Chapter Twenty-One
“Papa!”
Lysabel burst into Matthew’s solar as her father and Gaston stood somewhere over near Matthew’s cluttered table. When they both turned to her in surprise, she rushed to her father, grabbing hold of the man and nearly bowling him over.
“Papa, I just heard!” she cried, throwing her arms around his neck. “Trenton is free to marry me!”
Gaston had to reach out to steady Matthew so Lysabel wouldn’t topple him. She was nearly hysterical in her excitement, and Gaston turned to see that Dane, Cort, and Trenton had filtered back into the chamber after her, all of them standing in a cluster near the door.
That tense little group told Gaston everything he needed to know about Lysabel’s unwelcome appearance.
Clearly, Trenton had run off to tell her what had happened and Gaston was so angry at that moment that he was close to throttling the man.
When Gaston looked at Trenton with an expression to kill, Dane caught a glimpse of it and captured his father’s attention, shaking his head and pointing to himself.
Gaston understood when Cort nodded and pointed to Dane, too.
Then, it was all he could do not to beat the pair senseless.
“Get out,” he growled at them. “Get out and stay out. Wait for me in the foyer and if you stray one inch, I will hunt you down and you will be very, very sorry.”
Dane and Cort moved to leave, but Trenton didn’t budge.
His attention was on Lysabel as she threw herself at her father, and Gaston knew as he looked at the man that there was no way he was leaving voluntarily.
He was closer to Lysabel than he’d been since yesterday, and he wasn’t going anywhere. But Gaston tried.
“Trenton,” he said quietly, trying to turn the man for the door. “Please leave. I will be with you shortly.”
But Trenton held his ground. “If you want me out of here, you are going to have to physically carry me,” he said, meaning every word of it. “I am staying, Da.”
Gaston didn’t want a fight on his hands. Shaking his head in resignation, he turned back to Matthew and Lysabel just as the woman kissed her father on the cheek, joy beyond measure on her beautiful face.
“Oh, Papa, is it not wonderful?” she gasped. “Trenton and I can now be married! You have nothing more to worry over!”
Matthew was looking at his daughter gravely. “You do not belong here, Lys,” he said. “Please leave. Gaston and I are in discussion.”
Her happy expression faded. “About what?” she asked, looking between her father and Gaston. “What more is there to discuss? Trenton is a widower. I am a widow. There is no reason why we cannot be married now.”
Matthew removed her hands from his neck and turned her towards the door. “Please, leave,” he said quietly. “I will seek you when I am finished here.”
Suddenly, Lysabel was realizing that there was no joy or celebration in the room, certainly not to the extent that she was feeling it.
Both her father and Gaston looked extremely serious and she took a step away from her father but she did not leave.
She looked between the pair, men she had known and loved her entire life.
Men who held her fate in their hands.
God… why was no one being happy about this?
“Nay,” she said frankly. “I will not leave. I am tired of leaving the room when my life is being decided for me. Papa, forgive me for disobeying you but, in this case, I must. Why do you both look so serious? There is nothing more to be concerned with. Trenton is no longer married. He and I can now be together. Is that not cause for celebration?”
Gaston looked at Matthew, who was looking at his daughter. “Aren’t you forgetting something?” Matthew said quietly. “You are betrothed to another.”
Lysabel scowled. “De Troyes?” she said, incredulous. “I hardly know the man and in no way owe him any sense of obligation. You made the contract, Papa, not me. I had nothing to do with it.”
“It is still a contract.”
“You did not even tell him the truth of it!”
“De Troyes?” Trenton suddenly spat. “Is that who she is betrothed to?”
Gaston threw up a hand at Trenton to keep the man silent, but all it did was anger him. He stomped his feet and turned his back to the room, marching over to the solar door and slamming it in the faces of his brothers, who were still standing there and listening in.
He didn’t want an audience.
That slamming door was a rude gesture, one that nearly severed Cort’s fingers when the door slammed against the jamb. While Cort shook off his stinging hand, Dane was already planning his next move.
He’d heard enough.
Dane could hear Matthew’s strained voice inside the solar and he knew what he had to do.
So far, Adela was dead because he’d gone to Penleigh, and now Lysabel was in her father’s solar, pleading for her happiness with Trenton because Dane had fetched her.
He was sticking his nose into business that didn’t concern him, but it concerned Trenton, and that was enough for him.
He only wanted to see the man happy and would do whatever he could to ensure it.
So what if he was acting like a nosy fishwife.
He was making a damned good one. And if Trenton had any hope of being happy, then Dane had someone else to pull into the equation now.
Leaving Cort standing by the solar door, he ran out into the bailey in search of the third piece to this complicated puzzle –
Ranse de Troyes.
The knight was involved in something much bigger than he realized and according to what Dane had just heard, he didn’t even know it. As far as de Troyes knew, he’d received an honorable proposal of marriage and he’d accepted.
But it had been far more than that.
Dane knew Ranse. As he’d told Lysabel, he’d know the man for years, since they both served in allied armies.
He was a truly noble and kind knight, well-respected by everyone, and Dane thought the man would like to know the situation for what it was.
Perhaps, it would help him make an educated decision about the rest of his life.
No man wanted to marry a woman who was in love with another, and Dane was fairly certain that de Troyes wasn’t an exception.
He had to find him.
The de Russe escort was still out in the bailey, with men milling about in confusion now that Trenton and Gaston had gone into Wellesbourne’s keep. As he ran towards the group, one of the de Russe sergeants approached him.
“My lord?” he asked. “Are we to wait here for Lord de Russe?”
Dane wasn’t exactly sure. He came to a halt, turning to look at the keep and knowing what was going on in the place, before finally shaking his head.
“Nay,” he said. “Disband the escort and put the horses away. Send the men to the troop house to wait for further orders.”
The sergeant nodded sharply. “Aye, my lord.”
As he turned away, Dane stopped him. “Where is de Troyes?” he asked.
The sergeant began to look around before finally pointing to a knight who was standing at the edge of the stable, near the gatehouse.
“I do not see him,” he said. “But that is Markus de Aston, one of Lady de Wilde’s knights. He might know.”
Dane thanked him and headed towards the tall, red-haired knight he’d indicated. When Dane came near, he caught the man’s attention with a wave.
“You, there,” he said. “De Aston, is it? I’m Dane de Russe. Gaston de Russe is my father. We’ve met before, but briefly. You served Benoit de Wilde.”
Markus nodding his head, sending away the two men he’d been talking with. “Aye, my lord,” he said. “It is an honor to see you again.”
Dane nodded shortly. He hated to sound rushed, but time was of the essence. “Likewise,” he said. “Can you direct me to de Troyes?”
Markus nodded. “I can do better than that,” he said. Then, he turned to the gatehouse, with several men on the wall near it, and emitted a piercing whistle between his teeth. When a group of them turned to him, he waved an arm. “De Troyes!”
A man separated himself from the group on the wall and made haste down to the bailey. As Dane watched, a muscular man with blond hair to his shoulders quickly approached, the light of recognition in his eyes when he saw Dane.
Dane smiled in return, but he found himself taking a second look at him, sizing up Trenton’s competition.
Dane knew all about the man’s wife dying in childbirth last year, and as Lysabel herself had said, he was a good man.
It wasn’t an unattractive match. As de Troyes came close, he reached out a hand to Dane.
“Dane,” he said fondly, shaking the man’s hand. “You are finally taking the time to talk to me, eh? You ran past me like a madman earlier.”
Dane snorted. “I had business to attend to,” he said. “But I am here now, and you must come with me.”
Ranse did, without hesitation, leaving Markus behind. He followed Dane, who was moving at an extremely fast pace in the direction of the keep. In fact, he started to run and Ranse ran beside him, keeping pace. There was a strange sense of urgency as they moved.
“Is something the matter?” Ranse asked. “What has happened?”
Dane wasn’t sure how much to tell him, but he had to tell him something. “I have been told that you are betrothed to Lady de Wilde.”
Ranse was running beside him, his long strides keeping pace with Dane’s short, swift ones. “Indeed,” he said. “It all happened rather suddenly.”
Dane grunted. “So I have heard,” he muttered. They were drawing into the shadow of the keep now, with the entry straight ahead. “There is a discussion going on now that concerns you, I am afraid. You will want to hear it.”
Ranse wasn’t sure what he meant. “Discussion?” he repeated. “About me?”
“Aye,” Dane said.