Lionheart A Novel - By Sharon Kay Penman Page 0,159

other. “What is it? Do you have other questions for me?” Richard shook his head, impressed by how observant she was; he supposed that was how she’d survived six years of marriage to a man like Isaac Comnenus. “There is something else you need to know,” she said. “As soon as Kyrenia surrendered, you won your war. You see, Isaac is a man with many sins on his soul and much blood on his hands. But he has one redeeming quality. He truly loves his daughter.”

Had anyone else said that, Richard would have laughed aloud. He felt that Sophia deserved courtesy, though, after all she’d been through. He was framing a politely skeptical response when he had an ugly thought. Among the many accusations made against Isaac was that he was a despoiler of virgins. Richard’s gaze shifted to Anna, who was very young and very pretty. Glancing around, he saw that André and Joffroi and even Guy shared this sudden suspicion.

Sophia saw it, too, and her black eyes blazed. “No,” she said sharply, “whatever his sins, Isaac is not guilty of that one. Anna is his blood, the one pure corner of his soul. He would never abuse her like that. Nor would I ever have allowed it.”

“And how would you have stopped him?” Guy challenged.

“I would have cut his throat whilst he slept,” Sophia snapped, and Guy laughed in disbelief.

Not Richard, though. He did not doubt that she meant exactly what she said, and he decided he could learn to like this shrewd, forthright woman who’d sensibly given her loyalty to the stepdaughter who needed it rather than to the husband who did not deserve it. “Even if you are right, Madame, that only means that Isaac is grieving for his daughter’s capture. Why is that something we need to know?”

“Because Isaac expects other men to act as he does. He will be terrified, sure that you will maltreat Anna the way he would have maltreated an enemy’s daughter. You might want to consider making use of that fear.”

This time none of the men were able to disguise their disbelief. They carefully avoided one another’s eyes, lest they laugh at Sophia’s ludicrous suggestion—that a man like Isaac would ever sacrifice his own selfish skin for anyone else’s welfare. Richard changed the subject then by telling Sophia that her half-sister Mariam was with Joanna in Limassol. She seemed pleased, saying she ought to have known Mariam would never have been able to resist such an adventure. From time to time, she glanced over at Anna, smiling reassuringly. Anna always smiled back. But none of the men knew what she was truly thinking.

DEUDAMOUR SOON YIELDED, its garrison unwilling to die for a lost cause. Richard was laying siege to Buffavento, the most inaccessible of Isaac’s mountaintop strongholds, when a messenger rode in under a flag of truce. To the utter astonishment of everyone except Sophia, Isaac offered to surrender unconditionally to the English king in return for a guarantee of his daughter’s safety. He asked only that his imperial rank be respected and he not be placed in irons like a common felon.

A HUGE CROWD had assembled to watch Isaac’s surrender at his former castle of Deudamour. The contrast with his earlier appearance could not have been more dramatic. Accompanied by a small band of his dwindling supporters, he was clad in mourning garb, his hair and beard unkempt, his fingers stripped of his jeweled rings, his head bare. Dismounting, he knelt at Richard’s feet and spoke in a hoarse voice, keeping his eyes downcast as an interpreter conveyed his plea for mercy.

The Cypriots began to jeer and curse, enraged when Richard allowed Isaac to rise instead of making him grovel in the dust as he deserved. Their threats echoed after Isaac as he was escorted by Richard’s soldiers into the safety of the castle, their fury the final verdict upon his wretched reign, and Richard wondered if he’d really surrendered because he knew what would have befallen him if he’d been captured by his own subjects.

But that cynical suspicion was soon dispelled. Once they’d entered the hall, Richard gestured for Isaac to sit beside him upon the dais and then had Anna brought out to show that she’d not been harmed. At the sight of his daughter, Isaac amazed his audience by bursting into tears. He leaped to his feet and hastened to her side, embracing her with such obvious joy and relief that those watching no longer doubted