Read Online By Possession by Madeline Hunter - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Madeline Hunter
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cloth and straightened in her ladylike way.
“Were you imprisoned all those years?” she asked to divert his attention.
“Nay.” She had been the first person to ask outright. Not even Raymond had sought the details. Everyone assumed he had endured horrible, heathen tortures that were unfit for discussion.
“Then why didn't you come home or send word? Everyone thought you were dead and look at the problems it created. God's crusade or not, you had duties and obligations here.”
“For a woman determined to escape her duties and obligations to me, you are sharp-tongued enough in reminding me of mine to everyone else.”
“Do not be ridiculous. You were born to your responsibilities.”
“As you were born to yours. Tell me, how was it learned that I was dead?”
“When the others returned to Barrowburgh. The knights who had joined you. They came back with the tale that you had fallen during one of the campaigns, during one of the r … r …”
Lost in that swamp, the French fool leading them having no idea where to go . “During a reise . It is a German word. The Teutonic Knights who led the Baltic crusade are mostly German.”
“They said that you had been cut down. One saw you fall.”
Horses pouring at them from every direction. The enemy whom they had been running down for days suddenly materializing en masse, swords and spears ready, possessing a determination the haphazard collection of crusaders could never match.
“But they could not be sure I was dead.” Which one had seen him fall? Who had been with him that day?
“Only a few escaped that attack. They said that even if you had only been wounded the pagans would kill you as they always did the fallen crusaders.”
“It is the Teutonic Knights who kill all the defeated. Women and children too. Not the pagans.” Not one of our spears, Eufemia had said. The wound is the wrong shape.
“If they would just convert, this would end,” Moira said, articulating the logic of all of Christendom.
“If they convert, they do not lose only their gods. That crusade is not just about Christianity, but about land. The Teutonic Knights have a kingdom stretching for hundredsof miles out from their city of Marienburg, all of it taken when they defeated tribe after tribe, and they seek more. They give the land to crusaders who fight for them. They even gave me some, to compensate me for my ordeal. But now they have met a people who will not be easily conquered, and a king as shrewd as any Teutonic Knight or Roman pope.”
It just poured out, unexpected, thoughts never before articulated since, freed by Eufemia, he had suddenly seen that crusade in a different way. In Eufemia's way. Back with the Knights, no longer needing the illusions that had sustained him for six years, the scales had fallen from his eyes during his final reise into the Wildnis. It had been a campaign of personal revenge when he embarked, but riding his horse through the carnage of bodies in that first defenseless village, he had known that he could never do it again.
He expected Moira to look more shocked. They were pagans, and one did not defend them. Instead curiosity lit her eyes. “What ordeal? They gave you land, you said, to compensate you for your ordeal. If you were not imprisoned, not captured …”
“They are a slaveholding people. They trade in them, sending most of them east into Rus'ia or south as far as the Saracens. They make slave raids into neighboring lands. I was captured, but not imprisoned the way you think. For six years, I was a slave. I was not traded, but kept by one of their priests.” He had sworn to tell no one in England about that degradation. Perhaps this peace had its dangerous side.
Her blue eyes sparked. “You lived as a slave, you know what it means, and the first thing that you do upon returning is force me back into bondage!”
“It is not the same thing. I was not born to it, and youare not a slave. A slave does not ride in the cart, but
“Were you imprisoned all those years?” she asked to divert his attention.
“Nay.” She had been the first person to ask outright. Not even Raymond had sought the details. Everyone assumed he had endured horrible, heathen tortures that were unfit for discussion.
“Then why didn't you come home or send word? Everyone thought you were dead and look at the problems it created. God's crusade or not, you had duties and obligations here.”
“For a woman determined to escape her duties and obligations to me, you are sharp-tongued enough in reminding me of mine to everyone else.”
“Do not be ridiculous. You were born to your responsibilities.”
“As you were born to yours. Tell me, how was it learned that I was dead?”
“When the others returned to Barrowburgh. The knights who had joined you. They came back with the tale that you had fallen during one of the campaigns, during one of the r … r …”
Lost in that swamp, the French fool leading them having no idea where to go . “During a reise . It is a German word. The Teutonic Knights who led the Baltic crusade are mostly German.”
“They said that you had been cut down. One saw you fall.”
Horses pouring at them from every direction. The enemy whom they had been running down for days suddenly materializing en masse, swords and spears ready, possessing a determination the haphazard collection of crusaders could never match.
“But they could not be sure I was dead.” Which one had seen him fall? Who had been with him that day?
“Only a few escaped that attack. They said that even if you had only been wounded the pagans would kill you as they always did the fallen crusaders.”
“It is the Teutonic Knights who kill all the defeated. Women and children too. Not the pagans.” Not one of our spears, Eufemia had said. The wound is the wrong shape.
“If they would just convert, this would end,” Moira said, articulating the logic of all of Christendom.
“If they convert, they do not lose only their gods. That crusade is not just about Christianity, but about land. The Teutonic Knights have a kingdom stretching for hundredsof miles out from their city of Marienburg, all of it taken when they defeated tribe after tribe, and they seek more. They give the land to crusaders who fight for them. They even gave me some, to compensate me for my ordeal. But now they have met a people who will not be easily conquered, and a king as shrewd as any Teutonic Knight or Roman pope.”
It just poured out, unexpected, thoughts never before articulated since, freed by Eufemia, he had suddenly seen that crusade in a different way. In Eufemia's way. Back with the Knights, no longer needing the illusions that had sustained him for six years, the scales had fallen from his eyes during his final reise into the Wildnis. It had been a campaign of personal revenge when he embarked, but riding his horse through the carnage of bodies in that first defenseless village, he had known that he could never do it again.
He expected Moira to look more shocked. They were pagans, and one did not defend them. Instead curiosity lit her eyes. “What ordeal? They gave you land, you said, to compensate you for your ordeal. If you were not imprisoned, not captured …”
“They are a slaveholding people. They trade in them, sending most of them east into Rus'ia or south as far as the Saracens. They make slave raids into neighboring lands. I was captured, but not imprisoned the way you think. For six years, I was a slave. I was not traded, but kept by one of their priests.” He had sworn to tell no one in England about that degradation. Perhaps this peace had its dangerous side.
Her blue eyes sparked. “You lived as a slave, you know what it means, and the first thing that you do upon returning is force me back into bondage!”
“It is not the same thing. I was not born to it, and youare not a slave. A slave does not ride in the cart, but
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