Free Winter Song by Roberta Gellis Page B

not at all!” Alys exclaimed. “How kind of Uncle
Richard! And I know that Henry is always in desperate need of money. But, Raymond,
it still seems a great deal for relatively little. Do you truly believe the men
who hold the keeps now will yield them to you without war?”
    Clever, clever—entirely too clever, Raymond thought, looking
into Alys’s face and not daring to lie. After all, the truth would become
obvious as soon as they reached Gascony. “Blancheforte is empty except for the
serfs of the demesne,” he began, “and the man who holds Benquel will not dare
contest with me because the Vicomte de Marsan will come to my support and cast
him out, whereas accepting my rule will bring peace to his lands and cost him
nothing. Besides, I know him a little—Sir Oliver is his name—and he is a good
enough man who has done his best in an impossible situation.”
    “I am not an idiot, Raymond,” Alys said. “I was not asking
you about those lands, and you know it.”
    Raymond grinned at her. “It never hurts to try. I do not
believe in holding my neck extended to get my head chopped off. But really,
love, it is not near so bad as you seem to think. Henry is certain the
castellan of Amou will be overjoyed to see me. He is a Sir Conon, an older man,
without heirs, and said to be both honest and honorable. He has been writing
angry letters that Béarn has been threatening him and trying to obtain the
revenues.”
    “Then you will have to fight Béarn?”
    “Not an open war, anyway, and certainly not immediately. Do
not forget, Alys, that Gaston is my great-uncle. I know it is silly, he is no
more than twelve years my senior, but he and my grandfather are half brothers.
Garsenda was first married to Alphonse of Provence and bore him
Raymond-Berenger. Many years later when Alphonse died, she married the Count of
Béarn and bore him Gaston. I doubt he will oppose me in arms. He will try to
win me with soft words and promises.”
    Alys examined his face carefully for a moment. He was not,
she decided, telling a half-truth about Amou, but there was something… “Then it
is the other estate, the one at Ibos, that you will need to take by force,” she
said.
    Raymond’s lips tightened. “Most probably, yes,” he replied, “although
it is not certain. Now that Toulouse is cast down, Sir Garnier may think better
of his defiance, but truly, Alys, I hope he will not. I could not trust him. I
think I would have to tell you to refuse. In any case, I think I will need to
take Ibos by force.”
    Alys did not say that she would not refuse, even if he told
her to do so. She knew she would obey, however little she liked the result of
that obedience. Moreover, it was her duty and probably one of the conditions
under which the estate had been granted, because Henry’s reason for granting it
was that Raymond should win it back from French influence.
    “How likely are you to hold it if you can take it?” she
asked, wondering whether she was going to have to look forward to a whole
lifetime of futile war.
    “There will be no trouble about that. Toulouse had no right
to take Garnier’s fealty, except that Tarbes is Toulouse’s. Louis certainly
will not press the point during the years that remain for the truce, and even
after that, I doubt he would try to unseat me. His sense of justice is very
strong, and I am Margaret’s nephew as well as Eleanor’s, you know. Of course,
Margaret is by no means as fond of me as Eleanor is, nor does Louis listen to
her as Henry listens to Eleanor, but still the blood bond must mean something,
and by law the land is mine—no, yours.”
    “ Ours ,” Alys said.
    Raymond smiled at her. Now his face was clear, his eyes
bright with enthusiasm. Alys repressed the thought that it only took one war to
kill a man and comforted herself with the conviction that Raymond understood
the policies and politics of France and the duchies that surrounded it far
better than she. In any case, it was stupid to