For Love And Honor (38 page)

“Now,” Baird said, pointing toward Will with
his bloody sword, “you’ll all dance to my tune. Owain, Garth, seize
the boy.”

“No,” Owain said. “With Radulf gone, young
Will is our new baron. We will take our orders from him.”

“Do you dare to defy me, your superior? Then
I’ll do it myself.” Within the blink of an eye Baird had knocked
Radulf’s sword out of Will’s hand and held the young man with one
arm around his throat. “Come near me and he dies.”

Whether Baird would have carried out his
threat no one would ever know, for Lys picked up Radulf’s sword and
ran at him. Unused to wielding such a heavy instrument, she managed
only a clumsy slash at Baird’s sword arm. She did little real
damage, but she did hurt Baird badly enough to make him drop his
weapon and release Will.

In the uproar that followed Baird went down
beneath the blades of Alain’s men-at-arms. Lys dropped Radulf’s
sword on the floor and walked away from Baird’s body like someone
in a dream, not stopping until she reached the high table. There
she paused, looking straight at Ambrose.

“Do what you want to me,” Lys said. “It
doesn’t matter now. This day I, too, have had my vengeance.”

“Woman,” Ambrose replied, “I thank you for
what you have done. Attacking Baird that way was an act of courage.
He could easily have killed you, and I believe the chance was good
that he would have killed young Will.”

“
Courage?
Not from me.” Lys g
ave a bitter
laugh, then began to speak in a low, angry voice. “To look
at me, would you think I am the bastard daughter of a nobleman,
that while my father lived I was petted and indulged and even
loved? Radulf captured me after a battle at my father’s castle, and
when he had finished with me he gave me to Baird. Since that day I
have spent my life in fear. Each time Baird took me, he did it by
brute force, or by threatening to use force. Everything I have done
to aid him and Radulf was done through fear.

“I am sorry, Lady Joanna and Lady Rohaise,”
Lys said, turning to the women now approaching the high table, “but
I feared for my own life. I knew, all those years ago, that Radulf
and Baird planned to kill Baron Crispin, but I was too cowardly to
tell anyone who might have stopped them. I was too frightened to
speak out afterward, and again my cowardice brought great pain.

“
But no
matter what I did for Baird, it was never enough, and his brutality
toward me never ended. I hated him more and more as the
years passed,
but I was
trapped, until these strangers came,” Lys went on, indicating Alain
and Piers. “Soon after they arrived I began to suspect what they
had come to do, and I did not give them away to Baird or Radulf. It
is because I did nothing that these men are still alive and the
truth is known today.”

“It is because you did nothing long ago that
I was forced to flee England,” Alain said angrily, joining the
group before the high table. “Thanks to your silence, Piers and I
were declared outlaws. One word from you would have saved us. But
you kept silence.”

“
Who
would believe a serving woman with Baird and Radulf calling her a
liar?” Lys cried. “That’s all I have ever been at Banningford, and
if I had dared to utter one word against them, eithe
r
man would have killed me at
once, and my efforts would have come to naught. But you don’t
understand the position I was in, do you? None of you understand
what it is to be so afraid for so many years.”

“I do,” Rohaise said. “There were times when
I would have put a knife in Radulf if only I had been able to
overcome my fear of him enough to act. And there were many times
when I could cheerfully have killed Baird for some of the things he
did.

“Please.” Rohaise looked toward Ambrose.
“Please judge Lys gently, remembering how her action prevented
Baird from harming Will.”

“This is not an ecclesiastical matter. It is
not for Father Ambrose but for me to judge Lys.” It was young Will
who spoke, and all eyes turned to him. “I am heir to Banningford
and Haughston and your new baron, as only Owain has had the wit to
comprehend.”

“Will, she did save your life.” Rohaise
refused to be daunted by the severe look of the young man whom she
had known since the day he was born. But it now appeared that none
of them knew Will as well as they had imagined.

“Lady Rohaise,” Will said sternly, “if you
can feel no honest grief, then you will at least show respect for
your dead husband. See to his body at once. He will be buried
tomorrow morning, after an all-night vigil in the chapel. I feel
certain that Father Ambrose will be happy to conduct the funeral
service.”

“But what of Lys?” Rohaise objected, putting
a protective arm across the serving woman’s shoulders.

“Take her with you. I will decide her fate
later,” Will said. “I will consider your plea, Rohaise. As for
yourself, I expect to see you dressed in full mourning within the
hour.

“Owain, you are the new captain of the
guard,” Will informed the man-at-arms. “Garth, you are to take
Owain’s place as lieutenant. Delegate six men to carry my
grandfather wherever Rohaise wishes, and find someone to prepare a
coffin. Clear these other men out of the hall. Find stabling for
the horses of the visiting men-at-arms and places for the men to
sleep for the night. And see that the floor is scrubbed.”

“Aye, my Lord.” Turning to his men, Owain
began giving orders with a huge grin across his face. Within a
surprisingly short time the hall was empty except for Alain, Piers,
Ambrose, Joanna, Samira, and Will himself.

Alain and Piers stood with Ambrose, talking
quietly and observing Will, who was with the women.

“Though the boy handles himself well, he
won’t be eighteen until the spring,” Ambrose said. “I doubt if he
will like to hear me say it, but he will need a guardian until he’s
old enough to be made a knight.”

“Many another lad has been knighted before he
turned twenty-one,” Alain remarked. “From what I’ve seen of Will in
the last hour, I’d say he is his father’s true son and will do very
well as baron here, and at Haughston.”

“I was Crispin’s guardian once,” Ambrose
reminded them, “but I was a younger man in those days. I would not
take up the task again without assistance.”

“Is there some baron or knight in the
neighborhood who could live with Will and guide him until he comes
of age?” Alain asked.

“Actually, there are two such men,” Ambrose
said. “Since Will now holds two baronies, subject always to King
Stephen’s confirmation of his titles, I think both the men I have
in mind could be useful to Will. What say you, my friends?”

“Us?” exclaimed Piers. “No, that’s
impossible.”

“I have other plans for the immediate
future,” Alain murmured, his eyes on Joanna. “She has endured too
much darkness. I am going to take her out of the gloom of an
English castle in winter to a place where she can live in bright
sunshine for the rest of her life.”

“I recall a time when you were in serious
difficulties and I helped you,” Ambrose said, “I am but asking you
to repay my good deed.”

“Uncle Ambrose, you are shameless,” Piers
said, chuckling.

“Amazing, isn’t it? But if you were leader of
a poor abbey with few endowments, you, too, would quickly learn to
survive by shamelessly asking great favors of any who might grant
you what you most need. Besides,” Ambrose went on in a more serious
tone, “while what has happened here today removes the onus of
murder from you, there are still official requirements to be met.
Someone will have to travel to the royal court to present your
petition to King Stephen, asking him to rescind the writ of
outlawry against you. Allow me to point out to you that a priest
who is also a respected abbot will make an admirable advocate.”

“Especially one who is prone to offer
bribes,” Alain said, winking at Piers. “The man is outrageous.”

“As I said, shameless.” Piers’s eyes were
twinkling. “To think a priest would voluntarily do a good deed,
which, after all, priests are expected to do every day, and then,
eighteen years later, try to make the recipients of that deed feel
guilty about it.”

“From all I’ve heard,” Ambrose went on,
unperturbed by this teasing, “petitioning Stephen for anything
takes months, and a writ of outlawry is a complicated business.
Couple that with our king’s notorious indecision, and it ought to
be clear to you that you will need a place to live until the matter
is settled.”

“I do believe,” Alain said to Piers, “that
he’s offering us a home.”

“I will visit you often,” Ambrose promised,
“so you needn’t feel overwhelmed by your new responsibilities.”

“He’s going to advise us on castle defenses,”
said Piers to Alain.

“I know as much about defending a castle as
you do,” Ambrose told them, “and I must confess there are times,
particularly when I am called upon to settle quarrels between the
brothers at St. Justin’s Abbey, or when lack of supplies to feed
the hungry villagers weighs heavily upon my heart, that I sorely
miss the days when I was but a simple knight.”

“
You were
never a
simple
knight,” Alain declared.

“Well?” Ambrose looked from one to the other.
“Will you do it? For Crispin’s sake? For Will’s? For mine?”

“We owe Crispin that much,” Alain said,
looking toward Joanna again.

“And we owe you even more,” Piers added,
laying a hand on Ambrose’s shoulder.

“Thanks be to God and all His saints for
honest men,” Ambrose murmured.

*
* * * *

A short distance from the three older men,
Samira approached the new baron, stretching out her hands to
him.

“Will, when I saw Baird grab you like that, I
was so frightened for you,” she said. Instead of welcoming her,
Will drew back, glowering at her.

“Since I try to be honest,” he told her, “I
dislike falsehood in others. From the moment you first came to
Banningford you have lied to me with your words and by the things
you did not say.”

“But now you know why, so you must understand
that some deception was necessary in order to discover and then
reveal the truth.”

“I despise falsehood, especially in
women.”

“How else are women to get along with men
except by falsehood, when men are so unreasonable?” she demanded.
Swallowing her exasperation with his attitude, she added, “Will,
you asked me earlier if I only pretended to like you. Liking you
was the easiest part of what I had to do, and it was not
feigned.”

“William Crispin,” Joanna said to him, “I
lied to you, too, every day that I saw you, for all of your life
until today. I did it to keep you safe.”

“I was Radulf’s only heir,” Will replied
scornfully. “He would not have harmed me.”

“
Not
after he realized that you would grow up strong and healthy and a
credit to any baron. I will admit, my father did have some
scruples. He would not have had me killed, either
– at least not while I might
still be useful to him. But he grew to enjoy the power he held over
me; he liked threatening to harm you or Rohaise unless I obeyed
him. Will, my point is, I lied to you for many of the same reasons
that Samira did, and all of them for your own good. Think about
what I’ve said, and don’t judge Samira too harshly.”

“That’s twice in one hour I’ve been asked to
show leniency to a woman. Mother, I will tell you what I have told
Rohaise. I will consider your plea. Now you must excuse me. I have
my duties.” Will stalked away from them, heading toward Ambrose and
his friends. When Samira would have followed him Joanna stopped
her.

“Give him a day or two to grow used to being
the new baron,” Joanna advised. “He’s no fool; he’ll soon see that
we intended only good.”

“Perhaps you are right.” Relaxing a little,
Samira smiled at Joanna. “Theo Alain has told me so much about you.
On our journey to England he explained to me what happened when he
first met you. I have always thought of him as a remarkable man,
and since he never stopped loving you I believe you must be an
equally remarkable woman. I hope we can be friends.”

“I know we will be.” Joanna said nothing
about her son’s previously stated intention to marry this woman,
but having met Samira she agreed completely with William Crispin’s
choice. She decided it was time to begin Samira’s training as lady
of the castle.

“For the rest of the day Rohaise will be
occupied with the details of Radulf’s funeral,” Joanna said. “Isn’t
it sad that I can’t seem to think of him as my father anymore? He’s
just the late baron now, and instead of sorrow I feel only relief
that he’s gone.

“Samira, I will need your help. I am
unfamiliar with all of the servants except for Lys and one cleaning
woman, and as we have guests there is a lot to do. Alain and Piers
ought to have rooms of their own instead of sleeping on the floor
outside your chamber. I refuse to sleep in my old room any longer,
so I’ll need a new one. The Lord’s chamber has to be cleaned and
prepared so William Crispin can move into it, Rohaise will need
another room, and we will have to find a place for Father Ambrose
to sleep, not to mention all of Alain’s men-at-arms. And we have to
feed them all.” Still talking, she led Samira out of the hall,
toward the kitchen.

*
* * * *

Piers caught up with Rohaise just as she was
leaving the chapel where Radulf’s body lay in its coffin, a tall
candle at its head, another at its foot. Piers took Rohaise by the
arm, drawing her aside.

“There is something I must know,” he said to
her. “Is what you told Baird true? Did you lie with Radulf last
night?”