Chapter Four #4
“I can imagine,” Gage said. “I suppose it shall have to work itself out.”
“I suppose.”
“Other than my brother’s actions, has anything exciting happened since I was gone?”
He was shifting the subject away from the mercenary army because he didn’t want Wynter finding out that he, in fact, was the mercenary army. But she seemed happy to converse, whatever the subject, so she was easily diverted.
“Northumberland is not an exciting place, if you recall,” she said, a twinkle of mirth in her eyes. “It has been very quiet. There have been a few weddings, and a few deaths of men you might have known, like Brian’s father. But for the most part, it has been dull and quiet.”
Gage smiled faintly. “That is not a bad thing, my lady,” he said. “Trust me when I tell you that dull and quiet can bring a man a sense of peace.”
Her gaze lingered on him. “You sound as if you know that for certain.”
“I do.”
“Where have you been all these years that you should long for such a thing?”
He forced a smile. “I will tell you when you tell me what my brother said.”
Wynter could see that she was cornered, but she was still hesitant. “Mayhap another time,” she said. “You are home to stay, are you not? Then we shall see each other frequently and we will have much to speak of.”
His smile turned genuine. “As much as I would like that, my lady, won’t your husband mind?”
It was a leading question. He didn’t even know why he asked it, but it came out before he could stop himself. She frowned in response.
“I am not married,” she said. Then she lifted her hand to the room around them. “Do you think I would be here with Spring, alone, if I had a husband?”
Oddly, he felt some relief at her answer and his eyebrows lifted. “I do not believe you are not married,” he said. “A woman as beautiful as you? And an heiress to your father’s property? You should be the most sought-after woman in all of Northumberland.”
A faint mottle came to her cheeks. “I simply have not found the right man,” she said, almost coyly.
“But it’s not for lack of my father trying, believe me.
God’s bones, the man is frantically trying to coerce me into a betrothal with Brian de Luci at this very moment, but Spring has her eye on him and he barely tolerates her, so it is a complicated situation. ”
Gage glanced over at Spring, seated across the table from Laurence, with her smeared white face. “It sounds quite complex,” he said, fighting off a grin at the ridiculous de Thorington sister. “Brian is a good man. At least, he used to be. He would make a fine earl.”
Wynter cocked a delicate eyebrow. “That is what my father says,” she sighed. “He is a very nice man, I agree.”
“But?”
“But I do not want to marry him.”
“Why not?”
She looked at him, a twinkle in her eyes. “We have only just seen each other again after several years,” she pointed out. “Do you really want to speak of betrothals? Surely there are better things we could be speaking of.”
She was being evasive, which made him crack a smile.
“I did try to speak on other things,” he said.
“I have asked you twice what my brother told you about my departure and, still, you will not answer me. So, we are speaking of betrothals. But whatever my brother told you must have been terrible, indeed.”
Wynter’s focus lingered on him for a moment longer before lowering her gaze. “If you really wish to know, I will tell you,” she said. “But I fear you will go riding off to Septentrion and demand his head for it.”
“What did he say?”
She lifted her eyes, slowly. “He told my father that you tried to murder him and steal his inheritance, so he banished you.”
Any hint of warmth left Gage’s eyes. He digested that statement for a moment, nodding his head as he did so, but the expression on his face was dark.
So very dark.
“Is that what he told everyone?” he asked steadily.
“Everyone who would listen.”
“What did your father say to that?”
Wynter wagged her head slowly, back and forth. “He did not believe your brother,” he said. “Your brother did not seem happy that he was not believed, but my father knows you. At least, he did. He does not believe you capable of such a thing. It… it’s not true, is it?”
Gage didn’t hesitate. “It is not.”
Wynter sighed heavily, as if relieved. “I knew it,” she said. “As I said, I never believed it. May I tell you a secret?”
“Please.”
“I thought he might have killed you and made up that tale to explain your absence, so when I saw you earlier… truly, I was very surprised.”
Gage could see that. In fact, he could see a lot of things, not the least of which was the fact that his brother had damaged his reputation badly to cover his own actions.
That, more than anything, bothered him. What had been a dispute between brothers had been turned into Gage’s crime for the entire county to hear and Boothe had painted himself out to be blameless.
He wasn’t surprised by any of it.
As Gage lost himself in thoughts of his brother’s slanderous lies, Wynter found herself studying the man.
She was coming to realize that his entire demeanor had changed the very second she’d told him of Boothe’s version of the truth behind his departure.
Up until that moment, he’d seemed a little quiet and even a little cold.
But at this moment, he seemed hard. Unmoving.
Icy.
As if someone had blown out a candle and everything suddenly went dark.
Truth be told, the situation felt surreal to her.
She still wasn’t over the shock of seeing the man she thought she’d lost for good.
When she’d flown at him and hugged him, it had been an inherent reaction.
She hadn’t even realized she’d done it until he was in her arms and then all she could do was release him and apologize.
She felt foolish. Wynter had sensed when their conversation began that this was not the Gage she remembered, but a different man altogether.
That was never more apparent than it was now.
“I am sorry,” she finally said. “I did not mean to upset you. I did not want to tell you, but you insisted. I am very sorry if you are troubled.”
He scratched his cheek. “You needn’t apologize,” he said. “It is not your fault that my brother is a liar. It does not surprise me.”
“Will you confront him now that you have returned?”
Gage shrugged. “Would it do any good?” he said. “It may just stir up trouble I have no wish to engage in.”
“What do you mean?”
He lifted an eyebrow. “If my brother said I tried to murder him, won’t he tell everyone that I have returned to finish the job? It would give him something to tell your father and the other warlords. It might even put my life at risk if they believe I am a danger.”
Wynter’s brow furrowed. “I did not think of it that way.”
He forced a smile at her, but there was no warmth in his eyes.
They were still like ice. “Not to worry,” he said.
“Now, let us speak on why you and your sister are here. Truly, young ladies should not be alone in an inn. It is not safe, as we saw, so may Bull and I escort you back to wherever you are staying? You never did tell me why you are so far away from home.”
He was deliberately changing the subject yet again and Wynter obliged him. “My mother has come to Durham to visit her aunt and have mass said for my grandfather,” she said. “That will take place tomorrow and then we shall return home the next day.”
Gage’s focus moved to the table where Spring and Laurence were still talking. He caught Spring yawning before returning his attention to Wynter.
“Then you have a full day tomorrow,” he said. “Bull and I will escort you and your sister back to your great-aunt’s home. Where is it?”
“Only a few doors down.”
He started to stand up. “Shall we go?”
Wynter didn’t move. In fact, she was becoming increasingly angsty over the conversation because it had been such a strange one. A man she no longer knew, words that seemed superficial and insincere, when all she wanted to do was welcome him home and resume where they had left off.
But something told her that wasn’t going to be possible.
The very idea filled her with great disappointment.
“You did not tell me if you were returning home,” she said steadily. “In fact, you’ve not said why you’ve returned or where you are going. You are going home… aren’t you?”
Realizing she wasn’t going to be so easily diverted this time, Gage was halfway to his feet but lowered himself back into the chair.
“If you are referring to Septentrion, it is not my home,” he said.
“As for why I have returned… when your sister asked a similar question, you told her that if I wanted her to know, I would have offered up the situation. Sometimes it is best not to ask a man certain questions. That is the same advice I give you.”
He was plainly refusing to answer and Wynter was coming to think that this might be the one and only time she would see him.
He was being mysterious even if he was being kind to her, indulging her in conversation, but that was where it ended.
He wasn’t going to let her in any more than he had and he wasn’t going to tell her where he’d been all of these years.
It was like there was a wall between them that he wasn’t about to breach.
It took Wynter a moment to realize that this conversation would go no further.
Gage was a stranger these days and that was the way he wanted it.
God, that hurt her.
She’d idolized him for so many years. So many years of dreaming of him, of imagining that they were married.
So many years of wanting to give her entire life to him and perhaps she still did.
He was the one and only man who had made her heart sing, the man she’d told her father of – one to make her laugh, to make her feel something. It was Gage; it had always been Gage.
But Gage clearly didn’t return any of that.
He never had.