Bond of Blood by Gellis Roberta

Author:Gellis, Roberta [Gellis, Roberta]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: General, Fiction
ISBN: 9780261664463
Publisher: Diamond Books
Published: 1994-03-15T07:00:00+00:00

Leah's happiness persisted for the next two days as they traveled slowly southeast towards London. On the surface, everything was the same at Oxford as it had been elsewhere, for to Oxford they went in spite of Hereford's repeated protests that it was as foolish to stay there as to put one's head into the maw of a half-trained bear. Radnor only laughed, saying that if a man did not come face to face with a bear he would never know whether it was dangerous.

Leah had held her peace, relying on her husband's assurance that all would be well, but once in the keep, it seemed to her that Lady Oxford could not meet her eyes and that the talk of the men was too light-hearted and inconsequent. Her husband, dressed in orange and brown, looked unusually well, and laughed a great deal more than he commonly did. Unfortunately these facts gave Leah little comfort, for she was beginning to understand Cain's arrogance in the face of danger and beginning to understand too that the danger was great. How great was indicated by the fact that Cain's eyes glowed with a feral light and he wore a wonderful garment made of links of metal as fine as thread underneath his tunic.

In spite of Leah's growing fears, all ran smoothly enough at first, except that she felt too much wine was poured and drunk all over the hall. Cain kept taking his lower lip between his teeth and biting it as if it were slightly numb, and, by the time the roast meats were removed, his speech was slurring a trifle over difficult words.

It was in the middle of a discussion on tapestry making that the peace was broken. The men seemed to have run out of small talk, Hereford looking anxious, Oxford looking worried, and Radnor looking drunk. The women alone were speaking, raising their voices steadily to combat the rising noise from the lower tables where the men-at-arms ate. Suddenly Leah and Lady Oxford were drowned out completely as the voices of the men reached a new pitch and a dozen of them leapt to their feet, poniards drawn.

Hereford, Oxford, and Radnor all bellowed at once for their men to sit still and keep the peace, but by now all were too hot with wine and temper to hear or care. More joined the combatants, and the three leaders rose quickly to go down and pull them apart before lives were lost. Instead of falling away under the hammer-like blows of their masters' fists, the mass congealed.

Radnor was the first to go down; never easy on his feet, he was cleverly tripped and disappeared under a battling crowd of men. Hereford struggled like a madman to reach his friend, but every time he broke a hold, others seized him to draw him back, and then he went down too. Oxford, less encumbered, also seemed to be struggling to reach the fighting men and he shouted from time to time for them to hold their hands.

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