The Protector by Madeline Hunter

we found you, Sir Morvan. And her daughter Marguerite.”
    “One of you bring the girl.”
    Morvan knelt down and slid his arms under the woman and slowly rose. The movement brought her to consciousness.
    Anna strode forward while Gregory backed up in front of her, entreating her to stop. She came over and eyed the woman in Morvan's arms. She raised the blanket, paled, and turned away. “Bring them to my chamber.”
    “Anna, let the servants tend them,” Morvan entreated her.
    “Bring them,” she yelled over her shoulder, the command strangled with emotion.
    Morvan followed her into the hall and up the stairs, the two of them shouting orders to servants as they went. The woman opened her eyes and stared warily at him. “My baby,” she mumbled.
    “She is here. She lives. The lady will see to her care and yours. They say she has the angel's touch, you know.”
    Anna made him lay the woman on her bed and had a pallet brought in for the girl. “Leave us.”
    “They have been raped, Anna.” He doubted she had seen it before.
    She looked from the woman to the girl balled up on the pallet. “One of the women will know what to do. Go now, please.”
    Anna did not spare herself the unpleasantness of washing the battered women. The girl appeared unconscious, but the woman was aware. Broth was brought, and they got Ruth to take some of it. After sheets and blankets had been tucked around her, Anna sat on the edge of the bed. “You were brought to us so that you would tell me what happened. Gurwant wants me to know. When you have rested we will talk.”
    She rose to go, but Ruth grabbed her arm. “Nay, I will tell you now, for when I sleep I hope never to wake up.”
    Anna sat down again. “How old is your daughter?”
    “But thirteen last summer. Better she die now, I think.”
    Anna fought for her composure.
Yield and you can save your people
.
    “They came this morning right at dawn. We had no warning until they were calling us out. There were ten of them, all on horses, and a big giant of a man leading.”
    Ruth licked her parched lips. “The big one told us that he was our lord now, and your husband, and that we were his. You could tell he's a man that likes killing. He looked us all over then, and I knew that someone was going to die. He called my man forward. He had one of those big axes the knights use, and as quick as a blink he took his head, my man just standing there one second and dead the next.”
    Her tears flowed freely, soaking the sheet at her neck. “He said we was to tell you about it. Every day until you yield he'll kill another. When he comes, if one is missing, hiding, he'll kill two.” She turned her head and muttered the rest. “He took us back with him. He gave me to his knights. My baby he kept for himself.”
    Yield and you can save your people.
Few lords would respond to this threat, for in truth most offered their people little protection during war and siege. She could sit here in safety and wait him out. But her father would not have done so, nor her brother, and she could not. He was counting on that, counting on her sacrificing herself and the lands to save the many lives that depended on her.
    She went to the pallet. The frail girl had not moved, but her breathing came regularly and her skin felt cool.
    Within a week you will be in my bed
. Gurwant expected her to capitulate as the horrors mounted. But he had gone too far in sending her this child whom he had subjected to her own nightmare.
    A servant handed her a cup of wine. She took it, then returned her attention to the girl. “Find Carlos. Send him to me. Then tell the knights that we meet shortly in the hall.”
    A half hour later she joined her men around the high table. She stood in front of the lord's chair and placed a large scroll on the table.
    She told them Ruth's tale. “He is counting on my yielding when he holds true to his threat,” she concluded. “It is what one would expect from a noblewoman of any