Try to negotiate

"Prince Henry!" Baron Gerard's bellow cut through the noise of fighting like a thunderclap on a still summer evening. "This doesn't have to end in more bloodshed."

"You've lost, old man," Prince Henry's voice lacked the power of Bartholomew's, but he was used to commanding men in battle, and it was plenty loud enough to be easily heard. "Surrender the castle and I'll let you and your wife quietly live out your days in some distant retreat."

"It's not my life I'm concerned about." Bartholomew answered calmly, pleased that the Prince was at least willing to talk. "I'll surrender to you with all my men, if you allow my children to go free, and swear by the crown you are about to inherit, that they will suffer no persecution by you or any of your men." Christine waited holding her breath, unsure if she wanted the Bastard Price to accept her father's terms. On one hand it would mean she would not have to be wedded to the villainous prince, but was her future worth the lives of her father and his loyal knights? It turned out that her concerns were short-lived, for Prince Henry did not think much of the offer.

"What kind of fool do you take me for, Bart?" The man's laughter was as diabolical as his actions. "When you hunt down a wolfpack you don't leave a whelp to start breeding a whole new pack of curs!"

Christine's hand settled on Erik's slim shoulder protectively. She would die before she let Henry and his men kill off the young heir to the Gerard titles. Thankfully there was another way.

"Henry!" She yelled down the blockaded stairwell. "You win - I will be your wife. I will serve as your queen and support your claim against all contesters." What she dreaded most was having to submit to Henry in his bed. The hushed rumors about the Black Prince's erotic tastes were almost beyond comprehension of a naïve young woman like her, but she understood enough to know that her pure, untouched, body would be sorely tested. She could see her father start to protest, but she met his eyes with a steely strength. She was a Gerard as much as her father or Godfrey, and she was willing to sacrifice even her happiness if it meant her family would be left in peace.

"You're as foolish as your father, Christine." Henry's tone was even more dismissive when addressing her, "The only two reasons I proposed marriage was to eliminate the threat from the Gerard family, and of course so I could hear you squealing in pain as I plow your tight virgin twat!" Henry's words brought protests from the Gerard men at arms, and a coarse cheer from the invading forces. "Of course as it turns out, I don't need to go through all that matrimony nonsense to achieve either one of those now." Christine's heart sank when she realized what Prince Henry was saying. "In a few hours the Gerard bloodline will have come to an end, and not long after that I'll have you naked and spread open, as your brother and father bleed out onto the floor before your tear-filled eyes."

A silence fell over the tower as everyone understood that there would be no honourable way out of this tower. Apparently though, someone was advising the heir to the throne because before the fighting started in earnest again, up from the lower levels Prince Henry offered a counter proposal.

"Baron Gerard, how about this?" Christine felt a glimmer of hope, "If you swear to uphold my claim to the crown, before God and all the assembled court, before retiring back to this castle for the rest of your sorry life, I will not kill you." This was more what she had hoped for, her father would have to surrender his pride and accept Henry as King, but they could all live, but the Prince was not done. "As for your children, they shall stay with me in court as royal hostages; to assure me of your good intentions." Her heart sank, "don't fear for them, Bart, I shall treat your little darlings as if they were mine."