He knew love.
“Then I will repeat that you should not have come to our country,” she said, trying to fight off any compassion she might be feeling towards him. “You should have listened to her.”
Kristoph could hear the sharpness in her tone, but it was hollow, as if she didn’t really mean it. He had been a warrior long enough to know sympathy when he heard it and he knew very well that this female warrior was the only thing that stood between him and a thousand men who wanted to kill him. He didn’t want to anger her, but he needed her loyalty. If there was any chance of him coming out of this alive, he needed her on his side.
“You are right. I should have,” he said. “I regret that I did not. Her name is Adalie, in fact. She bore my daughter last year and she was quite disappointed that it was not a son, but I was not disappointed. I was glad to have a daughter who looks just like her mother. You have never seen a more beautiful girl-child with black hair and blue eyes. She will be quite beautiful when she grows up. I… I was hoping to be there when she did.”
He was being manipulative now, hoping that the female warrior would feel great sympathy for him with a child he wanted to see grow up. It was a desperate move on his part, but the situation called for it. He couldn’t see her face in the darkness now because she had turned away from him. It was a few moments before she replied.
“If that is true, then you should not have left her,” she finally said. “You did not need to come here with your army. This country already has a king and now he is dead because of you and your men. What about his wife and children? Did you think of them before you tried to kill him?”
Kristoph could hear the strain in her voice. “Nay,” he said quietly, but with honesty. “No one ever thinks on the family of their enemies. But at this moment, my family is the most important thing in the world to me – a wife I love and a daughter I adore. I want to see them again, my lady. Will you not help me?”
Ghislaine turned to him, then. She hissed sharply, shaking her head. “I spared your life because one of your fellow knights spared mine,” she said. “Do not ask for more than that.”
Kristoph had heard that story as he’d lain upon the ground, balled up and in pain. He’d heard her speak of the knight who had shown her “Norman mercy” and he’d heard that she believed she was paying back a debt in protecting him from her angry kinsmen. But he wanted more than a sense of duty; he wanted help.
“Then what do you plan to do with me?” he asked.
She stared at him a moment before looking away. “If you want to stay alive, I suggest you be as complacent and pleasing as you can possibly be. If someone asks you for information on the Norman army, then you will answer truthfully. The moment you cease to become of value is the moment someone will slit your throat. The only way to stay alive will be by cooperating.”
In the darkness, he sighed faintly as he understood what she was telling him. “I will not betray my men,” he said softly.
“No one said anything about betraying your men. But if I were you, I would do all I could to ensure that I survived to return to Adalie and your blue-eyed daughter. Are they not worth it?”
Just as he had tried to manipulate her, now she was turning the tables on him. Kristoph was astute enough to realize that and he fought off a smile at a lady who would turn the tables on him. She was cleverer than he gave her credit for.
“They are,” he said. He continued to watch her in the darkness, thinking of another angle to take in their conversation. Maybe if he tried to establish a personal relationship with her…. “May I ask your name, my lady? We have had a rather long conversation and I fear that we have not been properly introduced.”
She wouldn’t look at him when she spoke because there was only a hair’s-width separating her from truly sympathizing with him. “Ghislaine,” she said, “but I suggest you not use it in front of my men. They will not take kindly to hearing my name from your lips.”
“Ghislaine,” he murmured. GIZ-lain. “It is a lovely name. Have you always fought with the army, Ghislaine?”
She nodded. “As long as I can recall,” she said. Then, she turned to look at him. “Before you ask me any more questions, I will tell you that one of my brothers is the Earl of Mercia and another is the Earl of Northumbria. If you were conscious when you heard me speak to a man named Alary, that is also a brother, but he is a demon who walks the earth in a man’s skin. He is wicked and devious, so you must beware of him. I have a feeling he will be back and if he truly wants you, it will be difficult to stop him.”
Kristoph had, indeed, heard her speaking to a man with a voice that was low and gritty, like rocks grating against stone. He appreciated that she had pointed out a serious danger to him but in his condition, there wasn’t much he could do about it. If Alary wanted him, it wasn’t as if he could fight back.
Groaning softly, he rolled to his side and slowly sat up, feeling every ache and every stab of pain in his battered body. His head was throbbing and he winced as he sat there a moment, trying to catch his breath.
“Ghislaine, if I may speak plainly,” he said, resisting the urge to put a hand to his aching head. “I am not part of the Duke of Normandy’s inner circle. I do not know of his plans or even of his operations. I can tell you his strengths and how many men he carries, but you could see that for yourself today. I am afraid that if your men intend to interrogate me, they will be terribly disappointed. If… if I promise to return home to my wife and stay there, will you please let me go?”
Ghislaine looked at him. He sounded sincere, but it was equally possible that he was lying to her. He was finely dressed and she knew he had money, which meant that he more than likely was more to the Norman duke than he said he was.
“Go?” she repeated. “Go where? Do you even know where you are?”
“You could tell me.”
She almost considered it. Ghislaine was having visions of a young mother being informed that her husband was never to return and the same feelings she felt at Hakon’s death began to swamp her. But she resisted them with all her might.
He is the enemy!
“I cannot let you go,” she said. “If you are captured a second time, I will not be able to protect you. The men will beat you to death.”
Kristoph knew that was probably true and he struggled not to feel some desperation in his situation. “They are going to kill me anyway when they realize I cannot tell them anything they want to know,” he said. “At least I would have a fighting chance if you let me run. For my wife and daughter’s sake, will you not do that?”