Annis appreciated her lover’s stiffening of her courage.
Peter Haldane noticed nothing but gazed helplessly at Falk over Marfey’s refusal to leave.
“Lord Falk,” he said, “I understand that you are here because your enemy is mine enemy; that you choose to fight Gyrfalon,” he said.
Gyrfalon chuckled evilly at Falk’s dilemma.
“Let this add to your education, child,” he remarked to Annis “The art of parley involves splitting up your opponents where possible – especially when two of them were not even invited.”
“To divide and conquer would make logical tactical sense,” said Annis. “If you might strip away the irrelevant ones the talks might move on.”
Falk and Father Michael both looked a little shocked.
“One of Gyrfalon’s foes is your father, Lady Annis,” said Falk gravely “Have you no feelings for him?”
“Plenty,” she said coldly. “I met him again for the first time in years about seven months ago when he returned from his sanctified thievery. I disliked him as much on second acquaintance as on the day he left after beating me senseless for asking why he had thrown my mother down the stairs. She took four days to die in agony that I knew not how to relieve. It was why I became a healer. My feelings for my father run to a tall tree and a short rope.”
Falk looked horrified, even nauseated. The girl seemed content as Gyrfalon’s hostage; and under the circumstances, he could almost see why.
“Then I think the best thing, my lady,” he suggested, “is to negotiate having you made a ward of the church.”
“A waste,” growled Gyrfalon.
“I considered briefly becoming a nun,” said Annis conversationally, “but I do not think that I would decorously do good. I do try to be virtuous but I fear I am not nun material. And a ward to the church would be made a novice and they would try to persuade me to enter the church you know. It is not to my liking.”
“Quite right,” said Gyrfalon. “She’s right you know; she’d end up driving the other nuns insane or spend all her time locked in a penitent’s cell. She hasn’t the temperament. Besides which, despite your unwanted interruptions, my brother, be it not about time to come to the point of my parley with the girl’s father? All this byplay is doubtless very interesting but scarcely germane. You and Marfey are superfluous.”
“What do you want?” Peter Haldane was ungracious.
“It is very simple,” said Gyrfalon. “I do not intend to ask for more than half mine original demand as dowry when I wed your daughter.”
“What!” Peter Haldane spluttered in unison with Falk. Gyrfalon smiled thinly.
“I wish to wed her; a ceremony joining man and woman in matrimony. The priest will be able to explain the nature of the matter to you if you find it confusing. Consider the advantages to yourself – father-in-law. I am also a neighbour of yours – and my lands lay between yours and the North. I am the first line of defence between you and the Northmen.”
Lord Peter looked both greedy and suspicious.
“For half the money? But if you have the girl, you will need less than that in dowry, surely? She’s no great catch for a mighty warlord to be worth such a dowry.”
“Methinks an army to keep out the barbarians is not cheap. Of course I could always levy taxes from you or send my men to forage on your land instead…..”
Lord Peter bit his lip. Having Gyrfalon’s troops loose on his lands was not to be tolerated.
“Done,” he agreed quickly. Gyrfalon smiled.
“I thought you would see it my way,” he said, catching Annis by her thick plait and pulling her towards him, playfully wrapping it around her neck.
Annis and Gyrfalon exchanged glances; her blue eyes smouldered with promised passion as she lay against his chest; and his nostrils flared. His eyes smiled down at her with love and desire in them. Falk, however, already horrified, saw only Gyrfalon’s face; and a look that he interpreted as cruel lust.
“This is iniquitous!” he cried “Unhand that girl – I will take her into mine own protection if she does not wish to return to her father!”
Gyrfalon looked at him coldly.
“I keep saying this, brother; you are irrelevant,” he said. “The dispute was between me and my hostage’s father; and it is he who is her guardian. As he and I have negotiated terms there is nothing more to be said; all interested parties are happy with the terms.”
Falk swung to face Peter Haldane. The lord shrugged.
“She has to marry someone,” he said. “It is as good a deal as any I might get and better than most. Thank you for your support, Lord Falk, that has enabled me to get favourable terms; but you are no longer needed. Mine army and that of Lord Marfey will be leaving; since he too has no further interest in the affair.”
“Like Hell I will! You promised her to me!” cried Marfey. Haldane looked at him with contempt.
“You are a less useful ally than Lord Gyrfalon,” he said frigidly. “His reputation as a warrior is superior to yours by far; moreover he is at least still vigorous enough to pursue his martial endeavours. And his promise to repel the barbarians is in his interests too; and therefore believable. You are of no further use to me and nor are your cardinals; most of them at least, save whichever one be as perverted as you, for Lord Falk will surely reveal your actions to higher church authorities.”
Gyrfalon chuckled.
“Oh he will, Marfey, believe it. And then he will come after you. What lies between Falk and me will doubtless wait on his desire to catch up with you; I’m likely to live longer than you so he can afford to wait. I’d run if I were you, Marfey. Because if Falk does not get you, I shall. I have a mind to furnish my bride with your head.”
“Why my lord Gyrfalon!” exclaimed Annis “Surely not a romantic streak lurking within you that you should give romantic presents? You will turn my head far more than any sheep I wager! Why, you will be offering next to mount his skull as a goblet for a wedding draught!”
He grinned savagely, appreciating the thrust about the sheep.
“Minx,” he said.
Falk frowned.
“Lady Annis,” he said formally.
She twitched her plait from Gyrfalon’s grasp to turn her smoke-blue eyes to look on him queryingly; which gesture might have told Falk, had he not been blinded by hatred that there was no force in the warlord’s grip.
“Lord Falk?”
“When he promises you a man’s head, you may take it lightly but I assure you, he is not joking; and would present you with the horrid bloody thing in sooth,” he said.
“Good,” said Annis. “I hate a man that does not keep his promises. Not that he has promised; merely remarked that he was minded to make the gesture for me if you do not get the fellow first. You should listen closely; Lord Gyrfalon is the master of careful wording in any situation.”
“Yes; that I am aware, my lady. And I warn you that Gyrfalon is a dangerous man, cruel and unpredictable. I can see why almost anyone seems preferable to Lord Marfey; and even your father. But you need not marry at all if you not wish. I offer you my protection.”
Gyrfalon’s eyes narrowed.
“As once you offered Alys protection?” He asked, dangerously quietly.
Falk flushed.
“Leave Alys out of this,” he snapped “Or is that it? Because Lady Annis looks like Alys you would possess her and punish her instead? Is that what is going on in your warped mind?”
Gyrfalon sneered.
“I am not still ruled by that faithless wench even if you are, brother,” he said.
“So I should hope,” put in Annis tartly. “Scarcely flattering to the bride if she is not gaining her bridegroom’s full attention and faculties!”
Gyrfalon chuckled.
“I would challenge any man not to pay you full attention and hope yet to come out of such a dilatory encounter undamaged, you little virago; you take a deal of attention.”
Falk gritted his teeth. His understandin
g of that comment was that his hated brother boasted that he would break the spirit of the girl no matter how much she fought him! The girl was, he thought, trying to be brave and make the best of a bad situation – but she did not know Gyrfalon as he did! Falk in his preconceptions failed to see the way Annis’ eyes strayed to Gyrfalon’s face; failed to read that the hand Gyrfalon placed on her shoulder was reassuring, not restraining; failed to note that Gyrfalon showed unwonted good humour. He turned to Father Michael.
“Where do you fit in, father?” he asked “Are you Lady Annis’ confessor?”
Michael blinked.
“I do serve that function, Lord Falk,” he said “But I am priest of this church. She began attending Mass with us soon after she first became a hostage.”
Falk stared.
“How the – how come you were permitted, Lady Annis?” he demanded.
Annis smiled demurely.
“I was very reasonable over it,” she said
“You were a vixen over it,” contradicted Gyrfalon.
“That too,” she said.
“Lord Gyrfalon always sent a guard with Lady Annis, whom she only had to reprove once,” Father Michael hastened to explain. “And of course now I am within the castle, with all the village, that Lord Gyrfalon brought us within to protect us from the armies.”
Falk snorted.
“He probably had some other motive,” he said. “But somehow I doubt it was to protect the village. Gyrfalon does not protect; he destroys.”
The priest flushed irritably.
“I would ask you, My Lord Falk,” he said with dignity, “If you are not speaking purely from prejudice. Lord Gyrfalon has shown his dependants nothing but proper treatment. I have been pleasantly surprised.”
Falk looked sceptical.
“He will use anyone, Father,” he told Michael. “Beware, for he is the devil himself.”
“Funny,” murmured Annis to Gyrfalon, “I always imagined the devil must be quite personable else he had not managed to tempt people. And I doubt any might call you personable.”
Gyrfalon laughed.
“I concede the point,” he said. “To my mind the devil probably wears a cardinal’s robe.”
Falk scowled and carried on pointedly telling Father Michael,
“You and your flock and the Lady Annis are in the greatest danger. But do not worry; I have church troops with me, and a company of soldiery ready to oppose Gyrfalon at any time. The Lady Annis’s father may betray her and abandon her but I shall not.”
Gyrfalon gave a dry laugh and a slow hand clap.
“A fine speech, my brother,” he said. “But have you checked whether or not the Lady Annis wishes you not to abandon her, or to trust herself to such ill disciplined puppies as break truce?”
Falk flushed at the reminder that one of his men had given such ammunition to Gyrfalon.
“Whatever you have threatened her with that she seems compliant, I know how to serve her interests!” declared Falk.
“Oh this is ridiculous!” exclaimed Annis. “How can you be so thoughtless and wicked as to risk the lives of your men and Lord Gyrfalon’s men over one small and insignificant woman who does not require your rather dubious gallantry? I suspect your motives, Lord Falk, that you find my superficial resemblance to this Alys fill your thoughts with ideas that are not based at all on logic or indeed Christian charity; but on your own personal wishes.”
He looked at her gravely.
“It is true that your resemblance to my murdered wife fills my heart with grief; remembered grief and grief for you. But I assure you that it is the principle of the matter as much as your person, Lady Annis.”
“What, you drag the church knights to prevent any marital alliance you personally dislike? You must be very busy” mocked Gyrfalon.
Falk gave him an angry look.
“As you may hear, Lady Annis, Gyrfalon chooses to misinterpret my words,” he said.
“Ah? Then perchance, my Lord you will be kind enough to explain to a poor stupid woman that know nothing of the more tortuous workings of a church knight’s mind what the principle might be, for in sooth, as Lord Gyrfalon said, so too your words seemed to mean to me,” said Annis.
He wasn’t as fun to fence with as Gyrfalon; he was far too earnest. It was almost unkind to tease him.
“I mean that it is the principle that I must oppose the plans and machinations of Gyrfalon, that he must ever need to manipulate those that cross his path. I am quite certain that you do not know what you have got yourself into. You will be rescued, be assured, and Gyrfalon will one day die at mine hands. There is no necessity to sacrifice yourself.”
Annis swung round to Gyrfalon.
“Is it your fault?” she demanded “Did you perchance drop him on the head when he was a baby?” She added tartly.
Gyrfalon grinned.
“No, he has developed his pigheaded narrow vision all alone; acquit me of any involvement in that,” he said.
“You left out rude enough to tell me I’m stupid that I not know what I get myself into,” said Annis. “Your brother has no manners, my lord; but as you have none either I suppose that I might blame on you.”
Gyrfalon chuckled as she turned and stalked out on that parting shot.
“She doesn’t like you, brother,” he said “Excuse me; I should really catch up with my betrothed in case any of your men offer her insult,” and he swung off after Annis.
Falk found his mouth falling open in outrage at such an imputation!
Brother Michael brought up the rear of the castle party, with a half apologetic nod to Falk. Much against his will, the little priest had seen much to respect in the warlord, and found it difficult to credit stories of a cruel temper. He had, after all, only the evidence of his own senses after the soothing influence of Annis and her salves. And though the warlord had seemed to handle the lady roughly during the parley, Father Michael saw no evidence that she in any way objected. He had noted how lightly that the warlord had truly held the girl’s plait that she might twitch it from his grasp; he had too noted that Annis had leaned towards Gyrfalon for comfort over Marfey. And though his words had been harsh, his hand on her arm had been steadying and almost caressing. He was a man of worldly understanding and when Annis, her eyes twinkling, made a comment to Gyrfalon about his intent to manipulate her as Falk had suggested that actually brought a touch of colour to the warlord’s face he nodded wisely. The little priest only hoped that Annis was not beguiled by a physical attraction that he had thought almost palpable throughout Gyrfalon’s handling of her in the parley, and would not find the marriage disastrous.
There was a brief interruption on the way back to the castle; round the side of one of the still-standing peasant huts came a running figure; and Gyrfalon had his sword half out ere he saw it was a young woman, whose face was terrified, dragging with her the sobbing figure of a small boy, scarce breeched, who limped horridly. Some common soldiers were pursuing her, and indeed one of them backhanded the boy out of the way as another grabbed the woman’s gown to pull her down. They were laughing in the cruel way common to all but the most disciplined troops when rape is imminent.
The one who had backhanded the boy dropped with Annis’ knife in his throat and she sprang to pick the child up. The one holding the woman died at Gyrfalon’s hand, and another dropped from one of the warlord’s knives. Annis retrieved her knife whilst keeping her arm about the child as the rabble took in the fact that this was a very pretty girl.
“Get back!”
It was the young knight, Sir Lyall, who had come to stand beside Annis.
“These rabble are not, I take it, yours,” said Annis.
“No lady; they are not. Methinks they belong to Lord Marfey,” he said.
“Ah? Like master, like man,” said Annis. “Though they pursue the woman not her child so not quite … I suspect you’ll be rid of them soon. Lord Falk has lethal ambitions for Lord Marfey, and as we be held up here by your siege I expect he
’ll get him ere Lord Gyrfalon does … little one, what is your name and what goes on? You are a good boy” she added, for the child had dragged a knife from the belt of the man who Annis had slain and stood at bay with it.
“I be Lukat, Mistress; son of Luke the Miller of Staneham” he said “What have died, so ma and me come back to her father’s village.”
“And these rude men then decided to make what they call sport of her I suppose,” said Annis in scorn. “Lord Falk I hear your tread; I trust you will deal with these fellows?”
“Those Gyrfalon has not massacred,” said Falk.
“Excuse me, Lord Falk, I claim this one,” said Annis mildly. “Lord Gyrfalon insists that I carry knives for mine own protection; he had a bit of indiscipline at first ere his men began to be an army. Well. Lukat, you and your mother shall come within and see your grandsire; who if he was alive before these other rabble turned up is so still; for we’ve had no deaths since the siege began.”
“You killed one?” Falk stared.
“He hit the child,” said Annis. “’Whoso placeth a stumbling block in the way of a child, it were better that a millstone be tied around his neck and he be dropped in the deepest ocean’ … I have no millstones to hand and the ocean’s a long way away so I interpreted that rather freely.”
Gyrfalon had cut down several of the rabble; and Foregrim stood, an armoured figure at the sally-port with men behind him, ready to issue out for a rescue. He had heaved the woman roughly to her feet; and beckoned Lyall.
“She will have had a pack; I doubt she had many belongings but they are all she have” he said harshly “Will you bring them here?”
“I will, Lord Gyrfalon,” said Lyall. “I am happy to offer the protection of the church Knights to the woman and child.”
“Somehow I suspect she’d rather have the comfort of her own family, whom she was seeking,” said Gyrfalon. “Is that correct, wife of Luke the Miller?”
She dropped a clumsy curtsey.
“If you please, my lord,” she said. “My name be Loveday, my lord.”
“The girl Loveday have spoken her preference. You look scarce old enough to have a boy that age.”
Falconburg Divided (The Falconburg Series Book 1) Page 14
