Chapter Twenty-Three
“Mama?”
Hearing one of her children address her, Maryann’s head came up from where it was resting against the side of John’s coffin. It was a female voice, one of her four daughters, but she didn’t know which one until she looked.
Wynter was back, standing a few feet away.
Seeing her eldest, with whom she had just violently quarreled, she turned away and ran a hand over her face.
“What is it?” she asked.
Wynter came closer. “I came back to tell you that I am sorry I became angry at you,” she said. “I love you, Mama. I do not want us to argue, not now.”
Maryann still had her hand over her face. “Nor I,” she said, sounding calmer than she had a short while earlier. “But what you have done, Wynnie… I am not certain I can ever accept it.”
“You mean marry Gage?” Wynter said. She knelt beside her mother, looking up at the woman. “Mama, I want to ask you something and you must be perfectly honest with your answer. Can you do that?”
“I am always honest with you, Wynter.”
“I hope so,” Wynter said. “Because I am always honest with you, too. I want you to consider something when it comes to Gage – I am not sure what Brian told you, or why you believe Gage married me only for the title, but you must consider that Brian was jealous and trying to keep you from thinking Gage was a better candidate. Do you agree that might be a motive?”
Maryann’s hand came away from her face. “Possibly,” she said wearily. “I do not want to think about that right now.”
“I know,” Wynter said, somewhat gently. “But I need your attention, just for a moment. Can you please do that?”
Maryann turned her head to look at her. “You have it.”
“I want to talk about Brian and Gage,” Wynter said.
“I want you to think about something – if Brian really thought Gage was terrible and greedy and only wanted me for the title I would bring him, why would Brian have risked his life to come to Ashleven after the battle at Septentrion to bring me to Gage? I know you trusted Brian. I know you liked him. If Gage was so horrible, why would Brian have come to fetch me?”
Maryann was exhausted, her mind working slowly, but she understood what her daughter was saying. After a moment, she simply shook her head.
“I do not know,” she said honestly. “I cannot ask him.”
“But does my question make sense?”
“I suppose there is some merit in what you say.”
Wynter breathed a sigh of relief. “Of course there is,” she said.
“Brian knew, as Papa knew, that Gage was a worthy man who had been terribly wronged by his brother. It is unfair of you to think otherwise because it simply isn’t true.
He is honorable and kind and wise. Papa knew he would make an excellent earl.
I think we are all very fortunate to have him.
Will you at least give him the chance to prove himself before you condemn him?
He has had enough of that in his life. He does not need it from you, too. ”
Maryann looked at her daughter. Her beloved first born.
A little eccentric at times, a little stubborn, but with a golden heart.
Perhaps grief had overwhelmed her a little when it came to accepting what Wynter had done.
Perhaps that grief had clouded her judgment.
It was difficult enough to accept John’s death much less accept Wynter’s shocking marriage.
To a mercenary.
But that mercenary, long ago, had been a true and dear young knight she had known.
“I know your father did not subscribe to the rumor that Gage had tried to steal his brother’s inheritance,” she said. “I suppose I did not, either, until Brian said… what he said. But you are correct – Brian was vying for your hand. He had to make Gage look less appealing in my eyes.”
Wynter grasped her mother’s hand. “That’s very true,” she said.
“I understand why he did it but, in the end, he regretted it deeply, I am sure. Brian came to me, without prompting from Gage, to fetch me to Gage’s side because he thought the man was dying.
Would he do that if he thought Gage was so horrible? ”
After a moment, Maryann shook her head. “Nay,” she said. “Brian de Luci was many things, but a fool is not among them.”
Wynter closed her eyes in thanks, putting her cheek against her mother’s hand.
“I will miss him,” she said softly. “I was there when he died, Mama. Boothe’s men put two bolts in his back and I held him as he died.
It was… horrible. I have never seen a man die before, much less someone I knew.
But I told him, as he lay dying, that I would remember him well.
That my whole family would remember him well.
I intend to keep to that vow and I hope you will keep it with me. ”
Maryann put her free hand on her daughter’s head, feeling pity for what she’d had to endure. “I will,” she said. “Brian was a good man. He would have made a good son, but we will remember him as a family member, nonetheless. How does Gage feel about that?”
Wynter lifted her head to look at her mother. “He says that we shall name our son Brian,” she said. “He knows that Brian sacrificed himself so we could marry. He intends to honor him.”
A faint smile tugged at Maryann’s pale lips. “Only a man of noble heart would say such a thing about a rival.”
Wynter smiled, too. “That is the way I look at it,” she said. “Please, Mama. Give us your blessing. Give Gage your blessing. I promise he will make you, and Papa, proud.”
Maryann nodded, as if finally accepting the inevitable. Wynter had married the man she had always wanted to marry and they would move forward into a new era. As she stroked her daughter’s cheek, Spring, Summer, and Autumn entered the chapel.
“Mama?” Spring said timidly. “Wynnie?”
Maryann turned to her daughters. “Come, girls,” she said. “Come and pray with me and the new Countess of Ashington. You know that your sister has married, don’t you?”
All three sisters came into the chapel, various expressions of delight on their faces. “We heard,” Spring said. “It is all anyone can speak of. Are you… are you happy about it, Mama?”
Maryann looked at Wynter. “These are dark days for me now,” she said.
“But when the darkness passes, I shall be ecstatic, I am sure. And then we must find husbands for all of you. Let us pray for your father and then discuss the situation with him. Mayhap he will have some divine advice for us all.”
Maryann was starting to sound much more like herself and Wynter was deeply thankful.
She refrained from telling her mother about Boothe’s arrival, at least for the moment.
She was simply relieved her mother was starting to come around to the idea of Gage being the new Earl of Ashington.
Grief was an odd thing sometimes, making perfectly sane people mad, but it was only temporary in Maryann’s case.
She was rational, willing to look to the future.
That’s all Wynter could ask for.
With the issue of her mother solved, Wynter focused on her father for the first time since returning to Ashleven. She left her mother for a moment, going to stand next to her father, taking a good look at the man in death.
He looked very peaceful.
Gently, she put a hand on his, folded across his belly.
“I am sure you already know that Brian has passed away,” she said softly.
“You are probably with him right now and I am glad you are together. Brian thought a great deal of you. I do not want you to worry about Ashleven, Papa. Gage will make a wonderful earl, but I think you already know that. I promise that he will strive to be as good a lord as you were. Thank you for setting such a fine example. Thank you for being patient and kind and compassionate, not the least of which with a daughter who liked to tie on a fake beard and pretend to be Moses. I am sorry your grandchildren will not know you, but they will come to love you and value you through my eyes, I promise. Sleep well, Papa, until we meet again.”
There were tears in her eyes, but tears of gratitude as well as grief. Her gaze lingered on John’s form a moment longer before turning back to her mother and sisters, who were huddled around each other. Wynter took her place next to Spring and began reciting the Lord’s Prayer with her family.
It was the loving send off that John de Thorington deserved.
*
Everything appeared to be as it should.
Boothe and three of his men raced towards the gatehouse of Ashleven, an impressive and welcome sight as far as Boothe was concerned.
Ashington would be a great ally from now on, he hoped.
Once the man helped him regain his castle, anyway.
If he didn’t and he’d only called him here to lecture him, well… Boothe had a way of making people pay.
Ashington would pay.
Therefore, it would be in John’s best interest to cooperate.
He slowed his horse as he drew near, where the road was smoothed out from so much traffic in and out of the gatehouse.
At this hour, nearing sunset, they were preparing to close the portcullis for the night but it wasn’t down yet.
Boothe noticed knights at the mouth of the gatehouse, men he recognized as Ashington’s men.
He headed for them.
“You!” he shouted to the first man he came to. “Your lord has summoned me. Take me inside and provide me with refreshment. You may tell him I have arrived.”
The knight, an older blond man, didn’t seem overly thrilled to see him. “And you are?”
Boothe was incensed. “Stagshaw, you fool,” he said. “Take me inside.”
The man looked him over, from head to toe. “Your men stay outside,” he finally said. “You will follow me.”
Boothe didn’t even think twice about leaving his men outside of the gates. He’d do anything to see Ashington, even go in alone. Leaving his weary horse at the gate with his men, he followed the knight on foot.