Chapter Sixteen #5
He looked at her sharply, offended by the mere suggestion that he might go to such lengths.
But he had to remind himself that they hadn’t known each other that long.
All she knew was that he was the king’s Lord Protector, a seasoned knight with a brutal reputation. With a heavy sigh, he shook his head.
“I have never lifted a hand or a sword to a woman and I never will,” he said. “But Amata and her lies cannot go without punishment.”
Father Lazarus intervened; he had to. The knight’s sense of justice was building this into something that would not go in their favor. “My lord, if you punish her, it will appear as if you are trying to silence her.”
Cassius looked at the man as if he were an idiot. “I am.”
The priest shook his head. “Nay, that is not what I mean,” he said. “I mean that it makes you look cruel and barbaric, as if you are preventing her from telling the truth about you. Does that make sense?”
It did, but Cassius was still exasperated.
“But it is not the truth,” he said. “She is spouting lies because I rejected her and for no other reason than that. She had an interest in me, but I had no interest in her, and now she is punishing us for it. My attention has been, and always will be, on Dacia, who has done no wrong. She is completely innocent in all of this.”
Father Lazarus nodded. “I assumed as much,” he said. “Dacia and her grandfather are kind and good. Everyone knows that but, unfortunately, they are swayed by rumors and gossip. Most weak-souled people are.”
Dacia was looking at Cassius, wondering what the man was going to do. She could see how angry he was and she was deeply touched by his willingness to punish Amata.
But she couldn’t let him do it.
“Father Lazarus is correct,” she said softly.
“Though I adore you for wanting to protect me and my reputation, if you confront Amata, it will only make things worse. She will tell everyone you tried to intimidate and threaten her, or worse. She has the ear of the people in this village and always has.”
Cassius looked at her, his expression between rage and knowing she was right. “Dacia…”
She cut him off, gently. “It is true,” she said.
“I’ve known it all along, for when I was younger, I was friends with many of the girls in the village.
One day, they all decided to shun me. I no longer had any friends.
Amata told me that it was because they were afraid of the marks on my face, but I know it was because Amata turned them against me.
Edie told me that, but she really didn’t need to.
I knew. So this is just one more web of lies in a forest of lies that Amata has told against me. ”
Cassius could see that beaten young woman again and he didn’t like it. He hated it. It made him want to sell Amata to the pirates and burn her house down. But he knew, deep down, that she was right. So was the priest.
He couldn’t do a thing about it or his actions would prove Amata’s lies.
“Then tell your grandfather what she has done,” he said, sounding as if he were pleading with her. “Surely he can repair the damage.”
“And have him fight my battles for me?” Dacia said. Then, she shook her head. “I must learn to fight my own battles, Cass. You have taught me that and it is a lesson I have been learning, quite nicely. I will deal with Amata in my own way.”
Cassius didn’t know what that meant, but it exasperated him.
The whole situation exasperated him. As he shook his head, frustrated, Bose happened to walk past him, a bloodied nose and a cut above his eye.
But he was walking tall and proud, as if he hadn’t just beat up on a priest, who was sitting on the steps of the church, hand on his head.
As Cassius watched him walk back to the horses, Father Lazarus spoke.
“All of the priests know what has been said,” he said, mostly to Dacia. “Some believe you have been fornicating with this knight, so marrying the man immediately will ease their outrage, at least for that. But the rumor about the dead baby is another issue altogether.”
Dacia stared at the man. “I will not marry him immediately simply to ease their outrage,” she said angrily. “I will not be coerced into anything by those faithless fools.”
Cassius turned to look at her. “Angel, if it will ease the situation, then…”
She cut him off with surprising strength. “I told you that I will not do it,” she said, her rage returning to Father Lazarus. “I refused to be pushed into anything by those men who have nothing better to do than listen to idle gossip.”
Father Lazarus could see that she was quite enraged.
“My lady, it is the only solution,” he said.
“Right now, some of priests are considering sanctioning your grandfather as well as you, preventing you both from taking communion or praying within these walls. They are even considering sending word to the bishopric of York to investigate you, and something like that will only lead to heartache and terror. You cannot allow that to happen.”
She was nearly irate. “Investigate me for what?”
Father Lazarus didn’t dare look at the enormous knight. “The situation with the baby,” he said. “They want it to be considered a crime. A murder.”
Dacia’s hand flew to her mouth and a sob escaped. “You cannot be serious.”
“I wish I wasn’t. With God as my witness, I wish I wasn’t.”
Tears filled her eyes. “But… but I have never even been with a man in that sense,” she said tightly.
“There has never been a baby. Amata is lying, covering up for the fact that she has bedded more men than she can count on her fingers and toes. She is trying to punish me and punish Cass because we love one another. Amata’s lies are the crime. ”
Father Lazarus wasn’t unsympathetic. “I know, my child,” he said gently.
“And there are others here who know, but there are still others who believe the lies. If you marry de Wolfe, then he can take you away from all of this. A marriage will be seen as a husband gaining control of you. Mayhap he can take you from Doncaster and you can start a life where people do not speak against you.”
Dacia was devastated. “I am not marrying him for that reason,” she said. “Why would I punish him so when these terrible things are being said about me? Why would I do that to him?”
Cassius stepped in. He had to because the situation was veering out of control. Dacia was veering out of control. He put himself between Dacia and the priest, his big hands on Dacia’s arms.
“Breathe, angel,” he said softly. “Calm yourself. We can work through this, but I need your level head.”
Unfortunately, Dacia was beyond that. The lies, the far-reaching implications of what had happened were not lost on her. Amata had set out to ruin her.
And she had.
But she couldn’t let her ruin Cassius.
“Cassius, I am sorry, but I will not be forced into a marriage under these terms,” she said, weeping. “Don’t you see? We cannot start our marriage to comply with Amata’s lies. She knew this when she spread these rumors. If we marry, then it makes it look like she was right.”
“It does not.”
“You heard the priest,” she said. “They want me to marry you to stop the rumors. If we do that, it is as good as confirming them.”
Cassius held on to her, afraid of what would happen if he let her go. “Dacia, listen to me,” he said calmly. “We would not be confirming anything, but if it shuts up the gossip mongers, I am willing to do it.”
Her tears were flowing all down her face.
“You wanted to get married at Berwick Castle, with your family around you,” she sobbed.
“You said it yourself. That is what you wanted to do and what I wanted to do, but now… Cass, I cannot marry you, not when I am the focus of such terrible things. You are a man with a pristine reputation. You cannot marry a woman with a lesser reputation than you. It would tarnish that which you have worked so hard for.”
His brow furrowed. “This is madness, Dacia,” he said. “Doncaster is not the world. It is only a small part of England. No one else cares what these people think.”
“But I do,” she said, wiping the tears as fast as they fell. “It is my world. If you marry me, it will be your world, too.”
He was trying not to get into an argument with her. “You are overwrought,” he said, hoping against hope to stop her momentum. “Let us return to Edenthorpe. Tomorrow, the outlook will be different.”
Unfortunately, Dacia wasn’t listening to him. She pulled away from him, out of arm’s length.
“Nay, Cass,” she said. “I cannot do that to you. I cannot let them ruin you like they are trying to ruin me. It is not fair to you. I love you too much to let that happen.”
At first, Cassius had been in genuine disbelief about the entire situation. But now, he was feeling real fear. Dacia was afraid he would be hurt by his association to her and it cut him to the bone.
“They cannot hurt me, angel,” he said steadily. “We must stand strong together. That is the only way we can triumph in the end.”
Dacia was backing away from them. “You are a strong, talented knight,” she said, tears and mucus running down her face.
“You are my knight. You said that Doncaster is a tiny part of this world but, in a sense, I am Doncaster. These lands have belonged to my family for hundreds of years. I can never leave it, so I must stay and face this crisis, but I will do it on my own. I do not want you singed by the fire that burns around me. And if the church becomes involved, I cannot let you be touched by that. Please, Cass… above all else, you must stay safe. These horrors are mine and mine alone.”
He was starting to feel sick to his stomach. “I will not leave you,” he said. “What they say cannot hurt us as long as we remain strong, together.”
“Nay, Cass.”
“If I go, then Amata wins. Is that what you want?”
She shook her head, her lower lip trembling. “Nay,” she murmured. “But I cannot let you be hurt by what she has done. You have my heart; you always will. I love you as the moon loves the night, as the stars love the darkness. But because I love you, I will not marry you.”
With that, she turned and ran back to her palfrey as Cassius followed.
She leapt onto her little horse, tears soaking the veil around her neck and chest, and spurred the little beast onward with Argos running after her.
She was galloping by the time she hit the gate, heading out on the road that led to the castle.
Cassius boomed at the escort, sending the soldiers after her as he collected Old Man and pursued. Outside of the village walls, they kept an eye on her up ahead, all the way into Edenthorpe’s bailey.
Even then, Dacia was too fast for Cassius.
She flew off her horse and ran into the keep before he could stop her.
He followed as quickly as he could, ending up in front of her barred chamber door with Argos sitting outside of it, waiting patiently to be let in.
But no amount of pounding or pleading could coax Dacia into opening that door.
Cassius spent two straight days sitting at her door, begging her to let him in.
On the beginning of the third day, he knew that his future was slipping away from him no matter how hard he tried to hold on.
With his back against her chamber door, the tears finally came.
And a fragile heart was shattered.