“Nay,” he murmured, knowing these thoughts unfair to Liath. Hadn’t he heard his wife’s voice in Gent? Hadn’t she cried out to him: “Wait for me, I beg you. Help me if you can, for I’m lost here.”
His anger at his mother had deafened him. He had wanted, and had chosen, to believe the worst. Maybe, if he ever found Liath again, he should wait to hear what she had to say.
“But if you will not have me, what am I to do?” pleaded Marcovefa, still pressed against him.
“My lord prince.”
“Thank God.” He turned away from Marcovefa as his good friend hurried up to him, lamp in hand. “Heribert, you are come at just the right time. See that this woman is given sceattas, enough that she might set herself up in some business if she has any craft, or that she might return to Salia, or dower herself into a convent.”
Heribert raised one eyebrow, but his expression remained grave. “As you wish, my lord prince.” Marcovefa had flinched back at Sanglant’s words, but now she slid closer to Heribert, perhaps thinking to work her wiles on him. Sanglant smiled slightly, then frowned as Heribert went on. “You’d best attend to your brother. There’s trouble.”
It was a relief to climb the steps in the stone tower, the oldest part of the ducal palace, where noble prisoners were kept in a drafty chamber behind a stout door ribbed with iron bands. He had set his own men to guard Ekkehard’s door, knowing they would allow no mischief from folk who might otherwise be eager to harm the four men who had branded themselves as traitors.
“Trouble,” said Sergeant Cobbo, acknowledging him. Everwin, beside him, smiled nervously. “Captain’s inside with the noble ladies.”
“Which noble ladies would that be? Not my sister?” He had visions of Sapientia trying to pulp Ekkehard with her broadsword, but despite his youth Ekkehard was still taller and bigger than his elder sister, having inherited Henry’s height if not yet his breadth.
“Indeed, your sister. And Margrave Judith’s daughter, Your Highness. They’re both angry.”
He laughed curtly, thinking of Marcovefa’s tempting flesh. “And I’m damned thirsty, not having had a drink for far too long. We’ll see who’s most ill-tempered.”
Cobbo opened the door for him. He walked in to find Lady Bertha with four surly looking soldiers at her back and Ekkehard cornered between the hearth and a table by a raging Sapientia.
“It’s your fault!” Sapientia was screaming. “Bayan wouldn’t be dead if not for your treason!” She flung herself on Ekkehard, who raised his arms to protect himself from her fury.
Ekkehard’s three companions were being held back by main force by Sanglant’s soldiers as they tried to come to his aid. One wore linen bound around a head wound. Another’s arm was in a sling. Their dead comrade lay shrouded under a blanket on the chamber’s only bed. Not even Sanglant had dared suggest that the poor boy be given a place in the chapel beside Bayan and the other noble dead.
“My lord prince.” It was clear by the expression on Captain Fulk’s face that he was relieved to see Sanglant.
“Sapientia.” Sanglant crossed the plank floor in a half-dozen strides, grabbed his sister’s shoulders, and pulled her off Ekkehard. “Don’t let your grief for Bayan drive you to anything rash. God, and our father, will see that he is punished for his crimes.”
“I’ll see him hanged!” she cried, but she collapsed, weeping, into Sanglant’s arms, and he beckoned to her attendants, who hastened to her side, pried her off him, and led her away.
Bertha’s soldiers moved aside quickly to let them through, but as soon as Sapientia left the chamber, Bertha herself stepped forward. “What do you suppose King Henry intends to do with a son convicted of treason?”
“I stand as surety for my brother Ekkehard. What he did was wrong, but he’s young and may be forgiven once for being misled.”
“Brother!” Ekkehard threw himself against Sanglant. He still had a youth’s slenderness, no doubt because he was scarcely more than sixteen, but when he wrapped his arms around Sanglant, he held tight enough that Sanglant wheezed before pulling him off.
Bertha smiled. She had the look of her mother, cunning, sharp, and strong, and none of Hugh’s fabled beauty.
“You and your legion fought well in the battle,” added Sanglant.
“And lost a fair number of my good marchlanders,” she replied tartly. “I promised my elder sister Gerberga I’d bring her a reward for the sacrifice we Austrans and our cousins from Olsatia have made to rid Wendar of the Quman scourge. She lost her husband to a Quman raid last winter. And surely you know that Bulkezu himself is rumored to have killed our mother.”
Even a man as unused to intrigue as Sanglant could see where this was leading. “She wants a royal prince as recompense.”
“He’s young,” observed Bertha, looking Ekkehard over with the same cold regard she might reserve for choosing a new horse. “Not to my taste, but I’m sure that Gerberga will feel her loyalty to King Henry has been amply rewarded if she is given his youngest child as her new husband.”
“A rich prize, indeed. Unfortunately, Ekkehard is abbot at St. Perpetua’s in Gent.”
Bertha laughed. “And my bastard brother Hugh is, so they say, a presbyter in Darre, confidant of the Holy Mother. Vows to God may be conveniently put aside if earthly cares demand it. Your sister Sapientia wants to hang the boy for a traitor because she wants to avenge herself on him for Prince Bayan’s death.” A hard woman, she softened for one instant, touching her cheek as though a fly had tickled her. “He was a good man. If you’re a wise one, Prince Sanglant, you’ll convince your sister otherwise. Wendar will suffer if kin kill kin, as this boy should have known. I think my suggestion would serve us all best.”
“We shall speak of this later. Ekkehard will be sent to Quedlinhame meanwhile, to the care of our aunt, Mother Scholastica. I’ll be leading the army out at dawn, to pursue what remains of the Quman.”
Bertha didn’t waste words or energy. She understood the uses of fast action on campaign. “We’ll speak of this later,” she agreed. With a final glance at Ekkehard, she left with her men.
“I-I don’t want to be hanged,” whispered Ekkehard, still clinging to Sanglant’s arm.