Chapter Seven #3
Gareth finally reached out and put a hand on Kevin’s arm. “Kevin, I know,” he said. “I agree with what you have done. I am not judging you, my friend. You know that.”
“But what happens when she has told us everything she can?” Bannon asked the obvious question. “You cannot keep her indefinitely. At some point, she will have served her purpose and she will want her father released.”
Kevin knew that. “I will be forced to tell her the truth at that time.”
Bannon shook his head. “You misunderstand,” he said.
“What I am trying to say is this – the lady agreed to remain here in good faith. Everything she is doing is because she trusts your word as a knight. When you have gleaned what information you can from her and then proceed to tell her that her father has been dead all along, that will not bode well for your trustworthiness. Do you think she will not tell everyone she knows that you lied to her? What warlord will trust you after Lady Juliandra tells them how you betrayed her trust?”
Kevin sighed heavily, looking at his nearly empty cup.
“That has occurred to me,” he said quietly.
“But in order to preserve our lives, it is a risk I must take. We are blind out here, Bannon. We are in a fortress surrounded by Welsh who do not want us here and will not speak to us. I cannot even send patrols into the countryside for fear of Welsh ambushes. Worse still, I cannot establish a relationship with any of the villages because the elders will not speak to us. Giving the churches half of the toll collection is a way to establish our good intentions, but we need more. I need to know about this country and Juliandra can tell me.”
“You can do what my father did,” Cal interjected.
Three sets of eyes looked at him. “What’s that?” Kevin asked.
“Marry her,” Cal said simply. “My father married my mother, who is from a very old Welsh family, and that established a link with the community he was to rule over. It worked.”
Kevin’s eyebrows lifted in surprise. “I am not that desperate,” he said flatly. “I will not marry a woman simply because I want to ingratiate myself to the local Welsh.”
Cal snorted as he lifted his cup to his lips. “I saw Lady Juliandra last night,” he said. “She is quite beautiful. I do not think marriage to her would be a difficult decision.”
He continued to chuckle lewdly, which brought a brotherly slap on the head from Bannon. Kevin and Gareth burst into laughter as Cal made a face and rubbed his head.
“I haven’t noticed,” Kevin said, though it was a lie. He’d very much noticed but he didn’t want the others to know. “I am thinking about my command, not a single woman. This situation is greater than that.”
“That is not entirely true,” Gareth said. “You have already seen the value of a single woman. Cal is right; she may be the key to all of this.”
For some reason, that put Kevin on the defensive more than it should have and he struggled with his reaction. “If she was the daughter of a warlord, I would agree with you, but she is not. Her father is a mere merchant, so marrying her would not create an alliance of any kind.”
Gareth shrugged. “Mayhap not, but with her family so involved in the local town, she still has value,” he said. “People will know and respect her family, which would give you an advantage if you married her.”
Kevin was growing edgy. “And just how much of an advantage will it give me when they learn that her father was killed in our custody and I married his daughter? They will think I killed the father and married his daughter simply to gain a foothold. It will be seen as a conquest move.” He set his cup aside and stood up.
“Bannon, you and Cal will accompany me into Pool with the lady. Gareth, you will have the command. Have the escort ready to depart within the hour.”
Before his men could really acknowledge the order, Kevin was already marching across the hall. As he spilled out into the bailey beyond, he realized he had just made a fool out of himself and he didn’t even know why.
Or perhaps he did.
It had all started when he saw her this morning.
Truth be told, he had recognized her beauty last night.
There was no mistaking her shiny, silky hair and her brilliant eyes.
She was wearing a dress that was scarlet in color with gold undertones, something that made her look incandescent and surreal.
As he’d noticed last night, she was a fine-looking woman, finer than any woman he had ever seen.
Although Kevin wasn’t a man to stare at women or even really notice them, he did have a keen appreciation for the opposite sex. He had always planned to marry well.
Perhaps that’s why his men’s words had jolted him so.
His brother had married the heiress to a great earldom.
Because of that, Sean had inherited a title and vast properties.
It had been an excellent match, but it had also been a love match, which was perhaps something that Kevin secretly yearned for.
He had seen the way his brother looked at his wife and he had found himself envious.
Men did not often marry for love because marriage was always seen as a way to increase one’s wealth and holdings.
Kevin was starting to think that marrying for love was more important than marrying for property.
He wanted a wife whose mere presence made his heart race, a woman he could not stop thinking about from morning until night.
He had heard his brother speak on such things and that was why his opinion on marriage had shifted from one of possession to one of emotion.
It was possible to love one’s wife.
Marrying a merchant’s daughter was not unattractive in and of itself as long as he had feelings for her.
For him to marry for something other than wealth or property meant he would have to feel a good deal for her.
All he knew was that when he saw Juliandra this morning in the light of day, she made his heart race.
He had rather liked the feeling.
Perhaps it had made such a mark upon him because he had never really met a woman who made his heart race.
He had never before known the sensation.
He knew it was because she was beautiful and sweet and delicate, and he liked that in a woman.
She was like a fragile flower that needed his protection, and that made him feel virile and strong.
She made him feel like a man, not just a knight.
He wasn’t sure how he could explain that to others when he could hardly understand it himself.
That was why Cal’s suggestion of marriage had caught him so off guard.
Up until that morning, such a suggestion would have made sense because, in fact, it was sensible.
He had been avoiding using the word conquest when it came to Wybren Castle, but that was exactly what needed to happen.
He had a population to conquer, or at the very least, forced into submission.
Could Juliandra be the key to all of that?
He wasn’t certain. All he knew was that it did not seem fair.
He had already lied to her about her father, and his men’s suggestion that it could come back to haunt him was quite realistic.
He was trying to learn about the people he was to govern, and establishing trust was part of that.
In his determination to learn all he could about the locals, he had done something he would not normally do –
He had deceived.
He was using the woman he found attractive.
As he crossed the bailey towards the armory where he kept his mail and weapons, it occurred to him that his interest towards Juliandra might not end at attraction.
Deep down, Kevin was emotional. He had always been the emotional type and it was something he had worked to control, so he knew he was capable of feeling as much as, if not more than, most.
What he did not know was just how much emotion he was capable of.
Juliandra made his heart race. That was established. But would it end at that?
He wondered.