Page 48 of The Mercenary

Although he’d never admit it, Guy should have listened to Conrad and taken some of his friend’s men with him. He had dismissed the idea as quickly as he had the earl’s many suggestions that Guy remain in his service. Terric had suggested the same throughout the years, but Guy had always declined.

He did better on his own.

But you’re not alone now. You have a wife.

As they sat in the baron’s solar, he was reminded of how vulnerable that made him. He was glad neither Noreham nor de Chabannes commented on her presence even though it was highly unusual. But without Sabine, he’d have thought nothing of attempting to escape this place should Noreham actually retain him. At worst, he’d pay for bad judgement in a traitor’s jail, perhaps even with his life. But now there was a fate much worse than that.

The possibility that Sabine might be subjected to the same.

He tried not to glare at de Chabannes for having put him in this situation. The man was loyal to one person. Himself. Even so, Guy still did not believe he would have told Noreham of the order’s hope to send the company back to France.

“You worked with him once?” Noreham asked, sitting back in his chair. The baron was known to control the nearby port, which was sometimes used for the king’s transport. He’d assumed the man would be much older, but Noreham was close to him in age. Not yet thirty.

Aside from the few facts Conrad had given him, Guy knew little else about this man, including how he’d inherited such a stronghold so young.

“I did,” he said, “many years ago.”

“You must have been quite young?”

Guy could say the same but did not.

“Aye. My father joined Bande de Valeur when I was just ten and two.”

“He is a mercenary as well?”

“Aye.”

He was giving no more information than he received.

“So how did you come to be under Lord Noreham’s protection?” he asked de Chabannes.

The air, so thick with hidden loyalties and unspoken accusations, shifted slightly. Somehow, it had become even denser.

“I believe Lord Noreham would be better able to answer your question.”

Unfortunately, the lord in question was looking at his wife. It was not the first time that eve he’d done so, though Guy very much wished it would be the last. He could not discern if it was interest or something more sinister, but the nuance hardly mattered.

He wanted to pummel the man, and if the baron persisted in his staring, he just might. After all, it was de Chabannes he needed to persuade, not this supporter of a corrupt king.

“I had the land,” Noreham said, his eyes darting between Guy and Sabine.

“And did our king give you a reason for their arrival?”

He may have gone too far. By the expressions of every single person in the room, including his wife, his companions certainly seemed to believe so.

But Guy was here to turn the tide of a potential war, and his side would lose if Bande de Valeur stayed. He needed answers.

“He said,” Noreham said carefully, “they were here to ensure peace.”

Or just the opposite.

Guy decided to push further.

“And you believed him?”

Surprisingly, though de Chabannes gasped, which was very unlike the man, Noreham did not flinch. Instead, he turned to Sabine.

“What would you have done, my lady?”