Chapter Sixteen #4
There was no longer any use in denying it. She belonged to him, as she had since the beginning of time and would belong to him until the end of it. He’d told her he adored her, but that wasn’t good enough anymore.
It was love.
Colchester had beaten the woman he loved.
Oblivious to Garret’s mental turmoil, Alpin returned his attention to the lady without any further questions. Now, he was intent on examining her so he stood tall and made a sweeping gesture with his hand towards the chamber door.
“Out, please,” he said quietly. “I must examine the lass and I willna do it with an audience.”
Garret moved for the door without hesitation, taking Zayin and Knox with him.
Quitting the room in silence, he shut the chamber door behind him before turning to a room full of his men.
They were all looking at him expectantly, perhaps with some fear, and the more Garret looked at him, the more he began to lose his carefully-held composure.
It was as if they were looking at him with pity, perhaps even with disappointment. Of course, that wasn’t true, but he saw it in their eyes nonetheless. The woman he loved had been beaten by another man and he was helpless against it.
He refused to be helpless any longer.
Brooding, he moved over to the window that overlooked the bailey.
He looked out, not seeing Gavin or Gart or Rhys any longer.
They were no longer fighting out there and he briefly wondered where they had gone.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Zayin and Knox standing near him, hovering, waiting for any kind of reaction that they could either quell or support.
Garret was a calm man even in the most harried of circumstances, but this situation had pushed him to his limit. His flexing jaw told them that.
“Bring Gavin to me,” Garret finally muttered. “I must tell him what Lyssa said about his sister.”
“I will,” Zayin nodded. But he didn’t move, not yet. “Will you tell him everything she said?”
“Aye.”
Beside him, he could hear Zayin sigh heavily. “What good will that do?” he asked. “Moreover, you do not even know if his sister is harmed. The lady said she did not see her, but that does mean Gavin’s sister has come to harm.”
He was pleading, trying to find reason in a situation that had none. Garret could hear the fear in the man’s tone, but he wasn’t interested in Zayin’s counsel this night. He was only focused on what had happened and what needed to be done.
“Bring Gavin to me,” he repeated calmly.
Next to him, Zayin looked at Knox with an expression that suggested he thought the worst was still to come.
He was frightened; frightened of Garret’s unusually calm manner and frightened of what was to come.
But he nodded, briefly, meaning Knox should find Gavin, and the blonde knight fled the chamber, heading out into the night.
With Knox away and the other soldiers in the chamber huddled in the opposite corner, Zayin moved closer to Garret.
“What are you thinking, Salibi?” he asked softly. “I know you. You are pondering something the likes of which I must know. What do you think to do now?”
Salibi. Garret heard the name, something Zayin had called him from the beginning of their association.
It meant “crusader” in Zayin’s native language and it wasn’t a complementary term.
But when Zayin used it, it was meant with affection.
Garret was, indeed, a crusader, or at least he had been, but he was also Zayin’s savior, and that was what Salibi meant to Zayin.
Savior.
It was the bond they shared. Therefore, he was honest with the man.
“You know this cannot go unanswered,” Garret finally said.
Zayin’s heart sank. He’d been waiting for those words and he thought he was prepared to hear them, but he wasn’t.
“We have discussed this,” he said. “You know that you cannot act against Colchester. Everyone knows you cannot act against Colchester. He is a member of the royal family and beyond your punishment.”
Garret shook his head, slowly. He was still staring off into the bailey.
“This has nothing to do with punishment,” he said.
“It has everything to do with honor. He touched what he had no right to touch; more than that, he beat her. You saw the bruises on her, Zayin. He lifted a hand to Lyssa and I will not let that go unanswered.”
Zayin was starting to feel sick. “I beg you,” he said. “Please speak with Hubert Walter before you do anything. Christopher de Lohr is still in London; he’s not yet left for France. I will find him and….”
“I love her.”
Garret’s soft-but-firm statement cut him off.
Zayin heard the words, like hammer blows, and he knew, at that moment, that the situation had gone from bad to worse.
A man in love was a foolish creature, indeed, but he was also the strongest creature in the world.
There was nothing he wouldn’t do for that love and Zayin stared at him, feeling pain in his heart that he couldn’t begin to express.
For a man in love, there was no turning back.
This wasn’t about vengeance or honor. This was about protecting the woman he loved.
“Garret,” he murmured. It was rare when he used the man’s name. “Are you for certain this is love? Do you feel it in your heart and not simply your head?”
“I feel it everywhere.”
“You are about to risk everything because of it.”
Garret looked at him, then, and Zayin was stung by the emotion he saw in the man’s black eyes. Like an unseen hand, it reached out to grab him and he was unable to look away, not even when Garret began to speak.
“I hope I am always able to risk everything for love,” he murmured.
“I hope I am always able to risk everything for the just and right cause, for the woman I see lying on that bed is my just and right cause. She is my hope for the future and if my life is worth anything at all, it is worth risking for a woman who holds my heart in her hands. I know I am risking all, Zayin. I know you are frightened for me. But this is something I must do.”
Zayin’s expression was full of pain but there was also joy there. He understood Garret. In truth, he understood Garret all too well. It was the honorable warrior speaking, the man who would do right above all.
This was the man he knew.
“Then you have discovered what few men have,” he said in a moment between them that was wrought with emotion.
“You have discovered your heart, Salibi, and I could not be prouder of you. I am simply sorry for these circumstances because now you must answer to your heart – and your heart is telling you to seek justice.”
Garret was relieved that Zayin understood his position, even if he did not agree with it. He saw it as suicidal; perhaps it was. Garret saw it as something he had to do.
For love.
“It is not my heart telling me to seek justice,” he said quietly.
“It is my love for Lyssa. Make no mistake; my heart is hers. All of me belongs to her. But love… that belongs to us. It is what we share between us, what makes us special to each other. At this moment, I feel as if I am led by my love for her. It is the only thing I can feel. I cannot even feel rage or disgust or madness at what has happened. All I can feel is my love for Lyssa and it is that love that leads me to do what I must. She deserves justice and I will not fail her.”
Zayin had no argument against a man who was led by love. “I never thought I would hear such things from you, but I am honored just the same,” he said. “Wherever you go, whatever you do, I will be at your side. Your fight is my fight, and I shall be there until the end.”
Garret simply nodded, returning his focus to the world beyond the windows.
It was quiet for the most part. His mind, however, was in that room with Lyssa and Alpin, and the longer the wait dragged on, the more apprehensive he became.
It felt like hours when it was only a few minutes but, soon enough, the chamber door opened and Alpin was in the doorway.
“M’lord,” he called to Garret. “If ye will, please.”
He was gesturing for him to enter the room and Garret did, coming into his bedchamber as Alpin shut the door quietly behind him. Garret instinctively went to the bed but Lyssa’s eyes were closed. Concerned, he looked at Alpin, who simply shook his head.
“I have given her a sleeping draught,” he said. “The lass needs to sleep. Come here so I can speak with ye.”
Garret put a gentle hand on Lyssa’s forehead but she didn’t stir. With a sigh of sorrow, he moved away from the bed to where Alpin was still standing by the door.
“Well?” he demanded quietly. “What can you tell me?”
Alpin lifted his bushy eyebrows. “Tell me who this lass is to ye?”
“We are to be married.”
That made sense to Alpin; he could understand now why Garret had been so concerned. “Did the Duke of Colchester really do this to her?”
Garret didn’t look pleased with the question. “He did,” he said. “Tell me her condition.”
Alpin glanced at the bed. “The lass has two big bumps on her head,” he said.
“I dunna believe her skull to be broken, but the injury to her head is of concern. She has a cracked bone in her shoulder and at least four broken ribs that I can feel. I will tell ye that I believe she is bleeding inside. Her heartbeat is weak, which tells me there is damage we canna see.”
Garret was trying very hard not to become distraught. “Will she heal?”
Alpin’s gaze lingered on Lyssa a moment before he looked at Garret. He put a meaty hand on the man’s shoulder.
“I dunna ken,” he said honestly. “The damage is bad. If it is too bad, she willna heal. If it is not, then mayhap she has a chance. She is young and she is strong, and that will work in her favor.”
Garret felt as if he’d been kicked in the gut. His gaze moved to the bed where Lyssa lay, sleeping from whatever potion Alpin had given her. He could hardly bring himself to ask the next question.
“Are you telling me that she may… die?”