Chapter Eighteen #5
Alexander stood his ground. “My orders from William Marshal are to deliver her into the hands of her betrothed,” he said.
“That is exactly what I intend to do. Furthermore, we also have orders to escort her to Mountain Dark for the wedding and see proof of it with our own eyes. The Marshal has commanded this.”
Atilius could see that the knight had no intention of shirking what he saw as his duty.
“The moment my brother agreed to the betrothal, the lady became his property,” he said steadily.
“Given that I am here on behalf of my brother, I say that there is no longer any need for your escort. You can return to William Marshal and tell him that you delivered the lady to the earl’s brothers. ”
“Without confirmation from Tatius de Shera, I cannot and will not release her to your custody.”
They were quickly reaching a stalemate that could turn bad very quickly.
Kress moved to stand in front of Cadelyn, indicating for Susanna to take charge of her.
He also motioned to Achilles, who did the unthinkable at that moment – he partially withdrew his broadsword as Susanna grabbed Cadelyn by the wrist and pulled her over towards the stairs.
Achilles put himself between the moving women and the de Shera men, who were starting to move as Cadelyn moved.
Kress’ broadsword came out and he wielded it as Susanna and Cadelyn and Achilles ran up the steps.
Bric drew his sword and he leapt up on a table to chop down the first fool who tried to intercept the ladies.
Alexander was the only one who hadn’t unsheathed his sword as he took a few steps towards Atilius and Fabius.
Fabius had also unsheathed his weapon, but Atilius, so far, had not.
“As a knight yourself, you understand that I have orders and I must obey them,” Alexander said calmly.
“I believe the lady is feeling better, so I would wager to say that departing on the morrow is acceptable. But the escort from William Marshal shall escort her all the way to The Paladin. You may accompany us if you wish. At this time, this is the only option.”
He said it with finality, but now he was also coming to realize why de Shera had brought two hundred heavily-armed men with him.
They fully intended to take possession of Cadelyn whether or not Alexander agreed, and that smacked of abduction to him.
Tatius was nowhere to be found, yet his brothers had come for the lady and were prepared to take her by force.
There was something definitely wrong.
Therefore, Alexander waited for Atilius’ response, which wasn’t long in coming. Atilius put his hand out to Fabius, motioning for his brother to sheathe his weapon. He looked at Alexander as one does when sizing up a cunning opponent; there was displeasure on his features.
“Very well,” he said after a moment. “Since you have your orders, you will complete them. We shall wait until tomorrow to depart for The Paladin.”
Alexander had to admit that he was relieved, but he was on his guard.
He didn’t believe for one moment that they were going to reliquish their prize so easily.
He simply nodded, backing away, as Fabius ordered the armed soldiers out of the tavern and Atilius motioned to Nesta, who was still standing there fuming.
But they were leaving and that was all that mattered.
For the moment.
In fact, that was all that Atilius was really thinking of – to get out of there before Nesta said something that would give The Marshal’s escort an idea of what they had planned for the lady, who clearly had no interest in anything Welsh.
He didn’t want a bloodbath to get to her; at least, not yet.
He’d rather speak to his brother and Nesta about all of this and have a plan before they did anything.
He didn’t want to chance that the lady might somehow get hurt in a fight.
But that didn’t mean there wasn’t one coming.
Outside, the daylight greeted them. As the door to the tavern slammed, Fabius was in his brother’s face.
“What was that about?” he demanded. “We have enough men. We could have taken her!”
Atilius grabbed him by the neck and turned him around, pushing him towards his horse. “If we try to take her, we risk bloodshed,” he growled. “While I am unconcerned with cutting down Marshal knights, I am concerned with injuring the lady. We need her whole and sound for our purposes.”
Nesta was scurrying alongside them as they headed for their mounts. “She does not know who she is!” she hissed. “She will not be the leader of a great rebellion. She will kill morale and spirit by telling her people that she is a Saesneg!”
Atilius came to an abrupt halt and faced her.
“Not necessarily,” he said. “We can use that to our advantage. When your men see how the English have beaten her down and convinced her that she is one of them, there will be such outrage that Wales will be unable to contain it. Think not for one moment her attitude will not work to our advantage. I assure you that it shall.”
With that, he turned for his horse, taking it from the soldier who was holding the reins. As he prepared to climb into the saddle, Fabius stopped him.
“What now?” he demanded. “Where are you going?”
Atilius had that look of displeasure again, but also a look of determination. “There is a tavern at the other end of town,” he said. “It caters to outlaws and drunks, but it does not have The Marshal’s men in it and that makes it most attractive.”
“Attractive for what?”
“To make plans to abduct the lady.”
It was then that Fabius began to understand. A gleam came to his eye. “I see,” he said. “Then we wait until their guard is down and we go in and take her?”
Atilius shook his head. “I doubt their guard will be down now. But even so, we can easily overcome them. We simply have to be smart about it and the lady shall be ours.”
With that, the column began to move, heading back the way they had come to the opposite side of town where a seedy tavern awaited.
But even as Atilius and Fabius and Nesta moved in that direction, Atilius had the de Shera soldiers fan out and cover all exits out of town just in case The Marshal escort, lady included, decided to flee.
The stakes in the situation were higher than ever.