Chapter Ten #2
“Let the men have their time together,” Athdara said, smiling at the women around the table. “They are closer than brothers, so this moment is special to them.”
Ophelia looked over her shoulder to where Creston was grinning as his friends congratulated him. “They seem to have a bond, that is true,” she said. Then she looked at the women around her. “Truthfully, I’d never even heard of Blackchurch until the betrothal. I do not know much about it.”
“You will learn quickly,” Gisele said in a soft, sweet voice. “The Blackchurch Guild is the most prestigious training ground for warriors in the world, and those men you see, your husband included, are the master knights who train the best of the best. They are legend.”
The serving woman brought them five cups and put a pitcher of wine on the table in front of them. Ophelia felt the woman touch her on the shoulder and looked up to see Greenie.
“I’ve brought the best for ye, my lady,” she said, giving her a wink. “Ye are a beautiful bride.”
Ophelia smiled brightly at the sight of the helpful servant. “My thanks, Greenie,” she said. “You’ve been so kind.”
Greenie winked at her and headed off. As Ophelia turned to the table, she could see curious expressions and hastened to explain.
“When I first arrived, she helped me,” she said. “She was the one who told me about Sir Creston. I knew nothing about him until she spoke well of him.”
Athdara chuckled. “You need not call your own husband Sir Creston,” she said. “But it is difficult, I know. These men demand respect simply from their accomplishments and their manner. It was doubly difficult for me to transition from formality to informality with Tay.”
Ophelia looked at the woman. “Why is that?”
“Because she was one of his recruits,” Gisele said, her dark eyes twinkling at Athdara. “Blackchurch accepts both male and female recruits. As long as they pass the entry tests, they are permitted to train, and Tay was her first trainer. I heard they nearly killed one another at first.”
Athdara laughed softly. “He was my first trainer and it was his duty to try to cause me to fail,” she said. “I clubbed him right between the legs and that nearly ended everything. Fortunately, he was forgiving.”
Ophelia was listening with interest. “He must have been if he married you,” she said, smiling. Then she looked around the table again. “Do you all have such exciting stories of introduction to your husbands?”
The women began laughing. “Not all,” Astria said. “In my case, I was a spoil of war. My husband and I were pushed together by circumstance. Fortunately, we liked one another.”
“And Fox and I have known one another since we were very young,” Gisele said. “I’ve never loved anyone but him, but I suppose that is rare. Where do you hail from, Lady de Royans?”
“Please, call me Ophelia. I will also answer to Lia. If we are to be friends, we must feel like friends, don’t you think?” As the heads around her bobbed, Ophelia continued. “I am from Dorset. I fostered at Okehampton Castle, but I was born in Symondsbury.”
“Where is that?” Astria asked.
“South,” Ophelia said. “Toward Sidmouth on the south side of England. My grandfather is the Earl of Sidbury and I spent a good deal of time at his home of Axen Castle when I was young. It is by the sea, and I do love the sea.”
“Good lass,” Astria said, her eyes lighting up. “I love the sea, also.”
The other wives glanced at one another, smirking, until Athdara spoke up. “You should know that Lady Matheson likes to sail upon the ocean,” she said. “Truthfully, that is putting it mildly. Astria, tell Lady Royans what it is you have done in the past.”
Astria cocked an eyebrow because she didn’t exactly want to confess to a woman she’d only just met that she was, in fact, a lady pirate by trade, and a ruthless one at that.
“Must we make all confessions now?” she said.
“Lady de Royans will run screaming if we tell her everything. Better to let her come to know us first before we tell her of our tumultuous pasts.”
There were giggles around the table because the truth was that not one of them had had a smooth, uneventful past. Ophelia looked around and figured she had nothing to lose by telling them what she’d recently experienced.
She was fairly certain Creston would tell their husbands at some point, and they would tell their wives.
Better it come from the horse’s mouth.
“If you wish to talk past experiences, I’ve got one that might be considered scandalous,” she said, watching all eyes turn to her.
“When I was at Okehampton, I met a knight whom I fell in love with. I was certain we were going to spend our lives together. Our wedding was to be two months ago, when he left me standing in the church as he surrendered himself to an abbey to become a priest. He decided that becoming God’s servant was a better use of his life than becoming my husband. ”
The humor that had so recently been around the table fled and the women appeared properly horrified.
“I am so sorry, my lady,” Athdara said with sincerity. “He simply… left?”
Ophelia nodded. “He did,” she said. “As I waited for him at the church, his father came to tell me that he would not be marrying me. But the truth is that he was a very pious man. I’d known him a long time and he’d spoken of the priesthood before, but I thought a life with me was more attractive.
I was wrong. How can I compete with God? ”
There was a good deal of unhappy judgment toward Cecil around that table. “Then he did not deserve you,” Gisele said. “Let God have a man who would be so cruel toward a woman. He has much penitence to do for shaming you so.”
Ophelia shrugged. “There is a part of me that blames myself,” she said. “He spoke of serving God and I knew he had wanted to be a priest before he met me. But I thought I could change him.”
Gisele shook her head. “Men like that are weak,” she said. “If he truly wished to serve God, he would have made that decision from the beginning and not given you false hope. You are not to blame.”
“I am assuming Creston knows?” Astria said. “If he does not, he will not hear it from us.”
Ophelia thought that was a honorable declaration coming from women she did not even know. She wasn’t exactly sure if she believed it, but she didn’t say so. Information like that was fodder for gossip. But she took Astria at her word.
For now.
“He knows,” she said. “I told him. I could not go into this marriage withholding a truth like that.”
“That was brave,” Athdara said. Then she eyed the other women at the table before continuing.
“Speaking of brave, mayhap you would like to hear from the rest of us about our stories before marrying our husbands. I think you’ll find you’re in good company with adversity and difficult situations.
I do not think there is one married Blackchurch trainer that has had an easy path to marriage. ”
Ophelia nodded eagerly. “If you are willing to speak of it, I would like to hear.”
One by one, the women told her.
*
“Good,” St. Denis muttered to his son. “The wives have taken her under their wing. That will make this easier all the way around.”
St. Sebastian de Bottreaux was sitting next to his father, watching the women at the other end of the chamber.
A tall and sinewy man, he was the manager of Blackchurch these days, as his father had retired to teach the many children of the trainers, something he loved doing.
Sometimes it was more difficult than managing Blackchurch, as he’d told his son, but he preferred it.
He was old and St. Sebastian was young, and keeping Blackchurch strong was a young man’s game.
St. Sebastian had run Blackchurch for the last several years, brilliantly.
“Y-you thought otherwise?” he said to his father, his slight stammer evident. “It is a decent group of women.”
“I know,” St. Denis said. “I did not mean it the way it sounded. It is simply that one never knows how a situation like this will go, adding a new person into our group. We have such a tight-knit family that one disruptive personality can cause… problems.”
St. Sebastian, or Sebo as he was sometimes called, found his gaze lingering on the women on the other side of the common room.
“It’s ironic,” he muttered.
St. Denis looked at him. “What is?”
St. Sebastian gestured toward the women. “I-I can remember in years past that whenever a trainer married, he surrendered his post,” he said. “I remember Grandfather forcing them to choose between marriage and life as a Blackchurch trainer. But you never did. Why not?”
St. Denis shrugged. “Because it did not seem right to do so,” he said.
“My father had his reasons, and his father before him, but I would rather keep a seasoned, proven trainer than dismiss him simply because he married. Then I have to find a new trainer and start all over again. There is no logic in that.”
St. Sebastian agreed with him. “This is the fifth trainer that has married,” he said. “C-can you imagine losing Tay? Fox? Sin? And now Creston?”
“You left out Payne.”
“That is because he is a thorn in my side.”
St. Denis chuckled, knowing very well that his son and Payne were very good friends.
“And mine,” he said. “But there is no one better at what he does. And no one better than Creston at what he does, so I am glad to see the women getting on. That means Creston will not want to leave because his wife is happy here.”
“He will not stay forever.”
The statement came from the man next to St. Denis, who happened to be Oscar.
He’d been sitting silently since they’d entered the tavern, almost invisible to what was going on around them.
When St. Denis and St. Sebastian turned to the man, he seemed to have an expression of distinct displeasure on his face.
He would be invisible no longer.