Chapter Eighteen #2
“You are fortunate that I do not let Douglas loose on you,” she said, her patience in the situation waning. “Tell me what you want and be done with it.”
Jerome eyed Douglas furiously but wisely refrained from baiting the man. His focus turned to Isabel.
“I want the girl who had my son’s attention,” he said.
“Raymond was of marriageable age. It is very possible he would have married her because he has been attracted to her since they were young. It is the same girl, is it not? I have forgotten her name over the years. Mary, I believe. In any case, because of her, my son is dead. I will marry her and she will give me another son to replace the one she took from me.”
It was a horrifying suggestion. Isabel visibly gasped but didn’t dare look at Douglas, fearful he might see her moment of shock and charge Jerome once and for all. If that happened, she knew she couldn’t stop him.
She didn’t want to.
Still, she held her ground.
“Impossible,” she said. “That young woman is already spoken for.”
That wasn’t the answer Jerome wanted. “To whom?” he demanded. “Tell me this instant! If she… Wait. She is pledged, you say?”
“Aye.”
“A man who would not have taken kindly to my son’s advances?”
“No man would wish to see his intended preyed upon by another.”
Jerome’s attention moved to Douglas. “And she was defended by this man who killed my son on her behalf?” he said in a shocking bit of astute logic. “Then he was not killed because the lady was defending herself. He was killed in punishment for being attracted to her!”
As Douglas remained surprisingly emotionless, Isabel tried to divert Jerome’s trail of logic. “What makes you say that?” she said. “She could be pledged to anyone in England. Douglas was… He would have defended any woman being attacked. That does not mean they are pledged.”
“Untrue!” Jerome said, his eyes wide and wild as realization dawned. “A man only kills when emotion or fear are involved. De Lohr was not afraid of my son, so it must have been because he was protecting something important to him. Why else should he kill?”
“He killed because your son tried to kill a woman,” Isabel said angrily. “He did the right and true thing. Had you raise your son properly, we would not be having this conversation!”
Jerome was back to being furious. “I want that girl,” he said again. “Bring her to me or I will tear this place apart looking for her.”
“Douglas and Eric and the knights in the hall will stop you.”
“Then provide me with a suitable replacement or my campaign of terror against Axminster and all who live here will never end,” he cried. “Give me another girl!”
“I will not give you any of my young women.”
“You must!” Jerome demanded. “This is your fault, Lady Isabel. Your fault that my son is dead. Your fault that there is such turmoil. And do not think I didn’t hear about Tatworth attacking Axminster those months ago.
Of course I heard. All because of you. I will, therefore, say again—give me a woman to continue my family line because it is your obligation. Give me justice!”
His shouting had reverberated off the walls, now abruptly still except for his heavy breathing.
Isabel was still staring at him, watching every move he made and knowing he meant every threat that had pealed out of his mouth.
The problem was that he was right—this was her fault.
All of it. Raymond’s death had happened at Axminster, and as it was her domain, she was responsible.
That was the sickening truth.
If Jerome harassed Axminster, it would be her fault. If he attacked Lioncross, it would also be her fault. All roads led to Isabel, and the longer she thought on it, the more she knew that she, and only she, should be the one to make amends.
There was no other choice.
“Eric,” she finally said. “Remove Douglas from the chamber. You go with him.”
Eric, still holding on to Douglas, looked at her in concern. “My lady…”
“Please,” she said. “Wait outside. If you hear violence, you may enter, but only in that instance. Otherwise, you will stay outside until I open the door.”
Eric didn’t want to go. He looked at Douglas, who was looking at him for direction.
If Eric obeyed, Douglas would. If Eric didn’t, then neither would Douglas.
Neither one of them wanted to leave Isabel alone with Jerome, but ultimately, she was the Lady of Axminster. They were bound to obey her orders.
Especially Eric.
All he ever did was obey her orders.
“Very well,” he said reluctantly. “But we shall be outside the door if needed.”
Isabel simply waved them on. When both knights were through the door and the panel was shut, Isabel indicated for Jerome to sit in the nearest chair.
“Sit down,” she said quietly. “I wish to speak to you about this and we will do it calmly, just the two of us, without any swords or enormous knights hanging about. Agreed?”
Jerome seemed to relax a little now that Douglas was out of the chamber.
“As you wish,” he said, claiming the chair.
“But I will not change my mind. I must have justice, and the only way to accomplish that is for you to give me what I want so that I may have another son to continue my lineage. That is only fair.”
Isabel sat down in a chair a few feet away. “I understand that you are grieving,” she said. “What happened is a terrible shock. But don’t you think your demands are hasty? Should you not have time to grieve before you make such a decision?”
Jerome shook his head. “Nay,” he said. “I have been with Raymond since I was informed of his passing. He was my only child. If I am to admit it, he could be… difficult. You tried to purge him from Axminster because of his behavior. Kenilworth did the same.”
“I did not know that.”
Jerome sat back in his chair, vastly calmer than he had been.
It was just him and Isabel, and truthfully, Jerome wasn’t confrontational by nature.
He had a more reasonable personality than his son had, and last night he’d been quite amiable.
But he was struggling with something that had upended his entire world and was so grieved that he was behaving irrationally, but deep down, something else was happening with him.
It was time for truth.
Ugly as it was.
Maybe if he told the truth, Isabel would be more apt to do as he wished.
“I will admit this to no one else, my lady, and if you repeat it, I will deny it,” he said. “But my son was not very likable. He was my son and I love him because he is my son, but sometimes, I did not like him. You were around him for years. You saw how he was.”
Isabel’s eyebrows rose. “Something you had denied to me,” she said. “When I wrote you about his behavior, you told me it was untrue.”
He nodded. “At the time, I believed it,” he said. “When Raymond left for Axminster, he did not have the naughty streak in him that you said he had. I assumed you were lying. But the master knights of Kenilworth had the same report, only worse.”
“Then they confirmed what I had been trying to tell you.”
Jerome nodded. Then his eyes unexpectedly filled with tears.
“A father does not want to believe the worst about his son,” he said.
“But he had gambling debts. And there were at least two young women he had forced himself upon. One conceived a child she later gave birth to and surrendered to a peasant family. I paid her family a great amount of money for her troubles.”
Isabel wasn’t entirely shocked to hear this, given her experience with Raymond. “You said your lineage had died out,” she said. “What about this child?”
“It is a girl. I do not want a girl.”
That explained it, a little. “I see,” she said. “So you want to marry again and have another son?”
He nodded. “As callous as this will sound, I do,” he said.
“I will mourn Raymond. I will mourn the son I failed, because surely, I failed him or he would not have been the way he was. Don’t you see, Lady Isabel?
This is another chance for me. In this tragedy, God has given me another chance to have a son who will honor the de Honiton name. ”
Isabel thought that it was a strange way to deal with grief. Lost one son, then make another. The new son would ease the grief of the one lost. She’d seen that happen with widows—marrying again to ease the ache of losing a husband—but she’d never seen it done with children.
Still… Jerome seemed entirely serious.
“If that is true, then you will have to find a wife elsewhere,” Isabel said after a moment. “I cannot, and will not, provide you with one of the young ladies in my charge.”
Jerome looked at her. “And I meant what I said,” he said calmly.
“If you do not give me one of them, I will do as I must. You will not know a moment’s peace.
Nor will de Lohr. I do not care if his father is more powerful than God.
I will make it so he is hunted and hounded every day for the rest of his life.
And Axminster will never be safe. Not you, not your wards, nor your vassals.
It will be my life’s work to see you ruined. ”
He said it as if discussing nothing more important than the weather.
Isabel couldn’t imagine that he was bluffing.
He seemed quite sane and, in his own words, his lineage was finished.
He had nothing to lose by harassing Axminster.
The implications were great because if he carried through on his threat, she had everything to lose.