Tristanlover– Sorry if you think it's out of character for Delaney to beat someone up. Honestly It's mere self defense. A girl with her past would definitly know some.
Lozcollie– hope I keep your interest. Here's your update.
Pirate– She only knows what the history books say, and history is written by the winning side. Besides, how do we know she hasn't messed up history?
Ailis-70– As always, your reviews are greatly appreciated. Thanks oh Beta Goddess of mine!
Knightmaiden–You will just have to read and see as to who Ellen ends up with. Tristan will Have his own demons to contend with; as will all of them.
A/N usual disclaimer, don't own. No sue. Can only wish I did...
Delaney paused before turning the final corner to the open area that was the tavern. She took a deep breath trying to still her rampaging heart. She rolled her neck once. Twice. Then stood straight and walked to his table like she did when she entered the classroom.
"Arthur." Suddenly all conversations stopped and all eyes were on her. "Please, come with me."
Even though her voice was quiet, the command brooked no argument. She didn't look at anyone except Arthur. He regarded her a moment then rose from the table. She lead Arthur and the rest to where Tristan stood waiting. Arthur looked from Tristan to Ellen to the Roman and finally settled on Laney. Laney took a deep breath and stood shoulders squared, waiting.
"What happened?" Arthur asked emotionlessly. Looking only at Tristan, and ignoring Delaney.
His scout regarded him somberly, and that was all that he needed. He knew before this night was over, all the propriety he had tried for would be undone by this small quick witted woman. Honestly, he was glad. However, he feared she would pay the consequences and there would be nothing he and his knights could do to protect her.
He had enough of the Romans looking down their noses at his knights. The knights that were better than most men he had ever met. Knights that Palagieus would have been proud of. He thought all of this and still gazed calmly at the scout, awaiting his answer. Instead it came from the golden haired woman that stood to the side of the scout, almost as if she was trying to hide.
Tristan glanced from Delaney to Arthur and then back. Hoping to give her courage to tell her story. Knowing that the Roman commander would be fair and listen. That he didn't treat women as most Roman's did. That he held that women were to be respected. His mother had probably taught him that, she had been Britain. Just as Guinevere was. Woads and Sarmatians had a lot in common; both being matriarchal societies just one of them.
Delaney quietly explained, "I came upon them. Ellen was crying and he appeared to be hurting her."
Arthur gave a nod and walked over to the cowering woman. He gently kneeled next to her and spoke softly enough that no one else heard. Save maybe Tristan. He kept a cool gaze leveled at Laney. Laney fought the urge to twirl her hair in her fingers. Instead she clasped her hands behind her back and stared at Tristan. A few moments passed when Arthur came back to them.
"She says that you fought the Roman that was trying to rape her."
"I did." Arthur looked from her to Tristan and back, his eyes looking quite sad. Just then the Roman commander who had been checking on Actavius came up to Arthur.
"Activius claims that she stabbed him with the knife because he didn't want her."
Delaney muttered "Oh please!" Then caught Arthur's look, he stared at her; his green eyes cold. Delaney swallowed the rest of her retort.
"Lady Ellen claims that Activius was forcing himself upon her and Lady Delaney intervened to protect her."
"You take the word of a woman over a Roman Guard, Arthur?"
Arthur looked over at Actavius then back at the commander, "Casius, look at the woman, do you really think Ellen had her blouse ripped out of desire? What about her blackened cheek?"
"Some women like it rough."
Delaney tightened her fists. Suddenly Tristan was beside her his presence enough to force her to unclench her hands.
"Nothing will be done with the serving wench. However, this one needs to be taught a lesson. Actavius can't even hold his sword now. She sliced a tendon."
Delaney felt her stomach grow queasy. She hadn't meant to do that, draw a bit of blood yes. But this, this meant punishment. Arthur stared steadily at Casius, the pulse in his jaw the only give away as to his mood. "What would you have me do, Casius?"
"A public flogging should suffice. The Law of Moses dictates 39 lashes." Delaney felt her eyes grow wide and her stomach dropped to her feet.
"39? That will kill her."
"She commited treason against Rome."
"How so?"
"She hurt one of Rome's greatest heros and is slowly blinding you and your knights with her feminine wiles." The commander paused a moment, thinking. "We don't wish to kill her, just teach her a lesson. Twenty lashes Arthur, or we investigate further. Do not push it."
Arthur leveled Laney with direct gaze, she gave a slight nod. "Fine, tomorrow, we will deal out her punishment. This evening, we need her to take care of the other girl."
"Fine." With that Casius and a couple other Roman soldiers helped the still whimpering Octavius away.
"You cannot do this, Arthur!" Lancelot bellowed.
"I had no choice, Lancelot." Arthur almost pleaded.
Delaney held up her hand, "Do you really think this is a conversation to be having here? Let us get Ellen back to my rooms." They quietly helped the injured woman to Delaney's room. While Delaney and Dagonet put salve upon her bruises they could hear Arthur and Lancelot arguing quietly in her sitting room. She smiled weakly at Dagonet, "Fine mess I got myself in."
"I will make sure you receive proper care after."
"I know, Dagonet, I know." They had given Ellen a tea to calm her nerves and the young woman was softly snoring. They quietly left the room. Lancelot was pale, his mouth set in a grim line. Arthur looked apologetically at Delaney. "It's the least we could do."
She held the man's gaze, wanting to rail against him. Scream at him for not standing up for her. Pound his chest and scream "But you are supposedly the King of Britain! The Roman's have left YOU command now!"
But, that wouldn't change anything. So, instead, she smiled and set him at ease.
"Arthur, no need to apologize. They want their pint of blood and pound of flesh. I'll be fine. I'll heal." She felt her voice catch at the last. A flogging was not going to be pleasant. If it was like the flagellum that she studied it would have knots, or possibly bones or rocks tied to it and have 5 lashes. She shook her head to take the images away. She wanted to scream how unfair it was; but this was the Middle Ages, women didn't have rights and she bloodied not just a mere man, but a Roman guard.
"I cannot Arthur. And personally I don't see how you can allow this." Lancelot bellowed; looking imploringly from Delaney to Arthur.
"Cannot what?" She asked, forcing her thoughts to the here and now.
"Normally it would fall onto Lancelot to meat out the punishment." Arthur explained.
"Ahh the commander can't get his hands bloody type thing huh?" Delaney stated sarcastically, anything to hide the fact she was holding herself together by sheer will.
"Yes." Arthur breathed out in a near whisper.
"Will they be suspicious if Lancelot doesn't do the flogging?" Worry evident in her voice. She didn't want any further punishment to happen on her behalf. She had wronged them enough as it was.
"No. Most men would have problems flogging a woman."
"Fine, then find someone else." She felt suddenly very tired and numb.
"That's the problem I know of no one who will be willing to do it." Arthur ran his hand absently through his hair. Lancelot stood stiff in the middle of the room, looking first toward the room where Ellen lay, then to Delaney; a look he couldn't describe in her eyes; and then at Arthur. Beseeching yet no words were uttered.
"I will do it." Tristan pushed away from the wall and stood next to Arthur. His brown eyes more guarded than normal. Laney stared at him, teeth clenched. This quiet one would do the unthinkable for all of them and hopefully it wouldn't cost him his soul.
"Should have known, Tristan. You take too much pleasure---" Tristan grabbed Lancelot on the bicep and stared into his eyes.
"Do not take duty as pleasure. I will do it because I can. Not because I enjoy it." With that he left. Dagonet soon followed suit, placing an apologetic hand upon Delaney's shoulder. Arthur stared from Lancelot to Delaney. "I am sorry."
"I will live, Arthur. Do not blame yourself. As soon as the flogging takes place are they leaving?"
"Yes. We will follow them the day after. We need to rid our shores of the Saxons." Delaney merely nodded.
"You want me to leave when she will need help?" Lancelot's voice rose once again.
"Lancelot, do not forsake your duty for me. I will be fine." Delaney soothed.
"I do not want the last moments we share together to be pained." He turned his anguished face to her.
"I will be fine, you shall see." She gave Lancelot's hand a comforting squeeze, " And what do you mean last moments? I do not plan on dying for this." She gave him a meaningful look, "Now go before people start bringing up better charges."
Arthur and Lancelot left together. Delaney paused at the door, her body shaking as she cried silently. After a few moments, and a sniffle she went to Ellen. She gently rubbed Ellen's back when she started whimpering. Finally Delaney settled upon a small prayer to help her stay strong and not give the Roman's satisfaction of hearing her scream.
Ellen had fallen asleep long ago. Delaney, quietly got up and put on her ivory peasant blouse and skirt. She pulled on the cloak Lancelot had given her and silently left her rooms. She needed to think; to prepare. She walked up the stairs to the second story of the wall and looked up at the stars.
"You shouldn't be here."
Delaney jumped, and rolled her eyes, "You live to do that don't you?"
Tristan smirked then quickly turned serious. "You need to be well rested."
"Afraid I'll fall asleep during my flogging?"
He regarded her cooly, "You will catch infection more quickly if not well rested."
"I can't sleep."
"Understandable."
They stood in companionable silence. "Why did you agree to it, Tristan?" Delaney didn't look at him, just continued to stare at the stars.
"Because no one else would."
She studied the silent man, not knowing what else to say. Tristan met her gaze steadily. They were both interrupted when they heard Lancelot bellow below them.
"How can you stand idly by and let them do this! Arthur stop! Arthur!" The bellowing got louder.
The other man kept walking and Lancelot kept following repeating himself with louder and louder yells. Delaney rolled her eyes and gathered her skirts, "I need to go calm him down."
"You are the calm one and he's acting like he's getting punished." Tristan observed.
Delaney gave him a wane smile, "Trust me, I'm anything but calm." With a swoosh of skirt she turned and hurried after the other men. She followed the loud bellows to the round table room and quietly slipped inside. Arthur briefly glanced at her and then back at Lancelot, who was pacing.
"How can Tristan do this? You're the Commander here, Arthur, you rule. Tell these Roman's that they are wrong!"
"We can't afford to have Rome as our enemy."
"Our Enemy? Our Enemy? Rome has always been my enemy. Now they want to hurt her for standing up for another woman. Don't you see how wrong this is?"
"Trust me, Guinevere has told me enough."
"Then listen to your wife."
"I cannot appear weak, Lancelot."
"Why?" The man glared at the sitting Arthur, breathing as if running a marathon.
"Because, Lancelot, if he does, then Rome will see fit to possibly later invade and take what is his. Because they view him as less and not equal. He will become a detested Britian and not an honored Roman commander." Delaney spoke quietly but her voice carried.
"You should be abed."
"So I've been told. But for some odd reason I can't sleep."
"This isn't a joking matter." Lancelot commented grumpily. "Besides, if you hadn't defended Ellen, this wouldn't be happening."
"I am supposed to sit by and watch a woman get raped?"
"No, you wait for a man to come by and help her."
"Well excuse the hell out of me for not waiting for a man to do something that I can do! Hell, I didn't know Tristan was following me, and by the time he had gotten there the act would have been done. Have you ever been raped Lancelot? It's a memory you will never forget. Never! It will haunt you the rest of your life. Every moment you wonder if you could have prevented it. If there was something you could have done to stop it. I didn't want Ellen to suffer from those thoughts. I did what I would have done for anyone."
Her voice rose in decibles til she stopped to get her breath, breathing hard, body trembling. Both men gazing at her as if she suddenly had appeared from no where. "I know those thoughts all to well, I have suffered through them. I couldn't stand idly by." Her voice cracked betraying her emotional state. "I will gladly take the flogging, knowing what I did was right." She traced the images on the table in front of her, smiling she realized it was where Galahad sat. He had carved lush fields with a bright shinning sun and a horse in the distance.
Lancelot came to stand beside her, "Delaney I–"
"Don't, Lancelot. Just don't. If you touch me I – Just don't, please." She knew if he tried to hold her she'd fall apart and become a blubbering mess. She couldn't do that. She kept her head down and didn't meet his eyes.
Lancelot clenched his fists and then turned to Arthur. Feeling utterly powerless. He then yelled, "And then there is Tristan..."
"Do not start in on what you do not know, Lancelot." Arthur growled quietly in warning. Causing both Delaney and Lancelot to look at him in bewilderment. "Lancelot, go. Go to bed, you are upset and drunk. We are all tightly wound and things will not be changed. Just go." Arthur finished quietly, not looking at either of them.
Lancelot looked from Delaney then to Arthur. With a heavy sigh he turned and stalked out, shoulders hunched forward and head hanging. Delaney fought for control. Finally she looked up, staring at the man sitting forlornly across from her.
Arthur looked up at the small blonde woman. "We must seem like barbarians to you."
Delaney shrugged her shoulders. "Every society has their barbaric seeming ways, Arthur."
"I don't wish to watch you flogged but-"
Delaney sat down and held her hand up to silence him, "I do understand, Arthur. As much as I would love to have you come to my defense and protest what I did was not wrong. I understand why you cannot do that and not have Rome your enemy. It's called politics."
They sat in silence. Arthur finally asked, "In your time, do you have such politics?"
Delaney chuckled, "Oh yes. But, in my time it's played a bit differently; yet still the same."
"Women in your time fight?"
"We can yes. But if you are speaking of what I did to Actavius; that was simple self defense."
Arthur nodded, deep in thought. He watched as Delaney rubbed her palms. "You cut yourself on his dagger didn't you?"
Delaney caught herself rubbing at the wounds. Dag had given her salve for them earlier when they were attending to Ellen. "Yeah. Amateur move, but it worked." She stopped her fidgeting for the moment and met his green eyed gaze, "I know it won't change anything. But I hadn't intended to slice his tendon. I just wanted to draw some blood; scare him."
"I know. You did well. You are right about the nightmares, Gwen–" He stopped himself. "You're right."
She nodded and got up, "Well, I'm sure they'll be coming for me soon. I had at least better try and get some sleep." She turned and was walking towards the door.
"Delaney."
She turned, her hand on the door to push it open, "Yes?"
"About Tristan, don't hold this against him."
"Why on earth would I do that?"
"I think he feels he owes me."
Delaney turned and leaned against the door. Waiting to see if he would speak further.
Arthur fidgeted with the mug of wine in front of him, then said, "He has been flogged himself. He was young. Had only been here for two years. The only thing he had from his home; besides his clothes was a beautiful hawk. I guess his dad had given it to him. Anyway, this young stupid roman guard had killed the hawk. Thought it was funny. Tristan went after him. He hit him once, broke his jaw. The other three Roman's strapped him to a wheel and began beating him. He had taken 15 lashes at least when I got there. The others were sparing in the practice field. I had taken a ride that day. Luckily I had. I helped Tristan upon my horse and got him here where Dag could help with him."
He looked up from his lament, "The hawk he has now, I gave to him. The least I could do. These men, what they gave up to come here. What they have given up to stay here. I owe them."
Delaney nodded. "I would never feel Tristan is doing this because he dislikes me Arthur. I don't think that of any of the knights. You forget, I owe you all. You could have left me to freeze to death. Or you could have had your way and treated me no better than a piece of meat." With that she opened the door, and left.