Chapter One #2
Sean paused a moment as he considered what he wanted to say. “Our lives are intertwined, as you have said,” he replied. “You know about my wife, Sheridan. I am looking forward to the day when I introduce you. She is a remarkable woman, Kevin.”
Kevin nodded. “I am sure she is,” he said. Then, he hesitated. “And you still do not want me to send her word about you?”
“Nay,” Sean said, his manner hardening. “I told you that I do not want to send her word until I know I am going to survive these injuries.”
“But…”
Sean cut him off. “Nay, Kevin,” he said firmly.
“Let the woman remember me as I was, not as I am – wounded, ill, confined to a bed. I do not want her to see me like this. You could bring her here tomorrow and I could die next week of this poison in me that does not seem to want to abate. I could not put her through that turmoil.”
Kevin understood, sort of. “But she is your wife,” he said, trying to be tactful on a very touchy subject. “She has a right to know you are alive.”
“Not until I can walk to her and tell her myself.”
Kevin didn’t push him. Sean wanted this wife to see him strong and healthy, not weak and dying.
Perhaps it was male vanity or perhaps he was really trying to spare her feelings; perhaps it was a combination of both.
In any case, Kevin didn’t pursue it. He veered the subject back to the very reason he had been summoned.
“Then let us not speak of her,” he said. “What did you wish to tell me?”
Sean struggled to pull his thoughts away from his beloved wife and back to the subject at hand. “Sheridan has something to do with what I wish to speak with you about,” he said. “My wife is an heiress, Kevin. When I married her, I inherited the Earldom of Bath and Glastonbury.”
Kevin nodded. “I know,” he said. “Your physic told me. I am proud of you, Sean. It is well-deserved.”
Sean studied his brother for a moment before extending a hand to him.
It was an affectionate gesture, one not missed by Kevin, who took it strongly and held on with two hands.
It was good to feel his brother alive and warm and, for a moment, he nearly lost his composure.
It could have so easily gone the other direction.
It still might. But for now, Sean was alive and lucid, and this time was precious.
Kevin felt that with all his heart.
“I have been blessed,” Sean said quietly. “I have a beautiful wife and through her, lands and titles. But through Father, I have the Darlington lordship and Trilaterals lordship. I have more than a man has a right to and that is why I summoned you.”
“How can I be of assistance?”
“I want to give you the Trilaterals.”
Kevin’s eyes widened in shock. “You what?”
Sean grinned at the astonishment in his brother’s features.
“Before this day is out, I will summon a cleric from Westminster and have the documents drawn up,” he said.
“I am gifting you with the Lord of the Trilaterals title that includes the three castles – Trelystan, Hyssington, and Caradoc. They belong to you now, Kevin. I know you will do them proud.”
Kevin could hardly believe it. That was not what he had expected when he had entered the chamber. He didn’t know what he’d expected but accepting his brother’s hereditary title hadn’t been a glimmer in his mind.
After a moment, he shook his head.
“Sean,” he said, still fighting the reality of his brother’s gesture. “They belong to you. What of your sons? What will you leave them?”
“Bath and Glastonbury,” Sean said, his eyes glimmering with mirth. “And I still have Stonegrave and Darlington. Believe me, I have enough to never want for anything ever again. Please let me do this for you, Kevin. Please let me gift you with the Trilaterals.”
It was the most generous thing Kevin had ever heard of.
Given the fact that he and his brother had shared a contentious relationship over the past several years, it was even more astonishing.
Sean and Kevin had gone years not speaking to one another, mostly because of Kevin.
But now, none of that seemed to matter in Sean’s eyes.
It was almost more than Kevin could bear.
“Why?” he finally managed to ask, feeling a lump in his throat.
“Why would you be so generous to me? All I’ve done over the past several years is tell you how ashamed I was of you and how much I hated what you had done to yourself.
I do not understand why you should be so generous. I do not deserve it.”
Sean squeezed his hands. “Of course you do,” he said. “As for what happened… I know you were angry because you loved me, not because you hated me. You are a man of great passion and conviction, Kevin. There was never any doubt in my mind that we would someday reconcile, and we have.”
Kevin stared at him, his eyes welling. He was so overwhelmed that he was having difficulty with his composure.
“And I am grateful for it,” he said, quickly blinking away the tears.
“You tolerated much of my ignorance and prejudice with grace, Sean. When you should have slapped me, you tried to reason with me. In hindsight, I understand your motives and your reasons, but at the time… at the time, I was blinded by my own sense of self-righteousness.”
Sean squeezed his hands one last time before releasing them.
“But it wasn’t something that time could not heal,” he said.
“We are healed, Kevin. And I am giving you the Trilaterals because I am going to be at Lansdown Castle, the seat of my earldom. A de Lara must always be in possession of the Trilaterals, and that will be you and your heirs. Make your mark, little brother. I know you can.”
Kevin smiled weakly, the realization of his brother’s great gift beginning to settle on him. “I can only hope to live up to what you would have done,” he said. “I’ve never actually had a command before.”
“You do now.”
Kevin laughed nervously, standing up from the bed. “Thanks to you,” he said, his mind going to the castles he so recently visited. “God’s Bones… I never thought this would happen. To thank you seems wholly inadequate, but you have my deepest thanks. Are you certain you want to do this?”
“More than certain.”
Kevin ran his fingers through his hair as he realized that he was now a warlord, with properties and an army befitting that status. It was too good to believe.
“When you have the documents drawn up, you should send word to Bannon de Venter,” he said. “He is in command of Trelystan at the moment and should hear this from you, not from me. He must have your confirmation so that he knows it is to be my command.”
Sean nodded, but it was clear that he was growing weary as the conversation wore him down. “I shall, have no fear.”
The more Kevin thought on his new status, the more excited he became.
“I shall return to the Trilaterals and make sure the vassals know that a de Lara has returned to lead them,” he said.
Then, he looked at his brother as if a thought had just occurred to him.
“I may even expand the empire. In fact, when I was there, I heard the soldiers speaking of old Lord Breidden. You know the man? Father knew him, I think. He is as old as Methuselah.”
“I remember him,” Sean said. “What about him?”
“He’s dying,” Kevin said. “According to our soldiers, anyway. But as I recall, he has no heirs. I remember Father saying that he was a lonely old man.”
“A lonely old man with a big castle not too far from Trelystan.”
Kevin tapped his head in a knowing gesture. “Exactly my thought.”
Sean grinned, but it was an exhausted gesture. “Good lad,” he said to his brother. “Already looking ahead to the future by expanding your lands.”
He closed his eyes and Kevin was finally catching on that his brother was growing weary. He went to the man, helping him pull up his coverlet. He stood over him a moment, watching him settle down.
“But it is only possible because of you,” he said softly. Reaching down, he put a gentle hand on Sean’s forehead. “I am ever grateful, Brother.”
Sean’s smile was fading as sleep pulled at him. “You are the most worthy man I know,” he said. “I know you will make me proud.”
Kevin continued to stand over Sean as he drifted off to sleep. He was still reeling from his brother’s gift, but the more the realization sank in, the more excited he was about it. Something he never thought would happen to him had now become reality.
Lord of the Trilaterals.
He’d never had a position of great power. He’d always been more of a man who took orders than a man who gave them, but that was about to change. He was a de Lara and de Laras never failed.
He didn’t want to be the first one.
He was certainly going to find out.