King Henry resumed the dais, and the rest of the royal council stood. He and several of the others looked unsettled by what had just transpired, but he refused to meet Gray’s gaze as he prepared to lead his cabinet of advisors out of the room.
“We will retire in private for sentencing!” one of the Court Officials announced. As if from a great distance, Gray felt someone click the lock on his manacles. A guard murmured, “You are free to go,” and then Gray’s hands fell limp to his sides. His breath rasped harsh in his ears, his vision cluttered with a myriad of colors and images as he gazed first at Catherine, then the king, then at the twins and the crowd that was moving en mass to the doors at the back of the chamber.
Stop!his agonized brain screamed. It couldn’t end like this. There had to be another way. Something he could do to keep them from taking her away. Something…
“Wait!” He shouted, pushing through the crowd and racing toward the dais where King Henry still stood. “My lord, I ask a moment’s indulgence, that I might offer a proposal.” He looked up at the king, fisting his hands and pressing them into the rich fabric draping the dais near his sovereign’s feet. “Please, Sire, I beg of you to hear me.”
He added the last bit gruffly, not caring anymore that the eyes of all of the other nobles and barons in the court were on him. Not caring that such a public plea would humble him unforgivably in their perception, likely costing him all of the power and influence he’d managed to amass in his years at Court. Nothing mattered now but saving the woman he loved.
The chamber hushed again as Henry turned with a swish of his lustrous robes. “What is it, Camville?” His voice sounded flat, resigned as he looked down at Gray.
“I ask of Your Highness a boon. Allow me the right ofwergild, my lord. I will pay whatever you deem fair for the loss of Lord Montford’s services to the Crown, if in return you restore Catherine’s freedom from the debt of his murder.”
“Wergild?”Henry scowled, staring down at him from his regal height. “You wish to invoke that ancient and barbaric ritual?” He shook his head. “The paying of man-money for murder was a Saxon practice, Camville. It has not seen use in England in nigh on three centuries.”
“Then restore it.”
Henry waved his hand. “Impossible. Even if We chose to allow such an outdated code of law, Lord Montford’s worth as one of Our High Champions is virtually incalculable. ’Twould amount to an enormous sum.”
“Perhaps,” Gray nodded, feeling more hopeful with every passing moment that kept Catherine from sentencing. “And yet I am willing to pay whatever you ask, here and now. Allow me that privilege, my lord, as your faithful servant.”
King Henry had gone still. He looked at Gray and then to where Catherine stood near the door, surrounded by guards. But Gray didn’t trust himself to meet her gaze himself yet.
Not yet.
Desperate to have this one, last chance, Gray added quietly, “I have never asked a personal boon of you, Sire. Not in all of the seventeen years I have served you. But I do so now, before these gathered here to witness your justice. Invoke your God-given power, Sire. Issue the command forwergildin this case, and name me your price.”
Henry’s gaze narrowed. The crowd remained hushed, every person teetering on the edge of anticipation as they awaited the king’s response to his greatest Champion’s strange request.
All of a sudden, the king folded his arms across his chest, his expression shifting to one of cold cunning. The change made Gray’s gut twist, reminding him again of his sovereign’s penchant for fickle and often petulant behavior. He only prayed that he hadn’t overstepped his bounds this time, for the results would surely be fatal.
“So you insist upon a man-price for Montford, do you, Camville?” Henry finally clipped. “Very well, then, you shall have it. You must forfeit all of your titles.Allof them, along with all of your estates, lands, and the taxes and income they entail. Surrender your entire wealth, every last piece of gold that you’ve earned since the day that I knighted you as a youth on Danbury Field.”
The murmurs in the chamber swelled with disbelief, mingled with a few scandalized gasps.
“Do this,” Henry continued, “and Catherine de Montford will go free from the charge of murder.”
Gray felt his heart beating steadily in his chest. Air seemed to rush into his lungs once more, pure and sweet. Even the chamber torches burned brighter, somehow. And for the first time since this whole nightmare began, his lips edged up in a smile.
Raising his arms, he lifted from his neck the thick gold chain that secured the disk of his baronial seal—the emblem that marked him as a powerful peer of the realm. Removing it over his head, he set it on the dais at the king’s feet. Then he grasped the top edge of his surcoat, emblazoned with his device of a golden eagle clasping a thunderbolt in its beak. With one swift motion, he rent the garment in two, pulling it off to lay it next to his discarded seal.
“It is done,” he said, his voice firm. “I accept your price, Sire, and I pay it in full, most gladly.”
The king gazed down at his former High Champion as if he were sure that the man had lost his mind.
“Do you know what you are saying, Camville? If you do this you will be left a pauper. A man without title, without fortune…without power of any kind. You will be left with nothing when you leave here.”
“Nay, Sire,” Gray answered, shaking his head. “I will walk from this chamber the richest of men. For when I leave here, my lady will walk beside me.”
Henry tried and again failed to keep the look of burgeoning shock and dismay from his expression. “Your ladyis not even legally your wife, Camville, thanks to her duplicity. Do you not think such a sacrifice, noble as it may be, is excessive, considering the circumstances?”
A tender smile still curved Gray’s lips. “The answer is nay again, Sire.”
In that moment, Gray finally dared to shift his gaze to look at Catherine, to take in the vision of the woman who was the true wife of his heart, the woman to whom he’d long ago surrendered the keeping of his soul. Her trembling hands were pressed to her mouth, her eyes glistening with tears of joy and love. Love most beautiful and sacred.
Love for him.
An incredible sweep of emotion rushed through him, blocking all else. “In truth, my lord,” he added quietly, still gazing at her alone, “for Catherine’s sake I would give up everything that I possess, everything that I am. God in heaven, but I would give up my very life for her if you asked it of me.”
