With a cry, she slid off the far side of the palfrey and leaned against a tree, trying not to retch. Rolfe was stricken with the urge to go to her and somehow help her, yet he had not the slightest idea of what to do, and he was even embarrassed with his own desire. Fortunately, Guy rode up. “Two wounded, my lord: Pierre Le Stac and Sir de Stacy, but not badly.”
“Prisoners?”
“None.”
“How many have escaped?”
“Six, I think, my lord.”
“Send me Charles.” His tone was ominous.
Rolfe turned to Alice, who had straightened and was facing him, pale and shaking, visibly upset. Rolfe slipped to the ground, wiped his dripping sword upon the grass, and sheathed it. He strode to her. There he hesitated. “Come, we do not dwell here.”
She backed away. She blinked tears. “Have you no remorse?”
He stared.
Ceidre knew what she had witnessed. She had seen him effortlessly, efficiently, slaughter three men. In the back of her mind she also knew he had been attacked, that he had fought to defend himself, his men, and her, yet she refused to listen to this nagging voice. He was the invader, the enemy, the Norman. “You have killed three men,” she whispered. “Have you no remorse?”
“None,” he said. “For had I remorse, Lady Alice, you Would now be sporting an arrow in your pretty chest.” He turned abruptly away.
’Twas true, yet … Ceidre chased him, grabbed his sleeve. “They were my people, my people you have killed.” She felt the tears, and she wanted to weep, weep for the dead, the serfs and peasants she knew, and weep with the waste of it and with her hatred of war.
He looked at her but said nothing.
Guy approached with another soldier. Charles’s face was drawn, his eyes anxious. He dropped to one knee, head bowed.
“You have failed in your duty,” Rolfe said. “Because you failed in the task I gave you, we were ambushed. Fortunately, only two of my men have suffered casualties. Stand up.”
Charles stood.
Rolfe stared at him and saw that his eyes were red. He glanced at Guy for confirmation. Guy nodded. Rolfe’s mouth went tight. “You overimbibed last night, did you not? Your lust for women and wine makes you weak, not fit to be one of my soldiers. Take your sword and go. You are discharged from service to me.”
“But, Lord Rolfe! I followed you from Normandy. I have been faithful to you, ever faithful—”
“No man fails in his duty to me, not once, not ever. Get you gone, I care not where.” Rolfe turned away and the matter was ended.
Ceidre watched, stunned and horrified. Charles slumped, then proudly turned away. How could he be so cruel, to his own man? He truly was not human! She turned a wide gaze back to him and found him regarding her expressionlessly. “Can you not show mercy?” she asked, unable to stop herself. She was too overwhelmed to be frightened at her own audacity.
She watched a muscle spasm in his cheek. “You question me?”
She wet her lips but stood her ground. What had she done? She would never have questioned her father or her brothers, yet she was questioning the Norman! “He is your man—a Norman.”
He stood over her, crowding her. “You openly defy me, question me, disapprove of me?”
She bit her lip, panting slightly, and managed not to flinch when he took another hard step to her.
“Lady Alice,” he said, furious. “I am a soldier—only a soldier. And you, you are only a woman.” He paused for effect.
He was a bastard! Ceidre felt a rush of fear and knew she should capitulate. “At least,” she said, and there was the slightest tremor in her voice, “I am not a Norman.” A Norman pig, she wanted to add, but wisely refrained.
His voice was low, hard. “True. I am the Norman, you the Saxon. And”—his voice roughened—“because you are to be my wife, I will explain something to you. We escaped lightly only because my menare the best in the land.My men know what is expected of them, and they do not fail me. Ever. Should they fail, they are not the best. When they are not the best, I cease to be King William’s best. Should I fail my king, I fail myself. And I am Rolfe de Warenne.”
She looked at him as he stood there blazing in his glorious anger.
“Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
