Katryne shook her head. “Tell me what you want!”
Warwick was unmoved by her terror. He sipped at his wine. “Do you want to see your brother?”
“Of course I do!”
Warwick glanced at her. “Good,” he said. “He will want to see you, too. You see, he has one of my men and I very much want him back. In fact, I need him back now more than ever so it is my intention to offer you in exchange for my man. A rather fair trade, I would say. Your brother gets you and I get my man back. It is really very simple, truly.”
Oddly enough, Katryne seemed to calm significantly now that she knew why, exactly, she was here. Her trip to Warwick’s encampment had been based on lies and she really wasn’t all that surprised to realize that. In hindsight, she’d known all along. But the unknown of why, exactly, she had come fed her fear for the most part so now that she knew the reasons behind the abduction from Bradley Manor, she seemed to relax. Still, she stood near the door. She would not sit down, not yet.
“Then… then the tale the soldiers told Lady Holland about my brother asking for me was a lie?” she asked.
Warwick nodded. “It was,” he said regretfully. “It was necessary to bring you here, although I cannot imagine it was an easy task. You look as if you did not make it easy in the least.”
Katryne wasn’t sure what he meant. She looked down at herself, all wrapped up in the heavy blanket, and was puzzled. “Why would you say such things?” she asked.
Warwick drained his wine cup. “Because you are fearful and combative,” he said. “Am I wrong?”
“Nay, my lord.”
“Then, for Christ’s Sake, come over and sit down before you fall down,” he commanded softly. “Take some wine with me and let us discuss what will happen from this point on. Will you do this? No one is going to hurt you, my lady, I swear it. Do you believe me?”
She eyed him dubious. “Well….”
“Has anyone hurt you yet?”
No one had. Katryne began to see his point. Moreover, she had no real choice. Reluctantly, she finally went to sit in a chair opposite Warwick, near the brazier that was giving off a good deal of heat in the damp and cold tent. Pollard pulled up another chair and sat near Warwick, eyeing the fair young maiden who appeared vastly uncomfortable and vastly nervous.
“Now,” Warwick said as Katryne perched in the chair with her cup of wine still in hand, still untouched. “I will send a missive to your brother and relay my terms to him. We should have an answer shortly, as we are a two-day ride from Conisbrough. I am sure your brother will be more than happy to exchange his sister for the man he holds prisoner.”
Katryne watched him as he poured himself more wine. “And if he does not?”
Warwick lifted his eyebrows thoughtfully. “Then you and I shall discuss your future,” he said. “I could marry you off to the highest bidder or I could send you to the nearest convent. Those are things we will discuss.”
Katryne eyed the man, a hardened man she thought. “You… you do not intend to kill me to punish my brother for refusing your terms?”
Warwick’s gaze lingered on her. “Does this frighten you?”
She thought on the question a moment. “Not as much as being ravaged does.”
Warwick smiled faintly. “You fear a man’s touch more than death?”
She shrugged. “I was educated by nuns, my lord,” she said. “I fear many things more than death.”
Warwick liked that answer. In fact, he was coming to respect the girl just a little. She was flighty and silly, but at least she was honest. He turned back to his wine. “In answer to your previous question, a dead young woman is no good to anyone,” he said. Then, he grinned. “Mayhap I will marry you off to your brother’s worst enemy. Is there anyone he hates in particular?”
Katryne could see humor in his face although she was unsure what, exactly, was so funny. “I do not know, my lord,” she said honestly. “It has been two years since I last saw my brother and would not know his mind these days.”
Warwick shrugged. “Well, it is something to think on,” he said, drinking his wine. “Meanwhile, I will send him a missive and we will wait eagerly for his answer. While we wait, you will be my guest. I am an excellent host, by the way.”
Katryne watched the man as he drank more wine and unlaced his boots, evidently weary after a busy morning. She had no way of knowing just how fatigued or how worried he was about Edward’s movements. And she couldn’t know how very badly he wanted Kenton back with Edward on the march. She simply kept the blanket wrapped around her tightly, like a shield, especially when the same two big knights entered the tent and Warwick engaged them in a discussion she could not hear.
She should have been rightly terrified at being a captive of the Earl of Warwick and, truth be told, shewasfrightened. But she was also oddly intrigued by it all. She was fairly certain her brother would negotiate for her release so she wasn’t worried in that regard. She was the only sister he had and she knew he would not let her languish, so her fears were somewhat eased by that thought. Therefore, she would be a prisoner of the Earl of Warwick for a few days until her brother delivered his prisoner in exchange for her, and she would have quite a tale to tell her friends. It wasn’t every young maiden from the dales of Cumbria who became a prisoner of the Earl of Warwick. She would be quite special in that regard.
Before the day was through, a messenger was riding hard for Conisbrough with a missive proposing the terms of a prisoner exchange– St. John’s sister for Kenton le Bec. If the terms were not agreed to, Warwick warned, St. John would get his sister back in pieces.
Katryne never knew that part of it and it was probably best that she didn’t.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO