A Knight's Vow Read Online Free Page B

from her but knew her stubborn pride of old. He
was also profoundly aware of how greatly they had both
changed. When he had left for the Holy Land he was a boy
and she no more than a girl. Now he was a man and she was
very much a woman. Their relationship had changed forever.
A few moments earlier he had been about to mention their
day in the forest, where she had first teasingly called him
“dragon,” a title he had since taken as a battle name for himself and a rallying cry for his men. He longed to thank her
again for saving his life, but he had decided against it in case
such old history embarrassed her.
    Yet he liked the grown-up Alyson very much. Perhaps at
last the time had come when he could woo her properly
when he had dealt with the Fleming and his over-ambitious
neighbor, and when Alyson’s grief at her father’s untimely
death had faded a little. Perhaps with Alyson and her fearlessness he would prove the terrible predictions by Heloise and
his elder sister wrong.
    For now, to spare her more pain, he asked nothing else
about the death of his father. Privately he was relieved that
Lord Robert had granted Alyson and her people sanctuary:
He knew from bitter personal experience that his father was
not usually so charitable. There had normally been a price to
be paid for help from the master of Hardspen.
    Sending up a sad, regretful prayer for his father, with
whom he had never been truly close, Guillelm considered
more basic matters. Battles and men-at-arms were things he
understood and he turned to them almost with relish as problems he could overcome. Were it not for the danger to others
he could almost look forward to the morning.

    “My father held this castle and lands as a vassal of King
Henry. When the old king died, did he swear fealty to Henry’s
daughter, the Empress Maud?”
    “He did-as did many others who are now foresworn, forsaking the empress for King Stephen, simply because Maud
is a woman.”
    Hearing her indignant speech, Guillelm applauded her loyalty but not her sense. “England is a hard realm to rule. It
needs a man,” he said.
    Really, he was her father all over again, thought Alyson, exasperated for the first time with the adult Guillelm. She had
expected him to have shown more vision. “So Stephen demonstrates his kingship by stirring up civil war throughout the
country?” she demanded scornfully. “Setting neighbor against
neighbor, friend against friend-those for Stephen against
those for Maud? Do you know King Stephen is even now besieging Castle Carey, less than thirty leagues from here?”
    The sight of her roused struck Guillelm with a low bolt of
pleasure deep in the pit of his stomach. Her eyes glittered as
she spoke and her natural high color was back, stung into her
cheeks and lips by indignation. Her earlier weariness flung off,
she paced the length of the kitchen floor, his cloak snapping
at her heels. She was so pretty that for an instant he was
tempted to make her angrier than ever, but answered mildly,
“And do Etienne the Bold and Walter of Enford now claim they
are “acquiring” Hardspen as loyal followers of Stephen? That
they will wrest it from Maud’s men and hold it for the king?”
    “Something very like,” muttered Alyson, her light footfalls
making an interesting counter-rhythm with the falling rain outside. She stopped abruptly and turned to him, lifting her head.
The determined, lost look on her face reminded Guillelm of
men he had seen in battle, casting themselves into the thick of
the fray when all hope of victory was lost. It chilled him.
    “What is it?” he asked softly.

    “The day Walter and his troops appeared, I put him and the
Fleming off by begging their leave for us to bury and mourn
your father with all due honors,” she said, twisting the edge
of his cloak between her fingers until she clearly realized
what she was doing and tucked her hands out of sight. “They
left us in peace for