Chapter 20
THE MORNING WAS MISTY, and it didn’t get properly light until after the cart had left the city.
They travelled through the dreary countryside, avoiding the muddy puddles in the road. A few farmers headed into the city, but otherwise it was quiet.
The horse plodded along, droplets of moisture lacing its back.
Neither of them spoke very much, and Henrik kept checking over his shoulder. What for, he didn’t say. Not until they were well out of the city, and had passed the levee bank of the river, did he begin to relax.
They were riding through fields of orchards with bare branches. “Most of this land is Adalbert Verdonck’s,” Henrik said. “It’s the main food supply of the city, because this side of the river is higher than the other and there is no contamination by salt water. I
