away from him, pulling her back and wrapping one end of the rope around her leg. Again, his arm rose and he beat down on her.
Before I could reach the edge of the practice field, I felt strong arms around my waist as my forward progression was halted.
“Release me!” I cried out as Rylan pulled me against his chest. Dunstan was nearby with Lady Nelle’s arm in his grasp.
“No, good queen,” Rylan said. “You should not be here at all, and come what may—I will not allow you closer. Not now.”
“Branford!” I yelled out again, and I saw his shoulder’s tense as his gaze flickered to me briefly.
He did not halt his movements.
The rope was tied around Janet’s other leg and then around her waist as she was strapped to the dummy. I could hear her cries and pleas as well as the smacking sound of Branford’s hand across her mouth. There was blood on her lips as he wrapped the rope around her again.
I struggled against Sir Rylan’s grip, and just when I thought I would wriggle from his grasp, there were other hands on me, pulling me slightly backwards. Dunstan moved in front of me, trying to block my view.
“Let me go!” I cried out again, pushing against the strong arms of the soldiers around me.
“Please, Queen Alexandra,” Dunstan pleaded.
Branford’s hands flew rapidly as he wound the rope around Janet’s form, further securing her as she cried for mercy. He yanked roughly at the binds and then turned to walk several feet away to a large stack of firewood, stockpiled for the winter.
He piled it at her feet.
“No! Branford, please!” I screamed, but he would not even turn to face me.
Janet, however, did look toward me.
“Lady Alexandra!” she cried out. “I did not know—I swear I did not! Please! Please!”
Branford signaled one of the other guards, and a moment later, the sentinel handed him a brightly burning torch. He moved close to Janet, and I could hear her pleading with him. His chest rose and fell, his eyes narrowed, and he dropped the torch into the dry wood at her feet.
“No!” Janet cried out. “I did not know! I did not know!”
“Die, you witch!” Branford growled and spat in her face. He took several steps backwards to avoid the flames as they spread around the practice figure, the dry wood, and my handmaid. Though his back was still to me, he was at least close enough I knew he could hear my words.
“Branford—what if she truly did not know? You cannot—you cannot do this if—”
He wheeled around suddenly, his bright green eyes blazing with fire and hatred.
“Did not know? Did not know?” he screamed as he shook his fists. “She was taking direction from my enemy! She knew exactly what she was doing! She used you, used your kindness, and plotted to destroy us, Alexandra!”
The flames grew brighter as Janet’s screams grew louder. I yelled at Branford to stop what he was doing, but he turned back to me with eyes as bright as the flames behind him. Branford’s body was shaking as he cried out.
“She took my dignity…she took the shine from your eyes when you knew I was leaving to try to father a child by another. She nearly destroyed me, and I will watch her burn for it!”
He turned back to the scene in front of him, and Janet’s eyes looked around my husband, searching me out as she fought uselessly against her bonds. I twisted my body in an equally fruitless attempt to disengage myself from the grip of our neighboring knight.
I could feel something sharp sticking into my side—something from Sir Rylan’s belt, I thought—as I watched the wood catch fire and the flame grow larger around the feet of the girl who had stayed with me many nights when Branford was not there. It was the same girl who brought me breakfast and made me eat even when I did not feel like it. It was the same girl who had tried to win the acceptance of my husband over and over again, always trying harder when he ignored her.
And the same girl who brought me my morning tea every day without fail.
“Please, no…” I heard myself whisper. There was no way she could have possibly known what she was doing. Edgar must have threatened her—given her no choice in her actions. I could see her trying to kick out at the burning logs, but Branford knocked them back toward her, snarling