But Sir Hempen had been there already.
Quicksilver surveyed the vandalized remains of what had been her childhood home, and a sick horror filled her. She felt something die within her, and knew it was the girl Jane. But over that grief flooded a tide of cold anger, and she knew that something else had been born—the outlaw Quicksilver.
"It is well that Mother and Nan waited in the greenwood with Jory," Leander said softly.
"Well indeed," she replied.
"Where is the loot you spoke of, Quicksilver?" Stowton said softly at her elbow.
"In Sir Hempen's manor, I doubt not," she returned. "Ay de mi!" Stowton sighed. "How shall we bring it out from such a stronghold?"
"Why, by seizing it!" Quicksilver snapped. "He has taken my house, so I shall take his!"
"Tonight?" Stowton stared, appalled.
"What better time? He will never expect us! Nay, like as not he and his men have taken the field, seeking for me in the Count's name!" She did not bother telling the outlaws that Sir Hempen had a score to settle with her. "If we go hotfoot to his manor house, we can strike and be gone ere he can return. Then on the way home, we shall steal his cattle."
"Steal a knight's cows?" Stowton looked up, wide-eyed. "Just like that? On the instant?"
"Why, would you have me send him notice? 'Tis summer, and the kine are loose in the pasture; I doubt that he will have set a guard over them. Have you no taste for beef?"
"Well, I do like the taste," Stowton admitted. "Come, my hearties! We shall breakfast on sirloin!"
And they did.
"That was only a raid, of course," Quicksilver told Geoffrey. "We did not seek to hold the manor, but took all my mother's household goods, and drove off all Sir Hempen's cattle and horses."
"You let them keep their own household goods?"
"Aye, for those belonged to Sir Dunmore's widow, and my quarrel was with Sir Hempen, not with his mother. Nay, my mother would have rebuked me sorely for stealing from her old mistress."
"Loyalty like hers is to be prized," Geoffrey agreed. "Why did you not seek to hold the manor?"
Quicksilver glanced up at him in irritation. "Do not mock me! You know well enough."
"I know why it would have been foolish to have held it," Geoffrey replied, "but I do not know if you had the true reasons, or only sentiment."
"So you wish to see if I knew as much of warfare as I thought?"
"Frankly, yes." Geoffrey leaned back on his elbows—an exposed position, but he was ready enough to use his feet, if Quicksilver tried to take advantage of it. She knew that, too, and glared daggers at him for tempting her. "Am I to amuse you by my foolishness, then?"
"I take great delight in hearing how your mind works," Geoffrey countered, "though amusement is too light a term."
She frowned at him, uncertain as to whether or not she had been complimented—so Geoffrey pushed a little harder. "The fruit of your tactics is battles won where no mere outlaw should be able to win, and strategy that has succeeded admirably till I hove into view. I cannot but admire such generalship—so give me reason to admire it more. Tell me why you did not seek to hold the manor, once you had taken it."
"Why, because we did not have enough men, nor enough arrows nor arms of any sort! In brief, because we had not prepared ourselves for such an undertaking—and because I was most unsure of the loyalty of my command."
"And of their quality." Geoffrey nodded with delight. "Exactly as I would have thought! Still, with all that against the undertaking, why did you do it?"
Quicksilver frowned. "I have told you that."
"No, you have told me the woman's reason. Surely the commander must have given it a thought, also."
"If you mean, before I said that we would go take back my mother's belongings, had I thought of the issue as a commander? Had I paused to ask myself if we could do it and come away alive? Or most of us..."
"Aye, all of that—and if regaining your mother's property was your only reason for the raid."
"I saw that, if we won, it would secure the band behind me—if that is what you mean."
"The very thing! Did you think of that before the raid, or after?"
"Before, of course," she said, exasperated. "How could I fail to see it, when I dealt with outlaws? They are men who live by theft, after all, and nothing will earn you a bandit's obedience like good loot. There was also the matter of their seeing that I could plan an enterprise so that we could win, and that my brothers would not let them do other than I had commanded—for they were my captains, you see, one for each of the manor's walls. Nay, the men saw that I could plan a battle and win it, with only two of them dead and three wounded—and they durst not move against me after that."
Geoffrey frowned. "But you had been so careful to see that your brothers would not draw revenge for your deeds!"
"Aye." Quicksilver turned away, her face thunderous. "I failed in that. I know I should have let old Count Laeg have his way with me, so that my mother and brothers would not be hurt—but I saw instantly and clearly that my sister would be, when she came of age. Still, I make no excuse—it was only my own horror and loathing of the act that made me place myself above their welfare. It was selfish, I know—but it is done."
Geoffrey could only stare for a moment, shaken to his core by the idea of this beautiful, spirited warrior subjected to the clutches of an old goat—but shocked more by the thought that she should actually think she was in any way to blame for having defended herself. How could she believe there was any wrong in doing what was right?
He would have to make her see that.
CHAPTER 6
"I would not say selfish!" Geoffrey sat up, frowning. "A woman must never submit to such abuse as that, and your brothers and sister would have been the first to tell you so!"
"They have," she said, eyes downcast, "but if any of them come to grief, I shall blame myself eternally."
"What, blame yourself for Count Laeg's sin? Nay, surely! Besides, your brothers and mother came to you out of their own free will, and not from any constraint."
"None but that they saw the grief that would befall them, if they did not flee," Quicksilver retorted. "Since we were all outlaws, I saw that our only safety lay in beating young Count Laeg at his own game of tyranny, and that right quickly, before he could expect us."
"And you saw all that before you told your bandits you would take Sir Hempen's manor?"
"Aye, but it was not the careful and considered plan you make it out to be."
"No—the thoughts flashed through your mind, and you were instantly sure of their answer, were you not?" Quicksilver's look became guarded. "How did you ... ? Oh. It is even so with you."
"It is," Geoffrey agreed. "Your plans were excellent! Did your father teach you this?"
"Why—I really cannot say." Quicksilver spread her hands. "Some of it, I am sure he did. Most seems to come by common sense—though I will own I have learned some things by watching the commanders sent against me."
"Of whom the other outlaw bands were the first?"
"Oh, the outlaws!" Quicksilver dismissed them with a wave of her hand. "Bulin spoke truly—his band was the best, no thanks to him. He had bellowed and browbeaten them into doing what he wanted, but it was Stowton who had the sense to see what needed to be done."
"Bulin the strongarm, and Stowton the brain? How long did it take him to discover he could not make you front for him as Bulin had?"
"One night—that first raid. 'Do you not think we should break down the door with a tree trunk?' he asked, and I snapped, 'Nay, for they've crenels above it for pouring down boiling oil.' I pointed to the stonework above the entrance, then drew my finger down to point at the portal. 'Why do you think it is five feet above the ground?' I demanded. 'So that you must mount steps to reach it—and why do you think the steps are laid against the side of the wall?' 'Why,' he answered, wide-eyed, 'so that attackers must come right up beneath the crenels, where boiling water may be dropped upon them!' 'You are quicker than the rest,' I told him, 'but you must be quicker still, or you will be dead. We will seek out the postern whiles my brothers draw the defenders to the walls.' Then, when we had chopped our way in through the postern, Stowton said, 'I shall take a band to bear away the knight's strongbox!' But, 'No,' I said to him. 'We shall take only my mother's goods, and Sir Hempen's horses and cattle. He shall be wroth with us, and seek to punish us—but so long as we stay within the greenwood and out of his way, he will be content. If we take his gold, he will never hold back until he has haled it back out, and us with it, that he may slit our throats.' His eyes grew big, but he made no comment, nor did he argue when I bade him take five men and bind up the soldiers my brothers had knocked senseless. But he did tell me that we should drive the cattle gently, so that we need not make any great noise. I told him, 'What matters it, when we have made so great a hullabaloo here? If a few villagers awake to watch us pass by, let them! They will think twice ere they seek to enter the wood without a by-your-leave.' He looked thoughtful at that, but he went to drive the cattle. He never left off making suggestions, and does not to this day—but I take his notions when it will do no harm, and it keeps him content."