Anyone else, he’d gut for being an ass and daring to wake him before he was ready. Growling in protest, Valteri pushed back the blanket and rose. “I’ll be there whenever I arrive. Let the bastard wait.” He reached for his breeches and tunic and shrugged them on without any great care or hurry.
What the devil could William want with him? He’d quelled the Saxons, and now all he sought was freedom to return to the Continent, where he intended to search until he found another army or cause to fight for. William had his land and kingdom. It was time he kept his word and gave Valteri the coin he’d been promised.
He was done with this fetid country that held nothing save bad memories for him, as well as William’s lunatic cause. Why wouldn’t his brother let him go already? A promise was a promise, and he’d more than met his.
At least when it came to his word to William.
His word to himself…
He was an idiot.
I should have never returned to this cursed place. That had been the promise he’d made to himself as a boy.If by some miracle they don’t kill me… if I survive to adulthood, I shall never again step foot on English soil.
But life had a way of taking him places he never intended to go. And against all sanity, he’d allowed his brother to talk him into this quest for a crown that no one needed.
Indeed, such power came at an unbearable cost. In terms of life and the noose it placed around the victor’s neck. William might rule England, but there was never any peace for a man in royal robes.
“Help me, Val.”Valteri grimaced at the memory of Will’s words and his older brother’s pleading eyes when William had come to him at the tourney in Ressons-sur-Matz.“We’re family.”
He’d scoffed at his half brother’s sentimentality.“I’m a bastard by birth and temperament, Will. I’ve no need of any family, even you. Take your titles and shove them up your arse.”
Unlike his sibling, his parents and grandparents had cast him off at the moment of his birth and judged him cursed, as he’d survived while his older twin brother had been stillborn. Refusing to even look after him, they’d sent him to England so that none of them would ever have to suffer the embarrassment of seeing his despised countenance again.
As if his twin’s death had been his fault.
Not one word from any of them for the whole of his life.
Only William had ever laid any claim and then, only when he needed something…
It had infuriated him. Had William not been such a high-ranking noble and had they not been standing in France, surrounded by Will’s allies, he’d have run him through just for uttering those stupid words.
Brother…
But while he was suicidal, he had no desire to be tortured another second before his enemies finally ended his miserable life. He’d suffered more than enough abuse. There was no need to purposefully add more.
Rather than be offended by his hostility, Will had smirked at him.“You owe me.”
Valteri had scoffed.“What I owed, I paid back long ago with my sword arm.”
“Then do this for the only thing you seem to love. Money. Win my kingdom for me and I shall reward you with enough coin that you’ll never again want for anything. Your reputation is such that I know half the country will surrender the minute they see your banner among my army.”
That, too, had galled him.
But his brother was right. Men were terrified of him and money was all Valteri cared about. Unlike people, coin didn’t turn against the one who held it. It didn’t plot or lie.
Or abandon those who depended on it.
While it could be stolen, given, or taken, it didn’t voluntarily leave.
It was the only thing he put his faith in. The only thing on this earth that he could trust.
Aside from his sword arm.
And his horse.
In thirty-three years, those were the only things in his life that had never once betrayed him. Though to be honest, his horse had thrown him a time or two.
But he preferred to think it was due to his own incompetence and not any intentional malice on his horse’s part. Otherwise, he’d have to hold a few of his sword breaks in battle against his sword, and that just seemed a bit paranoid, even for him.
