Chapter Seventeen #3
Keir’s grin was back. “I have missed Andres,” he said.
“I am deeply saddened that he is not here. I owe that man a slug to the jaw, you know. The last time I saw him, he got me involved in a terrible tavern fight. He was dead-drunk and refused to pay his bill, and the tavern keeper’s son did not take too kindly to that.
I think we fairly destroyed the place when it was all said and done. ”
Cortez laughed softly. “He has a talent for such things.”
Keir agreed, draining the last of his cup. “Aye, he certainly does,” he said. “But enough of Andres and his foolishness. Let us continue to speak of your quest. Falkirk is at least a seven or eight day journey from here.”
“I realize that.”
“The Scots are not so friendly these days.”
Cortez looked at him. “Have you had trouble?”
Keir shook his head. “Not this far south, but I have heard rumor that there has been trouble on the border. The Ferguson and the Armstrong clans have been rather busy, I’m told.
I believe Carlisle has suffered raids.” He looked seriously at Cortez.
“Do you really intend to take your wife and child into Scotland?”
Cortez struggled not to feel as if he was doing something foolish. “I have no choice,” he muttered. “I promised her. She wants to bury Edlington and I must do all I can to ensure that she is at peace.”
Keir could see that Cortez was starting to feel defensive.
He put his hand on the man’s shoulder. “I am not judging you, my friend,” he said quietly.
“It is simply that the situation in Scotland is not at all calm. There could be trouble. Why not leave your wife and child at Pendragon while you continue on to Falkirk? At least they would be safe.”
Cortez immediately shook his head. “Although I appreciate your offer, Diamantha would never agree to it,” he said. “She is tenacious. If I left her behind, she would find a way to follow me and that I could not stomach. Nay, my friend, where I go, she goes. This is more her quest than it is mine.”
Keir understood what it was to have a tenacious wife, he had one of his own.
He sighed knowingly as he poured himself more wine, glancing up to see the expressions on the faces of the knights around the table.
He knew they would go to hell and back for de Bretagne.
Their loyalty was without question. But he feared for them.
He feared for all of them. More than that, this wasn’t a quest Cortez should have to face alone.
He knew that without a doubt. He took a long drink of wine and set the cup back down onto the table with a rather forceful slam.
“Then you leave me no choice,” he said firmly. “I was at Falkirk, too, and Rob Edlington was also my friend. It could very easily have been me with the man as he breathed his last. Only by fate was it you. Rob was a good man and he did not deserve to be left behind.”
Cortez nodded slowly. “And I agree,” he said quietly, “which is why I am going back.”
Keir was firm. “You misunderstand,” he said.
“I mean to say that I cannot allow you to travel to Falkirk without me. I feel somewhat responsible for this as well. Every man who took part in that bloody day shares some of this responsibility. I could not live with myself, knowing you are facing danger to retrieve a fallen comrade and quite possibly undermanned with only twenty-five men and four knights. I will therefore go with you and if you deny me, know that I am much like your wife. I am tenacious, and I will follow you. I will follow you whether or not you like it, so the matter is settled. Pembury? Are you with me?”
The big knight lifted his dark eyebrows. Michael tended to be the quieter of the pair, but when he did have cause to speak, it was usually of great meaning.
“I cannot let you go alone,” he said in his ridiculously deep voice. “You are correct when you say that every man who fought upon those hallowed fields shares the responsibility of a fallen comrade, and since I was there, the burden too is mine. Besides, who would keep you out of trouble?”
Keir grinned at his companion. “Then it is settled,” he said.
“Tomorrow, we ride for Scotland with de Bretagne. I will hire a boy to take a message to Coverdale regarding our immediate plans and have him send word to my wife. She will not be entirely happy, but she will understand. She understands something about loyalty and friendship.”
Cortez didn’t know what to say. He looked at Keir and Michael with some astonishment. “You are coming with me?” he repeated, somewhat awed. “Surely Coverdale cannot spare you.”
Keir waved him off. “We have finished our business for him,” he said. “Besides, my knights are in charge of Pendragon and the garrison is safe. De Velt is in charge, and no man has ever bested a de Velt.”
All of Cortez’s knights, and Cortez himself, looked at Keir with some shock. “De Velt?” Cortez repeated. “You have a de Velt in your service?”
Keir could see the myriad of astonished expressions and he grinned.
“I do,” he replied. “You haven’t met the man, Cortez.
He’s several years younger and came up through Coverdale’s ranks.
Now, I know the history of the House of de Velt in the north.
Hell, everyone does, but I assure you that he is not a blood-thirsty monster as his forefathers were.
Lorcan is an excellent knight and I trust him implicitly. ”
Cortez’s knights looked at him to see his reaction, but Cortez, over his initial surprise, ended up chuckling.
“Another de Velt,” he groaned, looking over at his knights. “Be sure not to tell my father.”
His knights were grinning but Keir wasn’t in on the joke. “What do you mean?” he asked. “What does your father have to do with the House of de Velt?”
Ordering two more pitchers of wine, Cortez launched into the story of his father, the House of de Velt, his first meeting with Diamantha, and other things.
It ended up being a very long night that saw Cortez and his men going to sleep just a few hours before dawn.
But it didn’t matter. It had been one of the best nights he’d spent in a very long time, reliving old times and discussing the future with men he shared an unbreakable bond with.
He considered himself an extremely fortunate man.
At one point in the evening, as he listened to Drake launch into one of his many humorous tales, he briefly reflected on the life he lost three years ago.
When Helene had died and the baby with her, he was sure he was dead, too.
Even when he went to Corfe those few weeks ago to marry Diamantha, he still wasn’t sure if their union would bring any of the joy back into his life.
But he was coming to realize that this quest had bonded them together as nothing else ever could have.
It wasn’t so much that they were joined by the mutual quest for Robert.
It was the fact that they had shared so much together along the journey, perhaps more than most married couples ever do, and in that adventure Diamantha’s character, heart, and soul was revealed. Perhaps his was, too.
As he watched the men around the table, men he loved like brothers, he realized how deeply content and utterly happy he was for the first time in his life.
It was more than he had ever shared with Helene.
It was as if he had reached for the stars and had finally managed to grasp one.
Helene had been like a warm autumn breeze, gentle and comforting.
Diamantha was like the scorching summer sun, searing him until he was blinded by her.
He couldn’t describe in words how he felt about the woman.
All he knew was that he loved her.