Knight Triumphant Read Free Page A

dead because of the sickness brought in by your people!” she cried, trying to wrench her arm free. She could not. She looked at the hand vised around her arm. Huge, long-fingered, covered in mud and earth and . . .
    Blood.
    His grip seemed stronger than steel. Not to be broken. She stood still, determined not to tremble or falter. His face was as muddied and filthy as his hand and tangled blond hair. Only those sky blue eyes peered at her uncovered by the remnants of battle, brilliant and hard.
    He either hadn’t heard her, or he didn’t give a damn. His command of language seemed to be excellent, so she assumed it was the latter.
    â€œHear me again. If my wife dies, my lady, you will be forfeit to the mercy of the Scottish king’s men.”
    â€œMercy? There is no mercy to be had there.”
    â€œAt this point? Perhaps you are quite right. Therefore, you had best save my wife.”
    â€œI, sir, have no difficulty doing anything in my power to save the stricken, though I can assure you—their lives are in God’s hands, and no others. I was forced to leave Langley. I did not go of my own volition.”
    He arched a brow skeptically. “You were willing to serve the plague-stricken and dying?”
    â€œAye, I would have stayed there willingly. I had no reason to leave.”
    â€œYou are the lady of Langley.”
    â€œIndeed.”
    He didn’t seem to care why she would have stayed.
    â€œThen, as you say, it will be no hardship for you to return.”
    â€œWhere I go, or what is done to me, does not matter in the least.”
    â€œYou will save my wife, and my child.”
    She raised her chin.
    â€œAs I have told you, and surely you must understand, their lives are in God’s hands. What, then, if I cannot save them?”
    â€œThen it will be fortunate that you seem to have so little care for your own life.”
    He shoved her forward.
    With no other choice, Igrainia walked.
    Yet her heart was sinking.
    If your wife is among the women stricken, then I am afraid that she has already died! Igrainia thought.
    Because she had lied. She had thought herself immune to fear when she left Langley. Immune to further pain. Now, she was discovering that she did fear for her life, that there was something inside her that instinctively craved survival.
    She wanted to live.
    But if she failed, so he proclaimed, he would break her. That was certainly no less savage than the commands given by Edward in regard to the wives and womenfolk of any man loyal to Robert the Bruce.
    Break her. Bone by bone.
    It was all in God’s hands. But maybe this filthy and half-savage man, no matter how articulate, didn’t comprehend that.
    â€œI will save your wife and child, if you will give me a promise.”
    â€œYou think that you can barter with me?” he demanded harshly.
    â€œI am bartering with you.”
    â€œYou will do as I command.”
    â€œNo. No, I will not. Because you are welcome to lop off my head here and now if you will not barter with me.”
    â€œDo you think that I will not?”
    â€œI don’t care if you do or do not!”
    â€œSo the lord of Langley is dead!” he breathed bitterly.
    â€œIndeed. So you have no power over me.”
    â€œBelieve me, my lady, if I choose, I can show you that I have power over you. Death is simple. Life is not. The living can be made to suffer. Your grief means nothing to me. It was the lord of Langley who imprisoned the women and children.”
    She shook her head. “You’re wrong! So foolishly wrong! What care they received was by his order. Those who will live will do so, because he commanded their care. And he is dead because of the wretched disease brought in by your women and your children.”
    â€œNone of this matters!” he roared to her.
    She ignored his rage, and the tightening vise of his fingers around her arm.
    She stared at his hand upon her, and then into his eyes, so