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Keeper of the King
KEEPER OF THE KING
By
Nigel Bennett & P. N. Elrod



CONTENTS
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve



Chapter One
Orleans, Normandy, the Beginning

An old man, and he was only thirty-five.
His arms felt like lead, his back ached, and sweat streamed into his eyes,
creating false tears. He'd fought the whole morning and well into the afternoon
and felt every harsh moment, but he couldn't show any weakness. Not to this
crowd, not with so much at risk.
A hundred men had started the great tourney and now the numbers were whittled
down, as they always were, to the final two. Himself, Richard, third son of
Montague, the Duc d'Orleans, seasoned, hard… and that damned boy.
Richard had managed by a series of strategies, alliances, and pure skill to
defeat some seventeen men. They had been strong, yet he had been stronger or
smarter or both. But now, as he faced his final opponent across the shattered
turf, now he was tired. More tired than he could remember. Every inch of him was
bruised and his helmet, grown heavy from the constant battle, chafed around his
neck.
Richard looked across to the galleries of the old Roman-built arena taken over
for the contest. They had been nearly empty for most of the morning, but as the
day's climax neared, they fluttered with the movement of the onlookers. Even the
duke his father had deigned to show his face at last along with his fat
firstborn, swollen even now with the expectation of his inheritance. No such joy
for the third son of most houses. For him was the bitterness of a few thin gold
coins and the polite request to leave. Richard would go, eventually, but on his
own terms and with honor. He would make a show for them they'd never forget.
It had been his only real misfortune, Richard d'Orleans, to be third born.
Nothing other than that accident of timing could have marred him. He was tall,