“And that is it? You leave me clinging to the cliff ’s edge and just walk away?” Philippe regarded him coldly. “You have not been turned out to beg your bread by the side of the road, Conrad. A sizable French contingent is remaining in Outremer.” His jaw clenched at that, for he’d not expected such mass defections. Only his cousins, the Bishop of Chartres and the Count of Nevers, had agreed to return with him to France; the rest were so determined to honor their oaths that they were even willing to fight under Richard’s command. “The war goes on,” he said tersely, “so I do not see why you have cause for complaint.”“Do you not? With Richard as my sworn enemy, what chance do I have of gaining the crown now?”“And why is he your ‘sworn enemy’? Because you were foolish enough to deny him entry into Tyre. Are you so surprised that you reap what you sow?”“I would never have done that had I thought you were going to creep away like a thief in the night!”Philippe’s fury was all the greater because he knew this was what others were thinking; Conrad was just the only one who dared to say it to his face.
