Chapter Fifteen #2
Cassius nodded faintly, his good arm up over his eyes and somewhat thankful for his knight’s sense of timing. Any earlier, and there would have been some explaining to do.
“Aye,” he said. “For a short time, anyway.”
Rhori came over to stand next to the bed. “How are you feeling?”
Cassius grunted. “Well enough until I moved too much and strained my wound,” he said. “Lady Dacia is making sure I did not ruin her good work.”
Rhori stood back as Dacia evidently felt the need to rebandage the wound on the torso. He watched her for a moment as she moved around.
“Her work is excellent,” he said, returning his attention to Cassius. “She has hardly left your side the entire time. We have tried to force her to sleep, but she has been reluctant to leave you at all. I have never seen such a devoted nurse.”
Cassius’ eyes opened and he looked at Dacia, bent over his belly. He could tell that she had heard Rhori’s words because her cheeks were flushing red. Before he could reply, Dacia spoke up.
“It is because it is my grandfather’s fault that Cassius was wounded at all,” she said. “Had my grandfather not been so demanding to insist that the king’s knights fight Doncaster’s war, none of this would have happened. I have much to atone for.”
Rhori seemed pleased with her answer, but Cassius wasn’t. There was something cold and unemotional about a woman tending a wounded man purely out of guilt. In fact, he didn’t even reply to it. His attention moved to Rhori.
“What happened after I left?” he asked.
Rhori cocked his head thoughtfully. “We killed many of them,” he said. “Call it what you will, but your injury spurred the men into a sort of revenge. Clabecq’s mercenary force is in ruins. I would say no more than thirty or forty escaped with their lives.”
“What about the wounded?”
“We left no wounded.”
Cassius was rather pleased to hear that. “Good,” he said. “And Marcil himself?”
“Dead,” Rhori said. “I saw the body myself, dragged into the field next to the church.”
“Did the church hold?”
“Aye. De Lohr did an excellent job of it.”
Cassius sighed, relieved. “That is good to hear,” he said. “So the mercenaries ended up buried at the very church they tried to raid, did they?”
Rhori nodded. “In a sense,” he said. “Doncaster went to the church himself to speak to the priests about the burial, in fact, but the priests do not wish to bury them in the churchyard, so they are burying them in the field next to it.”
“I see,” Cassius said, rubbing his eyes wearily. “What about Hagg? Has there been any word from him?”
Rhori shook his head. “Nay,” he said. “De Lohr sent a scouting party to Hagg’s property yesterday and they returned to tell us that everything was burned to the ground. There is nothing, and no one, left.”
Cassius’ eyebrows lifted curiously. “So the mercenaries burned Hagg to the ground and then went to work on the village,” he said. “Interesting. I wonder why? Mayhap Hagg refused to pay them and they went on a rampage.”
“That is as good an explanation as any,” Rhori said. “Doncaster wants to ride out there later today to look it over and de Lohr is planning to take him.”
Cassius took on a pensive expression. “He seems to be taking an active role in all of this. Strange for a man who seemed so reluctant for any kind of military activity.”
Rhori shrugged. “He has expressed his gratitude to Bose and me,” he said.
“He is thankful for our assistance. In fact, he sent a missive to Edward about your injury and to thank the man for your sacrifice. I sent a missive to your family so they know what happened and why your visit will be delayed.”
Cassius grunted. “That is good,” he said. “Because I plan to send a missive to Edward asking to extend my time away because of this. My plans have not exactly been adhered to, but I do not intend to abandon them entirely. I was supposed to be nearing Castle Questing by now.”
“You will at some point,” Rhori said. “I do not expect to see you down for much longer. But until such time as you are on your feet, do you have any instructions for me?”
Cassius thought for a moment before shaking his head. “Nay,” he said. “Nothing at this time. But assure everyone that I am on my way to recovery.”
Rhori nodded, quitting the chamber and shutting the door quietly. When he was gone, Cassius looked down at Dacia, still fussing with his bandages.
Thoughts shifted from his family and the king to Dacia.
I have never seen a more devoted nurse. It did Cassius’ heart good to hear that.
Certainly, he’d had many women show attention and devotion to him, and it had fed his pride.
Cassius de Wolfe drew women like bees to honey, and he’d been arrogant because of that fact.
But Dacia’s devotion fed something else inside of him, something he’d kept buried.
A true and genuine heart he’d spent his lifetime protecting from his big ego and overzealous females.
This was different.
“Did I ruin your careful work?” he asked softly.
His voice was soft and warm, something Dacia wasn’t immune to. “Nay,” she said. “The stitches are still intact. I am simply fixing the bindings.”
He watched her focus on his wrappings, the way her dark lashes fanned out over her cheek when she blinked.
At one point, she bit her lip in concentration and her dimples carved deep ruts into her cheeks.
For a woman with many alluring qualities about her, he thought those dimples were just about the most alluring thing he’d ever seen.
“Is it true, then?” he asked.
She was still fussing. “Is what true?”
“That you are only tending me out of guilt?”
She stopped fussing and her head came up. “Who told you that?”
His pale eyes were glittering at her. “You did,” he said. “You said you have much to atone for because your grandfather was the reason I was injured.”
She blinked in surprise as he repeated her own words back to her. “I do not feel any guilt,” she said. “I simply meant that I feel as if I need to make things right with you. My grandfather had no business asking you and your men to fight his war for him. He was wrong and I told him so.”
The corners of his mouth tugged with a smile. “Ever my champion, are you?”
She stood up, looking at him full-on. “Cassius, you have been kinder to me than anyone has ever been in my life,” she said. “I will champion you until the day I die. There is nothing I would not do for you.”
His smile broke free, spreading across his face.
He held out his right hand to her and she stared at him a moment as if not understanding his meaning.
But after a moment, it occurred to her what he wanted, and she put her hand in his.
He pulled her closer, lifting her hand to his lips again and kissing her fingers softly.
“You are the best friend I have ever had,” he murmured.
She smiled. “And you are the best friend I have ever had,” she said.
“If it is within my power, I will always ensure you have the best of everything. When you came back to Edenthorpe wounded, Amata wanted to assist me but Edie would not let her. Amata is not very good with the ill or wounded. She would have caused… problems.”
“Who is Edie?”
“My maid,” she said. “The only maid that really matters to me. She is very protective of me and she has always disliked Amata intensely.”
He chuckled. “I like her already,” he said. “I shall have to thank her for not letting Amata into this chamber. Where is she, anyway?”
Dacia shrugged. “I was told she left the morning after the battle,” she said.
“She has gone home and I hope she stays there. I am not sure if I can explain this to you, but I will try. Until you came to Edenthorpe, I clung to Amata as the only friend I had. Edie had often tried to tell me what a petty soul Amata was, but I ignored it. I’m sure you heard that on the evening she arrived, when we were arguing outside of my chamber.
It was Amata who would tell me that the girls in the village were gossiping about me, saying terrible things about me, but Edie always told me that Amata was the one saying those things.
I didn’t really believe her until you came to Edenthorpe. ”
He squeezed her hand. “How did I change your mind?”
She looked down at his enormous hand as he held hers.
“Because you told me something she never did,” she said quietly.
“You told me I was beautiful. No one has ever told me that in my entire life. Oh, Amata is not entirely to blame. My nurse, Mother Mary, shoulders most of that responsibility, but Amata was not much better. And then you came. You were a stranger, yet you told me something I didn’t realize I needed to hear.
You made me think that everything I’d ever been told about my appearance was wrong. ”
He tugged on her gently, pulling her closer.
“It was wrong,” he said. “If your cousin told you that you were ugly, then she was lying. Ask Rhori or Bose. Ask any man who has not lived and served at Doncaster and has been poisoned by these lies. They will tell you that you are quite beautiful, but you’ve been surrounded by idiots who look at your freckles and think the devil is trying to mark you.
Those are ridiculous, lying fools. And I think your cousin told you all of those things because she was jealous of you. She didn’t want the competition.”
Dacia smiled timidly. “That is why you are my dear friend,” she said. “You make me believe that mayhap I am not as bad as everyone says I am.”
Cassius rolled his eyes before tugging on her a final time so she was sitting on the bed next to him.
She was sitting on his wounded side and when she accidentally bumped into his left arm, jostling the shoulder, she quickly put her hands on him in an apologetic gesture.
But to Cassius, her touch was worth a thousand such jostles.
He held her hand against his chest, tightly.