"Aye," Alain agreed readily, "but there is no shame in that, when the woman in question is so wise."
"La, my lord!" Cordelia blushed, looking down, but smiling. "You embarrass me, and in front of so many folk!"
Geoffrey glanced at Quicksilver, and saw the naked longing there in her face before she hid it behind a mocking smile. "How sweet! But whiles you dally, there are men groaning in pain."
"Oh, aye!" Cordelia dropped Alain's arm and stepped past Quicksilver, toward the tangle of wounded. "Come, let us see to their hurts! Leave the binding of prisoners to your men, and aid me!"
Quicksilver stared after her, astounded and confounded. "Bid your brothers see to the enemy," Geoffrey suggested, "for surely at least one of them is here. Is not the measure of a chieftain how well her band works when she is not there?"
Quicksilver frowned up at him. "An interesting notion—and one measure among several, at least. Jory!" Her bodyguard parted to let her brother step up. "Aye, sister?"
"Bind such of these outlaws as still live, for it would be wrong to slay them now, in cold blood! You may judge them later, beneath the greenwood tree or at Castle Laeg!"
"It shall be done, Jane." He turned away.
Cordelia halted, looking back in surprise. " 'Jane'?"
"It is for my family to call me that," Quicksilver snapped, "and no other. Let us see to the doctoring, damsel—but I warn you, my surgery is of the roughest sort."
"And mine is of the gentlest," Cordelia rejoined, "so between us, we should be ready for anything we may find. Can you not heal as well as you slay?"
"Aye. Come, and I shall show you!"
The two women strode off side by side, and Alain stepped over to Geoffrey, shaking his head in wonder. "What a spitfire she is! I tell you, Geoffrey, I marvel all over again at this lass of mine, that she can tame even so wild a spirit as this, so quickly!"
"Aye, she can," Geoffrey said softly, "but can I?"
Alain turned to him, frowning. "How was that?"
"Nothing," Geoffrey said, aloud. "She may be a bandit chieftain, Alain, but she has had cause."
"So it would seem, from what she said about Count Laeg. She slew him, did she not?"
"Ah," Geoffrey said softly, "so the Loguires have not been as wholly ignorant of what passed in their domain as she thinks."
"Aye, but we should have known the fullness of this ere it came to her rebellion. I will own 'tis that which has made us look more closely."
"And is the cause of Diarmid's coming to Loguire?"
"Aye. Mind you, the lad is nearly twenty, and has long been ready for the office—but Mother would not hear of his being so far from her."
"Ever the case with the youngest," Geoffrey agreed, thinking of his own younger brother. "But when word of Quicksilver's taking Castle Laeg came, the Queen conflicted with the mother, eh?"
"Even so, and when we heard that Quicksilver had declared the county to be hers, and she its rightful ruler, the Queen won, and agreed to sending her second and last child to attend to the matter."
"With a small army to guard him."
"Aye."
"And his big brother."
"And his big brother's witch-fiancee. Aye."
Geoffrey nodded. "So that is why Cordelia could come so quickly when I called—and why she could bring you with her."
"I will not say it was entirely her own idea," Alain hedged. "I think she was surprised when I volunteered so readily—until she realized that I feared for her safety among bandits."
"You did not tell her that it was also because you wished to study this bandit Quicksilver close at hand?" Alain shrugged. "Why? I am sure she has worked that out for herself."
"But it is more polite to pretend neither of you knows it." Geoffrey nodded. "And truly, you were more concerned for her safety than curious about Quicksilver, were you not?"
"Oh, aye, but she is more concerned for mine." Alain shrugged off the matter. "No doubt she shall be angered when she sees that I have taken two more wounds—but they are mere scratches, and others are hurt far worse."
"Scratches can fester." Geoffrey turned away to take lint and balm out of Fess's saddle bag. "Come, doff your doublet and let us bind up these wounds!"
"Why, if you must," Alain sighed, and shrugged out of his doublet. "When you are done, of course, I will bind for you. What of this lady bandit of yours? I am told she slew old Count Laeg; was there any excuse for it?"
"Is self-defense excuse enough?"
"So I had surmised." Alain nodded. "He sought to rape her, then?"
"He would have been pleased if she had submitted willingly," Geoffrey answered, "but she did not—and I gather he was far more pleased with the prospect of rape."
Alain's lips thinned, and it was not with the pain of the balm going into his cuts. "He exercised the droit du seigneur, then."
"Not even that. By that law, the lord has the right to each bride's maidenhead, the night before she is wed. Quicksilver was betrothed to no man, nor, from what I hear, were most of the other damsels he took to his bed."
"A thorough rogue indeed!" Alain hissed. "Nay, we should have been far less trusting of our reeves and our steward!"
"Your steward was a good man," Geoffrey said carefully.
"Aye, but he always strove to think well of everybody, never realizing that he might thus be overlooking villainies. Diarmid is more suspicious than that."
Geoffrey remembered Diarmid's cold, analytical insistence on learning all the facts relating to any matter before he made up his mind about it, and felt chilled within. "He is that."
"So the killing was self-defense," Alain said, "though 'twas still a commoner slaying a lord."
"Aye. She was sure the law would not protect her, and for that reason alone, I suspect she was right."
"So she broke the law further, by stealing?"
Geoffrey shrugged. "She felt she had no choice—it was win rule, or submit willingly to abuse, or die. For a woman alone, that may well have been the case."
"Then the law is vile, and must be changed!" said the future King of Gramarye. "But has she ever set forth to steal, or has she only defended herself and her people?"
"She has never started a battle, if that is what you mean. She has always waited for her enemy to attack first, then has carved him into little pieces. Then she has taken his land and castle."
"As it was necessary to take Castle Laeg, in order for her to defend herself." Alain nodded. "That makes more sense than it sounds."
"A great deal more," Geoffrey agreed. "Once she had beaten Count Laeg's troops, she could be sure he would come against her with a larger army, even with royal troops among them."
"And, no doubt, with myself or Diarmid as their general," Alain grunted, "if you had not forestalled her."
"You see? It was even as she guessed. No, surely she needed the walls of Castle Laeg to defend her—and had to chase the young Count from his own demesne, scattering his troops, so that he could not come against her." Geoffrey shrugged. "It was against the law, but it was sound strategy."
"If she were a general for the Crown, we would reward her for it," Alain agreed. "There is less wrong in what she has done than in the circumstances that brought her to it. Yes, there may even be merit to her notion that the young Count has forfeited his county by bad governance, and that it should be hers by right of good governance."
Geoffrey noted that Alain had already officially forgotten who came up with that idea. "It will give her a talking point at law, at least."
"It is certainly the sort of argument that would appeal to Diarmid. I must say that if it is a choice between changing Quicksilver and changing the law, I can only say that the law is wrong—but it would be a dangerous precedent to lay on the books."