Rose Victory - Eagle Series (18 page)

“God knows I do not want to do this.”  Real regret and frustration
could be heard in the king’s voice but it remained firm and steady.  “An earl of Eagle Rock will marry the princess, be it your lord or not.”

This time Stefan could not disguise his alarm, he didn’t even
attempt it.  “You would take his earldom, his lands?”

“
With deep regret, Sir Stefan, but doubt not that I would do it if he forces me to.  I will have that alliance.”  The king’s voice came across hard, cold and totally convincing.  Henry had no doubt that the knight believed him, yet he bluffed.  He had been sincere when he had told the boy that he would not harm his father.  He would try to get his way by all means possible but he would stop short of debasing his most loyal earl.

“I feel that I have an ally in you Sir Stefan,” Henry continued.  “I know
Mountroi has no valid reason to deny me, or he would have informed me of it in no uncertain terms.  As his friend convince him of the merits of this marriage,” the king paused letting his message sink in.  “And of the disadvantages, should he choose to oppose me.”

Stefan nodded stiffly, his eyes now clearly condemning his callous and ungrateful monarch.  After all the service and loyalty that Roydon had given this man, this
was the thanks he got!  Yet a little voice in his head argued that what the king offered would be considered a great honour by most men.  “Have I your leave to see him?” Both his words and the tone of his voice came across curt and discourteous.

Henry raised an eyebrow but made no comment.  “You will be allowed to see him.  However I will require a decision from the earl by tomorrow morning.”  The
king’s voice, flat and determined, strongly suggested that there be no further discussion on the matter.

Stefan nodded again, but refrained from speaking.  Anger boiled inside him at both the
king, for trying to force his friend and at Roydon for being so stubborn and obstinate in refusing the honour the king conferred on him. All this for a woman he had seen but once ten years ago.

“Escort Sir Stefan to the
River Tower and inform the guards that he has my permission to visit with the earl.”  Henry turned away from his bodyguard to regard the knight.  “Do you need your wound seen to before you go to your lord?”

Stefan glanced at the forgotten cut on his left
arm, which he had previously bandaged with a cloth.  The wound seemed to have stopped bleeding, though the white cloth was partially tainted a dull red.  “Nay, it’s only a scratch, Sire.”  Stefan tried to swallow his anger.  “I would like to see Roydon now.”

“As you wish,” Henry nodded at the soldier beside him.  “
Escort him to the earl of Eagle Rock.”

Roydon had been pacing for hours.  He had been here three days, yet it seemed like weeks since he had arrived at the Tower.  Angrily he flung himself on the bed and stared up at the ceiling.

A ceiling whose cracks and spots he had counted a hundred times already in an effort to remain sane, in an effort to stop his thoughts from going round and round in circles.  If he could only stop thinking for a moment!  Restlessly the earl got up from the bed and started pacing again in the small area available.  His chamber…his cell was not uncomfortable.  The bed, although a bit small for his stature, was adequate and supplied with blankets.  A brazier at the foot of the bed kept the small room warm and rushes covered the cold stone floor.  A tiny table, a chair and a stool made up the rest of the furnishings.

Even a bath had been brought to him the first night
he had spent here.  And some of his clothes, those had also been brought, which made Roydon think that he might be here a long time.  The room had no windows, so he could only tell of the passing of time by the arrival of his meals.  The soldiers who brought him his food also kept him supplied with candles and water for washing and shaving.

It was a comfortable prison, but a prison none the less.  He had tried talking to the soldiers but there had been no response.  Apart from that first night when the man had whispered, ‘Your son is fine, my lord’, he had heard no other voice but his own.  His jailer
s treated him with respect and obliged him in any small request he made, like supplying him with parchment and writing implements, to try and distract himself.

The first evening here he had been too devastated, too impotently angry at the
king to think straight.  That fate had again conspired to force the same decision on him; to marry or lose Eagle Rock, seemed unbelievable, unreal.

The second day, he had truly thought that Henry would relent when he realized that Roydon would not back down.  The
king would be incensed with him but he would find someone else to marry the princess.  His liege had a soft spot for him; he had always served loyally and without reserve.  Henry would not take his title, his lands. 

But today, as the day had slowly crawled by, his certainty had
waned with the setting sun.  He no longer felt sure of the king’s intentions.  Henry was a strong and determined ruler, it was why Roydon respected and admired him, why he had put his life at risk so many times for him.  Henry had brought peace, stability and prosperity to his country.  Being the man he was Henry was entirely capable of sacrificing one of his earls, in spite of himself, for the good of his country.

The
thought called into question his own loyalty.  Did his failure to comply with the king’s wishes show disloyalty?  Surely not, it was a marriage he refused to take part in, not a battle.  Someone else could easily take his place, yet the thought persisted and he knew deep down that he was incapable of ultimately defying his liege lord, even if no threat were involved.

Then the reason why he refused the
king’s command would start tormenting him.  Was he a fool to wait for his Eagle Lady? A fool to expect her to appear after ten years?  His mind said yes, yet his heart would not abandon hope.  One day she would return, she had promised him.

But to what
would she return?  If Henry did strip him of his lands, he would have no home, no mountain.  And then there was Aguilus.  What would become of his son?

Roydon sat on his bed again, his pounding head cradled in his hands.  He had come full circle in his thoughts
, again.  He needed a distraction, anything to stop his thoughts, if only for a moment.

A knock at the door
brought the earl surging to his feet.  He straightened his clothing and settled a calm and serious expression on his face.  The knock probably heralded the arrival of his jailor with his evening meal, but a welcome distraction for all that.  The man always knocked and then waited for leave to enter, for which small courtesy Roydon was grateful.  It gave him a sense of control, false though he knew it to be.

“Enter!”

The soldier jailor came in, but he had no platter of food in his hands, instead a small smile creased his normally expressionless face.  “You have a visitor, my lord.”

For a moment the words did not register, that the guard actually spoke distracted him, then the words hit and the reserved, closed look on his face cracked.  An e
ager smile and the increase in his heartbeat demonstrated just how desperately he needed companionship, someone to talk to.  How much he missed Ivan’s quiet presence and Stefan’s challenging conversations and inane sense of humour.  But most of all he missed his son’s constant chatter, his never ending questions, his presence.

Roydon got a grip on himself
, he nodded gravely, the smile now only a slight tilting of his lips.   “Then by all means, show him in.  A little conversation would be welcome.”  Welcome! Ha!  He starved for outside information and it had only been three days.  Did this mean that the king had relented?

The soldier’s smile widened at the earl’s
obvious pleasure in being allowed a visitor.  He had done what he could, within his orders, to make the nobleman’s stay as comfortable as possible.  The earl of Eagle Rock was a legend to most soldiers.  He didn’t know why the king had imprisoned him here but it wasn’t right.  “Ah, here he is.”  The man moved out of the doorway.  “Sir Stefan, my lord.”

The knight strode into the chamber.   A frown
appeared on his face as he looked at the earl and then slowly surveyed the room.  “And here I thought they were keeping you in a damp, empty cell.”  A grin threatened to break through Stefan’s fake scowl as he looked back at his friend.  “Do you know how difficult it is to get to see you?”

“It’s good to see you too
, Stefan,” Roydon grabbed his friend’s right arm in greeting.

The knight dropped all pretence as he heard the door close behind him and the bolt slammed home.  “How are you,
Roy?  You look exhausted.”

“I am
fine.  Just haven’t been sleeping well.”  The earl’s pallid countenance and the dark shadows under his eyes certainly gave testimony to the fact.  “How is Aguilus?”

“He is well, none the worse after the incident, but he misses
…”  Stefan damned his loose tongue when he saw the alarm flare in his friend’s eyes.

“What incident?” the earl snapped.

“The boy is fine, Roy, truly.  He just had a…a little confrontation with your horse.”  Stefan tried to diffuse the fear that rose in Roydon’s eyes. 

“How?”  The earl demanded gripping the back of the chair that stood beside him.

Stefan saw no reason not to tell, the boy had come out unharmed after all.  “He jumped into Black’s stall in an attempt to…”

“He
jumped
into my warhorse’s stall!”  The earl’s anger exploded across the small room and Stefan nearly ducked in reaction.  Roydon had really lost it this time; his hand actually crunched through and splintered the wood in his hand.  “And where were you, while my son stood in mortal danger?”

Sir Stefan blanched and fell back a step.  Even though he knew it to be his friend’s fear and anger that spoke, still the accusation of neglect hurt.

Roydon realised the unfairness and cruelty of his words the moment they spilled from his lips, but it was too late to call them back.  The anger drained out of him.  “Stefan, forgive me.  I did not mean that.  Truly it was my anger speaking.  My impotence at being unable to protect him, that spoke.”  The earl laid a hand, nicked and cut from the chair’s splinters, on his friend’s shoulder.  “Please, forgive me.  I know you would protect Aguilus with your life.  You love him as I do.”

Stefan nodded curtly and relaxed.  “There is nothing to forgive. 
But you are definitely going to have to do something about that temper of yours before it gets you into trouble.”

Roydon smiled ruefully.  “Henry said the same thing.”

“You lost your temper with the king?”  Stefan shook his head incredulously at his friend.  “But to answer your question,” he continued ignoring Roydon’s attempt to stop him.  “At the time Aguilus was jumping into Black’s stall, or shortly before that, I was on my knees in front of the king with two swords at my throat and a pike through my arm.  I was trying to get Henry’s attention.”  Now it was Stefan who smiled ruefully at the earl.  “I got it too!”

“You are wounded?” 
Concern clouded Roydon’s eyes.

The knight waved his arm
in dismissal, his right arm. The other, Roydon noticed now, was concealed under his cloak and he hardly moved it at all.  “It’s only a scratch, nothing to worry about.  The important thing is that the king stopped to speak to me.”

“You accosted the
king while accompanied by his full guard?”  An expression of incredulity now adorned Roydon’s face.   “Are you mad, Stefan?  We train those men to attack first and ask questions later!”

“I know, but I couldn’t get to you and that remained the only way I could get to the
king.  We had no idea why you had been arrested.  We were getting worried and Henry was the only person who could tell us.  Nobody else knows anything.  Thankfully two men of the bodyguard recognised me.”  The knight shrugged and winced as the movement jarred his arm.  “The pike man did not.”

“You are lucky to be alive, Stefan.”  Roydon paused, unsure how to express his gratitude to his friend for standing by him
, for being there for him.  “Thank you, my friend,” he said quietly at last, conscious of Stefan’s steady gaze daring him to say more.

“After a moment, Henry invited me to walk to the stables with him,”
continued the knight completely ignoring the earl’s words. “That is when I saw Aguilus disappear into Black’s stall.”

“Why would he do something like that, Stef?  He is not wilfully disobedient and he had specific instructions not to go near Black without me.”  Roydon raked a hand through his already mussed hair.  “I should have been there.”

“Yes you should.”  Stefan did not mince his words.  “But we will speak of that later.  Aguilus went into the stall to save the page.”  Then he went on to tell the earl exactly what had happened at the stable.  Roydon moved to sit on the chair as he listened, his emotions clearly reflected on his face.  Fear at the danger, pride for the courage, and irritation at the boy’s discourtesy to the king mingled with respect for his son’s loyalty to him.  Then finally discouragement at Henry’s dismissal of his hopes and anger at the king’s insistence that the marriage take place and the threatened consequences.

When he had finished, Stefan sat
on the stool across the table from his friend.  For a long moment he kept silent, allowing the earl to dwell on his words.  Only when Roydon looked up at him and he saw the uncertainty, the despair in his eyes did he speak.

“I
do not like seeing you like this, Roy.”  Stefan spoke quietly, simply, his hands flat on the table.  “I did not tell the king about your lady.  You know perfectly well how I feel about that, but that is beside the point now.  Facts are what matter.  Your son’s wellbeing is what matters.”  Stefan paused to gather his thoughts but the earl made no attempt to speak, he just stared at his friend as if willing him to continue.

“I am sorry,
Roy.  I really do believe that Henry will carry out his threat if you continue to defy him.  You might give everything up for nothing.”  Stefan lowered his voice, sympathy and irritation both present in his tone.  “It’s been ten years Roy, how much longer are you going to wait?”  The knight did not expect or wait for an answer.

“For the almost non-existent
possibility that the lady will return, you are willing to throw away your future, your lands and your children’s future.  True, it is unlikely that you can make Aguilus your heir, but as his lord you can give him lands, a holding, protection.  Marry and give him a brother to inherit yes, but also to protect him when you are gone.

“The
king admires you, Roy and he respects you.  You are one of the very few people that he trusts, but he is angry enough with you at the moment to carry out his threat and then Aguilus will have nothing.”

The earl continued to look intently at Stefan, his brow now f
urrowed in thought.  At least he seemed to be listening to his friend’s words.

“Bend to the
king, Roy.  Marry the princess, try and get Henry to listen to your petition for Aguilus, bargain with him, he needs your cooperation.” Stefan took a deep breath.

“This is not the same situation as with your wife.  Lady Emma and her dowry brought salvation to Eagle Rock and I know that you felt honour bound to give her your fidelity.”  At the earl’s sharp glance, Stefan smiled slightly.  “You are that kind of man Roy,
you cannot help it.  But this time it’s different, this is a political marriage, a marriage of convenience.  No one would expect you to be faithful to your wife, not even her.  So if your lady did return, unlikely though it seems, you could take her as your leman.  It is an honourable position, Roy, common and accepted in noble households.”

Sir Stefan had nothing left to say.  It now remained the earl’s decision to make
.  “The king has given you till tomorrow morning, Roy.”  Stefan’s shoulders slumped.   “I don’t know what else to say; how to help you.  Know only that whatever you decide, you’ll not be rid of me.  I enjoy prodding and pestering you too much, my friend.”