The steady loyalty that made her words at once a psalm and a battle-cry bade Halfman’s pulses tingle. Who could be found unfaithful where this fair maid was so faithful? Yet he remembered their isolation and the memory made him speak.
“I marvel that none of your neighbors have tried to lend us a hand?”
“How could they?” Brilliana asked, astonished. “The brave are with the King at Shrewsbury; the stay-at-homes are not fighters.”
“Hum,” commented Halfman. “What of Master Paul Hungerford?”
Brilliana shrugged her shoulders.
“A miserly daw, who would not risk a crown to save the crown.”
Halfman questioned again.
“What of Master Peter Rainham?”
Brilliana shrugged again.
“A dull, sullen skinflint waiting on event.”