Page 10 of The Captive Knight
Sunlight glinted off the dagger strapped to her father’s belt as he strode to where her brother struggled up on his elbows. Through her mind flashed images of a beaten hound, a spitted squire, a wounded knight.
“Flesh of my flesh, unseated by a bag of grain,” he muttered. “Thisis the son who remains to me.”
Laurent managed to rise to his feet, reeling. He wiped his mouth with his sleeve and rasped, “I am no knight, father.”
Her heart stopped.
“No, you are not.” Her father swung his hand across Laurent’s face, launching him to skid across the ground. “And you never will be.”
Aliénor shouted her brother’s name, jerking against Thibaud’s grip, but her father turned his thunderous face toward her so fast that she froze.
“This crippled excuse of a boy,” he said, turning to spit on the ground, “is no longer my heir.”
Thibaud refused to release her until her father had strode across the courtyard, barking for wine, and the door to the donjon closed behind him. Racing to her brother, she fell to her knees. His eyes were just starting to open. Blood dripped from his nose, over his chin, and onto his tunic. She lifted the trailing ends of her tippet sleeves to wipe it away.
Her heart fluttered. “God’s Blood, Laury, are you trying to get yourself killed?”
He winced as he pushed himself upright. “Knight’s training has taught me how to fall off a horse without breaking my neck.”
“Our father could have—”
“But he didn’t.” He jerked his head away from her fussing and instead swiped his sleeve across his mouth. “I’m alive, and everything is exactly as it should be.”
“Are you out of your senses?” She sat back on her heels. “You know our father doesn’t mean what he says when—”
“Yes, he does, and I’ll hold him to it.” His lips widened in a bloody grin. “You’re the new heir, Ally. And I can finally join the monastery.”
