“It has been my pleasure, my lord,” she said after a moment, her gaze moving to Kevin. “My time spent at Wybren has been quite pleasant. I have no complaints. Your brother has been very gracious and accommodating.”
Kevin smiled faintly at her and Juliandra’s heart leapt. It was a smile meant only for her, even though they both knew she wasn’t here voluntarily. She was here because he demanded it of her, and now they were both acting like her presence here was by mutual agreement. Perhaps it had not been in the beginning, but that had since changed and Juliandra struggled not to feel guilty for it.
She had come here for a purpose and that purpose had been to free her father. To accomplish this, she had decided to be very sweet and accommodating and helpful, hoping that would soften Kevin’s heart so that he would release her father quickly. It took Juliandra a moment to realize that her attempts to charm and soften Kevin had the opposite effect because she had actually enjoyed it. She had enjoyed it so much that she didn’t want to leave it.
Juliandra couldn’t think about what that would mean once her father was released. Her father would want her to go home with him and that was not what she wanted. The longer her father remained Kevin’s captive, the longer she could stay with him. It all seemed quite complicated and twisted. For the first time in her life, she was not only being disobedient, she wasbeing selfish when she knew her only goal should have been the release of her father.
But looking into Kevin’s eyes at this moment, she was thinking only of herself.
“I feel as if I have the better end of this arrangement,” Kevin said, breaking into her thoughts. “You have been a remarkable chatelaine. I have never seen a fortress run more smoothly.”
Juliandra dipped her head to thank him. “As I said, I have enjoyed it,” she said, tearing her gaze away from him because she was beginning to sweat. The man had that effect on her. “Does anyone require anything more? I realize the pear cider is quite strong. I can bring boiled water or pressed pear juice if you’d like.”
The men were shaking their heads. All but Kevin, that is. He was still looking at her, still smiling, and when she dared look at him, again, she broke down in a grin. She could feel her cheeks flushing. But that pleasant moment was interrupted when a soldier entered the hall.
The man was practically running as he crossed the floor to the dais. “My lord,” he said, addressing Kevin. “A group of Welsh are approaching.”
Kevin looked at him curiously. “The gates are open,” he said. “We have had Welsh coming in all morning.”
But the soldier shook his head. “Nay, my lord,” he said. “These are armed men. Hundreds of them.”
The table cleared in an instant.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“Iknow youhave Juliandra ap Gethin,” Aeron said, twitching with anger. “I have come to claim her. If you do not want trouble, you will release her to me.”
He was standing on the opposite side of the closed portcullis along with Glynn ap Hywel, an older man with a bushy beard and hair that looked like a bird’s nest. Behind them, there had to be six hundred Welshmen, all of them armed. Most had pikes and clubs, but there were some who bore longbows. The last thing Kevin wanted to do was get into a skirmish with them. They couldn’t win with only a few hundred, but they could cause some trouble.
But trouble was coming nonetheless. They were demanding Juliandra and, as Kevin had told Sean, he wasn’t about to let her go.
He braced himself.
“How would you know that she is here?” he asked, trying to be vague. “Where did you hear this?”
Aeron wasn’t having any of his denials. “Because her maid told me that you abducted her,” he snapped. “Stoleher. Well? Where is she? Bring her to me immediately.”
“Nay.”
Aeron’s eyebrows lifted in outrage. “Youdenyme?”
Kevin, as well as the other knights, could see Aeron for what he was– a blustering, angry warlord with a sense of self-importance. Since they were in the outer bailey at the gatehouse, the one with Juliandra’s chamber overhead, what Aeron couldn’t see was eight hundred de Lohr soldiers tucked back by the stables and the troop house. Along with the men Kevin already had at Wybren, there were about fifteen hundred. Enough to overrun Aeron’s paltry few hundred.
If Aeron had seen all of those men, he probably wouldn’t have been so bold.
But Kevin didn’t want to overrun him, at least not yet. Although he was trying to establish a peaceful rule of Wybren, he wasn’t going to let ap Gruffudd run all over him.
“I am denying you,” he said after a moment. “Do you know why? Because the only time you have ever come to see me is to make demands and I do not take kindly to them. Since I have been a Wybren, I have been a contributing member of the community. The toll booths I established generate revenue for the poor and destitute. The law and order I dispense has solved more than one Welsh dispute to a positive conclusion, yet you do not take any of this into account. You have never tried to establish peace with me but, instead, have only come to make demands. Why on earth should I even listen to a man who has only come to harass me?”
Aeron appeared to be genuinely shocked by Kevin’s response. Shocked and embarrassed. He looked at Glynn, who didn’t seem quite so angry. Being older, he’d seen more. He understood the value of a peaceful relationship even if he didn’twant the English so close to his lands. Scratching his head, he stepped forward.
“You’re as welcome at Wybren as a Welsh lord would be who took control of an English castle not far from you,” he said. “I know you understand that concept.”
Kevin nodded. “I do.”
“Then you know why we’re unhappy to have you here.”
Kevin lifted an eyebrow. “Even after all of the good I have done?”
