. "I do not speak of it, but I was wild in my green days and sought to conquer this whole world and right all its wrongs."
"That was before we met," Emma muttered, understanding it was a thing he had never shared with Rowena.
It made her secretly glad he'd thought to share with her something he hadn't imparted even to his former wife. But it also made her chest tighten.
"A life of danger. I would not wish that upon you ever again," she found herself saying.
The way he now glanced at her plainly showed her that at this moment he still thought too little of her to care for her words. However, the next thing he said set her heart at ease.
"I reckon I no longer wish it either."