Swords and Shields (Reign of the House of de Winter) Read Free

confusing, and unsettling, leaving her without a clear feeling of security or safety. When she’d entered this chamber, it had been to argue against a planned marriage her grandmother had informed her of, but now that marriage was something greater than anything she could have imagined. You will breed a rebellion. By marrying an English warlord of Edward’s choosing, she would be closer to the English military might than anyone in her family had ever been. Even as the daughter of the Earl of East Anglia, she had never been privy to his plans or even the plans of the king. She had never cared about any of that until she’d come to France. Now, she was to be put in the middle of the chaos, the rebellion of the Scots against the English, the rebellion that was fueled, in part, by the French. By her grandmother. God’s Bones, she felt ill.
    Defiance and resistance left her. With a heavy sigh, one of disbelief, she turned away from her mother and grandmother.
    “You cannot be serious about this,” she said with great angst. “You want to avenge your husband’s death against Edward and… truly, you cannot be serious that I must spy for your foolish cause.”
    “It is not foolish,” Mabelle snapped. “Careful thy tongue, girl.”
    Elizaveta whirled on the woman. “Of course it is foolish!” she replied passionately. “You expect me to spy on a man I am to marry… if I am discovered, he will kill me! Did that not occur to you?”
    Mabelle’s dark eyes narrowed. “You will be a martyr for Scotland and for France.”
    “I do not want to be a martyr!” Elizaveta shot back. “This is your cause, not mine!”
    Mabelle tossed the blanket off of her lap, grabbing her cane and laboring to stand. It was clear that her anger was building. “It is your cause because I say it is,” she snarled. As she began to walk, the cane came up, swinging in Elizaveta’s direction. “You have an obligation to your family, girl. If you resist, I will beat you and put you in a room to reconsider your attitude. Do you understand my meaning?”
    The cane swung at Elizaveta’s head but she easily dodged it. “Beat me all you want,” she said with forced courage, “for I will never agree with your cause.”
    “I do not care if you agree, but you will do as you are told.”
    Elizaveta moved to the other side of the room as grandedame followed her with her cane held up in the air, trying to hit her in the head.
    “If you beat me, no man will want to accept me as a wife,” Elizaveta said, her defiance making a resurgence. “If you disfigure me, I will be worthless.”
    It was a threat against the vile, old woman, who stopped swinging her cane. She came to a halt, regarding her stubborn granddaughter. The child may have been strongly resistant, but Mabelle was more cunning and far more evil. If she could not bully the girl, then she could manipulate her. She had the power.
    “Mayhap that is true,” Mabelle replied after a moment. “And I could do more damage to you if I did not touch you.”
    “What is that supposed to mean?”
    Mabelle cocked a sparse eyebrow. “Those assassins I threatened to send after you could just as easily be turned on your father,” she said. “I know you are fond of him. It would be a pity if something were to happen to him, and then mayhap to you, and the entire East Anglia earldom would go to your mother. It would be mine to do with as I pleased.”
    Elizaveta eyed her grandmother, trying not to let her horror show. “First you threaten me, and now my father,” she said in disbelief. “Is there no end to your wickedness?”
    Mabelle turned away from her. “Are you willing to take the chance that I will harm your father?”
    Elizaveta almost refuted her. The words were on the tip of her tongue. But at the last minute she stopped, knowing that grandedame was, indeed, capable of carrying out the threat. Elizaveta didn’t even bother looking at her mother for help because she knew there would be none.