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‘May I see it?’ Brand held out his hand.
The boy dropped it into his palm. Brand silently blessed the boy. He didn’t need to ask whose this brooch was. He had seen it enough times pinned to different cloaks, over the past ten years. He could even remember when Hrearek purchased it. He grasped it tightly, the clasp biting into his palm as surely as the betrayal bit into his soul. He wanted to shout in rage. He should have seen the difficulty weeks ago, but he had chosen to ignore the pointed remarks and the needling.
‘You say you have never been in the stables, Hrearek?’
‘He said never, my lord!’ one of Hrearek’s close friends called out. ‘It is good enough for me. A member of a felag would never lie to his leader.’
‘Unless he intended on challenging for the leadership,’ Brand said quietly. ‘Do any of you wish to challenge?’
Brand waited for Hrearek to make a noise, but his sokman was silent, looking anywhere but at him. His stomach twisted. Hrearek’s hesitation sealed his fate. It had to be done, but it didn’t mean that he had to enjoy it.
‘What did you say the perpetrator should have happen to him, Hrearek? Refresh my memory!’
‘Flogged with a hundred lashes,’ Godwin supplied.
‘I said that she should be flogged. Aye!’ Hrearek’s eyes blazed defiantly.
‘Can you explain why Godwin discovered your brooch in the stables?’ Brand thrust the brooch under Hrearek’s nose.
‘I...I...’
‘You thought you’d teach me a lesson, maybe? You believed that you should be the one who had the honours, is that right? You rather than me should have become the leader of the felag after Sven’s death and should have been made an earl?’ Brand felt righteous anger surge through him. Hrearek had a few things to learn if he was going to challenge for the leadership.
Hrearek’s tongue flicked out. ‘I don’t know what to say. You are an able leader, Brand. I would never challenge you. You know that. We go back to Constantinople.’
A sense of disgust and disappointment filled Brand. No, he would never challenge directly. Instead he would seek to undermine his leadership with little jokes and pranks and then step in when some other man had challenged him. The treachery of it all made him sick to his stomach.
‘But I do!’ Brand tossed the brooch at Hrearek’s feet. ‘What is the punishment for a man who breaks his solemn oath?’
‘Death!’ All of his men uttered as one, rapping their swords against their shields.
‘Perhaps, Hrearek, I misheard you. Why were you in the stables? Or are you going to deny that brooch is yours?’
Hrearek fell to his knees. His face showed craven cowardice and fear. ‘Please, by Thor’s hammer, I didn’t mean any harm. It was done in drink. A silly joke. I thought you’d find it amusing. I was about to say something when the lad spoke up. You must believe me.’
He gave a hollow laugh. No one else joined in.
‘A joke, Brand. Don’t tell me you have lost your sense of humour!’ Hrearek made a gesture of supplication. ‘Surely you haven’t lost your famous sense of humour? I know you have played jokes before. We both have. No one was hurt. Come on, man. Lighten up.’
Brand struggled to control his temper. He wanted to rip Hrearek’s head from his shoulders. Who did he think he was, behaving in such a fashion? But he couldn’t run the man through. He had to think of this as a game of tafl. One false move and he could lose everything.
‘No, you meant for me to distrust the Northumbrians. You meant for me to punish an innocent. You proclaimed the Lady Edith’s guilt and demanded a punishment of public flogging.’ Brand slammed his fists together and regained control of his temper. ‘All because you were not able to bed a woman last night. You have dishonoured the felag. That much is clear. I have no use for a warrior who cannot keep his vows and seeks to take petty revenge.’
Hrearek went white and the men who had stood closer to him when he’d swaggered into the yard fell away as if he were diseased. Brand did not look at Edith. He owed her a debt. If she had not been so insistent, he would have punished the wrong person and would have allowed Hrearek’s malign influence to grow and spread.
‘In light of our past, Hrearek, I will be merciful this time. I will allow Lady Edith to decide your punishment as you were so quick to implicate her.’
Hrearek raised himself to standing. A faint light gleamed in his eye. ‘Merciful?’
‘Do you wish to challenge for the leadership?’
