Chapter Five
Berwick Castle
Finally, I have what I need.
That was what Claudius was thinking. All of the bargaining and arguing and patience would finally come to fruition now that Maximilian had married Lady de Witt. Or, more appropriately, Lady de Grey. Along with her came her dead husband’s mines.
And Claudius was going to get rich off them.
He had what he wanted.
Of course, he’d never let on about it, and most especially not to his son.
Maximilian would want a cut of his father’s hard-earned bargain.
He’d raised a greedy son, hence the need for the tournament competition with its big purses, but Claudius had earned this money on his own.
All Maximilian had to do was marry the de Witt widow and everything was set in place.
There was certainly no hard work in that.
Truth be told, Claudius could have married her himself.
He’d considered it, but what he’d told his son was true—the physic told him that his heart was weakening, and once he passed away, he would have a widow who held both an earldom and the very wealthy de Witt lands.
Although Maximilian would inherit the earldom, he probably would not want to marry his father’s widow, which would put the de Witt lands in jeopardy if she married somebody else.
Therefore, it simply made sense to him for Maximilian to marry Lady Emmeline from the start.
Just as he had planned.
Soon, the Scots would know, too.
Now, Claudius sat in the great hall of Berwick Castle, an enormous place that could easily house a thousand men.
It was a two-story building with a soaring vaulted ceiling, and on either end of the hall, stone rosette windows had been sunk deep into the walls.
There was a dais on the north end, slightly raised, and then the vast floor where there were at least twenty smaller tables that, at this moment, were filled with soldiers feasting happily.
The guests of honor were sitting at the dais, and that included Cole and his wife, plus Maximilian and Emmeline and several friends from the tournament circuit.
In fact, there were many knights and even officials from the tournament circuit feasting upon venison and fish and great sides of beef.
The wine was very good, and Claudius had had two full measures of it, which left him feeling quite good.
His mood was light because now he had everything he planned for, and there was nothing that could stop him from carrying out his deal with the Scots.
His connections to the Scots went way back because, much like his son, he had a penchant for gambling and women, and there was a particular gambling den in Carlisle that some of the wealthier Scots would visit from time to time.
This included the nobility, and Claudius had made an acquaintance of one of King Alexander’s closest confidants as he and the man rolled the dice.
It had been a drunken conversation with Lord Gavinton during one of those games that brought him to this point.
After he’d had too much to drink, Claudius had mentioned de Witt and his vast mining operation, something they made a great deal of money from.
He’d expressed his envy at such a thing.
That had led one of his Scot companions to mention the resurgence of Scottish pride and how the Scots were eyeing Berwick once again.
That wasn’t anything unusual, considering Berwick had belonged to Scotland as much as it had belonged to England, but one thing led to another, and it soon became apparent that Claudius might hold the key to a Scots rebellion.
And that was how the plan took root.
A plan that was going to make him rich.
Even now, there were Scots in Berwick, waiting for Claudius to contact them and tell them that the marriage had taken place.
They were Gavinton’s men, ready to take the word back to their lord that everything was falling into place.
Soon, they would be able to purchase the lead ore, and silver extracted from it, that would feed into the rebellion that was aiming for Berwick.
Claudius found himself looking up at the ceiling of the great hall, realizing he was sitting in Berwick with the English when it would, someday soon, belong to the Scots.
He found that quite ironic.
But what did he care, so long as he got rich over it?
As Claudius sat at the end of the dais, smiling strangely and keeping good company with the copious amounts of wine he was drinking, Addax was trying not to pay too much attention to him.
The man seemed content to sit by himself, which he thought was rather odd.
Addax was seated with Essien, Cole, Julian, Beau, and Maximilian, listening to Maximilian drunkenly bash de Wolfe for knocking him off his horse.
The particular horse he’d been unseated from was an expensive animal that de Wolfe now owned, per the rules of the tournament, and Maximilian was deeply unhappy about it.
While de Wolfe was in the tournament village greeting his comrades that had just arrived from Northwood Castle, Maximilian was plotting his revenge, but Addax thought the man was paying a little too much attention to his vengeance and not enough to his bride, who wasn’t present at the table.
She hadn’t been for a while.
“Where is Lady de Grey, Max?” he finally asked, simply to shut Maximilian up. “This is a wedding feast, after all. She should be here.”
Maximilian took another gulp of the tart red wine Cole had generously provided. “I do not know where she is,” he said. “With Lady de Velt, I think. When we came back from the church, Cole’s wife took her away, and I’ve not seen her since.”
Addax frowned. “Why should she do that?”
As Maximilian shrugged, Cole leaned toward Addax and lowered his voice. “Because she was upset,” he said. “Cori will take good care of her.”
Addax looked at him. “What is she upset about?”
“Because I consummated the marriage at the church,” Maximilian said loudly, watching the surprise in the expressions of his friends.
“I married the woman as my father wanted me to, and he wanted it consummated immediately, so the priests provided us with a small room. I think it was a storeroom, but in any case, I consummated the marriage as my father expected. That woman really is my wife.”
Addax thought his explanation to be distasteful. “You consummated it in a storeroom?” he repeated. “You could not have simply taken her back to your encampment or rented a room in town?”
Maximilian grew defensive. “What difference does it make?” he said. “My father wanted it consummated, so I did. It was not difficult, to tell you the truth. The lady has ripe breasts and buttocks that can fill a man’s hands. She turned to the wall, and I took her like a dog mounts a bitch.”
He smacked his hands together, imitating the sound that a man’s body made against a woman’s when they made love. Addax rubbed his forehead as if to rub away the vision Maximilian was trying to convey, and when Maximilian saw him, he laughed and put an arm around Addax’s shoulders.
“Truly, it was nothing at all,” he said. “I have no idea why she is being so dramatic about it, but it does not matter. I’ve a couple of women waiting for me back in the village. Cole has already said the lady can sleep here tonight, so she will go to sleep and I will go about my business.”
Addax looked at Cole, who was eyeing Maximilian with increasing displeasure. Cole happened to love and respect his wife, and the bilge Maximilian was spouting about the woman he’d just married didn’t sit well with him.
“It is your wedding night, Max,” he said. “Don’t you think you should spend it with your wife?”
Maximilian shook his head. “Nay,” he said. “The lady and I have an agreement. I will give her children, and she will give me my freedom.”
“Did you truly make an agreement with her, or did you simply tell her the way of things?”
Maximilian’s head snapped to Cole. He was starting to sense judgment. “May I remind you that I did not want to be married?” he said, throwing a finger in Claudius’ direction. “My father demanded it, so I complied. How I conduct my marriage is none of your affair, Cole.”
Cole didn’t reply. He simply looked away, glancing at his brother as the two of them exchanged silent words of disgust. Julian, too, had a wife he loved, so Maximilian’s barbaric treatment of his wife wasn’t sitting well with him either.
As the de Velt brothers turned to their own quiet conversation, because they didn’t want to say something to Maximilian that would start an argument, Addax and Essien exchanged looks that suggested the friend they’d known and loved had a darker side to him when it came to his very own wife.
As far as Addax was concerned, that was a character flaw.
He wasn’t happy to see it in Maximilian. Still, it was a wedding feast.
Sort of.
He lifted his cup.
“To Lady de Grey,” he said. “May she bear many fine sons for the House of de Grey.”
Forgetting about Cole and his judgmental attitude, Maximilian lifted his cup to the toast. “She’d better,” he said. “The woman had better give me several sons who look just like me.”
“I do not think she has any control over that, Max.”
Maximilian shrugged before draining his cup and slamming it down on the tabletop.
“She is worthless to me if she does not,” he said, standing up.
“But enough talk of her. I want to thank you, lads, for attending my wedding feast, but my bride is not here, and I see no reason to remain. I will see you all tomorrow at the tournament field. The sword matches, is it not?”
Addax looked at him in surprise. “You are leaving?”
Maximilian was already departing the table. “I shall see you in the morning!”