Chapter 33 #2
Lyall raised his hand. “She calls it a crack. I know what I have done is most serious. I failed and betrayed my stepfather, you, and my king.” He paused.
“And I failed her, the one who holds my heart, my today and my tomorrow.” The look Glenna exchanged with him sent a pang of meaning through him and the realization she was his reason for living.
He did not take his eyes off of her as he continued.
“She is my wife, in body and heart and mind, and I swear on my own black soul it is I who will defend her best because I will do so with my life. I would give everything I have, down to my blood and bone, to live out my time on this earth with her by my side, so I will not step away as I was asked.”
Her smile softened. Without her, there was nothing. He faced Sutherland. “Know this…there is no other man who will protect her as I will.” He tapped his heart with a fist. “So dear she is to me.”
The earl was an experienced diplomat and his face revealed nothing.
“Lady Glenna believes that she can save me, because I am now her husband and she is the daughter of the king.” He looked down, laughing in self-deprecation.
“But the truth is: what is between us is my greatest gift and I would willingly hang tomorrow knowing that she has been mine for these few days.”
Her expression told him that his words troubled her, and she slightly shook her head, warning him to stop.
“You can take me away, Earl Valan,” Lyall vowed. “You can lock me up, shackle me to castle gates, stick my sorry head on a pike or draw and quarter me, but I will not deny her. Lady Glenna Canmore is my wife for my life.” He paused. “However long that may be.”
The thought of losing her, thus losing the man he could be, made his eyes burn and he looked away…unfortunately, right into the intense and thoughtful face of his stepfather.
Was that compassion he saw? If so, he deserved none.
Glenna stood abruptly and faced the earl. “You tell me I am the daughter of the king. Then hear me when I say we are wed. You harm my husband and you harm me.” She flattened her hands on the table and leaned forward. “He is my husband.”
Earl Valan laughed softly and shook his head. “Why do I think you want to add ‘you oaf’ to your last comment?”
Her brow creased but she said, “You think you know me that well?” She laughed without humor and moved to the window, leaned against the wall not looking at any of them.
“I know I saw a sudden gleam in your eyes, and you moved away to hide it from me. Know you this. I have been called such names many times, my lady. I understand you more than you can fathom.”
Glenna refused to look at the earl, but stood with her arms crossed, her shoulder against the open shutter.
Lyall spoke from his heart, but he was at a loss now of what else he could say, and he sat down and took a sip of wine, hoping to calm things somewhat while his mind searched for another way to persuade them.
“I would not condone what my son by marriage has done, my lord,” Ramsey interjected.
“I would say that he has acted without thought and selfishly. But he has taken something valuable from all he has done. I believe I know Lyall, perhaps better than he knows himself. Consider this: there are those who would say he does not have the wealth or position due a man wed to the daughter of a king. I would petition now, at this moment, to make him my heir.”
Hearing that was like being hit in the head with a flail. Lyall expected to argue with Ramsey for him to not dissolve their marriage… not to hear defense and support for him, support he did not deserve and was difficult to hear. He stared into this wine goblet.
Anger he could defy. Kindness? He wanted to hang his head with shame at his actions, at how he had let bitterness consume him, and with that shame came a great regret.
To be where he was now, so clear eyed and aware of what he knew he wanted, and aware of how he wasted it and risked his future, was strangely comforting.
He had no doubts. He wasn’t fighting his conscience, perhaps because this time what he wanted was not about his pride.
With Glenna, his pride was not all twisted up inside of his desires.
The earl gave his stepfather a direct look. “Well and good, Ramsey. However, we are not here to debate whether he is suitable.”
“Nay, you are here to dictate the validity of our marriage,” Glenna said quickly. “To twist and turn my life so that I cannot follow my heart but understand my worth is only to be bartered to assist the Crown. My marriage is sacred to me. A handfast is the law of the land.”
“That is true, were you not who you are. There is no royal marriage without witnesses. That, my dear, is the law as it pertains to you.”
“What would have happened, had I, Glenna Gordon, wed a sheep farmer before my father the king decided I could come out of hiding?”
Lyall had to look away. The idea of her wed to a sheep farmer almost made him laugh out loud.
“You believe that such was possible?” The earl looked amused. “You believe you were free to marry a pig farmer?”
“Sheep farmer,” she said tightly
“‘Twould never have happened, Lady Glenna, and I prefer not to waste words arguing over the impossible.”
“I did not think any of us was wasting words. But I would now question the truthfulness of the stories we have heard about the grand romance of my parents. Was it a grand romance? Is only my father allowed to marry for great love? And if I am my father’s daughter, is not fighting for my right to the man I love in my very blood? ”
Now there, Lyall thought, was the best question.
The earl watched her for a long time. Glenna was trying desperately to make him angry. He did not bluster and order them about, a sign of how Sutherland had risen to his high position. The man was thoughtful, and Lyall had to admire him.
“Watching you, my lady, I wonder…” Earl Valan said quietly. “You are quite fearless.”
“Thank you.”
“That was not a compliment,” the earl said bluntly. “You are also quite willing to speak your mind.” When she started to speak he held up his hand. “Also not a compliment. It has been my experience that speaking out is not the best way for a woman to get what she desires.”
“Neither is becoming a mute, and I did not know you had experience as a woman speaking out, my lord earl.”
Lyall bit back a laugh but his stepfather did not and Ramsey shook his head, still laughing. “She has you there, Valan.”
The earl exchanged an interesting look with his stepfather that gave Lyall a heartbeat of hope.
To Glenna, the earl said, “You might be better served with a husband to watch over you.” He turned his thoughtful eyes on Lyall and studied him, then sat back in his chair.
“Speaking of blood relations, my lady, you are very much like your sister. “
“My sister?"
That had gotten Glenna’s attention.
“Aye. Lady Caitrin has been my ward for all these years.”
“Was she lied to also?” Glenna asked bitterly.
“Like you, she, too, recently discovered the truth, and she has made her thoughts known to me,” the earl said calmly, refusing to give rise to Glenna’s clear baiting. “Her new husband must deal with her opinions.”
“New husband? So she was pawned off for the sake of the Crown? She might easily accept that fate, but I will not be so meek and biddable.”
The earl choked on his wine and coughed and wheezed until one of his knights slapped him hard on the back, and he slowly recovered, his face going from bright red to a flush.
He cleared his throat and said, “The choices your father made were difficult ones. I was there. I saw what he went through. His actions and orders were for your protection.”
“What you call protection, I call lies, Earl Valan. Why could we have not known the truth and still been kept safe?”
“You are young. The truth could never be worth the risk. You do not know the extent to which your very existence could have fueled the struggle for the right to the Crown. Your father’s enemies would see you married off to the kind of man who would control you for his motives.
I can assure you that would most unpleasant.
Your father is also your king. Until you understand what he has faced, you cannot understand what he had to do.
You have been raised in obscurity and what we believed was safety.
You do not like that your identity was kept secret?
Only someone who knows little of the world would want a life filled with only truths. ”
“As I see it, my lord, the king is not here. But if he were, I would argue to him what I have said to you. However, here or in exile, neither he nor you will dissolve my marriage. And trust, my lord earl, there are many secrets you do not know about me,” she added.
Lyall understood what she was saying. Her brothers would never betray her or themselves and admit freely of their life of thievery.
Earl Valan had not seen the plunder inside that cottage, and he was not privy to Glenna’s skill.
As Lyall watched his wife, he had the strong feeling that she deserved to keep her own secrets.
Long minutes passed in silence as Earl Valan appeared to study the table, then looked to his stepfather. No words were spoken and the air in the room began to vibrate, like before a great battle. Finally Earl Valan looked at Glenna and said,"I---"
The door rattled thunderously with someone pounding on it and one of Sutherland’s knights opened the door.
Alastair Gordon rushed inside, pushing past the knight and ignoring everyone and out of breath, waving a rolled parchment.
“Glenna!” His face broke out into a wide grin.
“I have it! We have brought your proof!”