Serpent (48 page)

William had no sooner
put his foot on the bottom step leading up to the keep when Penelope appeared at the top of the stairs. With a shriek, she flew down the steps and threw herself at her father, who nearly toppled over as she hit him squarely in the chest. Penelope’s arms were around his neck, squeezing.

William coughed because she was strangling him. “Penny, lass,” he hugged her tightly. “Loosen up on my neck a bit. You’re about to make me lose consciousness.”

Giggling, Penelope did as she was told. She kissed him loudly on the cheek and let him go long enough to hug Paris and Kieran.

“I’m so happy to see you all,” she exclaimed. “We were afraid it was Edward.”

William’s smile faded. “Not yet,” he said. “But soon. Come; let us go inside and discuss it. How is your husband?”

Penelope turned and headed up the steps with her father and uncles in tow. “He was very bad when he arrived the other ni
ght and now he has a fever,” she said, trying not to sound as concerned as she felt. “We must go up and see him right away. He will want to speak with you.”

William cast a long glance at Paris and Kieran. “And I will want to speak with him.”

As they reached the keep entry, the big gaping door that led into the cool innards, Penelope came to a stop and faced them. Her expression was very serious.

“Are you really going to fight with Bhrodi, Papa?” she asked.

William put a hand on her shoulder and turned her for the keep. “We will be discussing one of many such options with your husband.”

Penelope dug her heels in and ended up ramming her father in the gut with her elbow
when he tried to push her along. As he grunted and rubbed his belly, she smiled contritely.

“Papa, of course I love you for
wanting to help, but you cannot jeopardize everything you have worked for,” she said firmly. “You are such a great man and you cannot damage what you have become.”

William didn’t say a word.
He made it very clear he did not wish to discuss it with her. He turned her around for the second time and pushed her inside.

“Where is your husband?” he
asked again.

Penelope pointed up the stairs just as Edward and Thomas were emerging from the hall
. William smiled wearily at his two boys, men he had been worried about ever since he had been unable to locate them in the chaos of Penelope’s raid at Edward’s camp. He had held hope that they had escaped and as the men came towards him, he simply opened up his arms. Edward was hugged first and then Thomas. William cupped Thomas’ face with his big hands, staring at the man as if to reaffirm that he was indeed alive and well.

“I heard you both went along on your sister’s
assault into Edward’s camp,” he said, swallowing tears of joy. “I am very relieved to see you both unharmed. Thomas, how is your arm?”

Thomas moved it about gingerly. “The wound hurts but it is healing,” he said. “I can hold a sword well enough.”

William smiled at his youngest son. “It would take more than a simple scratch to keep you down,” he said. Then he started looking around as if missing something. “Where is Kevin?”

“Sleeping,” Penelope told him. “He was exhausted. He should be awake soon. Bhrodi wants to meet with everyone to discuss the defense for Edward’s approach
. Come; let us go up and see him before he attempts to climb out of bed and come down here.”

The six of the
m headed up the stairs to the upper floor with the older knights dragging down the pace. They were weary and the steps were steep and near the top, Paris simply came to a halt and would have refused to go any further had Kieran not pushed him up the last few steps. Penelope was already in the doorway of the master’s chamber.

“Bhrodi?” she called softly to make sure the man wasn’t asleep. When he turned and looked at her, she smiled. “My father is here.”

William entered the room, smiling weakly at Bhrodi, who immediately tried to sit up. Penelope rushed into the room to keep him from injuring himself further.

“Be still,” she murmured. “You do not have to get up.”

Bhrodi, wracked with fever, tried to push his wife aside. “I will greet the man in an upright position.”

William could see that Bhrodi wasn’t well.
His face was pale, his eyes red-rimmed, and his dark hair was stuck to his head with sweat. He, too, pushed the man back to the bed. “If I was in your condition, I would not worry about sitting upright,” he said. “Injuries such as yours can be deadly if you do take care. I would be focusing my energies on getting well again if I were you.”

Ashen
and perspiring, Bhrodi gazed up at the big knight. “What would you know about my condition?”

William pointed at his patched eye. “This,” he said. “It nearly killed me. Had it not been for my wife, I would not have survived. Therefore, you must listen to your wife. She will take great care of you.”

Bhrodi’s gaze moved to Penelope, who was smiling down at him. He reached up, clutching her hand and bringing it to his lips for a sweet kiss.

“She had already taken great care of me,” he murmured, looking into her eyes. “She has risked all for me. I owe her everything.”

William’s smile faded; in that brief statement, he could immediately see that this contract marriage was far more than that. He looked at his daughter’s face and saw an expression he had never seen before; it was soft and gentle and, he thought, full of adoration.
God’s Blood
, he thought.
She’s in love with him!
The impact of the realization was enough to cause him to catch his breath.

Now, the scheme had changed; if Penelope was in love with de Shera, then removing her would not be a simple thing. She would not want to go – at least, she would not go willingly
. She would want to remain with her husband. William suddenly felt very, very exhausted and discouraged. So much for taking his daughter and fleeing a man she had only been married to for a week. Somewhere over the past few days, the stakes had changed and he should have guessed all of this when she launched the raid into Edward’s camp. Only a woman in love would have taken such a risk. He began to feel defeat already.

“Papa, how far behind you is Edward?” Penelope asked, breaking into his thoughts.

William looked at her, fighting down his sense of doom. “I am not entirely sure,” he said. “We left under the cloak of darkness but if I know Edward, and I do, he had men watching me. If I could guess, I would say he is no more than three or four hours behind me. He has probably already amassed his men and is heading for the ferry at Menai.”

“How many men do you believe he will be carrying?” Bhrodi asked quietly.

William shrugged. “He has thousands in Wales,” he replied, “but he knows it will take time to cross the Menai Strait on a ferry, so it is my guess he will not bring more than a thousand if he can help it.”

Bhrodi pondered that thought. “A thousand men can do a great deal of damage,” he said softly. “Most of my men are in Wales with Dafydd. I barely have a hundred here.”

William glanced at Paris and Kieran before continuing the conversation; if he was going to discuss his solution to the problem, then better to do it now. They needed time to escape so to delay the conversation that needed to take place, and the ensuing resistance to come, did not bode well in their favor. When Paris nodded faintly, as if to encourage him to go on, William took a deep breath and faced his daughter and her husband.

“I brought a little more than t
wo hundred men with me,” he said. “De Shera, I will be honest with you; there is no way to hold Edward off. I have spent all night trying to figure out how we could fend him off and the truth is that we cannot. He has more men and is better supplied than we are. Once he comes here, he will bottle Rhydilian up and wait for you to starve to death. He more than likely will not even launch an attack. He’ll simply settle in around the castle and wait you out.”

Bhrodi could sense something in de Wolfe’s tone, something ominous. “You did not come here to fight with me, did you?”

William met his gaze steadily. “I came to remove you and my daughter and take you both away from here. If you will not go, I understand, but it is my intention to remove Penelope. I do not think you will resist my efforts. You want her safe just as much as I do.”

Penelope, startled at the turn of
the conversation, descended swiftly into denial. “I will
not
go with you,” she said staunchly. “My place is with Bhrodi. If he stays to defend Rhydilian, then I stay.”

William could already see that he was about to have a fight on his hands.
He was prepared.

“Sweetheart, listen to me,” he said
steadily. “This is not your fight. Although I commend your loyalty to your husband, this marriage was to ensure peace. You were supposed to live a long and happy life. You were never supposed to endure a siege by Edward because the man will
win
. Do you understand me?  I will take you and your husband back to Questing and make him a garrison commander for one of my outposts.”

Penelope was on her feet, as furious as William had ever seen her.
She had a lot of her mother’s fire in her but it was never so evident as it was now.

“My husband is the hereditary King of Anglesey,” she snarled. “What you are suggesting is… is cowardly and low. You are asking the man to flee his home!”

“I am offering to save his life.”

“No!” Penelope bellowed “
I am not going anywhere and neither is my husband. Did you really come here just to tell us to run?”

“I came here to save your lives.”

Penelope wouldn’t hear him. “Then get out of here, Papa. Go away and never come back. We do not need or want your help if all you are suggesting is that we run.”

Bhrodi reached up and grasped her hand in an attempt to calm her. “Your father is trying to help us,” he said softly. “
If the situation was reversed, I cannot say that I would not suggest the same thing.”

That lit a fire under Penelope. She pointed a
n accusing finger at her father. “Would
you
run if Edward was coming to Questing?” she demanded. “I do not believe you would. I believe you would stay and fight until the last man. Questing is your home and heritage and legacy; you would not leave it. You would defend it to the last stone!”

“And I may very well find myself in that position if you and your husband do not come with me,” William said. “What do you think is going to happen to me when it is confirmed to Edward that I am taking up arms for de Shera? He will march on Questing. Penelope, if you do not leave this place with me, then we will not only lose your husband’s heritage but mine as well.”

Penelope threw her arms up in the air. “Who
are
you?” she cried. “My father would not speak of running. He is The Wolfe, the mightiest knight in England. He is not a coward who runs from danger!”

“You will not speak to your father like that,” Paris said; he had remained silent as long as he could. “Your father is the greatest knight who
has ever lived. If he is asking you to flee, then he has good reason. If you stay here, he will stay here, and if he remains with de Shera, then
you
will have caused your father to lose everything he has ever worked for. If anyone is foolish in all of this, it is you. Look at the entire situation with your head and not your heart. Your father is trying to help you.”

Penelope had never heard her Uncle Paris speak to her that way. It was angry and, if she thought about it, threatening
. But she didn’t back down.

“Is that what you think?” she asked him. “That I am foolish? You have taught me loyalty above all and that is what I am; loyal to my husband. If he will not leave his home, then I will not leave it.
I will not leave
him
.”

Paris grunted in frustration
. “Then you condemn your father.”

Penelope nearly screamed. “I am not asking him to stay here!” she cried. “I have told him to leave; I want all of you to leave. If you are so concerned for your precious reputations and lives, then get out of here. I do not want you or need you. Go back to Questing where you are safe and respected
. Go back and surround yourself with your grandchildren and die peacefully in your beds. But I will not go with you - I will stay here with my husband and fight for what became mine the moment I married him.”

Paris turned away; he had to or he was going to say something he would regret. Bhrodi stepped in before things went out of control
. When families fought, the situation was always very emotional and volatile, and he could see his wife throwing punches in the very near future if he didn’t do something.

“Please,” he said, holding up a hand as if to forcibly calm everyone
. “Shouting will not solve anything. Penny, I want you to leave us. Please.”

Penelope looked at him, shocked. “You are chasing me away?”

He smiled gently at her. “Nay,
caria
,” he murmured. “But I wish to speak to your father alone. Will you please give us that privacy?”