“Wake up,” she insisted, but to no avail.Dagobert’s arm fell loosely from his lap so that his knuckles brushed the floor, but otherwise he did not stir.She had never known him to sleep heavily.The volume rose as more men evidently arrived and Alienor’s heart began to pound in fear.
“Something is amiss, my lord,” she whispered as she shook her spouse again, this time more roughly.Dagobert murmured something incomprehensible under his breath and tried to brush her hands away.
The latch on the door jiggled, the sound echoing in the silent room.Alienor spun to stare at it.The iron latch moved again and someone spoke gruffly outside the door.
“My lord!Wake up!”In desperation, she slapped Dagobert across the cheek with all her might.His eyes flew open, his hands closing hard on her upper arms.
Before Alienor could explain, the latch rattled more insistently and the men’s voices carried into the room.Dagobert was on his feet, shoving Alienor behind him even as he reached for his blade in its scabbard on the table.
“Touch it not,” came the warning from the portal.Both Alienor and Dagobert looked to find Raimon framed in the doorway, a large retinue of knights with blades at the ready behind him.
Knights attired in the king’s gold and azure.
“You have no need of the blade now,” Raimon added.Alienor shivered at the open hostility in his eyes.
“Why?”Dagobert demanded, capturing Alienor’s cold hands in his own as he shielded her from the view of the men.
“Surely you know the rich price on your head?”
In despair Alienor dropped her forehead to lean against Dagobert’s back even as she heard the first knights step around their host and into the chamber.Dagobert was sorely outnumbered and no one would come to their aid this time.Raimon named that price and her eyes widened.
“’Tis a fair sum, is it not, and more than adequate to restore my coffers to their former state.’Tis proving most expensive, this lording of lands we were taught to regard as an honor.Though you would know little of such woes at Montsalvat.”His last words were bitter, though Alienor did not know why.She felt the warmth of Dagobert’s hand tighten around her fingers.“Tell me, Dagobert de Pereille, do the locals still pay homage and tithe to the lost kings of Rhedae?”There was a sneer in Raimon’s tone and Alienor felt Dagobert stand taller.
The lost kings of Rhedae?But that was a fable.
“Our fathers fought together,” he reminded their host.“Would you so readily dismiss the loyalty of your own sire?”
“Our fathers were fools,” Raimon declared.“They gained naught by upholding the supposed claim of your birthright, naught but humiliation and terrorization.’Tis the foolish claim of your line that we have to thank for the ongoing presence of the Inquisition, the ravaging of our fields, the death of our vassals, the pillaging of our wealth.Languedoc has paid a heavy price has Languedoc already, and my own daughter has been among the losses.”
“I heard of your Jeanne’s nuptials,” Dagobert said.
Alienor barely had time to note the thread of caution in his voice before the other man’s replied angrily.
“Nuptials,” he snarled, and Alienor peeked around Dagobert to see Raimon spare a hostile glance at the king’s knights arrayed behind him.“It was no easy task to sign that agreement.”He spoke in a murmur and Alienor thought she saw the glimmer of tears in his eyes.“We no longer need support the cost of harboring your kind in our midst.”
He turned to the knights and gestured to Alienor and Dagobert before turning away.“Take them now from my abode and do not wait until morning.I will not be host to such treachery any longer.”
Chapter 8
“We must search your persons for weapons,” a man said.
Alienor looked up to find a knight before Dagobert, a contingent of other knights behind him with their swords drawn.Raimon had vanished.Dagobert squeezed her hand tightly once more before he removed his chemise.Alienor watched a knight claim her husband’s mail and tunic.
They were truly being arrested.To what purpose?And where would they ride in the middle of the night?It seemed her thoughts were fogged from the wine and she had difficulty making sense of events.There was only a pounding in her head and fear in her belly.
Dagobert stripped to his skin, standing with dignity while the knight checked his garments for hidden weapons.The knight then demanded Dagobert’s signet ring.Dagobert’s lips thinned to a harsh line as he pulled the ring from his finger and surrendered it.Finally satisfied, the knight handed Dagobert his chausses, shirt and boots, his attention turning then to Alienor.
“And now the woman,” he said.
Alienor took a step backward.
“Not a one of you will look upon my wife,” Dagobert asserted, stepping between the knight and Alienor.
“You must understand, sir, that ’tis our duty,” the man began, but Dagobert interrupted him.
“Aye, and you must understand that my lady wife will not reveal herself to a company of men, as if she were a tavern whore,” he retorted.“Fetch a screen that she may disrobe out of view if you must examine her garments.”
Much to Alienor’s relief, the deed was managed thus, though still her cheeks burned scarlet.She and Dagobert were permitted their own garments, though his mail, weapons and any evidence of his insignia were long gone.Dagobert held her hand as if he sensed her terror at what was happening to them, and she wished that they had a moment of privacy.
