Page 18 of The Champion

Fine, let all of them perish and rot. How could they not see how wrong war and violence were?

Tears welled in her eyes, but she blinked them away. She would never let anyone in this crowd know how they wounded her.

Holding her head high, she headed the opposite direction, toward the door that led to the stairs.

Kit caught up with her. “Rowena?”

“Leave me, Kit. I wish to be alone.”

“Don’t be angry at my brother, Rowena.”

She turned on him with hatred and anger burning furiously in her heart. “How can you defend him to me after what he just said?”

He countered with a question of his own. “How can you tolerate me and hate him? Do not fool yourself, love. If I were Stryder’s size and possessed his skill and strength, I would have thrashed Cyril, too.”

She scoffed at that. “You could never hurt anyone. You’re far too gentle.”

“Trust me, life has a way of kicking that gentleness out of all of us. Stryder has been through much in his life. You shouldn’t judge him so harshly.”

“Me judge him? Did you not hear what he said to me?”

“Aye, I did. But you know, my lady. You could have said “thank you” to him. He did rid you of Cyril and save me from being hit. Otherwise, you would even now be with the oaf and I would be bleeding on the floor.”

Maybe there was some truth to that.

Still...

“Rowena?”

She looked past Kit to see her uncle drawing near.

Kit excused himself and left them alone.

“Are you all right?” Lionel asked.

“I shall survive it, no doubt. But, I wish a plague of locusts would descend on Lord Stryder and follow him all the days of his life.”

Her uncle stiffened. “I’m very sorry to hear that.”

“Why?”

“Because at the end of the month, you shall marry him.”

Four

Stryder had retired to his tent. Alone. After the confrontation in the hall with Rowena and Cyril, the last thing he wanted was anyone near him.

Over and over, he heard Rowena’s voice as she denounced his occupation. See the contempt in her eyes. She hated him.

To the devil with her anyway. He had plenty of women who wanted him.

As for Cyril...

He’d never cared for the man. Even though Cyril was technically considered a member of the Brotherhood, he had never been one of them. In the hole that had been their home, more times than not they had been forced to fight him off their weaker members as he preyed on them for food and other things best not thought of.

Stryder had hated him from the moment they had first laid eyes on each other.

The world would be better off if men such as he were no longer in it.