Knight's Honor Read Free Page A

over a long period, for his eyes, old in the experience of men, saw something haunted behind the usual madcap gaiety of his young friend.
    Hereford had returned to where Gaunt stood, his eyes dark and his fine brows drawn together in a worried frown. "My lord, I cannot do it."
    Gaunt prevented his mouth from dropping open with an effort and allowed an expression of contempt to creep over his usually wooden face. "Does that mean you are afraid to undertake the work, that you are incapable of doing so, or that you are unwilling to do so?"
    Flushing bright red and biting at his mouth, Hereford swallowed hard. He had learned most painfully to repress the hot retorts that rose to his lips. "It means exactly what I said, no more, no less. I cannot undertake that burden." Hereford threw out an appealing hand. "Nay, Lord Gaunt, do not torture me. You know I would give the eyes out of my head and the soul out of my body to lead that force, but my lands cannot support the charges of such an army. I would be beggared and they would be starving in one short moon, and you know how that would end. They would take to raiding and I—I would be one more outlaw baron tearing the body of the land that gave him birth for no purpose. Radnor might do it if you allowed him to draw on your purse as well as his own, but I—" he swallowed his disappointment. "—I cannot do it."
    Gaunt's face cleared as though by magic, and he began to laugh. "The boy grows into a man and considers before he leaps. Well done, Roger. But what sort of people have you been consorting with who would ask you to bear the burden of leading an army and in addition expect you to pay the costs of the force."
    Hereford's eyes came alive with excitement. "People!" He gesticulated an impatient dismissal of the dealings he had had in the past two years. "But who—?"
    "William of Gloucester is perfectly willing to bear the major cost so long as he is awarded the major portion of the spoils. To a limited extent Cain and I will help—not with the revenues from our own lands, that is not consistent with our oath to Stephen, and although I have come very close of late to being forsworn, I will not yet go so far. But Cain has three wardships now and what we do with the income from those lands, so long as it is to the eventual benefit of the child, is our own affair. If you provide for those men you yourself bring, no more will be asked of you—except to win the battles you engage in."
    Forgotten were chilblained feet, cold, and discomfort. Roger of Hereford, poised in the quivering alertness so characteristic of him, laughed without merriment. "At least you may be sure I will not be there to be reproached if I do not. A man who does not win when given such a chance deserves to die."
    Shaking his head, Gaunt replied, "I should not have said that. You will not always be a free agent, you know, Hereford. This early action will be part of a larger plan and there will be times when it will be necessary to take a calculated defeat."
    "A larger plan? What plan can there be but to defeat Stephen and wrest the throne from him?"
    Gaunt raised a hand. "Curb your tongue, Roger. Servants are not deaf-mutes. Can you not seethey are setting up for dinner?"
    Hereford’s eyes widened and he lowered his voice. "Are we not safe here? Devonshire is surely with us."
    "Ay and nay. Personally, yes, but he has great interests and wide connections. Which is why he is not here to speak to you. Anyway it is never safe to trust another man's servants and not too safe to trust your own with everything. Just keep your voice down and watch carefully for any man who lingers overlong in our vicinity."
    "Very well," Hereford replied impatiently, but in a still lower tone. "But what plan? Are we not to seat Henry on the throne?"
    "Ay, in the long run, but to depose Stephen is not enough. All we will have is the same trouble over again except that we of the west will fight for the king and the south and east against