<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="color: #40BF80"><span style="font-size: 150%; line-height: 116%;">Gregorio Pescari</span><br/><span style="font-size: 120%; line-height: 116%;">The Lord of Euganea</span></span></span></div><br/><br/><div style="text-align: center;"><a class="postlink" href="http://i1343.photobucket.com/albums/o793/Galvin_Fugazi/53cd9d89-d20b-452d-91a2-9d91f5ba5abc_zps00e843d7.jpg">[ img ]</a></div><br/><br/><div style="text-align: justify;">Gregorio had placed himself against the wall, trying to find some support there. He felt more and more weak, the blood loss was calling its toll. His arm was throbbing and slowly getting stiff and the wound was still bleeding, as he could see the blood sipping through the towel. How long did it take for some orderly to come here and to patch him up properly? His mood was getting more and more sour. The bad night in the dungeon, the hangover, this wound he had gotten now and then to make things worse he had seen the looks Marina had given this prick Alexander. It made his heart whine in his chest, but at the same time it fueled his anger. He could already see himself fronting a large crowd of soldiers spurring his horse to ride down the forces Lady Marina had gathered to defend her lands. He would take her castle, raise his colors on them and he would imprison her in her own tower. Maybe she would feel bad then for not having chosen him over Alexander, when she had the chance to do so? It would be fun to see the tears in those large brown eyes when he took what belonged to him by force. Her lands, her castle and her body, it would all be his.<br/> <br/>He listened only with one ear to Danielle’s apologies. It was nothing different to what she had told him in the dungeon, but her apologies sounded sincere to him. Well, either she was some talented actor or she really had made up her mind overnight. She even managed to make Sir Alexander reconsider her. He could see it in the eyes of the haughty knight, the wish to have her in his bed. But the next look he gave was toward Lady Marina and maybe it was the promise displayed in her eyes that made him snort on Alexander’s comment to keep Lady Danielle safe from her father. His voice was dripping with sarcasm.<br/> <br/><span style="color: #FF8000">“Big words, like always with you, Sir Alexander. And how do you want to keep up on your words to poor Lady Danielle? You want to stop her father on your own, after we didn’t manage to stop him with two swords in a narrow hallway? Or do you want to appease him, by making Lady Danielle your betrothed? That may indeed be the only way to stop him from coming after her…”</span><br/> <br/>There, he had said it, voiced out Danielle’s desperate hope that she had not driven Sir Alexander so far away with her actions, that he may never speak with her again. Gregorio saw in the corner of his eyes how Danielle had gone rigid in shock in Amena’s arms and had stiffled a panicked cry, when his words hang in the room, like the sword of Damocles over their heads. It wasn’t very diplomatic, the way he had called for the truth, but he felt excused by the slowly increasing exhaustion he felt and the pain he went through right now. The pompous gesture of Sir Alexander had called for it and Sir Gregorio had not only said it to humiliate the fellow knight, but to plant the seed in his mind again. From Danielle’s story in the dungeon he had well understood, that Sir Alexander was very fond of the young lady and may have considered her for marriage, before Danielle had turned her world upside down. Maybe those feelings were still strong in the knight and his actual flirting with Lady Marina was nothing else than mere distraction to free his mind. From a political point of view and Gregorio was well aware that Sir Alexander was as power hungry as any knight, teaming up with Sir Damian against the likes of Leon would make more sense than to create another open flank by running for the Tremoulin lands too. More or less Alexander was in far deeper trouble than he may believe. If he would pursue Lady Marina, then Leon would be forced to drive him either out of his homelands or to go after Lady Marina to avoid to be caught between two forces. That would mean war between Leon and Alexander and if Marina bared her own lands to support Alexander, it would make her lose her lands to her enemies or more detailed to him.<br/> <br/>The other thing to consider for Sir Alexander was Sir Damian and his son. If that maniac believed only for a second that Danielle got dropped by Alexander after he had declared his love to her – well, Damian would even team up with Leon to avenge that. Especially if Danielle had told the truth that Leon didn’t take advantage of her naked body, when he could have done so easily. It would give Leon some nobility nobody would have expected in the notorious rapist. While Gregorio smiled inwardly on these prospects for Alexander, his face displaced an angry, stoic glare.</div>