CHAPTER TENValeria was too terrified to scream.
She wanted to turn and run back to the house, but her tired body refused to obey.
The two figures ambled up to her.
They were tramps, their clothes ragged and dirty with broken boots tied onto their feet with string, but they no longer seemed quite so threatening.
“’Ow’s the gent, then,” asked the first one.
Valeria remained frozen to the spot.
“It was you ’ere last night, wasn’t it, missus?”
Valeria pulled herself together and thought that she knew what this was all about.
“It was you who fought Lord Waterford’s attacker, wasn’t it?”
The two men shuffled in an embarrassed manner.
“’E’s a good sort, you see,” said the first. “Wanted to give Alf and me a chance for a new life.”
“Our mate, Percy, ’e’d already taken ’im up on it and
