“I see.”
“Perhaps you should take a look at him, and judge his conduct for yourself,” King Pellinore suggested. “When again will you have a chance to see him, unguarded and unaware of your presence?”
Britt nodded thoughtfully. “Thank you for your advice, Pellinore.”
King Pellinore shrugged. “You’re a great king, Arthur. Certainly you are a better king than I. Listen to your gut,” he suggested before striding back into the camp.
Britt thoughtfully scratched her cheek. “Judge for myself, huh,” she muttered. “I cannot stand with a man who isn’t good,” Britt finally said.
None of the barely conscious knights paid much attention when Britt returned to her bedroll to collect Excalibur. She set off from camp at a walk, and by the time she reached Camelgrance the sun was a disk on the horizon.
Britt entered the castle and made her way to the keep. The inner courtyard buzzed with activity. Servants swarmed like worker ants, carrying supplies in and out. They moved at an almost frenzied pace. Grooms stacked hay high in the stables and double the guards patrolled the castle walls as the day before.
After kicking up her heels for fifteen minutes, Britt realized how stupid her plan was. “Just because I show up there is no guarantee that Leodegrance is going to go off on a hunt or something, and I am not venturing into the keep without backup,” Britt muttered as she left the inner courtyard. “I was an idiot for coming here without telling anyone. Merlin is going to kill me if Kay doesn’t throw me into a dungeon first.”
Someone on the castle walls blew a horn, and Britt leaped out of the main road to avoid a heavily loaded wagon pulled by a team of oxen. A farmer and his family scurried at the wagon’s side, and Britt realized with unease that a great deal of people and animals from the farm land surrounding Camelgrance were pouring into the castle.
Britt ran the remaining distance to the castle gatehouse, dodging goats, chickens, and people. Fear curdled her blood when she saw that the gate portcullis—a wooden and metal grille—was down, blocking all traffic. A squad of soldiers was stationed around the portcullis and gatehouse. One of the soldiers blew a horn again.
“No,” Britt breathed as she lunged forward, pushing her way through the crowd of people gathered near the entrance.
Through the narrow window the portcullis provided, Britt could see a small squad of mounted knights, bearing a flag with a coat of arms Britt did not recognize.
One knight stood separate from the rest. He rode a red roan horse and carried a heavy looking lance and a shield.
A racket arose behind Britt.
“Make way for the King!”
“Move. Step aside.”
A man Britt vaguely recognized galloped up to the portcullis, pulling his horse to a halt at the last moment. A troop of guards accompanied him, but it wasn’t until the knight on the red roan horse outside spoke that Britt recognized him.
“King Leodegrance, you are wise to cower behind your gates,” the knight shouted.
“What brings you to my doors so early and dressed for war, oh great Duke Maleagant?” King Leodegrance said.
“I am here to learn if you are a friend, or a foe,” the knight on the red roan horse said. Assumedly he was Duke Maleagant based on King Leodegrance’s greeting.
“Oh?” King Leodegrance said.
“Indeed. If you are a friend I shall put aside my weapons and we will feast together, toasting a blessed companionship,” the duke said.
“But certainly we are friends,” King Leodegrance said, nodding.
“If that is so, you will give me your daughter Guinevere as my wife,” Duke Maleagant said.
King Leodegrance didn’t even pause to think. “Absolutely, I would be much honored to call you my son-in-law.”
“In addition you will grant me the lands that she will inherit from her mother,” Duke Maleagant said.
King Leodegrance paused, a fat frown spreading on his face.
“I will give you two days to decide if we are friends or foes. If, at the end of those days, you decide we are friends we will put this matter aside and prepare a wedding feast. If, at the end of the two days, we are foes I shall march against Camelgrance with the army I have brought to the borders of your lands.”
“My daughter Guinevere has many admirers, what do I tell them?” King Leodegrance asked, squeezing the reins of his horse’s bridle.
Duke Maleagant laughed. “If any man so deeply loves Guinevere that he dares to fight on her behalf, he may challenge me at the end of the two days. When he loses I will kill him.”
“And if he wins?” King Leodegrance asked, perking up.