Royal Sentence (Steamy Historical)

Chapter 7: Report

The weather was atoned to his mood. Roland made the grim observation as he rode back from his visit to the King. Within five minutes of leaving the manor house where Louis had established residence, the sky started pissing on his head, a fitting end to a disastrous day. Well, maybe not all that terrible. The morning had been quite... interesting, he acknowledged with a smile. But the little minx had played him. She had spoken all right, when she deemed it safe, and as a result his men had returned from their mad dash to town empty handed. Not that it mattered; he would catch her friends anyway. But being the bearer of more good tidings might have dampened the King's anger.

Where had he gone wrong? Roland had presented the case to Louis, and waited patiently while the sovereign read through his notes. He had made sure to plead Sabine's case with enough detachment to lead them to believe he didn't care. And he really didn't. He just wished to do right by her, in the interest of justice. Nothing personal.

The King had nodded, listening carefully and asking a few questions, as he usually did. He paid great attention to details and weighed the pros and cons of every decision, a laudable trait in someone in power. Then he had pushed the papers aside, and from there, the dice had rolled downhill.

"You appear to recommend leniency, Monsieur le Comte, towards a woman with blood on her hands. The blood of MY tax collectors. How do you justify this?"

Roland straightened his shoulders under Louis' scrutiny. "Your Majesty is aware of her circumstances. God forbids anything of the kind might ever happen to Your Majesty's sisters, yet if it did, shouldn't we extend to them our compassion? These tax collectors were criminals, who were not worthy of their task. Having been robbed of the tax coffers the previous day, partly due to their own negligence, they took upon themselves to return to the farms and pressure the peasants into paying a second time. Those who couldn't were badly beaten, their wife or daughters raped. Mademoiselle de Brissard passed by a farm as they were assaulting a woman in view of her husband, who stood there, bloody and restrained by two guards. Sabine de Brissard knew this couple, they used to be her tenants. She defended them, killing both rapists and wounding one of the soldiers. The last one fled the scene, and later admitted their wrongdoings to me."

Louis frowned. "She was alone? How could one woman defeat four men? Could she be a witch?"

Roland shook his head, refraining to smile. "No, Sire. She shot the first and threw knives at the others. I've heard that she is quite proficient at both."

"I see. Women shouldn't be allowed near weapons. They are troublesome enough in their natural state."

Roland winced; this was an unfortunate reminder of the reason for their presence in this god-forsaken place. The dowager queen, still seething from her forceful removal from power by the son she had deemed a simpleton, had sunk her greedy claws into the town of Angoulème and started a civil war. She had since signed a truce and fled, but rebel troops still held the city and the King's army was there to see them gone. None of this would put the young sovereign in a forgiving mood.

The gentlemen present snorted their approval. Louis raised his hand and they fell silent. "Mademoiselle de Brissard took justice into her own hands, when she was herself a rebellious criminal. No matter how good the deed, it doesn't excuse her actions."

"If I may, Sire, had it been her father acting so, we would have praised him. He had rights of high and low justice in his lands, which his daughter had inherited prior to her misguided conduct. Your Majesty himself has been known to correct a miscarriage of justice when stumbling upon it..."

Louis rubbed the stubble on his chin, the instinctive gesture reminding his entourage of his age. His attempt at growing a fashionable goatee was yet to be successful. "I will take this into consideration and let you know my decision later today. As for now, there is another matter we need to discuss. I have heard complaints from some ladies in my court, regarding your behavior towards them. I wonder what you have to say about it?"