Deliver us from Evil by Tom Holland

lips against his own. At once, he snapped his book shut; then leapt to his feet and hurried downstairs. He knew she would be in the house. Since yesterday, when he and his mother had been brought to the Vaughans', no one had been allowed outside and, just to make certain, there was a militiaman at every door. Robert wondered again what his father had discovered, to insist on such precautions; but he did not doubt that they were justified. Suddenly, he thought of the danger not as a game, not as an excuse for him to stay with the Vaughans, but as something terribly imminent and real. He felt a brutal jolt of self-reproach. It might be Emily who was threatened; might be Emily who needed protection the most. And yet what had he been doing? Reading a book.
    He found her in the passageway by the parlour door. She glanced round, her face screwed up with concentration, and motioned him to be quiet, then pressed her ear back to the door. 'And now there is silence,' she complained. 'Nothing to hear.'
    'Is that my fault?' Robert asked.
    'As everything is.'
    He took her in his arms. She allowed him to kiss her, then pushed him away. 'Have you been reading that book again?' she asked. 'It needs no book, Emily.' 'Indeed?'
    'It is not poetry which teaches me to love you, but Nature only.' 'We are learning fast from her, then, are we not?' 'So we must.'
    'Why?'
    'We shall not be children long. We must be married soon.' 'You have not even asked me yet, if I will be your wife.' ' I do so now.'
    Emily smiled. She allowed herself to be kissed a second time. 'And yet . . .' she murmured suddenly. Robert could feel her stiffen in his arms; she looked up at him, and he saw foreboding reflected in her eyes. 'What if we are never to be married?' she whispered.
    'Why do you ask that?'
    'Because of what I have heard.' She gestured back at the parlour door, then bent down close again. At length, she frowned and shook her head. 'Still nothing.'
    'But what did you hear before?' Robert seized her arms and raised her to her feet. 'Tell me, Emily. What did you hear?'
    'It was my mother,' she whispered, 'talking to yours. About the soldiers, about why we all must stay inside.'
    'Well? You are being too mysterious. Tell me what you mean.'
    Emily took his arm and began to lead him down the passageway. 'My father,' she whispered, settling on the stairs. 'He is in danger - he has been threatened by the foreigner at Wolverton Hall.'
    'Faustus?'
    Emily nodded. 'The pale man with the black beard. He was riding yesterday across my father's fields. He had been stopping amidst the labourers, giving out gold, paying them to come and work for him. My father rode up to complain. But Faustu s only laughed, and spat in his face.'
    'Your father's men should have cudgelled him.'
    'Men? What men? You do not understand, Robert - my father has no men, they have all been bought away. And even those who saw what Faustus did, who had only just been hired that day, did nothing to help my father but rather rushed up and held his arms, so that he was powerless to avenge the insult, for he could not move from his saddle. And then Faustus mocked him, and called him traitor for having deserted Sir Charles at the end of the war. Faustus said he would be punished very soon for his faithlessness, for the time of reckoning was close at hand, and there were many accounts that had to be drawn up.' Emily paused, and bit her lip. 'And that is what I heard,' she said at last. 'And that is why I have grown afraid.'
    Robert hugged her tightly. 'What do you think might happen, then?' he asked.
    She shrugged slightly.
    ' I swear,' he whispered, 'whatever befalls us, whatever occurs, we shall never be parted.'
    She met his eyes. Her own seemed suddenly very solemn and deep. Robert waited for her to blink, but it was as though her expression had been frozen, and would never change. ' I believe you,' she said at last. She squeezed his hand. 'But you must never forget, Robert, what you have just promised