Chapter Twenty #2
The unexpected voice came from the entry and they both turned to see Kevin standing in the doorway.
He was in full armor, his de Lara sapphire dragon tunic on display and a wicked-looking broadsword strapped to his thigh.
He looked every inch the terrifying English knight and Juliandra gasped at the sight.
“Kevin!”
He didn’t look at her. His focus was entirely on Aeron as the man stood several feet away and gaped at him.
“You,” Kevin boomed at Aeron. “What in the hell are you doing here?”
Aeron could hear death in Kevin’s voice – his own.
The man looked as if he’d just single-handedly attended a battle with a thousand bloodthirsty warriors and was the only one who had emerged alive.
The smell of death radiated off of him like smoke from a fire.
Now that there wasn’t a closed portcullis between them, Aeron wasn’t so brave.
He began to move away from Kevin.
“Where I go and what I do does not concern you,” he said. “What are you doing here?”
Still, Kevin didn’t look at Juliandra. He was watching Aeron, tracking every move the man made.
“That is none of your affair,” he said. “Get out of this place or you will regret it.”
Aeron stiffened. “I will not,” he said. “You have no power here, Saesneg.”
“Move any closer to my wife and I will snap your neck.”
He’d noticed that Aeron was moving in Juliandra’s direction. As Aeron froze with uncertainty, Megsy suddenly appeared in the doorway that led to the kitchens.
“He tried to kill her!” the little maid wept. “He put his hands on her throat and tried to kill her! Help us, m’lord!”
Kevin took his focus from Aeron long enough to look at the maid.
Juliandra was a few feet from her and she scurried over to the old woman, putting her arms around her.
As Megsy sobbed and clutched her mistress, Kevin could see just how frightened the woman was.
He finally dared to look at Juliandra, who was trying hard not to weep.
He could see red welts around her neck and chest.
“Is this true?” he asked Juliandra calmly. “Did he try to kill you?”
She looked at him and when their eyes met, Kevin felt as if he’d been hit in the gut. She was pale, her eyes red-rimmed, and it was difficult for him not to slip back into the oblivion of guilt and self-pity.
Not now.
He needed his focus.
“Well?” he said when she didn’t answer fast enough. “Tell me. Did he try to kill you?”
Juliandra’s gaze moved from Kevin to Aeron and back again. “Aye,” she said, looking away. “But I struck him first.”
Kevin didn’t care if she struck him first. All he needed to know was that Aeron had touched his wife.
The man had sealed his own death warrant.
In an instant, Kevin was charging across the hall at Aeron, who screamed like a woman when he saw the man move against him.
He began to run as Juliandra and Megsy fled the chamber, terrified that Aeron might try to use Juliandra as a hostage again.
But Kevin managed to grab Aeron before he could get through the door after the women and he yanked the man backwards, planting a ham-sized fist in Aeron’s face.
Aeron went flying.
The battle was bloody and brutal from the outset.
Since Aeron was unarmed, Kevin wouldn’t draw his sword against the man, so it was hand-to-hand fighting that tore up the hall even worse than it already was.
While Kevin used his fists, Aeron used chairs and anything else he could get his hands on, smashing them onto Kevin to try and stop his charge.
But Kevin was like a runaway bull.
Juliandra had been threatened and that was the only thing on his mind, fueling his rage against a man who had made her life miserable for so many years.
He’d already decided that he was going to beat him to death, and once he cornered him and Aeron threw a stool at his head, he grabbed Aeron by the arm and pummeled his face.
Teeth and blood sprayed onto the floor and, at one point, Kevin hit Aeron so hard that the man went skidding onto the floor and ended up half-under the feasting table.
That was where the tides of the fight turned.
Underneath the feasting table was half of the broken pike with the pointed end.
Aeron was dazed, but he saw the pike tip just about the time Kevin was bearing down on him, preparing to deliver the death blow.
In a panic, Aeron grabbed the remains of the pole, which were about three feet in length, and when Kevin yanked on his legs and pulled him out from beneath the table, Aeron lifted the pike and rammed it straight into Kevin’s left thigh.
The pike plunged deep and Kevin faltered.
It gave Aeron enough time to stagger to his feet and use the earthenware pitcher on the table as a club, slamming it against the side of Kevin’s head.
He was wearing his helm, which prevented him from being knocked out, but it sent him staggering over to the edge of the hall where the main entry was.
Trying to clear his vision, Kevin could see Sean, Alexander, and William standing there.
Having heard the sounds of a fight out in the bailey, they’d come inside to investigate.
And they were armed.
“Nay!” Kevin roared. “This is my fight!”
Sean was forced to throw out an arm to prevent William from charging. The seasoned squire was ready to spear himself a Welshman. Kevin was bleeding heavily, with a broken pike jammed into his thigh, and his face was bloodied where the sharp edge of the broken pitcher had caught him.
But he was still lethal.
As they watched, Kevin ripped the pike from his leg and whirled about in time to see Aeron charging him with part of a broken chair, wielding it like a club.
As far as Kevin was concerned, Aeron was now armed.
He didn’t hesitate to unsheathe his broadsword, the heavy blade with the de Lara motto etched into the hilt.
At this moment, he was the living embodiment of that motto.
Always Vigilant.
His sword arced upwards as Aeron bore down on him, cutting straight into Aeron’s torso and slicing so deep that he cut him all the way through to his spine. Aeron collapsed at his feet, bleeding out all over the floor as he twitched and groaned in the last few moments of his life.
And with that, the fight was over.
In pain and exhausted, Kevin pulled off his dented helm, sheathing his sword before putting a hand over the puncture wound on his thigh to try and stem the bleeding. Alexander walked around him, pushing Aeron over onto his back to survey the damage.
The man was quite dead.
“Let me look at your wound,” Sean said, putting his hands on his brother to steady him. “How is your head? Where’s the damage?”
There was blood smeared all over Kevin’s face, so it was difficult to tell where the damage really was.
Before he could answer, they heard a gasp and looked over to see Juliandra standing in the kitchen passage, her eyes wide at the bloody, destroyed room and a dead man lying on her floor.
But her gaze flew to Kevin, seeing that he was clearly injured, and she gasped again.
“My God,” she murmured in horror. “How badly did he hurt you?”
She was asking as if she cared, but Kevin wasn’t going to fall into that trap. He wasn’t going to believe that a fight between him and Aeron had suddenly made everything well between them.
No, he wasn’t going to assume that at all.
Slowly, he pushed his brother away, taking a few limping steps in Juliandra’s direction.
“My body will heal,” he said. “But I want to know what he was doing here. What in the hell was going on, Juliandra?”
She looked at him, shocked and hurt by his tone. “What do you mean?”
He pointed to the body on the floor. “Have you been deceiving me the entire time?” he said. “Did you run off into Aeron’s waiting arms even as you told me that you wanted nothing to do with him? Why is he here?”
Juliandra put her hand over her mouth when she realized what he was accusing her of. There seemed to be accusations and mistrust flying around, infecting them both.
The tears began to come.
“He was here when I arrived,” she said hoarsely. “Of course I did not run off into his waiting arms. Yours are the only arms that have ever held me and the only arms that ever will. I told you that I hated Aeron and I meant every word of it. Never at any time did I lie to you about it.”
“It’s true!” Megsy said, still weeping at the turmoil that had consumed The Neath. “He came here yesterday and pushed his way inside. He smashed things and told us that this was now his home because m’lady was living with the Saesneg, but when m’lady returned, he attacked her!”
Kevin’s gaze lingered on the crippled maid before returning his focus to Juliandra. Realizing that there had been no deception, at least not on Juliandra’s part, he simply shook his head.
“I came here to tell you once again how sorry I am and to bring your father home,” he said, his voice faint and raspy.
“I came to tell you how sorry I am that a decision I made cost me everything – your trust, my happiness. It was never my intention to hurt you, Juliandra, but our association started off on a lie, a decision I made for what I thought was the greater good. Never did I imagine that our lives would somehow be intertwined to the point where I was terrified to tell you the truth. I did not want anything to touch our happiness, but my bad decision has cost me. I came here to beg your forgiveness and for no other reason except to tell you… tell you that I love you. That does not come from a man of desperation. That comes from a man in love.”
Juliandra still had her hand over her mouth, tears coursing down her face at his words. She was calmer now that she had been when she’d first discovered his deception, but not by much. There was still a great deal of hurt and anger there.
“Oh… Kevin,” she whispered. “I love you, too. But what we have… it was all built on a lie.”
He nodded, weary and in pain. “I know,” he said.
“I do not know if you can find it in your heart to give me an opportunity to rebuild it, but I hope that, someday, you will give me that chance. I am not asking you to forgive me today, tomorrow, or even next week, but mayhap a day will come when such a thing seems reasonable. When that time comes, if it comes, I will be waiting.”
With that, he stepped aside as his brother and Alexander lifted Aeron’s body and hauled it out of the chamber.
Megsy ran after them, giving Kevin a wide berth as she ran around him, telling Sean and Alexander where they could put the body.
That left Kevin and Juliandra alone in the hall, a smashed room and a bloodied floor between them.
Juliandra simply stood there, looking at him as the silent tears ran. Kevin was so weak and weary that he could barely stand, but he faced her as proudly as he could. He drank in her vision, wondering if it was going to be the last time he ever did.
“It has been a day of great upheaval,” Juliandra finally whispered, wiping at her face. “I know you are in pain, Kevin. I am in pain, too. I have lost my father and my husband on the same day.”
He was struggling not to weep at her words.
“You have not lost me,” he muttered. “You will never lose me. Even if you cannot forgive me, I am still your husband and I shall always be here if you need me. All you need do is call and I shall come. I shall defend you and protect you until the day you die, no matter what. But know this… whatever you decide, I will never love another. I have given my heart to you. It is not mine to ever give again.”
Juliandra’s face crumpled and she nodded, indicating that she understood, as she struggled not to openly sob. Kevin watched her weep, wishing with all his heart that he could take her in his arms and comfort her.
To see her like that was tearing him apart.
“I never meant to cause you pain,” he said. “Please believe me, Juliandra. I never set forth to deliberately hurt you.”
She nodded. “I know.”
He sighed heavily. “What do you want me to do with your father?” he asked. “Given that he hates the church, I did not want to take him to the local parish, so I brought him home.”
Juliandra wiped at her eyes. “There is a cellar near the kitchen,” she whispered tightly. “I can have the servants take him there.”
“That is not necessary,” Kevin said. “I will carry him.”
“But you… you are injured.”
He smiled, but it was without humor. “It does not matter,” he said. “As your husband, it is my duty to tend to your father. Where is the kitchen?”
Juliandra pointed to the doorway behind her. “On the north side,” she said. “Are… are you sure that you do not need any help?”
Kevin shook his head as he turned for the door.
“Nay,” he said. Then, he paused to look at her.
“In the days and weeks and years to come, I pray you do not think too unkindly of a man who found more happiness with you in two days than most men find in a lifetime. If our lives do not join again, then know that I wish you the utmost health and happiness, Juliandra ferch Gethin de Lara. Even if we are not together, you will always be my entire world.”
With that, he headed out, limping and bleeding, leaving Juliandra standing in her destroyed hall. Making her way to the only chair in the room that wasn’t damaged, she collapsed on it and wept.