Chapter Fourteen #4
She sighed heavily, leaning against his arm as if her strength had suddenly fled. She should have been thrilled, but she was frankly too weary to muster the energy. “Aye. There’s simply no other explanation.”
Alec touched her head reverently, still reeling with the news. He was torn between berating her for failing to tell him the moment she suspected and complete, utter elation. The elation won over.
“A son?” he put his hands on her face, forcing her to look at him. “I am to have a son?”
She smiled wanly at his excitement. “Come late spring or early summer.”
He couldn’t speak. Lacking the words to express his surprise and joy, he clutched her against him with such powerful tenderness that Peyton’s throat constricted with sobs. As tired and miserable as she was feeling in recent days, they were always close to the surface.
But Alec’s unspoken demonstration of joy undid her. As she sobbed softly in his arms, Jubil continued to stand beside the bed and observe the touching scene.
“She carries the next Summerlin heir,” she said softly. “Her safety is more important now than ever.”
Alec glanced at the aged aunt. “What do you mean? She is in no danger.”
Jubil looked particularly pale and drawn, and she pulled her shawl about her tightly. “There is a storm approaching. I can smell it.”
She had spoken the same words a few days earlier when she had come forth from her trance. His expression was impassive. “So you have said, but you have failed to clarify yourself. Be more specific and I shall consider your advice.”
Jubil seemed to falter a moment. She averted her gaze, moving to sit beside her weeping niece. Alec’s eyes watched the woman intently. When she finally spoke, it was in a strangely quiet voice.
“I can smell a betrayal, murmurs of treachery upon the fall winds. An enemy where you least expect it.”
“Who would do this? And, more importantly, why?”
“Why does one man betray another? For money, lands, revenge. All of these things are powerful motivators,” Jubil touched Peyton’s back comfortingly as her niece quieted.
“All I can tell you is that this betrayal, this danger, will threaten your soul far more than your brother’s death did.
You must be alert, or you could lose your wife as well as your unborn son. ”
Alec unconsciously tensed as Peyton’s weeping ceased. “Warrington?”
Jubil shook her head faintly. “I wish I knew. I can only tell you what I taste, or hear, or what the shades of the winds tell me. I cannot foretell the future as an exacting art, Alec. I can only warn you of what approaches.”
In Alec’s arms, Peyton wiped her eyes and twisted about so she could see her aunt. “Who told you of his brother, Jubil?”
Jubil smiled gently. “He did, sweetheart.”
Alec’s face was calm. “I never told you of Peter, Jubil. Someone else must have.”
Jubil shook her head faintly. “You did not tell me in words, my lord. But there is a hollowness in your soul that reflects in your eyes. Only since you have met Peyton has the hollowness filled.”
Alec stared at the woman a moment. Was she so perceptive, or had she merely heard the rumors?
He wondered. Inevitably, his curiosity and sense of desperation got the better of him and he found himself focusing on another subject of more concern.
If she were indeed so astute, then mayhap…
. “My father hasn’t been the same since this betrothal madness with Nigel Warrington. Can you…. sense anything?”
Jubil gazed at Alec steadily, pausing but a moment to collect her thoughts. As she spoke, she looked away from him. “I can sense nothing but turmoil within the House of Summerlin. Your father is greatly disturbed and it cloaks Blackstone like an evil fog.”
In spite of his doubts, Alec found himself listening closely to her. Christ, he was so puzzled by his father’s behavior that he was willing to listen to anyone for their insight. Even his wife’s crazy aunt, who was so far proving to be less insane and far more wise.
“But why?”
Jubil shrugged, studying her hands. “I do not know, but I can only tell you what I have heard long ago.”
Alec forgot all about Peyton’s pregnancy for the moment. His attention was riveted to Jubil de Fluornoy. “What?”
Jubil felt his gaze and she rose from the bed as if it were too much for her to bear.
“I have lived at St. Cloven all of my life, my lord. My brother Albert and I were the only children of Clive and Maeve. When I was young, I remember hearing my parents speak of a rumor regarding Sir William Summerlin, your grandsire. ’Twould seem that Sir William had fallen in love with a woman other than his wife and it was rumored that the suspect woman was Anne Warrington. Nigel’s mother.”
Alec did not say anything for a moment. “I have heard the same rumor, but I did not hear who the woman was. My grandsire had a wandering eye, so I was told.”
“I do not believe that to be the case, Alec. Your grandsire was devoted to your grandmother as much as he could be, but she was a sickly woman with a heart of ice. Anne Warrington was a beautiful, vivacious woman married to a beast. Mayhap it was inevitable that dashing William and lovely Anne should find comfort in one another’s arms.”
Alec gently released his wife and rose, scratching his scalp thoughtfully. He peered at Jubil. “Do you suppose Nigel is blackmailing my father with that rumor? Threatening to spread more lies and gossip to damage the Summerlin honor?”
Jubil moved to sit by Peyton, refusing to look at Alec. “’Tis possible. But it is more possible that he threatens to bring forth an even darker secret.”
“And what would that be?”
Jubil looked at him, then. Her faded blue eyes were as steady and hard as Alec had ever seen them. “That Nigel Warrington is your father’s half-brother.”
Alec’s controlled facade vanished. He couldn’t speak for a moment as Jubil’s words pounded him. “You have heard this?” he managed to rasp.
Jubil could see his horror and nodded faintly. “I have. But it was a fleeting rumor, passed on by the servants. Most likely, it is a figment of ignorant imaginations.”
Alec continued to stare at her in shock, finally putting a hand over his mouth as if to forcibly shut it. He turned away, pacing across the scrubbed floor aimlessly.
Peyton and Jubil watched him closely as his boots shuffled toward the window with absent echoes. He stopped a moment, contemplating the world beyond the lancet window before returning to his wife’s aunt.
“Is it possible that Nigel has threatened to make this knowledge known?” he asked softly. “’Twould explain my father’s severe change of character.”
“As possible as anything,” Jubil replied. “There is one way to find out; you must ask him.”
Alec shook his head, turning away from the window. “He’d probably run me through. My father is so damn concerned with family honor and reputation that he’d explode if I even suggested such a thing.”
“Then ask the black man,” Jubil suggested softly. “He has known your father for many years. Mayhap he can help you. I can only tell you what I have heard.”
Alec rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “I shall do that,” his shock somewhat recovered, his soft gaze fell upon his wife. “I am sorry to have dampened your news with my preoccupation, love. I did not mean to suggest it was any less important.”
Peyton rose stiffly, moving to embrace his slim waist. “You did nothing of the kind. Besides, I am not completely sure yet.”
Jubil bolted to her feet and put her warm palm on Peyton’s flat belly. “Have no doubt, sweetheart. You will continue the Summerlin line.”
Peyton gave her aunt an impatient look but Alec merely laughed softly. “I choose to believe you, Aunt Jubil. My wife is refusing to face facts.”
Peyton sighed heavily, leaning against her husband. “Mayhap so, but I cannot ignore my pounding head. I think I shall sleep until sup.”
He kissed her sweetly. “I shall bring you sup personally and feed you every bite.”
She grinned and he kissed her again. He would have surely liked to have stayed with her to celebrate their happy news but, due to her headache, he doubted she would have enjoyed the “celebration” as much as he would have. Furthermore, she most definitely would not have slept.
His gaze lingered on her a moment and he could not recall ever having loved anything as much as he had grown to love his wife. Not even Peter. She was his all, the center of his world, and he loathed himself for being too frightened to tell her.
She had told him once that she would never love him. And he had informed her that he did not require her love. That knowledge alone, words spoken during a turbulent phase in their relationship, was enough to keep him from voicing his feelings. He simply couldn’t bear the rejection.
Bidding his wife a tender good-sleep, he escorted Jubil from their chamber as his mind refocused on the greatest paradox he had ever faced.
His body and soul screamed to rejoice over the coming babe, but his mind was preoccupied with the possibility that his father was being blackmailed by dark family secrets.
True or not, he was horrified all the same and set out to find Olphampa.
Alec made it to the foyer before Toby came running in from the bailey, his fair face flushed with excitement. He did not afford his brother the chance to speak.
“Edward approaches!” he announced.
Alec’s eyes widened. “What?”
Toby nodded his head like a wagging dog. “We have spied his dragon banner. There must be four hundred men approaching!”
“Christ,” Alec hissed. “Where’s Ali?”
Toby shook his head negatively as Olphampa and Sula exited from the solar, their black eyes round with surprise. Alec looked to Ali’s parents.
“Olphampa, you will accompany me to greet our king,” he ordered swiftly. “Toby, find Ali and send him to me. Sula, please help my wife prepare for our royal guests, if you would.”
Urgency filled the air as everyone rushed to do Alec’s bidding. Alec and Olphampa moved into the bailey of St. Cloven and Alec glanced about, wondering how in the hell he was going to house four hundred men.
“The king did not send word of his arrival?” Olphampa asked.
“Nay,” Alec growled. “Christ, I am going to kill him. He is doing this simply to anger me. He likes to see me upset.”
A corner of Olphampa’s mouth tugged. “Why would he do this?”
“Because he likes to annoy me,” Alec said accusingly, moving to mount the ladder to the narrow battlements. “He has always taken pleasure in seeing me riled because I show so little emotion.”
Olphampa waited below as Alec scanned the road.
Suspicions as to the true identity of the approaching party were swiftly quelled when Alec spat a curse and descended the ladder without benefit of the rungs.
Gripping the vertical posts, he simply slid to the ground. Ali, with Toby on his heels, raced up.
“Edward is coming?” Ali asked, stunned.
“Edward is damn well here,” Alec informed him, taking a deep breath to calm himself.
Ali grinned in spite of his surprise. “He did this simply to annoy you. No wonder we have not heard from him, Alec; he was already on his way.”
Alec rolled his eyes knowingly as Olphampa chuckled softly. “Our king is very fond of you, Alec. If he has arrived without sending word ahead, then there must be a good reason.”
“There is a good reason; he wants to irritate Alec.” Ali suddenly let out a piercing whistle and several guards rushed toward him.
He turned to the men swiftly. “Set up an honor guard of forty men just inside the gates. See to it, Hans, and be quick. Edward is upon us.” He returned his attention to Alec.
“We must make room for his horses, Alec. And what in the hell are we going to do with his excessive escort?”
Alec looked directly at Toby. “That will be my younger brother’s responsibility. Toby, see to those problems as Ali and I take care of Edward.”
Toby was off, pleased with the heavy responsibility and thinking that, mayhap, he had indeed proven his worth in the brief span of Ali’s absence. Meanwhile, Alec had regained his careful control. He would not allow Edward the privilege of glimpsing his annoyance.
With a lingering glance at his manse, wondering how his wife was handling the unannounced arrival of the king, he returned his gaze to his companions.
“Gentlemen,” he grinned, full of confidence and anticipation. “Shall we greet the king properly?”
Ali cocked a black eyebrow. “He would frown upon a barrage of arrows or a wall of flame, Alec.”
Alec snorted. “I was planning no such greeting. Merely a friendly reception.”
Ali laughed. “You may not slug him, either. Although Edward could easily take you on in a fight, I doubt he would take kindly to your display of irritation.”
The corner of Alec’s mouth dipped in a frown. “You have no faith in me, Ali.”
Ali slanted his father a knowing glance. “I am speaking of a man who put dung in our king’s bed.”
“He did it to me first.”
“But you were a new knight. ’Twas his right to humiliate you.”
Olphampa shook his head. “Good King Longshanks is beyond practical jokes. I will hear no more of this treason.”
A shout on the wall deterred them from their argument. Alec ordered the gates opened and found himself far more eager to see his old friend than he thought himself capable of.
Any contact between he and Edward over the past twelve years had resulted in uncomfortable pleadings for Alec to resume his knighthood. Now, with the wars in Wales augmenting, Alec would not be surprised if Edward again broached the subject.
In fact, he was sure of it.