Chapters (76)
- Title Page
- Copyright Notice
- Dedication
- PROLOGUE
- PART I
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- PART II
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- PART III
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- INTERLUDE
- PART IV
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- INTERLUDE
- PART V
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- THIRTY-SEVEN
- THIRTY-EIGHT
- PART VI
- THIRTY-NINE
- FORTY
- FORTY-ONE
- FORTY-TWO
- FORTY-THREE
- FORTY-FOUR
- FORTY-FIVE
- INTERLUDE
- PART VII
- FORTY-SIX
- FORTY-SEVEN
- FORTY-EIGHT
- FORTY-NINE
- FIFTY
- FIFTY-ONE
- FIFTY-TWO
- PART VIII
- FIFTY-THREE
- FIFTY-FOUR
- FIFTY-FIVE
- FIFTY-SIX
- EPILOGUE
- AUTHOR’S NOTE
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
- Newsletter Sign-up
William stammered to respond. “They’re just people, Baron. They’re not asking for much.”
“They’re not asking for anything, they’re demanding it.” De Lacy smashed a roll of bread to pieces and grabbed at its remains. “If a man came in here right now and demanded a single crumb from this table, I wouldn’t give it to him. No matter what he threatened. Not if he held a hundred of my men prisoner, not if my very life was in the balance. You would sit there and judge me, call me a mule for refusing to budge, letting my men be slaughtered while ‘they’re not asking for much.’ Not a damned crumb, no. Because the next man demands the whole basket. And after that, the castle. We. Do. Not. Negotiate. Not with men who use fear as a weapon.”
William’s only response was to swallow, and shrink into himself.
“Are these people terrible?” de Lacy continued. “No. I sympathize with them, I do. I want what’s best for them, but not at the expense of what is good for us. Right now, their only power is to terrorize us. If we allow ourselves to feel threatened, their power grows. We have already made this situation worse than it should be. We fueled their need for an enemy, and they rallied at it. The only proper response against fear is to laugh at it. To ignore it. That is why I did not want to meet with them, and it’s why I did not want to hunt them down, either.” He turned sharply upon Guy at this. “Yes, they have wronged us, but we can choose not to react. We can let it slide, let them disappear, let it go. We don’t need to win. We can stop this cycle of taking an eye for an eye, before every one of us is left blind.”
Guy felt genuinely humbled. He had not seen such raw emotion from the Sheriff before. It was like hearing a man’s final confession on his death bed. His desire for forgiveness, it was commendable. He could see now, it was why de Lacy asked him to forget about Bassett. It was the reason Guy still held the title of Captain. It was an enviable fantasy, but whether it could ever work in the real world …
From the side of the room, one of the servant girls was quietly crying. She apologized and dismissed herself, and they continued their meal in silence. All around the table, the others focused on their food. The earl softened his bread with some peppered oil and strawberries. Behind Guy, the slightest shift reminded him that his assistant Ferrers was still there, glued to the wall as though he were furnishing. A new girl refilled their wine, the sound of men practicing at swordplay clattered in from the windows, and the breathing of the table eventually relaxed.