Page 29 of Hers To Command
“Better,” he answered. “It was the shock of what that villain said that disturbed her. A little rest and she will soon be well.”
Mathilde searched Cerdic’s face, seeking to discover what he thought of her now that he knew what Roald had done, for the only people in the household who had known the truth about Roald’s abrupt departure had been her father and Giselle. “I am glad to hear it.”
He nodded. There was a new reserve in his manner, which added to her pain.
“Roald is a great liar, my lady,” Sir Henry said, interrupting the awkward silence and speaking as casually as if he were discussing the weather. “I wouldn’t be inclined to credit his words, except that your reactions seem to suggest he might be telling the truth about what happened between you.”
She marveled that he would give her the benefit of the doubt, although that didn’t ease her anguish. “I went to his bedchamber, as he said,” she admitted, “because I believed myself in love with him, and that he loved me and wished to marry me. I thought we would kiss and he would say sweet words to me, and ask me to be his wife—and nothing more.”
How silly that sounded now, how naive. But she had been innocent and naive then, raised by a father who kept them from the court and the society of supposedly chivalrous knights.
Her throat tightened as she went on, but she would have him and Cerdic know what had happened and why she had not fought back until it was too late. “Roald would not let me go. He held me tight and smiled when I told him he was hurting me. I grew frightened, and then he threw me onto his bed. It was so unexpected, I could scarce believe…”
“Enough, my lady,” Sir Henry said quietly, his eyes glinting like sparkling water. “I don’t believe you oppose him out of spite as he claims.” He glanced at Cerdic, who was studying the floor. “You didn’t know about this, either, did you?”
Her friend’s head shot up and, glaring at the Norman, he growled an oath, then said, “If I had, he would never have left here alive.”
The Norman nodded. “That’s what I thought.” He turned his cool gaze onto Mathilde. “This crime was kept a secret, then?”
She nodded. “My father sought to prevent my name from being shamed and I agreed. Like that serving girl, I feared people would believe Roald and not me, because I had gone to his chamber.”
“Your father was quite right,” Sir Henry said. “Opinion would probably have gone against you, at least among noblemen. Under similar circumstances, many of them would have made the same assumption and done the same thing if you’d gone to their bedchambers in the night, regardless of your motive.”
He had not, she thought. Sir Henry had not made such an assumption that first night.
“As for why you went to his bedchamber…” Sir Henry shrugged. “I daresay Roald can be persuasive, if he tries.”
“Yes, he can,” she agreed. “And I was very stupid.”
“We have all been stupid in our day, my lady.”
Not the way she had been. Even so, she appreciated his effort to make her feel less of a fool.
“The question now becomes, what will happen next?” Sir Henry mused aloud.
“You go, we fight,” Cerdic said with grim resolve.
Sir Henry’s brows rose. “Go? I have no intention of leaving.”
How she wished that he could stay! Everything he had said about the garrison she believed, and they could use his help, but…“Roald also threatened you and your family, and your friends. You must not stay on our account.”
Sir Henry’s expression grew stubbornly determined. “My family and friends can defend themselves against Roald de Sayres, but I fear your garrison will be in dire straits without an experienced knight to lead them. You need me.”
“What of this charge of treason against thee?” Cerdic demanded.
Although like Sir Henry, Mathilde believed Roald a great liar and didn’t give credence to his accusations, she couldn’t help wondering about that, too.
Sir Henry made a dismissive motion with his hand, as if to wipe Cerdic’s question from the air. “A misunderstanding on my friend’s part and as I said to Roald, there was nothing to it, or I would not be free. I would be imprisoned or executed.”
“We can beat Roald and any men he sends against us without thee,” Cerdic said stubbornly.
“Can you?” Sir Henry demanded before Mathilde could answer. “Has something changed since Lady Mathilde first accepted my offer to assist you? Are you more certain of the skills of those undisciplined men in the hall below? You can guess how Roald will attack and where and when? You’ve become more familiar with siege techniques than I?”
Cerdic’s cheeks reddened.
“We have already accepted Sir Henry’s aid and I, for one, am grateful,” Mathilde said, now certain that they needed the Norman’s aid, or all would be lost.
Cerdic, however, continued to glare at Sir Henry as if he took his presence there as a personal affront.
