The warden stared him down. ‘Did you forget the part about the eastern camp getting ambushed? What about the guards who were slaughtered? Or the wastelands being overtaken by rebel groups again? The English locked out of Carmarthenshire while you two wandered freely through it?’

Tatum went to speak.

‘Shut your mouth,’ Shapur said before he had a chance. ‘I know what you are going to say, and I have already heard it from Alveye and Hadewaye—who arrived home nearly a week ago, by the way. You should have returned with them. The delay only confirms your involvement in this war you had no business being in.’ He looked between them. ‘I sent you there to observe. To keep Lord Hodge safe.’

Tatum cleared his throat. ‘My understanding is that he’s safely inside the walls of Hampstead Keep.’

‘With a hole in his hand and minus the woman he is to marry!’ Shapur shouted. ‘Where is she?’

‘Home,’ Blackmane said.

The warden’s gaze darted to him. ‘Yes. I heard all about your part in that. Lord Hodge is requesting your head. He is ready to go to war for this woman.’

‘With one hand?’ Blackmane asked.

Shapur’s eyes flashed, and his mouth flattened into a line as he stepped up into the defender’s space. ‘You are treading on thin ice, Blackmane. Remember where you came from and what we have handed you.’

Blackmane swallowed.

Shapur looked back to Tatum. ‘You are hereby stripped of your command.’ He reached out and tore the gold pin from his cloak. ‘You better thank Belenus that I am not throwing both your arses outside the gate. Now get out of my sight.’

The men saluted before turning and heading straight for the wash area. They waited until they were a good distance away before speaking.

‘That went about as well as I expected,’ Tatum said.

Blackmane glanced over his shoulder. ‘Were you expecting to be stood down?’

‘When you made the comment about Hodge going to war with one hand I was.’

It was out of character for Blackmane to talk back like that. Usually he chose silence when being reprimanded. ‘Sorry.’

Tatum waved the apology away. ‘Don’t be. It was a good joke. Wrong audience, perhaps—and bad timing.’

They were almost to the washroom when Alveye and Hadewaye jogged up to them, looking displeased.

‘What happened?’ Alveye asked. ‘You said you would be a day behind us. Next thing we hear, you’re waging a war against England.’

‘That’s one version of the story,’ Blackmane said.

Hadewaye fell into step with Tatum. ‘How did you manage to walk away from that conversation with the warden unscathed?’

‘Not unscathed,’ Tatum replied. ‘He took my pin.’

Alveye frowned. ‘But left your head, which is the perplexing part.’

‘I just got used to calling you Commander,’ Hadewaye said.

Tatum clapped him on the back. ‘The deep respect you build for a superior will never go away.’