“Then bless my wife and leave me in peace.”
Outrage hardened the friar’s gaze. “Why does milord refuse a divine benediction? Is there something about our Heavenly Father that frightens you?”
“Nothing about your God could ever frighten me. Save your comforts and words for those who believe. I have no use for such.”
“Blasphemer!” Edred shrieked, coming to his feet. “Heretic!”
Valteri stood up and towered over the much smaller man.
Edred stepped back into the chair beside him, his eyes wide and filled with fear.
Ariel held her breath, uncertain what to do.
Valteri’s lip curled as he raked a glare over the friar. “You forget your place, brother. If your God is not offended by the unseemly cowards who represent Him, then I doubt my few words will incur His wrath.”
“Milord, please.” Ariel took Valteri’s arm. “I beseech you to hold your tongue.”
A tic started in his jaw. “Do not defend this lecherous oaf to me, milady. I know his kith and kind far better than you. And Ibeseechyou to avoid his presence lest you soon learn what true horrors lie beneath his robes.” He raked a sneer over Edred. “There’s not a one of them I’d ever put at my back, including my brother, the bishop. They’re all faithless liars and hypocrites.”
Heat stung her cheeks, his double meaning more than clear. Before she could reply, he left the hall.
Lifting the hem of her kirtle, Ariel ran after him. “Valteri!” She caught up to him just outside the door. “I cannot believe what you just did. What you said! Are you trying to make them hate you?”
In spite of the darkness, she detected his angry glare.
Even so, she refused to let the matter die. “You speak of men rejecting you when ’twas you who provoked Brother Edred.”
“I provoked Edred?” His tone was laden with disbelief. “He was the one to hurl insults, not I.”
“You knew what his reaction would be when you refused to bow your head.”
His nostrils flared. “I will not be the hypocrite he is and bow my head in respect to a deity I have a difficult time believing in.” He shook his head. “Really, Ariel. Do you know why William won’t let me leave England?”
“Nay.”
“Because he knows that of all his brothers, I’m the only one who won’t come at his back.”
That gave her pause. “But I heard that Bishop Odo rallied the troops for him.”
“Aye. And Odo hedged his bets with Harold Godwinson in the eventWill fell. He played both sides, and Will knows it. Even now, Will suspects him of treachery, along with the others. It’s why he won’t let me leave. He wants me close in case either Odo or Rob decide to make a play for his throne.”
Her stomach lurched at the thought. But then, she understood. She couldn’t trust her own brother, either.
And she didn’t have a throne to protect.
“William is lucky to have you.”
Valteri scoffed. “Will is a fool to want something best left alone. But that is neither here nor there. Tell me, lady. What kind of god creates a race where brother is constantly slaughtering brother? Yet that is what He’s done from the beginning when Cain rose against Abel.”
Ariel wanted to deny it, but he was right. “You shouldn’t say such things, Valteri. How can you not have any faith?”
Valteri took her hand and flattened her palm against his chest. “I feel my heart beat. I feel the wind against my cheeks. For the whole of my life I have listened to creatures such as Edred tell me that I am not human. That I am God’s abomination. They have cursed me, beat me, and called me monster, all in your God’s name. If I believe in your God, then I must believe the words they say about me. Why else would an omniscient, omnipotent God allow me to suffer in His name at the hands of His servants?”
Those words and the emotion in them tore through her.
He was right. She couldn’t deny the truth he spoke or the reason behind it.
“We are all given free will to choose good and decency or succumb to darkness. All of us are called upon for different paths, and I don’t know why you have been given yours.”
