and ignorance, you shall recite ten pater nosters to the good Friar.”
“You should be the one begging repentance,” she countered angrily. “For surely you traded your soul to the Devil long ago. As a Christian, I shall pray for your redemption.”
“Save your prayers for yourself, my lady. You will need them far more than I, whether the ransom is paid or not.”
Servanne gritted her teeth. “If you are threatening me, or endeavouring to frighten me—”
“My dear lady, I am not endeavouring to frighten you any more than you should be already. In truth, I would rather open your eyes to a few unpleasant facts.”
“By first demanding an outlandish ransom, then suggesting it will not be paid? How truly thoughtful of you, messire. Are you this considerate to all your hostages?”
“One or two have screamed quicker for mercy, but the methods improve with each outing.” He paused and his eyes were lured down to the moist pink arch of her lips. “Unless I am misinformed, you are Sir Hubert’s only surviving heir?”
“I do not see where that is a concern of yours.”
“There was a nephew,” he said, ignoring the sarcasm. “But I was told he had a fatal accident a few weeks back and fell on his own sword. Three times. Clumsy fellow, would you not say?”
This was the first she had heard of it and her silence caused the slate-gray eyes to fasten on to hers again.
“Moreover, you are an orphan yourself, are you not? As such, should you perish before another husband has been procured, all dower rights of inheritance revert by law to the crown, to be kept, sold, or dispersed as the king sees fit.” “King Richard would never—”
“King Richard is away on his crusades,” the Wolf interrupted bluntly. “It would therefore fall to Prince John’s discretion, in his role as regent, to dispose of Sir Hubert’s properties and chattal. Of the two brothers, which one would you say had the greasier palms?”
“Prince John,” she whispered, intrigued despite herself, to see where this was leading.
“And of the two royal scions, who would have the most to gain by parceling out the late baron’s properties quickly and quietly, with as little fuss as possible?”
Prince John, she thought, temporarily chilled out of her anger and weariness. Acting on the king’s behalf and using the excuse that the funds raised would be going to finance the Lionheart’s crusades in the Holy Land, Sir Hubert’s estates could be divided and sold to interested bidders, with a portion of each sale discreetly ending up in the prince’s own coffers.
The Black Wolf was watching her reactions closely. “In the same vein, if I had a choice between paying out ten thousand marks ransom for a bride I had no desire to take in the first place … or to bide my time and pay a good deal less to buy only those estates I wanted …” He paused and shrugged his massive fur-clad shoulders. “I might be sorely tempted to let someone else do what my vaunted code of chivalry prevented me from doing myself.”
Servanne blanched, then sprang to her feet.
“Enough!” she cried, incensed beyond reason. “I will not sit here and endure such insults! Your logic is very sound, coming from a man who is both a traitor and a thief. I have no doubt you would choose the easier path to obtaining your goal, which only proves you are not who you claim to be. You are not Lucien Wardieu. You are not even a man! You are a corrupt and twisted shadow of a creature who has obviously decided that stealing a man’s identity and committing heinous crimes in his good name somehow satiates a petty need inside you to become more than what you are. You have no honour. You have no shame. I hope, nay, I pray for the real Lord Lucien to come into these woods and hunt you down! I pray he catches you and stakes you down on the ground, and leaves you there for the dogs and boars to chew away strip by bloody strip! Moreover, I pray … oh, how I do pray to be present when he does so, to have the privilege and immense pleasure of watching you die inch by gored inch!”
She stood there, her face flushed, her chest heaving with anger. Not only the outlaw leader, but every man within earshot of her outburst—which included nearly all present in the pilgrims’ hall—had stopped what they were doing to turn