Free Boadicea's Legacy by Traci E. Hall Page A

them hadn’t yet consisted of anything more than words.
    Neither man really wanted bloodshed.
    Yet neither man was willing to give ground. It would be up to her to save peace. “Oh no.” With mounting alarm, she pulled her maid to her side and pointed out the window. “Bertha, are those Thomas de Havel’s colors?”
    The maid scooted in and peered out. “Aye, my lady. What could that bugger want? Ye’ve turned down his offer for marriage three times now.”
    â€œWould he join forces with the Earl of Norfolk against my father? Nay—oh, pray tell me that he didn’t just sound the charge to battle? Oh dear!”
    Not waiting for Bertha to answer, Ela picked up her dress and grabbed Henry in a tight hold to her chest as she raced back up the flights of stairs to the balconies around the manor. She shaded her eyes against the bright afternoon sun. Her heart thudded against her chest as she searched for Osbert’s golden head. She sighed with relief when she found him unhelmeted and unharmed.
    By contrast, Thomas de Havel wore a shining black helmet with a fox crest in red on the side. He led around fifty men—ten more than Osbert had arrived with that morning. Her father was dressed handsomely in white and green,and her mother waved a scarf from the top of the gate tower, a small figure in the distance.
    Her father was in the middle formation, Osbert was to his left, and now Thomas de Havel was on his right. Fear trickled down her back. If the two men went against her father, then Montehue Manor would be lost.
    I should have married that imbecile, just to stop this from happening
.
    Deciding that he wanted to marry her after all, Thomas had sent flowers and gifts of jewelry—he’d even sent a minstrel with a poem about her tan skin. But Ela—bolstered by her parents’ warnings that they could take care of themselves—hadn’t given in. Now look where that had gotten them!
    So far there had been no fighting between Osbert and her father, just taunting and threats. Her father would never willingly give her up to Os, even though she would willingly go.
    She had to choose.
Now
. Thomas de Havel had lands that butted against theirs. He could be an ally in court intrigue … but she just couldn’t bring herself to bed a man who loathed her. Indifference would be kinder, but she had the feeling that he was the type of man to pull wings from butterflies. He’d poke her just to see her bleed. She couldn’t bring children into a viper’s nest such as that.
    Osbert, on the other side of the coin, would do his best to see her safely returned to her father after he was rewarded with his land for bringing her to the Earl of Norfolk. He didn’t want anything from her but her company.
    She kissed Henry on the nose. “I’m still doing it. Youstay here and wait for me to return, aye? Bertha’s promised to give you treats and—hey!”
    Henry was torn from her arms and tossed to the floor like an insignificant pest. Bertha fought against the attackers, but was felled by a gloved fist. Ela struggled as the men in black and red wrestled a burlap bag over her head and body and dragged her out of the manor. She screamed and kicked, but it did no good.
    Nobody came to rescue her.

    Osbert had a terrible feeling. He didn’t like invading Lord Montehue’s lands, and he’d warned his men to cause no physical violence, unless he said otherwise.
    Robert Montehue had a stubborn streak as wide as his own, and the older man refused to back down, despite Os’s assurances that his daughter would be treated like fine porcelain. All logic pointed to the two men eventually coming to a reasonable agreement without death.
    Nay, the foreboding dealt with something else. A warning from God, mayhap? If so, Os required a clearer message.
    â€œWhy don’t you come too?” Osbert finally asked, sweat pouring from his brow in the heat.