The Robber Knight's Love (The Robber Knight Saga #2)(108)

“I…I think that the siege is going very well,” she babbled. “Our brave warriors are doing a wonderful job defending us. It is strange that my husband should dare to defy your authority, Milady, while you are so obviously close to triumphing over your enemies and gaining a complete victory over…”

“Horse shit!”

“What?” Startled, the woman looked up at the knight.

“I said,” he repeated, “that is horse shit! We are about to be overrun. We barely survived the last attack. The enemy has ten times as many soldiers as we do, they are better rested and better equipped. Your husband's decision to betray his liege-lady may have been many things—despicable, immoral, cowardly—but it certainly was not strange. In fact, it was the normal thing to do. Because for those of us who are steadfast and stand by our oaths, it looks like we're all going to die!”

Madalena didn't reply anymore. All she could do was lie on the floor and cry. The sight pierced Ayla's heart. To heck with Reuben's preachings about the fine art of maneuvering and manipulating people! She was not going to let that poor woman suffer any longer. She would end this now!

Carefully, she took hold of the woman's shivering hands and pulled her up into a kneeling position.

“What Sir Reuben says is true enough.” Her voice was gentle now, gentle and warm. “But…what if there were some way to avoid death? Not just for me and him and you, I mean. What if there were a way for your husband to redeem himself and live?”

Madalena's hand contracted convulsively around Ayla's fingers. “Milady? Milady, are you in earnest?”

“In complete earnest,” Ayla responded, her face showing no trace of bad humor or deception. “There is a way by which your husband can regain his honor. Nobody but five or six guards so far knows of his betrayal. They can be sworn to secrecy. I will not divulge anything, and neither will these men here. Your husband can walk through the castle again, his head held high. He can watch his children grow up, and they can be proud of him as children should of a father. We can all be saved, and the army of the Margrave will be gone forever.”

“What is it?” The woman demanded, breathless. “What is this miraculous way? Oh, Milady, he will do anything, I swear it! If he can regain his and his family’s honor, he will do anything!”

Ayla pressed her hands, looking deep into her eyes.

“Really?” She lifted an enquiring eyebrow. “Anything?”





On the Wall

Distant thunder disturbed the quiet of the night. Ayla shivered in the cold wind that was blowing clouds in from the east and stepped nearer to Reuben to be closer to his warmth.

“Tonight, a storm is coming,” she muttered.

“Yes.” Reuben nodded grimly. “But then, we already knew that, didn't we? After all, we're the ones who've set it loose.”

Ayla shivered again, though this time it wasn't from the cold. Of course he was right. There was another storm coming, besides the one in the sky, and that one would be by far the more ferocious one. And the first lightning bolt had already been lit.

There he is!

With trembling hands, she watched as the lone figure of Hans crossed the courtyard, a flaming torch in hand. At the gates, he paused a final time to turn around and look up at the wall.

Was he looking at her, she wondered? It was nonsense to think so, of course. He couldn’t see her. He couldn’t see anything up here on the wall, as dark as the night around them was. But she could see him.

She would dearly have liked to know what thoughts were going through his mind. Would he do as he had sworn to do? A part of her laughed at her naiveté. He was a traitor! Why should he care about sworn oaths? Another part of her simply hoped.

“If that miserable little worm betrays us again, I'll chop him into a hundred pieces,” Reuben growled, and a smile flitted across Ayla's face. Of course, there was always a third part in her that was too busy thinking of Reuben to do anything else.

“He won't,” she said with more confidence than she felt.

“Oh really? And how do you know that?”

“I'm just sure.” Though she wasn't. Not really.

“We could have been sure,” he said harshly. “We could have made sure he would do as we told him to do, if you'd only listened to me. If we'd used the three as—”

“No!” Ayla cut him short in a tone of voice that would brook no argument. Amazingly, it actually worked. Reuben shut his mouth. “I will not have women and children taken hostage in my castle, even if they are the family of a traitor. It is barbaric!”

“It is a tried and tested tactic of war,” he mumbled defiantly.

“Then tactics of war are barbaric.”

Reuben looked at her as if she'd lost her mind. “Of course they are! They're about war, which means they are about killing people!”

Ayla raised her chin, meeting his incredulous stare head-on. “I still won't condone it.”

Reuben growled with frustration. Then he suddenly swept his arm up and drew Ayla close to his side.

“You are the most wonderful woman on earth!” he snarled into her ear. “If anybody ever says different, tell me. I'll cut their throats where they stand!”

Ayla felt a warm glow grow inside her that was more than sufficient to chase the cold away. She clung to Reuben, desperately seeking to prolong their contact when she knew that, soon, he had to leave, and she might never see him again.