‘No,’ I said, although I sensed he was about to tell me. One by one my knights and companions broke off the battle-thunder.
‘Because of you I had to face Eadgar,’ he said. ‘I had to explain to him how Bleddyn and his men had been careless enough to let you escape before I could bargain with them. This after I’d already sent word promising to deliver you to him. Imagine, then, what happened when I arrived with nothing more than ill tidings to offer. I suffered not just his wrath but also the insults and constant mockery of those who said I’d been a fool to ever trust a Welshman.’
‘You should consider yourself fortunate,’ I retorted. ‘If you’d told the ?theling the truth your fate might have been far worse.’
‘He is King Eadgar now,’ said Eadric. ‘And he will be most pleased when I hand you over to him.’
‘A corpse is all you’ll be bringing him. You won’t take any of us alive.’
I was worth nothing to him dead, and I knew he would much rather atone for his earlier failure and claim his prize than obtain the smaller satisfaction of killing me.
‘In that case,’ he said, ‘I give you two choices. If you choose to stand and fight me, I swear that you will all die. Except for her.’ He nodded in the direction of Beatrice, who had frozen where she stood, her face white. ‘First I will delight in taking my pleasure from her, before offering her to my men and my fellow thegns, and only then will I kill her.’
At that I saw Robert flinch, his jaw clench and his fingers tighten around his sword-hilt, but thankfully he managed to hold his temper and did not let himself be drawn into a confrontation that he would surely lose.
‘What’s my other choice?’ I asked before Robert could utter a word.
Wild Eadric smiled. ‘Give yourself up and I will see to it that your friends, your lord and his kin are allowed to pass freely from this place and return whence they came.’
I considered. If I did as he asked and surrendered myself there was at least the chance that they might all live, whereas if we gave battle in this place we would undoubtedly perish. Yet how could he possibly make such promises, especially if he’d fallen out of favour with the ?theling?
The only answer was that he was lying. He’d already deceived Bleddyn by promising silver in return for handing me over – silver that was never paid – and then sworn falsely that it was the Welshmen’s fault I had escaped from Mathrafal. If he was prepared to perjure himself openly before his own liege-lord, how could I trust him?
‘You can’t do this, Tancred,’ said Robert warningly. ‘As your lord I forbid it.’
I ignored him but asked Eadric: ‘What about Beatrice? Will you allow her to go free as well?’
‘I will,’ he answered. ‘Neither she nor any of the others will be harmed. You have my word.’
‘How do I know you’ll honour that word?’
Eadric affected a serious tone and tried to conceal his smile, most likely scenting victory close at hand. ‘I swear it.’
That in itself meant nothing. I knew as well as any man how easily such a pledge could be broken. And yet it gave me an idea. Casting down my shield but keeping my sword in hand, I stepped forward slowly out of the ring, into the space between the two battle-lines, albeit slightly closer to ours than theirs.
‘What are you doing?’ shouted Wace. ‘He’s nothing but a hollow excuse for a man. His oath means nothing; he only says this because he knows if he tries to fight us he’ll end up with half of his hearth-troops dead.’
He was probably right, but I had no intention of presenting myself to Eadric without a fight, only of making him think that I did.
Fixing my gaze upon the Englishman, I said: ‘In Brittany where I hail from, it is the custom when we swear oaths to do so over the symbol of the cross.’
That was untrue, at least in the manner that I had in mind, but I was relying on him being ignorant enough of Bretons and our ways to believe it. One final attempt to work some cunning; beyond this we had no option but to stand and fight. And die.
With my blade I carved one straight line about six feet in length in the turf, then another to form a cross-piece roughly two-thirds of the distance along the first.
Eadric snorted. ‘Must we do this?’
‘If you wish me to surrender myself to you, then yes.’ I slid my blade back into its scabbard and hoped he did not notice the lump in my throat betraying my apprehension as I swallowed. ‘We stand here at opposite ends of the cross, you make your promise to me, and then to solemnise it we embrace as equals. This is how it is done.’
‘Tancred!’ Beatrice said, and I heard the note of despair in her plea as she began to sob.