Chapter Fifteen #4
Andres looked at him with concern. “They are,” he said. “What about you? Are you ready?”
Cortez sighed heavily. Then, he sat back in the chair and dragged his hands over his face wearily. “I am, for the most part,” he said. “My wife should be ready as well. I was just going to go and get her.”
Andres sat down next to his brother. “What is wrong?” he demanded. “Did you speak with Father?”
Cortez looked at him again. “Aye,” he said. “Did you?”
Andres wriggled his eyebrows in a resigned gesture. “I did,” he said. “I am sure he told you everything he told me.”
Cortez shook his head sadly. “It is as if I do not even know the man any longer,” he said hoarsely.
“I sat in the vault with him most of the night. I listened to him weep and shout and accuse Diamantha of terrible things, or at least accuse her of being responsible for what Jax de Velt did. It is as if the man doesn’t want to listen to reason. Nothing I could say could sway him.”
Andres was feeling very bad about everything, made worse by a dull throb in his head from too much drink the night before. In fact, he wasn’t feeling altogether well, about anything.
“I know,” he muttered. “I tried to talk to him a little while ago. He thinks you have betrayed the entire family by marrying her.”
“I know.”
Andres scratched his cheek wearily. “I will tell you something else,” he said, lowering his voice.
“Father’s majordomo says that Father’s behavior has been very erratic over the past year.
He cannot make clear decisions sometimes, he becomes enraged quite easily, as we have seen, and he is very forgetful.
That may explain why the situation with your wife has set him off so badly.
The majordomo thinks there is something wrong with his mind. ”
Cortez looked at him, an expression of distress on his face. After a moment, he shook his head in disbelief. “That would explain quite a lot, actually,” he said, “for the man in the vault is not the father I know. I do not know who that is.”
Andres watched his brother for a moment. “Cortez,” he began slowly. “I have been thinking… mayhap I should remain here with him, at least for a little while. You have many excellent knights at your disposal and father has no one. I think he needs me. You do not.”
Cortez gazed at his brother, seeing the logic of his request. “I think it is a very good idea for you to stay with him,” he agreed. “If, for no other reason, than to keep the man from getting himself into trouble. If his mind is truly going, then mayhap he needs a minder.”
Andres nodded in agreement although it was clear he wasn’t too keen on the idea. “Believe me when I tell you that remaining here does not make me happy, but I believe it is for the best,” he said. “At least I can keep the man from charging after you and trying to kill your wife.”
“That is true.”
“Will you see him before you leave?”
Cortez simply nodded, rising to his feet wearily and collecting the pieces of the necklace to hold in one hand. Then, he looked at it, the jumble of silver, and put it back down on the table.
“I cannot even look at this,” he muttered. “When I see it, all I can envision is father ripping it from Diamantha’s neck. It doesn’t mean the same thing to me as on the day I gave it to her. Now I only see anger.”
Andres eyed the necklace pieces on the table before looking to his brother. “Did you sleep at all last night?”
Cortez shook his head. “Nay,” he replied, taking a deep breath to bolster himself. “It is going to be a very long day ahead.”
Andres was forced to agree, following his brother out into the pre-dawn morning, very cold and very damp, as the sky turned shades of blue and gray with the approaching sun.
Cortez’s party was very busy tending horses and hitching up the wagons, and the quartermaster was discussing additional provisions with Coven’s majordomo.
Everyone seemed to be focused on their tasks as Cortez and Andres crossed the bailey to the gatehouse where the vault was located. Entering the gatehouse on the right side, they traveled down a very narrow set of stairs that led them to the vault below.
It was very damp and very cold in the hole, surrounded by moist stone and with a single torch illuminating the dark.
There were two cells, and very small ones at that.
Gorsedd was in the cell on the left, a bigger cell, and he had plenty of fresh straw and blankets to keep him warm.
He was also snoring quite loudly when his sons approached.
Cortez and Andres stood outside of the iron grate and watched the man for a moment as he slept the sleep of the dead. When Andres went to rattle the bars and wake him, Cortez stopped the man.
“Nay,” he said softly. “Let him sleep. Mayhap it is best, after all. I do not want my last memory of my father to be that of anguish and rage. I would rather have it be one of him sleeping peacefully. That is how I would wish to remember him.”
Andres understood. He put a hand on his brother’s arm. “You will send me word when you arrive in Falkirk, will you not?” he asked. “I would like to know what you find once you get there.”
Cortez nodded. “I will,” he said. “Mayhap… mayhap in time you can join me at Sherborne. It would not be the same without you.”
Andres forced a smile. “You would miss pulling me out of gutters and paying off fathers whose daughters I have compromised?”
Cortez snorted. “I will not miss that part,” he said. He sobered, gazing steadily at his younger brother. “But I will miss you. Take care of yourself, Andres. It is important that my future children know their uncle.”
In the cell, Gorsedd snored loudly and rolled around in his straw. The brothers watched to see if he was waking up, but he was not. He slept through their conversation. Cortez turned back to Andres.
“I must go now,” he said with some trepidation. “As for you, be well as you watch over Father. And if the majordomo is correct and his mind really is going, keep all weapons away from him. I do not want him hurting himself or others.”
Andres nodded, feeling a great sense of disappointment that Cortez was continuing the great quest for Robert Edlington without him. But he understood.
“Safe travels, brother,” he wished. “Send me word when you can.”
Cortez hugged his brother tightly before letting him go and swiftly taking the steps up to the bailey.
He realized there was a lump in his throat at the thought of leaving Andres behind, but he was convinced it was the right thing to do.
It was with a very heavy heart, however, that he left his father with such a painful situation between them.
Mayhap someday it could be rectified. He fervently hoped so.
He never blamed Diamantha for it, not in the least. The thought never even crossed his mind.
Diamantha and Sophie were ready to depart on time.
Both of them were bundled up in their traveling clothes as Cortez put them into the wagon.
He told Diamantha that his brother was remaining behind to take care of their father, which saddened her somewhat, but she understood.
She also knew that Cortez had spent the entire night in the vault with his father, trying to talk some sense into the man.
She didn’t ask him about it, though. From the expression on his face, she assumed all did not go well and the thought distressed her greatly.
She did, however, ask about the necklace and was told it was unsalvageable.
The news upset her but she didn’t dwell on it, focusing instead on her daughter and on their day ahead.
Cortez, in charge of the pet cage, couldn’t help but notice a fifth pet had been slipped in with the others, one of the little puppies that he had seen in the hall the night before.
When he questioned Diamantha about it, she simply shook her head wearily and pointed to Merlin.
It seemed that Sophie’s begging had broken the man down and he had brought her one.
Cortez didn’t know whether to scold the man or laugh at him.
The puppy ended up in Diamantha’s lap as the party from Sherborne left the small bailey of Coven Castle and out into the great countryside beyond.
The great questing continued.