“Perhaps there is another way.” Alys twisted her arms in his hands and he released her. She stepped to him fully,placing her hands on his chest. “We shall speak to the king, and—”
“I do not tell you these things so that you might try to reason me out of them,” Piers said. “But I would not hide it from you, no matter how ugly.”
He was very, very serious. He meant to kill Bevan Mallory, and any resistance Alys put up to the idea would only be met with rejection. She could not change his mind. At least, not tonight.
“I accept what you are telling me,” she said at last. “I don’t necessarily agree that it is your only recourse for justice, but I see why you might feel thusly.”
He nodded.
“Is that all?” she asked, praying it was, but fearing in her heart that he had saved the worst of the lot for last.
“No. I will not hold you up before Edward in order to aid my cause. It is too dangerous for you, with the game Sybilla plays. When we reach London, I want you to use what coin you have left to send to Fallstowe for someone to come and fetch you home.”
Alys nodded, relieved. “Alright.”
Piers seemed to be about to say something else, but stopped mid-word. He closed his mouth and frowned. “Alright?”
“You have been right all along, Piers,” Alys said, curling her fingers into his tunic, drawing the warmth from him. “The way I left Fallstowe was stupid and childish. Sybilla was only trying to do what was best for me, for the family. I know she must be very upset with me right now. I owe it to her—and to my parents, who left our family in Sybilla’s hands—to return, and do whatever I can to help right things.”
Piers was very still. “Even if that means marrying Clement Cobb?”
“Whatever I can, save that.” Alys smiled briefly, but then let it fall from her mouth as she looked up into Piers’s eyes. “I love you, Piers. I want to be with you for the rest of my life, whether that life is at Gillwick, or Fallstowe, or even here, in your grandfather’s woodland village. Once I’ve settled things with Sybilla, I will come to you, wherever you are.”
Piers shook his head. “No. Alys, it might mean losing your family if I fail to gain my father’s title. Think of the children you might one day have—would you keep them in a tree, like this? Like Tiny? Stealing from travelers and digging in the dirt for roots when there is no food, no coin?”
“I don’t think that will happen,” Alys insisted. “I believe in you, Piers! I know that whatever you will say to the king will make him see reason!”
“You don’t know that!” Piers shook her. “I don’t know that! It is my word against Judith Angwedd’s.”
“Take Ira!” Alys said, hope filling her. “He can be your witness.”
But her optimism was dashed. “Oh, Alys—you are so used to being listened to, catered to! Think you the king would take the word of a commoner, living illegally in the wood with a band of peasant brigands, over a noble’s word? Even one as disgusting as Judith Angwedd? Ira would likely end up in the dungeon for his trouble. Ira is no one. And right at this moment, even in this fine suit of clothes, I am equal only to him in the king’s eyes. In the eyes of the law.”
“Then reconsider telling Edward of the Foxe Ring!” Alys insisted. “It may not help, true, but what then could it harm?”
“It could harm you. It could harm your sisters,” hesaid quietly, and Alys felt as though her heart was being squeezed.
“Alright.” She licked her lips. “But what if you do succeed with the king? Will you come for me then? Make me your lady, in truth?”
“Gillwick is no Fallstowe, Alys. Even if I gain my father’s place, I cannot offer you a crumb of the life that you are accustomed to.” He averted his eyes. “I cannot say what I will do.”
“You cannot say?” Alys stepped away from him. “You mean no, don’t you? You don’t plan to come back for me, no matter the outcome in London. Piers, do you care for me at all?”
His eyes flew back to hers and his anger was apparent. “Yes! If I did not, you would not be here with me now!” He turned with a terrible blasphemy on his lips, one hand on his hip, the other swiping across his face. “I could have left you alone in the wood long ago. Carried on without you.”
“And you would have sickened and died! Never known your grandfather!” Alys tried not to shout, remembering the quiet of midnight that was all around the tree house, but tears filled her eyes. Why was he being so cruel? “You said yourself that you owe me a great deal—does that not include the truth of your feelings for me?”
Piers nodded. “I do owe you a great deal. Which is why I cannot allow any misunderstandings between us.”
“Misunderstandings?” Alys threw her arms out to her sides. “How can you misunderstand me? I love you! I want to be with you, no matter what happens! I care not that you are rich or poor, that you’re titled or common. We can live in a castle or a tree or a cave, what little it matters to me! The only misunderstanding is why youwould readily throw that kind of love and loyalty aside as though it’s rubbish!”
“I want,” Piers said slowly, looking at her, “what is best for you.”
Alys quieted and stepped to him once more.“Youare what is best for me.” She clasped his face in her hands, forced him to continue to look at her. “You’ve taught me to take nothing and no one for granted. You’ve shown me what it feels like to want a man, to want him for a husband, to love him as if he is the only man on earth. The way youshouldfeel before you enter into a marriage.”
“I won’t let you throw away your life.”
So there it was. There was his true reason.
