who was the oldest by three months, took up his knife and held it over the flames. “I, Simon Warleigh, swear my allegiance and friendship to you, my brothers in arms, for the rest of my life.”
He drew the blade across his palm, barely flinching as it left a long shallow cut that began to bleed immediately. He passed the blade to Jarrod on his right.
The dark boy took the blade, held it over the flames and said, “I, Jarrod Maxwell, swear my allegiance and friendship to you, my brothers in arms, for the rest of my life.” He made no sign as the knife slit his flesh, passing it to his right.
Christian was the youngest by nearly a year. His brown hair was glossy with golden streaks in the fire-light. He took the blade. He looked to his companions, then held the knife over the flames as they had done. His voice was as firm with conviction as theirs had been. “I, Christian Greatham, swear my allegiance and friendship to you, my brothers in arms, for the rest of my life.”
He flicked his tongue out to wet his lower lip, then dragged the knife over his palm with a frown of concentration. He looked up at the other two.
All three stood in unison and they held their dripping palms out over the flames.
Simon spoke with a maturity far beyond his thirteen years. “Brothers we are, bound by the blood we shed and by our love for each other and the man who brought us together. May we never forget The Dragon and the wrong done him.”
“The Dragon,” intoned the other two boys.
Jarrod reached out to clasp Christian’s wrist. Christian did the same to Simon, who closed his own palm around Jarrod’s wrist.
Simon called out to the star-studded sky overhead. “Does it take our whole lives, my lord, we will see the man who wronged you punished.” The pain and sadness in his voice was echoed in the others’ faces.
They stood like that, bound by their love for one another and for the man who had acted as foster father, mentor and teacher to the three of them. The man whom they had been forced to testify against.
Jarrod spoke in a harsh voice. “We should have lied.”
Christian shook his head, his blue eyes dark with misery. “He would not have had us do such a thing, even to save him.”
Simon nodded. “Aye.”
Their foster father had had no idea what would come when he’d told them to tell the truth. Yet Simon knew that none of them would ever rid themselves of the guilt of having given testimony that would incriminate him.
Though Simon had loved his own father deeply neither he nor anyone else who had ever known Wallace Kelsey, known by friends and foe alike as The Dragon, could deny the impact of his character and genuine care for all who came into contact with him. That was, no one but The Dragon’s own brother, Gerard Kelsey.
It was he who, due to his treachery, now bore the title of Earl of Kelsey. It was he who sat in the place of honor in the great hall at Dragonwick.
At that moment Jarrod spoke up, “I have something that I wish to give each of you before we leave here.” He went to his horse and took a velvet bag from his belongings.
He came back to the fire and removed three objects, holding them out to the light. Simon saw that they were brooches, each containing a circle and within the circle was a magnificent dragon, its wings unfurled.
Jarrod held one out to Simon, then to Christian. “These will keep us from forgetting each other or him.”
Simon’s voice was as husky as his friend’s as he pinned the brooch to his cape. “I will never forget.”
“Nor I,” said Christian as he pinned his own into place.
Swallowing hard, Jarrod did the same. Then, with no further words between them, the three mounted and headed back to the keep, which after the events of the previous day no longer felt like home. It was the day when their innocence had died, the day The Dragon’s brother had attacked the keep and killed him.
Chapter One
England, 1201
“There is one way, my lord, for you to keep your head.” King John’s keenly assessing gaze held him.
Simon Warleigh, Lord of Avington stiffened where he stood before the king. King John leaned forward, his elbows on the table before him, as Simon spoke with a tone of calm that surprised him no less than it did the king. “And that would be?”
John Lackland was so called because his father Henry had made no great provision for him as he had his brothers. He had ruled with an iron hand since inheriting from his brother, Richard Lionheart, after his death in 1199. The king smiled thinly, reaching down to run a slender hand over the head of the sleek-coated hound that sat beside his heavily carved chair. “Take Kelsey’s daughter to wife.”
Simon sucked in a breath of shock. He was aware of the quick glances of the two guards who stood back from the king’s chair, though neither man made any other outward sign that they were taking note of the proceedings. The guards were the small stone chamber’s only other occupants, but their presence was hardly necessary. Even if Simon was foolish enough to try to escape this private audience he could never hope to make it through the castle without being apprehended.
But that was not the greatest of his problems at the moment. “Why would I take my accuser’s daughter to my very bosom?” As soon as he said the words Simon realized he must go carefully. Though he was not guilty of plotting against the king John clearly believed that he was. The king’s harsh dealings with his nobles had certainly caused much unrest and gave him good reason to suspect insurrection amongst his subjects. Were Simon not so occupied with his own conflict with Kelsey, he might indeed have fallen in with those who had asked him to join their efforts to rein in this king. But he had little time to afford such activities.
The king shrugged, his shoulders narrow despite the heavy red velvet tunic he wore. “Because as I have just informed you, it is the only way to keep that head of yours attached to the shoulders the women at court seem to make so much of.”
Simon ignored the jibe. He had no care for the foolish tongues of women who had nothing of import to occupy them.
Simon had Avington to see to first and foremost. He had come back from the Holy Land to learn of the inheritance that had fallen to him with both a sense of responsibility and a deep sorrow. He would never have expected the death of both his father, who he learned had been dead these many months, and his elder brother only weeks prior to his return to England. Yet he’d had no time to grieve their loss, for he had immediately become embroiled in this conflict with the Earl of Kelsey. It galled him so to call the usurper by that name, the title that had graced his former foster father.
It was near beyond comprehension that the king would now make Kelsey Simon’s father-by-marriage. He shook his dark head, trying to fathom some way out of this untenable situation. Never for a moment had he, Jarrod or Christian foreseen such a complication to their budding plans to bring Kelsey to ruin. He spoke almost absently. “It makes no sense. Why would you ask this of me? What possible gain could there be from it?”
King John watched him for a moment, stroking his long narrow cheek. “In spite of your long absence from England you can not be ignorant of your father’s, and after him your
