The Rose at Twilight by Amanda Scott Page B

might allow her to stay behind with Jonet. But the thought that someone else might suffer for her actions, as Ian had done before, deterred her now.
    Donning her scarlet cloak and her gloves, she stepped outside the tent at last, and saw at once that her plan would not have succeeded. Sir Nicholas was not hurrying thither and yon, shouting orders to his men, as she had thought he would be, but was sitting at his ease upon one large pack, leaning against a pile of others, watching her tent. He lifted a hand in greeting when he saw her, and got to his feet.
    “I have bread and ale for you, mi geneth ,” he said. “The fires were quenched earlier, but I would not have you starve.”
    “Yet you would tear me from the only person who loves me when she needs me most, and … and force me to wait upon myself, as well,” she added abruptly, certain he would mock so desperate a need for a simple waiting woman. She lifted her chin. “I am not accustomed to such treatment, sir. I shall look a sad sight by the time we reach London, but no doubt that is how the usurper would have all his captives treated.”
    “You may be grateful that you are not to be treated as most of his captives were treated,” he retorted grimly.
    Her face paled and her throat went dry. “We heard only that the battle was short, that many did die. Were there so many taken captive? Were they ill-treated?”
    He was silent for a moment, then said more gently, “Most did flee at once when it became clear that our forces must prevail.”
    She ground her teeth, then snapped, “Once it became clear that our rightful king had been betrayed yet again by that toad Stanley is what you ought properly to say!”
    Sir Nicholas shrugged. “Richard was a fool to trust a man married to Henry Tudor’s mother. And Northumberland did not fight either.”
    She sighed, feeling the great sadness fill her again. “I know. How glad I am that Anne did not live to see that. She always said her Dickon believed other men could be trusted as he himself could be. His motto was ‘loyaulte mie lie.’ ”
    “Loyalty binds me.”
    She nodded. “He never spoke a word he did not mean. Anne said it was that trait which did make him a great man. But she did say, too, that he thought other men believed as he did in the chivalrous codes of knighthood when they no longer did so. The Stanleys and Northumberland did not. Their word was not good.”
    “The battle would have gone to us, even had they not stayed their hands,” Sir Nicholas said. “Our forces were superior.”
    “I did not know the Tudor commanded a greater army,” she said sorrowfully. “I thought our troops outnumbered his.”
    “They did,” he said, “but the French guns made ours the stronger force. Alack, a woman cannot be expected to understand such matters, but the French artillery is accounted to be the greatest in the world, and their troops well seasoned.”
    “I do understand,” she said, narrowing her eyes. “The usurper’s men—your men—did not fight like knights, but like villains. Instead of engaging the enemy fairly, you cut them down where they stood, as though they had been but blades of tall grass in a meadow and your guns the scythes of summer.”
    “The world is changing,” Sir Nicholas said, guiding her toward her palfrey, “and men must learn to accept the changes. In truth, the French guns were only one part of the whole. Had Richard’s men not been discouraged by Norfolk’s death after the first charge, the course might have been altered. But our men, instead of turning and running as they were meant to do when Norfolk’s men charged down the hill, did stay and fight.”
    “While the Stanleys and Northumberland sat and watched.”
    “Aye, but even so, in the hand-to-hand fighting the honors were equal. Had we fallen, Northumberland and Stanley would have charged in on the winning side, all the same, but it would have been Richard’s side. You must not blame them for doing what