By Right of Arms Read Free Page A

walls faced desperate peril?
    “Fetch Perrine,” Guillaume commanded over his shoulder, holding Aurélie upright, trying to give strength. The command from the seneschal was sobering. She knew Guillaume called for her woman to have her taken away and tended, and however grieving her heart, she meant to command her walls until they were hers no longer.
    “Why does this bastard knight delay his attack?” she asked the messenger.
    “He says his armies are well paid and he does not wish to break down his own walls to have his booty. He stabbed the ground with his sword and promised that if the gate does not open to him when the shadow cast by his sword is gone, he will take the castle. He bade me hurry the message that the choice of life or death is yours, my lady.”
    “Guillaume …”
    “By God’s bones, I would rather die on the English blade than abide his chains,” the seneschal growled.
    “How many would you sacrifice?” she asked him in a whisper.
    “How do we know the vermin will allow us life if we lay down our arms and bid him welcome?” the knight retorted hotly.
    Aurélie loved Guillaume well and had known and trusted him for over a decade. He was a wise and noble man who would not lightly abuse the men entrusted to him. But he was proud as well and could not easily give over this domain.
    In truth, Guillaume was more the knight of the old Sire and had suffered in trying to serve the young, religious heir. He had never before faced a choice such as this.
    “You saw for yourself, Sir Guillaume. They have a greater force than we. And ours are dead or captured.”
    “Do we believe him then, my lady?” he asked in a voice heavy with sarcasm.
    “Do you see our men-at-arms?” she countered.
    They looked at each other for a long moment. Aurélie could not find reason in the knight’s eyes and he could not find the power for war in the soft blue of hers. Yet, of all the people housed in De la Noye, these two were by far the bravest. Guillaume had served here for over thirty years, ever since he was a young and hot-tempered warrior. Aurélie, having come to this place as a child bride, had learned to be the strong ruler her sensitive and cowardly husband was not. Although she had a gentle tongue and graceful step, she moved quickly through this massive keep to see her quietest command followed or her punishment meted out.
    Aurélie turned to the messenger. “Go again to the English swine and ask him for the full measure of his shadow, so that the Sire de Pourvre’s widow might hear a mass for her husband’s soul. Tell him I request this above any civil retirement he offers. If he has not the honor to allow me this brief mercy, let him attack and win De la Noye at the cost of some of his men.” And in a quieter voice, she added, “If Giles is dead, the wall is
mine.”
    The man nodded and mounted his horse again. Aurélie raised her arm to the guard, giving her consent to open the doors again.
    “My lady, I know your grief is deep, but a mass for Sir Giles could …”
    “Sir Guillaume, my lord husband might wish a mass and my mourning in lieu of every other thing, but we cannot oblige him this time. Come and let us quickly ready the hall. Our time is short and I will not see that English snake slither about my halls in my husband’s linen. We must burn his accounts and clothes and hide what little money there is. Give your men their orders to hold the gate against the Englishman until we are ready.”
    “And you will bid him enter, lady?”
    “You will forgive me one day, dear Guillaume. I cannot waste more life in a futile battle that will only reduce our beloved De la Noye to ashes. The Black Prince has left naught but rubble and death in his path and he will not cease. Yea, I will invite the devil in, but I do not surrender yet. If but one of us is left alive, he will find his new conquest more a burden than a prize.”
    * * *
    The castlefolk somberly moved through the tasks that were assigned