Brides With Blades, page 29
Startled, Kevin was the first one to make his way over to it since he was the closest. He picked the broadsword up and as he curiously inspected it, Ianto spoke.
“That is Gareth de Shera’s sword,” he said.
Kevin looked up at him curiously. “Who is that?”
Ianto grinned. “Lord de Shera’s father,” he said, pointing to the wardrobe. “You wanted to know where his armor was? Now you know. We keep it in there with the old man to watch over it. No one would dare disturb his mad and troubled sleep.”
Kevin grinned because Ianto was. “So that’s where it is.”
“Aye.”
Kevin turned to look at the wardrobe, which was cracked open. “He is listening to us,” he commented. “Mayhap he is not as mad as you think he is. He knew enough that we were speaking of Coventry’s armor.”
“I have often thought that myself,” Ianto replied.
Penelope wasn’t particularly concerned with the mad uncle and the fact that he was listening in on their conversation. She was more concerned with Kevin’s intentions. She was looking at the man quite seriously.
“Why would you volunteer to wear his armor?” she asked. “You do not agree with any of what I am doing.”
He cocked an eyebrow. “Mayhap I do not, but you are going to do it regardless of what I think. I cannot let you do it alone.”
She eyed him doubtfully. “It will make you a target; you know that.”
Kevin nodded. “Of course it will,” he said. “But anyone who wears it will be a target. Who would you have more exposed? Me or one of the teulu?”
She frowned. “Not you,” she said. “Kevin, this is not your fight. If you do this and you are caught….”
She couldn’t finish because they all knew what the penalty was for a Welsh commander to be captured by the English, a penalty made worse if an English knight was caught fighting for the Welsh. Kevin met her gaze steadily.
“I will not be caught,” he told her quietly. “As I said before, I will not let you go into battle alone. Neither will Edward or Thomas, I am guessing. If you go to fight, so do we.”
Penelope shook her head. “But why?” she demanded. “You did not marry Bhrodi de Shera; I did. This is my fight.”
“I do this because we are family,” he said. “If you fight, I fight. It has always been that way.”
Penelope didn’t want to get into a squabble with him, not now. There was so much more to worry about. She looked at Ianto and Ivor and Gwyllim; they seemed to be gazing at her with some trust and perhaps some hope. She would settle for that, at least for now. She knew that full trust would have to be earned and she intended to do just that. For Bhrodi’s sake, she would do her very best.
“When Bhrodi left for Dolbadarn Castle, he left with many of his vassals,” she said. “He said it was around three thousand men. Where are they now?”
Ianto shrugged. “Those who were not killed in the battle at Dolbadarn fled into the hills with Dafydd,” he said. “We were fighting for him, after all. Bhrodi sent most of his men into the mountains with Dafydd, including Bron Llwyd, Bhrodi’s last important vassal.”
Penelope listened carefully. “How many did he come home with? I am sorry that I did not notice. My attention was on my husband.”
As Ianto thought on the numbers returning to Rhydilian, Kevin spoke. “It could not have been more than a couple of hundred,” he said to her. “Edward is seeing to them, as you requested.”
Penelope turned to look at him. “Is my brother still outside with them?”
“He is.”
Penelope sighed faintly as she returned her attention to the teulu. It was clear she was pondering a great many things, including their lack of manpower. After a moment, she shook her head in resignation.
“We cannot fight Edward with only two hundred men,” she said. “He would massacre us. However, if we were to surprise the man or ambush him, we might be more successful.”
Kevin leaned on the table to look her in the eye. “Ambush the king? You could never get close enough to do it.”
Penelope began to chew her lip in thought. She was working on a tactic, a Scots tactic that she had heard her father discuss at times. Move with stealth so that the enemy will not detect you until it is too late. It was an often-used tactic when an army was outnumbered or outmanned. Covert movements worked better than a head-on assault. Aye, she was half-Scots. She could think like one. She had to try.
“Edward’s army is all around Aber, is it not?” she asked Ianto.
The man nodded. “It is,” he replied. “He has a massive encampment about three miles south of the village. He has reinforcements from Rhuddlan and Caernarfon.”
“How many men does Edward have with him?”
“Thousands.”
Penelope continued to think on that information, her mind working. “Kevin,” she said, “when is an army the most vulnerable?”
Kevin considered her question. “When they are eating,” he said. “Or sleeping.”
She turned to look at him. “Exactly,” she said firmly. “When they are sleeping. What… what if we infiltrate their camp before dawn and try to create as much chaos as we can, burning tents and destroying their corrals so their horses will bolt? If we do this, do you think it will give the Welsh enough time to secure their position against the English? Do you think it would give Dafydd more opportunity to escape Edward?”
Kevin looked at her, his brow furrowed in doubt. “Why would you do something like that?” he asked. “Why not simply find where the Welsh prince is hiding and join his men?”
She grew serious. “Because if we do, they will soon find out that Bhrodi is not among us,” she said. “We must take opportunities to strike in Bhrodi’s name, and mayhap leave some evidence of him, so that the Welsh and English will think he is still actively fighting for Dafydd. That is the whole point of this, isn’t it? To give the illusion that The Serpent is still deadly?”
He was coming to see what she was suggesting, and why. He looked at the teulu commanders. “Will what she is suggesting work?” he asked. “Will it give your prince time to secure his position against Edward?”
Ianto looked to the others. It was clear they were mulling it over. “It is possible,” Ianto finally said. “Dafydd is in the mountains. If nothing else, creating a diversion with the English would give him time to rest and prepare for the next round of battle.”
“Would it be possible to coordinate our ambush on Edward’s camp with an attack from Dafydd?” Kevin wanted to know. “We can attack Edward from two sides.”
Ianto shook his head. “We do not know exactly where Dafydd is,” he said. “It could take days or even weeks to contact him, and Edward will continue to hound him during that time. He may even capture Dafydd. If we infiltrate and burn Edward’s camp as Lady de Shera suggests, it will disrupt the English and their momentum. Our only hope would be to do enough damage so it would delay them significantly or, even better, cause them to pull away from Aber.”
“Then you are in favor of ambushing Edward’s encampment with what men we have left?”
“Aye,” Ianto said, sounding hopeful. “The sooner we do it, the better. Edward grows stronger by the hour. We must weaken him as much as we can.”
Kevin looked at Penelope, who gazed back at him with a rather confident expression. “Then we must gather the men and prepare for our attack,” she said, returning her attention to the teulu commanders. “Do we have enough horses for this purpose?”
Ianto was thoughtful. “We took most of them with us, but we can gather more horses from the villagers,” he said. “It is possible we can collect what we need.”
Penelope was seized with their future plans and what needed to be done. Already, she was thinking ahead and mentally preparing for the onslaught. She was preparing to take on the very man who had sent her to Wales in the first place, a man whom her father served. Edward had once been her king, but no longer. The moment he broke the treaty with the intention of killing Bhrodi was the moment he ceased to be her monarch. Now, she was Welsh. She was The Serpent’s mate.
It was going to be a very long and very busy night.
“I want you and your commanders to send out men to collect more horses,” she said to Ianto. “Then you will call a meeting of Bhrodi’s remaining men for later on tonight. We will tell them of our plans and we must be prepared to ride out of here just after midnight. It is my intention to attack Edward’s encampment at dawn and disrupt the man as much as I can. For Bhrodi, we must do this, and we must make sure that everyone knows this is Bhrodi’s deed. Everyone must know that this is The Serpent’s strike. On behalf of Wales and on behalf of the cause my husband has fought so hard for, we will make it so.”
There wasn’t much more to be said at that point. The teulu had their orders and they knew what needed to be done. As the men excused themselves from the table, Penelope waited until they had vacated the hall before turning to Kevin.
He was sitting in pensive silence, perhaps pondering what his future would bring. More than Penelope, he found himself in a peculiar situation. What he did, he did for her and no one else. As he was pondering his future as a Welsh rebel, Penelope interrupted his thoughts.
“I want you to leave,” she told him, her voice low.
Kevin’s eyebrows lifted. “What do you mean?”
Penelope crossed her arms stubbornly. “Exactly what I said,” she told him. “You are no longer injured. There is no longer any reason for you to remain here. I want you to take Thomas and Edward, and I want you to all leave. Get out of here before I have you thrown out under guard.”
Kevin wasn’t offended by the command; in fact, he understood it well. He knew why she was doing it.
“You need not worry about us against Edward, Penny,” he said, his voice soft. “We are fully aware of what will happen if we are caught.”
Frightened for her loyal friend and family, Penelope lashed out. “I want you to go,” she said angrily. “Get out, Hage. I do not want you here. I do not want any of you here. I will do this myself and without the three of you hanging over me, questioning my every move.”
“We are not going anywhere.”
“This is not your fight!”
“It is not, but I am fighting it anyway,” he said, standing up from the table. “If you do not like it, then you can try to throw me out yourself but I promise I will not make it easy for you.”
Kevin quit the hall before she could fight with him further, leaving Penelope frightened and fuming. She thought of the burden of command she had assumed, these men who were so loyal to her putting themselves at risk simply to help her. It was a terrible thing to be responsible for so many men’s lives, but it was a burden she would be forced to carry. She felt very strongly that she needed to do this for Bhrodi and for herself, to maintain his legacy, to help his cause, to fight for his country because he would have done the same for her. What was his was now hers, and the two blended seamlessly. Therefore, she would continue his fight. She was going to attack the King of England with her small band of Welsh rebels and she prayed they would all live through it. God help us all, she thought grimly.
She went upstairs to bid her unconscious husband a tender farewell. He wouldn’t know that she was leaving, and that was the way she wanted it.
CHAPTER TWENTY
“I heard rumor that Bhrodi de Shera was injured in battle,” Edward said, studying the cup of wine in his hand. “Would you know anything about that, de Wolfe?”
It was the just before dawn in Edward’s red and yellow tent outside the village of Aber. Three days after Bhrodi’s injury in the church near the edge of town, William was surprised it had taken Edward this long to ask him about it. It was just him, Paris, Kieran, and Edward in the tent. All of the rest of the king’s advisors had gone to bed for the night, trying to catch some much-needed sleep before the onslaught on the morrow. Since he had been anticipating the question, he was ready with an answer.
“I have heard that also,” he said neutrally.
Edward sipped at his wine. “And I was also told that you sent an English knight home two days ago,” he said, turning to look at William. “You would not let anyone see who it was, however. Who was it?”
William met his gaze evenly. “My son.”
“Which son?”
William stared at him a moment before breaking into a humorless smile. “So you are questioning me now, are you? You, who demanded I betroth one of my daughters to a Welsh warlord so you could undermine him? And now you are suspicious of my actions? I find this line of questioning astonishing.”
“Maybe so, but you have not answered my question.”
“And I am not going to if you have no more faith in me than that,” William was growing increasingly agitated. “The only reason I am here is to give you more of a presence in Wales. You want me and my reputation fighting besides you, if for no other reason than to frighten the Welsh knowing that The Wolfe is in their midst. I can just as easily return home and let you fight the Welsh with the host of lesser border commanders you seem intent to surround yourself with. Not one of them is worthy of my attention much less my sword.”
Extremely bold words spoken to the monarch. From anyone else, Edward would not have tolerated it, but coming from The Wolfe, he was apt to take what was dealt to him. Edward had very little respect for most men but he had a good deal of respect for William, like his father had, so he was more than willing to allow such insubordination. After a moment, he grinned and waved the man off as if to ease his anger.
“My apologies, then,” he said, pouring wine into a cup and pushing it in William’s direction. “I simply wanted to know if you’d heard of de Shera’s injury.”
“I told you I had.”
“And I accept that,” he said. “But the man is nowhere to be found and it is presumed he has escaped for home.”
“If I was wounded, that is where I would go.”
Edward nodded slowly, thoughtfully. “As would I,” he agreed. “But if there is truth in the fact that de Shera is wounded, that gives me an idea. This could be the opportunity we have been looking for.”
William didn’t like the sound of that. “What do you mean?”
Edward took a long, deep drink of wine before speaking. “Dafydd is on the run,” he said. “It is only a matter of time before we capture him. Already, my scouts are on his scent and soon we will capture him. With that confidence, I am able to focus my energies elsewhere.”
William and Paris looked at each other. “Where?” William finally asked.
Edward looked at him. “De Shera, of course,” he said. “With de Shera wounded, he will hardly be in a position to defend himself. Tomorrow, you will take a contingent of men to Rhydilian Castle and demand their surrender. Surely your daughter will obey you. If she does not, then you will lay siege to the castle and destroy it.”
William stared at him a moment. Then, his eyebrows drew together in disbelief. “You can honestly give me that command in good conscience?” he asked, incredulous. “Do you really think I will do it?”
“You will do it if you value your life and your property,” Edward said evenly. “I can quite easily strip you of everything.”
“And I can quite easily kill you where you sit and say it was an accident,” William fired back in a soft but deadly tone. “Your ten year old son, Alphonso, can assume the throne with all of your vicious advisors by his side and we can all watch as the country tears itself apart because of their greed. Is that truly what you wish?”
Edward stood up, eyeing William and Paris and Kieran; old men they may be but they were quite capable of carrying out the threat. After a moment, Edward simply shook his head.
“Then we are at quite an impasse,” he said to William. “I want you to go to Wales and force Rhydilian to surrender, but you will not do it because your daughter is in residence there. You won’t do anything I tell you to do. Therefore, since you have refused me, I will simply order another battle commander to ride to Rhydilian and force its surrender. I thought I was doing you a favor by having you accomplish this task, de Wolfe, but I can see that I was mistaken. If that is the case and you will not do what I tell you to do, then you can just take your men and go home. You are more of a hindrance than a help to me here. I do not need you.”
William didn’t have much more to say to that; he knew, one way or the other, that Edward was heading for Rhydilian and all he could think of was riding ahead of the man and warning them. He thought he might even stay and help them fight Edward off, but if he did, he knew that Castle Questing, and Jordan, would be in a great deal of danger. Edward was fully capable of laying siege to his castle and starving out his family. No, he didn’t want that at all. He wasn’t sure what more he could do but one thing was for certain; he didn’t want another commander marching on Rhydilian. He forced down his pride and his anger, trying to present the picture of someone who was not verging on insubordination.
“You do not need to send another battle commander to Rhydilian,” he said after a moment. “If anyone is going to lay siege to the castle, let it be me. My daughter might very well turn it over to me but I doubt she would to anyone else. You must let me try.”
Edward eyed William as if he didn’t believe him but, after a moment, he too relaxed. With a grin, he picked up the cup of wine he had poured for William and handed it to him.
“Of course I will let you try,” he said. “I would like to have the castle intact and you are my best hope for that. Take de Shera alive if you can help it. I have plans for the man.”
William sipped at the wine. “What plans?”
