“We were happy to help,” he replied to Antillius’ statement. “You said last night that the Men of Bones raid frequently. Are there usually so many?”
Antillius nodded. “There can be,” he said. “We have guards on the perimeter of our village but when the Homines Ossium attack, I have told them not to engage but to warn us quickly. I am afraid if they engage, they will be killed and we shall have no warning. I should not like to lose men that way. Our numbers are too few.”
Gaetan understood that. “Do you have dogs?”
Antillius nodded. “A few,” he said. “I saw the big dog that you have. A magnificent beast. If we had animals such as that, we would surely scare away our enemies.”
Gaetan grinned. “I will tell you a secret about that dog,” he said. “The only battle he is capable of is one with his tongue to your face. He will lick you until you surrender.”
Antillius laughed. “He is big enough that he does not need to be fearsome,” he said. “Based on his size alone, he would scare men away. You would not want to leave him with me while you went on your mission, would you? We have a few female dogs and I would love to have a few litters of pups from your beast. Mayhap more of the new blood I was speaking of last night. Even our female dogs must be given new blood if they are to survive.”
Gaetan could sense the desperation in the man trying to keep his way of life from dying out. “If you promise to give me my dog back when I return from reclaiming my comrade, then I will leave him with you,” he said. “But treat him well. I am quite fond of him.”
Antillius was thrilled. “I will give him his own cottage and all of the female dogs he can muster the strength to mate with,” he said. “He will be well taken care of until you return for him. But you… there is nothing I can do to repay you enough for what you and your men did for us last night. Usually, we lose a woman or two during those raids. That has been difficult for us to bear. But last night, when they were attempting to steal my Lygia….”
He trailed off, sickened by the idea that one of those barbarians might have captured his beloved eldest daughter. Gaetan could see the sorrow in the man’s face.
“Aramis is more fearsome than any bone warrior, I assure you,” he said quietly. “There was no way they could have taken Lygia from him.”
Antillius nodded. “I know that now,” he said. “I saw the man in action. But men such as you do not do such things from the goodness of your heart. You do it because it needs to be done, because it is your calling. But you do not do it without an expectation of a reward. You must be rewarded.”
Gaetan shook his head “You rewarded us with tending Lady Ghislaine’s wound, and with food and drink and shelter,” he said. “What we did last night was to repay you for your hospitality.”
Antillius turned to him, looking him fully in the face. “But your sword is worth more than food or healing a wounded woman,” he said. “De Wolfe, I will give you and two men of your choosing my daughters as wives. Now, please hear me before you refuse – I am not asking you to remain here with them, for you are men of the world and you would not be happy spending your lives in our little village. But I do ask that you marry my daughters and beget them with child. Then you may leave and not give them another thought. All I ask is that you give my daughters your sons to bear. My people are dying, de Wolfe. You know that. We need strong warriors from your loins if we are going to survive.”
Frankly, Gaetan was a little shocked at the offer but, in the same breath, he realized it was made from desperation. Antillius was a proud man with a proud heritage, so offering his daughters to strange men to essentially be broodmares must have been a humiliating experience. Therefore, he tried to be very gracious in his refusal.
“That is a most attractive offer,” he said. “Your daughters are beautiful women.”
Antillius nodded. “Their mother was very beautiful. They are also very smart and accomplished. They can speak several languages and each one knows how to run a house and hold. If your men marry them, I suppose they will want to take them away although I hope they will not. But that is the chance I am willing to take. They are the only things of value I have to offer you as a reward for fighting off the Homines Ossium, de Wolfe. Please consider it.”
Gaetan was quite torn. He didn’t want to insult this man who had helped them tremendously. But he certainly couldn’t ask his men to marry the man’s daughters just to do him a favor. It sounded as if he wanted strong half-Norman grandsons more than he actually wanted his daughters to become Norman wives.
“Truly, I have never known such generosity,” he said. “And I am honored. But I am already pledged to marry and half of my men have wives, so I am not sure if those who are not married are ready and willing to take a wife, regardless of how beautiful and accomplished she is.”
Antillius was embarrassed that he had practically been begging Gaetan and his men to marry his daughters. Somewhat dejected, he scratched his head and turned away.
“I understand,” he said. “It is difficult for a fighting man to take a wife. But… forgive me for saying this… if your men do not wish to marry, I would not be upset if, in a month or two, one or more of my daughters discovered she was pregnant.”
Gaetan was genuinely surprised. “Without a husband?”
“Without a husband.”
It was a solemn suggestion. Truth be told, a month ago, Gaetan might have considered taking him up on his offer simply because his sexual appetite could be insatiable. Bedding one woman was as good as the next and if she became with child, that did not concern him. It never had. But Ghislaine had changed all of that. He couldn’t even imagine touching another woman now, a very radical departure from the man before he met Ghislaine.
But he knew how desperate Antillius was to save his dying tribe. Only a despairing man would make such an offer.
“How do your daughters feel about such a thing?” he asked, somewhat gently. “To be bedded by a man, a stranger, and to hope for a child with no hope of a husband… surely that cannot be a pleasant thought to them.”
Antillius shrugged. “They will do as I ask,” he said. “If they do not bear children, even without a husband, then I fear their generation will be the last. We will die.”
Gaetan could see his point. This was purely for survival and there was a part of him that respected that. Reluctantly, he sighed. “I will ask my unmarried knights if any of them wish to take you up on your offer,” he said. “I cannot promise anything, but I will ask.”
Antillius nodded, feeling increasingly ashamed with what he’d proposed. But he didn’t regret it. If the Tertium were to survive, it was necessary.