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me?”
    He spun her so deftly she felt dizzy again. “Look at me,” he ordered.
    She tried to focus on his face, but she felt crazed, like a bird trapped in a windowless building, a tiny bird surrounded by giant peacocks. The noise in the room escalated as the noblemen argued amongst themselves about the emperor’s plan for Rochelle and her estate.
    David spoke to her urgently, “I know you are overwhelmed by what is happening to you. Listen to what I am telling you, you must retreat.” 
    “What?  What are you talking about?  Retreat?”  She forced herself to look at him, at the steady brown eyes, so calm amidst the chaos around her.
    “You cannot win here today. He will take everything from you. Do you understand?”
    “No, no, no, this cannot be happening . I will not let this happen!  This is my life !”  She pushed against him with all her might. She might as well have tried to push over the stone wall around the palace.
    David gripped both of her biceps to give her a little shake. “Rochelle, you cannot win here . Not today. Not against him. He will not back down in front of all these men. Now, do as I say.”
    “No.” 
    He glared at her. She knew what he was doing. Men had ways to work around the plans of women. He would change tactics now and so would she, and on and on they would go until she got what she wanted, which was to be left alone.
    “What is the most important thing in the world to you?”
    It was a ridiculous question in the present circumstance, but the answer was so easy, so instinctive, it slipped out of her like an exhalation. “Alda.” 
    “Are you prepared to give it up in the next half a minute?  The decision is that simple . The way back to Alda is through the palatine chapel. Any other path leads to a place not of your choosing, and you will never get your estate back.”
    “Oh,” she moaned, not in acquiescence, but in disbelief . He was not doing this right. “This cannot be happening.”
    “It is . You will come to accept it later. You must submit to the emperor now . And, by all that is holy, do not insult him again.”  David turned her to face Louis again, pulled her tight against his side, her form stiff as a wooden toy. “Sire, if it pleases you, we shall go to the chapel,” he announced.
    A false smile widened Louis’s mouth . “It will please me very much to regain order in this meeting, after the lovely Rochelle asks me to excuse her rebelliousness.”
    Theo drifted behind them to whisper . “A deep curtsy, and simply say ‘I beg your pardon, sire.’  That is all.”
    David applied ever so slight a pressure on her hips until Rochelle dipped into an awkward bend at her knees.
    “Pardon, pardon,” urged Theo.
    “Your pardon, sire,” she muttered, wishing she could swallow her own tongue . She would never utter the words I beg . Not for Alda. Not for anything.
    “One of my clerks will meet you in the chapel with the documents . A moment of prayer would benefit both of you greatly upon such a momentous occasion.”  Louis turned away with a dismissive flick of his beringed hand.
    “Lead us out of here,” David said to Theo, his authoritative voice cutting through the roar of madness in her ears.
     

 
    Chapter Five
     
    Theo started them through the crowd. David kept Rochelle pressed against his side, forcing the mass of people to part even as noblemen pushed to get a glimpse of them. They ogled her and evaluated David. Rochelle lifted her chin a notch, trying to walk with composure despite being trapped in an asylum and enduring pins and needles in her feet.
    Maintaining the illusion of confidence had been the keystone of her early management at Alda . That, and not being forced to choose a plan of action before she was ready.
    When they cleared the doorway to the outside, Rochelle pulled in a deep breath of fresh air . She allowed the men to lead her just to the edge of the portico, then she stopped and firmly removed herself from David’s