"Lady Carrington, your lord husband requests that you to join him in his private room." Henrill hovered outside of the door to my room, where I sat holding Felicity.

"I do not wish to --"

Henrill nodded, looking extremely discomfited, and said, "My lord Carrington anticipated your...reluctance, and bade me to tell you that his request is a mere formality to honor politeness, but you have no choice in the matter. You are to join him immediately."

He nodded into the hallway and Mrs. Keystone and Jannip came into my room, both of them eyes downcast, clearly having heard the gossip about the return of the camaspoza and her baby. My husband's child? Perhaps. Perhaps not.

I did not understand her assertion that her child had any claim to my husband's wealth. That had puzzled me, and I wanted to know how she came to make such a bold claim. I suppose I needed to go downstairs and find out; depending on what was said, I would determine if I was leaving the warrior or not for a long, long stay at my parents' keep. My child would not be raised alongside the camaspoza's, nor would I tolerate a husband who went to visit his illegitimate offspring if he decided to provide his child and the mother with a cottage in a nearby town or village.

Handing Felicity over to Jannip, I left the room with my chin up, determined not to show how her presence -- and her child's -- unsettled me. Given that I thought all of this camaspoza distastefulness had been put to rest when I found that the warrior had sent her back to the training center, I sighed, wondering if it would ever be over. If this baby of hers was the warrior's, given her boldness tonight, I feared the warrior would never be rid of her. If that were the case, he would find himself rid of me.

I walked into my husband's private room and discovered Sir Alcarn, the camaspoza and the baby on one side of the room with the warrior on the other.

"Thank you for joining us, my lady wife," the warrior said to me, his face stern. "I wanted to dispense with this matter with all due haste, so I have invited all concerned parties to partake in the discussion of this matter as soon as possible so that you may learn the truth. I apologize for the necessity of you being in the same room as her, but we shall settle this matter quickly and you will never be in proximity to her again."

The camaspoza looked at me with hatred. "My lord Carrick is the father of my babe, no matter what lies or tales he is about to tell you."

While her mouth was still open on that last word, the warrior had thrust the tip of his sword into her mouth, quick as a lightning flash. She stilled, not daring to move, her breathing seeming to stop as her eyes widened in absolute terror. With one flick of his highly skilled and deadly accurate sword arm, he could render her mute forevermore...or dead.

"One more word," he hissed at her in a voice so quiet that it sent chills up my spine, "and I shall happily cut out your lying tongue. I am a warrior, and I do not lie, not even to save my own skin. I have killed men for less than you dare, and I find I have no qualms about killing one such as yourself if you prove to be foolish enough to utter one more word or to address my lady wife ever again."

Not one of us moved as the warrior stared her down. Her ruddy face continued to lose its color and she finally gained some small measure of wisdom or self-preservation and dropped her eyes to the floor.

"Now, I suggest you do not move."

And just as quickly as he had drawn it, he had his sword back in its scabbard before any of us could blink.

"My lady wife, I have found that Alcarn is the father of the child the camaspoza was claiming to be mine. In the ten days it took to travel to the training center, Alcarn and the camaspoza committed the crime of conducting relations outside the bounds of the camaspoza's commitment. The crime is punishable by death for both of them."

"Is this true?" I breathed.

"All of it is true." He looked at Alcarn, who looked at the floor.

"It is, my lady," Alcarn said, his voice dispirited. "My lord Carrington tasked me with returning the camaspoza to the training center, and on the journey there, she and I...conducted ourselves in a manner that is not honorable nor is it condoned."

"And you are not just saying this because you have been threatened by lord Carrington into admitting to a sin that is not truly yours?"

The warrior's gaze was burning into me -- I could almost feel his displeasure singeing my skin -- but I kept my gaze on Alcarn, needing to see his reaction.

The man lifted his head and met my eyes. "No, my lady. Although you may doubt my honor after what I have done, I would not lie to protect my lord Carrington or to save my life. I am fully prepared to accept the consequences of what I have done."

He clearly referred to his death, and he meant what he said. He was willing to die for his dishonorable actions.

"Once a camaspoza is no longer on her daily dosing, she is highly likely to conceive a child. We are taught the necessity and the importance of dosing both the camaspoza and ourselves daily, in the evening, and I can tell you with assurance, lady wife, that I never missed a dosing, as I mentioned to you earlier this evening. The camaspoza was not being dosed on the way back to the training center because I did not think the person I tasked with her return would be so lacking in honor and morality that it would be an issue."

Alcarn's head dropped again with the heavy knowledge that he had deceived the warrior and betrayed him, and now Carrick had withdrawn his friendship and trust, despite the many times they had fought alongside each other in battles too numerous to count.

"I could have them both killed, lady wife. It is considered a very serious crime to use a camaspoza who has not been assigned to you, and an equally serious crime for a camaspoza to open herself to a man to whom she has not been assigned. I am of the mind to take their heads not only for their crimes, but even more so for the pain and humiliation that was delivered upon you tonight in the common room as we were enjoying our evening meal."

I looked at the warrior in horror. "Surely you can pardon --"

He glared at me. "It is my decision alone to determine the fate of these two, lady wife. You will have no say."

The very coldness of his tone closed my mouth quickly.

He turned to face Alcarn. "Tomorrow in the courtyard, you and the camaspoza will confess your crimes to all following the morning meal, then you will be executed immediately after. Your babe will be given to a childless couple in the village to raise as their own and your existence shall be erased from memory."

The camaspoza started crying, loudly, with great gasping breaths as Carrick pronounced sentence upon them. Alcarn nodded his acceptance, as if he had known there could be no other outcome.

"You both may spend the rest of the night until breakfast tomorrow with your child, under guard, until the time of your confession."

Carrick whistled sharply, and at the signal, two guards came into the room and took away the camaspoza, Alcarn and their babe.

When they were gone, I found myself in the ludicrous position of pleading their case to the warrior. I looked into his eyes, but my words of leniency stopped at the fiercely angry look in his eyes.

"You will not say a word, lady wife." His voice sounded exactly as it had when he had threatened to kill the camaspoza a few moments ago in this very room. It only dawned on me that he was not calling me my lady wife -- simply lady wife. An omission that did not bode well for me as it was an honorific as much as lord, lady or sir, but with undertones of possession and affection. It was a verbal claiming of one held dear, and I had always taken it for granted from the warrior.

"You dare to question my honor, my integrity -- in front of others, no less? You dare to ask Alcarn if he was just admitting to the crime because I had threatened him into taking the blame for the child so it would not fall at my feet?"

He stepped toward me, and it took everything in me to stand my ground. Never had I seen his rage directed at me like this -- not even the night of my late night ride on Sir Neigh -- and it was terrifying.

"I have done nothing to deserve this lack of trust. Everything I have done, every action of mine was based on my traditions and a lack of knowledge of yours. As soon as I realized you were not just playing your role, I set about correcting my wrongs against you, but never have I done anything that would give you reason to believe I would ask others to lie for me, that I would not accept responsibility for my actions were I guilty of something. And yet you question my honor in front of those who have none?"

"I --"

"I did not give you leave to speak," he snapped at me. "I have been trying to make up for the pain I have caused you, to apologize for hurting you even though it was not my intention to cause you a moment's pain. Knowing that it would be a difficult task, I was determined to win back your favor by going against my tradition and adopting yours. I tried to make you see that what was in my power to change, I would change because I could not stand the thought that I had caused you pain. But now I see that my attempts were in vain because you did not believe in me at all, that you thought I was without honor, and I can tell you that that knowledge burns me as deeply as the knowledge of the camaspoza burns you."

He glared at me for a minute, shaking his head slowly. "I regret more than you will ever know that I fell in love with you only to hurt you so deeply that you felt the need to run from me. It gutted me that there was only so much I could do to change what I had done to you. I would cut off my sword arm if it would take away even a little of your pain. But my efforts have all been for naught, for tonight I have found that no matter what I have done to try to rectify my mistakes, you still see me as one lacking in honor."

His eyes glittering, he stood breathing heavily for a moment as if he had been yelling at me, when, in fact, he had not even raised his voice to me throughout all of that.

"I shall see you tomorrow morning in the courtyard, then," he said finally, and he walked around me and out of the room.

Leaving me alone to think on his words.