Charles lifted his eyebrows. “He knew d’Aurilliac on sight. He knew that Gervaise was not who he said he was. He knew, my lady, and he did not tell me. His action cannot go unpunished.”
She flushed a dull red. “How do you know that? William is a knight. He does not involve himself with the common soldier.”
“He told us, my lady.”
Avalyn closed her eyes tightly, lowering her head.He confessed! Damn him; why did he do it?But she knew the answer even as she asked it. William was an honorable man. He must have been asked a direct question and could not lie. She needed to see him, if only to apologize for pulling him into something horrible. He had lied for her and now he was in the vault for it.
“It is not his fault, my lord,” she said softly, raising her head to look at him. There were tears in her eyes. “He did as I ordered. He was following my directive. You do not need to keep him in the vault.”
Charles gazed at her, his expression fairly neutral. After a moment, he pulled up the nearest stool he could find, a small three-legged thing by the hearth. He sat several feet away from her, his small brown eyes beseeching.
“Tell me everything and I will consider releasing him,” he said, that strange pleading tone in his voice again. “Was this planned all along? Is this something that has been simmering ever since you and I left London for Guerdley Cross?”
Avalyn blinked away the tears that were threatening. “Yes and no,” she sniffed. “Brogan was going to come for me, but I did not find out later just how he planned to do it.”
“And Inglesbatch came to help him?”
“William came to helpme.” She suddenly stood up, her face pale and her hands shaking. “Charles, you once told me that you loved a woman so much that you wanted to marry her. If that is true, then surely you understand my feelings for Brogan. What we did, we did for love. We did not do it to shame you, or hurt you, or cause you to be the source of ridicule. We did it because we love each other and would do anything to be together. If you loved your lady as you said you did, then surely you understand how we feel. Would you not do anything to be with her also?”
Charles was looking up at her, his expression morphing into one of sorrow and, surprisingly, anger. He twisted his fingers in his lap. “She is married. There was never any chance.”
“But if she was not married, only betrothed, would you not do anything to claim her as your own?”
He wouldn’t look at her. “It is… impossible.”
“Nothing is impossible!” Avalyn threw her hands up. “Charles, Brogan is a foot soldier, a lowly fighting man. I come from the most prominent family in England. If anything is impossible, it is even the remotest possibility that Brogan and I could be together. But even stronger than class and social standing are what we feel for each other. When I look at Brogan, I do not see a mere soldier. I see a man of flesh and blood and emotion, and I see so much goodness in him. You must understand that kind of devotion. I would do anything to be with him and I would gladly die in the quest for the opportunity.” She moved towards him, her eyes and voice pleading with him. “Please, Charles, you must understand this. We were not attempting to hurt you. But we must be together.”
She was standing very close to him; he was having difficulty maintaining his firm stance when she was so openly beseeching him. Avalyn suddenly fell to her knees beside him, her soft hands closing over his big calloused ones.
“Please, Charles,” the tears were coming now. “Please let me go. Tell my uncle I ran away; there will be no shame on you. But I am begging you… please let me go. Just because you were denied your opportunity at happiness with the woman you loved, do not deny me mine. Let me have what you were unable to. You have this power over my life. Will you not show your benevolence?”
He continued to gaze back at her, feeling her emotions spilling out onto him. Every tear from her eye was like a small dagger to his heart. “And you could not be happy with me?” he asked softly.
She smiled weakly. “If I had never loved Brogan, I believe I could. You are a warm and generous man. I would not deliberately hurt you for the world. But I am a selfish woman; I want my happiness more than I want yours, and for that I am sorry. I pray that you can forgive me.”
Charles just stared at her, not trusting himself to make any manner of decision. She was begging him and he was in chaos because of it. “Barton?” he spoke to the knight in the corner even though he was looking at the lady. “What do you think?”
The focus not shifted to the knight. Avalyn looked at Barton, lingering in the shadows; fear crept into her expression, for she knew the man did not like her and she did not blame him. There had always been a strain between them after her uncle’s interrogation episode. Barton’s pale blue eyes gazed at her steadily, his expression emotionless.
“My opinion is of no matter, my lord,” he said after a moment.
“It is to me. Tell me.”
Barton sighed imperceptibly. It was clear that he did not want to speak. “Do you wish for me to be frank, my lord?”
Charles nodded, his gaze still on Avalyn. Barton pushed himself off the wall, walking towards the pair very slowly. Hewas still looking at Avalyn, the glittering eyes calculating a thousand ways to condemn her.
“I believe the lady is very good at manipulating you, my lord,” he said. “I believe she is very good at manipulating all of the men around her. She excels at this. She is, after all, a de Neville and it is well known that the de Nevilles control their surroundings.” He came to a halt, his eyes boring into her. “But I also believe that people do strange things where emotions are involved, and I think her devotion to d’Aurilliac is admirable. Futile, but admirable.”
Avalyn had averted her gaze somewhere in the middle of his speech. She couldn’t look at the man.
“Everything you say about me is true, Sir Barton,” she agreed softly. “I learned the art of manipulation from my uncle and I learned it well. Do not think that it has been my pleasure to deceive your liege, a man who has only shown kindness to me. Even you; though I suspect you do not have a good deal of respect for my strength of character, you have nonetheless shown me the proper reverence in all matters. You are a man of honor. But understand this; my deception had nothing to do with evil tidings or greed. It was not directed at your liege or at you. I did not seek to destroy anyone. What I did, I did because I love a man. Nothing more, nothing less. We want to be together.”
Barton was standing a few feet away from her, looking down into her pale face. “I understand that, my lady. But it does not change what has happened or what you have done. You seek to assert power over something you have absolutely no control over, and you do not care who you hurt in the process.”
“You are so wrong, Sir Barton,” she said softly. “I do indeed care who I hurt. I care very much. But your liege was thrust into the middle of something that was in process long before he entered the situation. It was never my intention to hurt anyone,least of all Charles. But if my choice is between his contentment and mine, I will once again apologize for being a very selfish woman. I would like to marry a man of my choosing, not my uncle’s.”
Barton just looked at her, understanding her words but not agreeing. But in speaking with her, hearing her softly-uttered explanation, he was coming not to think so harshly of her. She was young and in love. And, truth be told, deep down, he very much admired her devotion to d’Aurilliac. More than he would admit. Still, he could not condone her actions. His gaze moved to Aubrey as he turned away, pacing back towards the long lancet windows that lined the west side of the solar. He had nothing more to say.
