Chapter Sixteen #5
Alpin could hear the turmoil in the man’s voice.
He’d known Garret de Moray for several years and had never seen the man anything other than completely calm and in control.
A wise, skilled knight with a stellar reputation.
Kronos, they called him. The Father of the Gods.
This was the level of respect the man had earned.
But a perfect reputation and all the wisdom in the world couldn’t heal the woman he was going to marry.
Alpin began to feel a good deal of pity for him.
“I canna say,” he finally said. “Time will tell, m’lord. But I will do all I can.”
There was nothing more to say. As Alpin opened the chamber door and went out into the reception room to give Garret some privacy, his final words still seemed to hang in the air.
I will do all I can.
Those weren’t words of hope. They were words of consolation as far as Garret was concerned. Stiffly, he made his way over to the bed and fell to his knees beside it. Taking Lyssa’s limp hand, he brought it to his lips. That was when the tears started to come.
“I will not accept this,” he whispered into her hand.
“I will not let you go, not when I just found you. You will live and we will have twelve sons, just as we have discussed. The end will not come now, do you hear? It will not come because I refuse to accept it. You will get well, Lyssa. You will heal and we shall be married. I cannot believe God has led me to you only to have you so swiftly taken away.”
Her hand was wet and it took him a moment to realize it was because of the tears streaming down his face. Reverently, he kissed her palm, tasting his tears. And before he realized it, the soft sobs began to come. Laying his head on her breast, he wept quietly.
“I swear to you that Colchester will pay,” he said, his lips against her bruised skin. “He will not live to see the sunrise. If you can hear me, Lyssa… know that I will love you and only you until I take my last breath.”
Lyssa didn’t stir; she remained still, breathing heavily from the potion Alpin had given her.
Garret lifted his head, looking at her pale face as he wiped the tears from his face, taking a deep breath to steady himself.
His gaze lingered on her, drinking in his fill, because he wasn’t entirely sure this wouldn’t be the last time he ever saw her.
Perhaps she would pass away while he was off dealing justice to Colchester, or perhaps he wouldn’t survive his bout with Colchester.
Either way, the chance of him never seeing her alive again were good.
But it didn’t change his mind.
He knew what he had to do.
Regaining his composure, he stood up, leaning over the bed to kiss her gently on the lips.
It was a sweet, warm kiss, the kiss of a man in love, and tears stung again but he fought them.
He had to think of his rage now, his hatred of Colchester, and that was enough to steel his composure.
With a final look at Lyssa’s sleeping face, he made his way to the door and quit the chamber.
When he emerged into the reception room, he was faced with not only Zayin, but the rest of his senior knights.
Knox had found Gavin, Gart, and Rhys, and they were all standing there expectantly as Alpin slipped back into the bedchamber beyond to tend his patient.
Garret didn’t even notice that the soldiers who had been there were now gone, having vacated the chamber.
Gavin was the first one to speak.
“Alpin told us of the lady’s condition,” he said, looking pale and tight-lipped. “I am going to The Wix, Garret, and….”
Garret cut him off. “I am going to The Wix,” he said calmly. “I will be seeking justice for Lady Lyssa’s injuries.”
Gart and Rhys were the most shocked of the group; they’d just spent the past several minutes calming Gavin down, now to be faced with Garret’s declaration against a man whom they all knew to be untouchable.
But that was the problem – Colchester knew he was untouchable.
At least, until now.
“You intend to challenge Colchester?” Gart asked, astonished. Then, his features relaxed into an expression of distinct approval. “It is about time someone challenged that bastard. I am with you, Garret. Tell me what you need from me and I shall do it.”
Garret looked at him, pointedly. “I am going alone,” he said, pushing through the knights as he headed to the door that would lead out of the building. “This is my fight. None of you will be involved. In fact, you will all disavow any knowledge of my intentions. For your own sake, it is necessary.”
The group of men followed him out of the door. “You will not go alone,” Zayin said firmly. “We have discussed this, Salibi. We have decided to go with you.”
Out into the dark, moist night, Garret was focusing on what he needed to do now that the path had been set. But his knights were following him like a pack of eager puppies and it was a distraction.
“This is not your battle,” he said, coming to a halt and turning to the group.
“I appreciate your loyalty, but you know as well as I do that if you support me in this endeavor, it will bring the royal wrath upon you. Please do not give me any more to worry about than I already have. I cannot stomach such good and fine men becoming upswept in my quest for justice. This is something I must do.”
He was trying to be kind about it, but no one was buying it.
Gart shook his head. “If you go, I go,” he said.
“Garret, if the situation was reversed and one of us had such an endeavor ahead of us, you would not let us go alone, either. You would support us until the end. We have been through too much together, all of us, to let you face this alone. Besides… if we all band together, there is strength in numbers. Mayhap Richard will understand that this is something that should have been done long ago with Colchester. The man is vile and evil, and until now, it has been overlooked. Let us stand with you as the man meets the justice he so deserves.”
It was not only a logical argument, it was a truthful one.
If they only knew the depths of what they were saying, it would make it all the more poignant.
Neither Garret nor Zayin had ever told them about how they’d met, how Garret had saved Zayin from Colchester’s sword.
It was something Garret never saw fit to tell them because he didn’t want it to seem as if he felt the need to be a hero in their eyes.
But what he was just coming to realize was that they already saw him as a hero.
And heroes did what was right and just, always.
Garret sighed heavily as he looked to the faces around him; Gart, the man who struck fear into the hearts of all men, and Rhys with his fearsome double-swords.
There was Knox, who was hell on the field of battle, and Zayin, whose loyalty was beyond measure.
Finally, there was Gavin, who had a stake in this almost as much as Garret did.
The man’s sister was potentially caught up in this madness and Garret couldn’t, in good conscience, deny him his quest to make sure his sister was safe.
All of them, such fine knights, men that Garret considered himself extremely fortunate to serve with.
But men who were going to risk everything just because of him.
“Is there nothing I can say to discourage you?” he finally asked.
Five heads shook. Resigned, and without the time to argue the point, Garret simply turned away, heading for the stables.
“Then be waiting for me at the gatehouse, for I intend to leave immediately,” he said. “I will wait for no man.”
His words were final. At least they were not words of denial, and the knights were grateful.
But he was eager to get to The Wix, as were they all, so they quickly went on their way, preparing for what would come this night.
But as they moved, it was Zayin who had the foresight to send for Hubert Walter.
If Colchester was going to be challenged this evening, then Zayin knew that Walter would want to know.
Garret de Moray was about to punish a duke for what the man had done to his intended and there wasn’t a damned thing anyone could do to stop him.
Tonight would see either great triumph or great tragedy.
Zayin prayed it was not the latter.