Chapter Ten #2
He knew she needed an explanation. His mind was working so quickly that he had almost forgotten. But he couldn’t stop now; they had to get back to the town as quickly as possible.
“Later,” he told her.
Gray watched him spur his horse ahead, charging down the road as if riding to battle. Geoff gave a groan at the bouncing of the wagon and she found her attention turned to him. Even so, her thoughts were still with Braxton and their mad dash back to Milnthorpe.
Something was up. She could feel it.
*
“Are you mad?” Gray demanded. “Have you completely lost whatever good sense God gave you?”
They stood beneath the shade of a mature oak, just Gray and Braxton.
On the outskirts of Milnthorpe, the rest of Braxton’s army had just caught up to them in the past few moments and had begun settling their encampment.
The sun was burning bright in the afternoon sky, but Gray wasn’t paying any attention to that, or to anything else at the moment.
Her focus was solely on the powerful knight with the graying blond hair standing before her.
Braxton was calm in the face of her tirade. In fact, he hadn’t expected less. They were away from the rest of the encampment so that no one could hear their emotional exchange. He had brought her to this clearing a-purpose, knowing their conversation had the potential to be explosive.
“Think about it, Gray,” he said evenly. “It is the best option unless you want Brooke’s future to be marred with uncertainty. You are going to have suitors showing up from now until next year demanding to negotiate for your daughter. But they cannot negotiate for her if she is already married.”
Gray knew that; Lord, she knew that. But it didn’t help her sense of despair. “But to Dallas?” she shook her head, baffled. “Surely you cannot take marriage so lightly that you would force your knight to marry a young lady without a cent to her name?”
He crossed his thick arms patiently. “I told you that I would supply her dowry. She is most certainly not penniless.”
Gray shook her head until tendrils of blond hair escaped from her bun. “I cannot let you do that. You are not responsible for her dowry. And Dallas…”
He interrupted her. “I have a piece of vellum that states I am quite clearly responsible for her. She belongs to me. And since she belongs to me, I will supply her with a suitable dowry.”
Gray froze, her amber eyes wide on him. “So you intend to marry my daughter to your knight no matter what I say? Because she belongs to you?”
“Nay,” he unwound his arms and went to her, putting his hands on her shoulders.
“That is not what I meant and you know it. What I am saying is that I am indeed responsible for her; therefore, I will supply a dowry to make her attractive to a husband. And I am trying to save you and your daughter if you will stop fighting me on this. Would you rather see her married to a de Clare?”
She knew him well enough to know that he wasn’t claiming Brooke as some prize to be awarded. Her angry expression wavered. “Nay.”
“Haistethorpe?”
She grimaced. “Nay, not him.”
He squeezed her shoulders. “Then you must marry her to someone suitable right away to eliminate the uncertainty that she will end up with men like that. Can you not see the logic, sweet? I am trying to help you. But you must learn to trust me.”
She did trust him, but it didn’t help her sense of hopelessness and outrage.
Still, he was trying to do what he thought was best. Ever since she had met the man, he had been trying to do what was best for her and her daughter and she had resisted him at nearly every turn.
She did not want to resist him anymore; she wanted to trust him with complete abandon. He hadn’t steered her wrong yet.
“Oh… Braxton,” she breathed, the fight suddenly draining out of her. “Must it be like this?”
He nodded his head. “I fear that is the only way to save your daughter from a horrible fate,” he pulled her closer, his forehead resting against hers.
“Dallas is a chivalrous, gentle knight. I would not entrust your daughter to him if he was not. He will inherit a slight amount of property upon the death of his mother, so he is not completely unsuitable. His father is a wealthy baron.”
She was coming to feel so very saddened. “But… he is so much older than she is.”
“He is twenty-six years old. There is only eleven years between them, not a tremendous gap. There is more of an age difference between you and I.”
“What does he say to all of this? Surely this is not appealing to him.”
“He considers it an honor to marry into the House of de Montfort and bear the title of Baron Kentmere. Moreover, a dowry of thirty thousand gold marks is very appealing.”
Gray looked at him, shocked. “Is that what you are giving her as a dowry?”
He nodded. “Eventually, Dallas will leave my service and find his path in life. It will be a goodly sum of money to support them.”
She went from astonishment to complete, utter devastation over the thought of her daughter leaving her. “He will take my daughter away?”
He fought off a smile, watching tears fill her eyes. “I did not mean it the way it sounds,” he shook her gently. “You must get hold of yourself and focus on the issue. Your daughter will marry Dallas, which will end the parade of suitors, and you will marry me.”
She wasn’t sure she could possibly be more astonished, but she was. “You and I are getting married also?”
He let his grin break through then. “It makes sense. If the priest is performing one marriage, he can perform another. That way, no one can vie for the hand of either Serroux woman.” He ran a finger over her cheek, tenderly.
“And I have been most anxious to call you wife since the moment I met you.”
The tears were still there, but fading. He was so very sincere and sweet. “This all seems like such a dream to me.” She dared to lean forward and kiss him softly on the lips. “Never did I imagine my life would turn out as it has. Never did I imagine someone like you.”
His response was to pull her into his arms and kiss her with such force that he ended up cutting his own lip with his teeth.
Gray responded with equal passion, the caution and reserve that had filled much of her manner since their introduction unabashedly vanished.
She was his and she did not care if the entire world knew about it.
In fact, she wanted them to know. Braxton pulled her closer, his right hand instinctively finding her breast again.
It was like a moth to the flame. She moaned softly as he gently fondled her.
In the midst of their heated kiss, it seemed odd when a loud thud suddenly filled the air and Braxton abruptly released his hold on her.
One moment, she was in his arms and in the next, he was lying at her feet in a heap.
It all happened so fast that she did not have time to process the event.
The next she realized, a man with a club of wood in his hand was standing in front of her.
Startled, she looked up into eyes of obsidian.
“So, my lady,” said that deep voice again. “We meet once more.”
His big-gloved hand muffled her scream.