Page 24 of Hers To Command
He had not expected that, and he waited, wondering who would accept her offer.
“What of Cerdic, my lady?” one of the Celts called from the back of the group. “Does he accept this?”
“He will be second-in-command to Sir Henry.”
Cerdic stepped forward from the side of the building, where he’d been in shadow. In spite of his apparent acquiescence in the solar, Henry was half prepared for him to resist this change of command, and if he did, Henry’s leadership was likely doomed to fail.
“Aye, I accept this,” Cerdic declared, his deep voice filling the yard, and to Henry’s vast relief. He glanced at Lady Mathilde, and thought her shoulders looked a little less tense. Perhaps she’d been worried about what Cerdic would say, too.
“I accept it because it is my lady’s order, and I am her loyal servant,” he continued. “I will fight to the death for the ladies of Ecclesford, as I have pledged. If any man here will not follow this Norman as they would me, he should leave here at once. If thou wouldst have this Norman think thou art fools or cowards, go. If thou dost not want to learn the Normans’ skills or their ways in battle, there is the gate. For my part, I do. We will show this Norman, aye and Sir Roald, too, if he returns, that we are a match for any force any man can bring against us.”
“Aye!” the men cried with one voice, raising their fists in the air. “Aye, aye!”
Henry stifled a delighted smile. He doubted there could have been anything better Cerdic could have said that would have guaranteed their obedience and willingness to learn.
Cerdic came to stand beside Henry. As the men continued to cheer, he clapped a beefy hand on the Norman’s shoulder and smiled as if they were now friends for life. But through his teeth, he said, “I will never trust a Norman.”
Although he was inwardly disappointed, Henry knew he shouldn’t have been surprised. After all, he had just usurped the man’s position.
So Henry buried his disappointment, likewise smiled and answered without moving his lips. “Then don’t. Just learn and obey.”
In the distance, the village church bell tolled. It rang three times, then stopped, then three more, followed by a silence as still as death. No one in the courtyard moved, or seemed to breathe.
Baffled as to the meaning of the bells, a shiver of dread nevertheless ran down Henry’s spine as he turned to Lady Mathilde. She was as pale as if that sound had heralded her doom. “What is it? What does it mean?” he asked warily.
“Roald has come.”
CHAPTER SIX
ROALD FROWNEDas he rode into the village of Ecclesford with his escort of ten soldiers behind him, followed by a creaking baggage cart holding his clothes and several items he considered necessary for his comfort.
The whole place looked deserted, except for a few chickens scratching in the dirt, and the occasional dog barking. It was as if a plague had swept through the village and killed everybody.
That gave him a moment’s sickening pause, until he realized if that were so, the fat innkeeper and his equally fat wife and dolt of a son at the Fox and Hound would have packed up and gone, too. The villagers must simply be hiding. Stupid peasants. What did they think he was going to do, kill them? Who would work his lands if he did that?
The men behind him started muttering under their breath about the quiet. Roald glanced back sharply. “You’re not getting paid to talk.”
Facing forward again, his annoyance lessened a little as he beheld the castle he would soon command. To be sure, it was smaller than many, yet it was comfortable enough. Besides, the great value of Ecclesford lay not in its fortifications, but in the fertile land surrounding it, and its location near the road between the coast and London. And the coins his uncle must have stored there.
The outer gate was closed. That was odd. The late lord of Ecclesford usually left it open. Maybe, Roald thought with abhorrence for feminine weakness, that shrew Mathilde and her beautiful sister wanted to mourn their father in peace.
Mathilde could mourn him all she liked once she was esconced in a convent, well out of his way. As for Giselle…he had other plans for Giselle.
When his cortege reached the gates, a voice Roald recognized called down from the wall, “Friend or foe?”
That stupid oaf. “Open the gates at once!” he shouted.
“Oh, ’tis thee, Sir Roald,” Cerdic replied. “I didn’t recognize thee in thy fine new feathers.”
Roald did not look down at the embroidered surcoat he had yet to pay for. “Fool, open the gates!”
“Gladly, my lord—to thee alone. The ladies of Ecclesford have ordered that thy men may not pass.”
Roald half rose out of his saddle. “I demand that you open these gates at once and let us enter!”
“Those are my orders, Sir Roald,” Cerdic calmly answered. “Surely thou wouldst not counsel me to disobey the ladies.”
“I am the heir of Ecclesford!”
