Chapter Thirteen
Creston was fairly drunk.
He didn’t mean to be, but he’d passed the last hour drinking with his friends, and before he realized it, he was tipsy.
Probably more than tipsy, but he was good at pretending he wasn’t.
Now every senior trainer at Blackchurch was walking him back to his cottage, and most of them, especially Payne, were singing bawdy tavern songs.
Loudly.
“There once was a lady fair,
With silver bells in her hair.
I knew her to have,
A luscious kiss… it drove me mad!
But she denied me… and I was so terribly sad.
Lily, my girl,
Your flower, I will unfurl
With my cock and a bit of good luck!
Your kiss divine,
I’ll make you mine,
And keep you abed for a fuck!”
There must have been five or six choruses of it, all the way up the road from The Black Cock and then once they entered the gatehouse.
They also sang a naughty song called “Tilly Nodden,” and another about a whore named Rose, but Lily seemed to be the preferred song.
Payne’s and Tay’s voices were reverberating off the walls and trees and anything else that provided a sound barrier.
They were having a grand time of it, finally quieting by the time they entered the trainers’ village because there were children around.
Their children.
It looked like any other village with a well in the town square.
One would expect to see villagers and merchants, but not here.
Everyone who lived in this village served a purpose at Blackchurch.
Long ago, it was a thriving village before the Lords of Exmoor claimed it and incorporated it into the Blackchurch world.
All of the trainers lived here and had their own cottages, and those who assisted the trainers lived here as well, but it was usually two or three assistants to a cottage in their case—assistant trainers and helpers who, at this moment, were out with the recruits and the dregs while the senior trainers celebrated a marriage.
Even if the trainers weren’t training today, a very rare thing indeed, instruction at Blackchurch still continued.
“Listen,” Payne said, holding on to Kristian as they stumbled up the road toward Creston’s cottage. “Do ye hear them?”
“I hear nothing,” Ming Tang said. He and Amir were the only ones who weren’t drunk, mostly due to their religious convictions. “Once we leave Creston with his new wife, we should find yours. Astria would not want you walking around in this condition.”
Payne looked at the man as if he’d been deeply insulted. “I’ll walk where I want,” he said hotly. “And I do hear the children. They’re playing up the hill, by the kitchens. Such a lovely sound.”
Ming Tang simply nodded his head in agreement, though he was fairly certain there were no sounds of children around.
They were more than likely with their nurse, sitting somewhere in the sun.
Perhaps they were inspecting the chickens, as they so often liked to do.
In any case, he couldn’t hear them, and a look at Amir told him that he couldn’t hear them either.
“Of course, Payne,” Amir said, coming over to walk next to a badly weaving Payne. “I hear them too.”
Payne slung a big arm around Amir’s shoulders. “Do ye?”
“I do.”
“Ha!” Payne guffawed. “Then ye have the hearing of a god, because I canna truly hear them. I just said that.”
Amir rolled his eyes as Payne laughed loudly at the man’s expense. By this time, they were nearly to Creston’s cottage and Creston came to a halt, turning to the men following him. He was in the grip of Cruz, who had his arm around Creston’s neck as Creston tried to remove it.
“This is where you stop,” he told everyone, unwinding Cruz’s arm from his head. “I will go in alone. I appreciate the escort, but no further assistance is necessary.”
“Lad,” Tay said seriously, “you have never been married before. I will give you some advice.”
Creston shook his head firmly, and that nearly toppled him. “I do not need advice,” he said. “I know what to do.”
“Do you?” Sinclair said, approaching him and trying to wrap him up in a bear hug. “Cres, stop moving. I must tell you something.”
Between pushing Cruz away and keeping clear of Sinclair’s flailing arms, Creston was starting to back away, trying to get free of his friends.
“Tell me later,” he told Sinclair. “I have a new wife waiting for me, and, no offense to any of you, I would rather spend the day with her. And the night. Anyone who bothers me before dawn tomorrow will feel my wrath. And I will not hold back.”
That had some of the men looking up at the sky. The sun was straight above, indicating noon, and Payne suddenly turned back the way they’d come.
“It’s the nooning hour, lads,” he said. “We have some drinking and eating tae do.”
“Where are you going?” Tay asked as Payne stumbled past him.
“Back tae The Black Cock!”
“But we just came from there.”
Payne pointed toward the village. “And we must go back,” he said. “St. Denis has given us one day away from our duties tae celebrate Creston’s marriage, and I dunna want tae waste it. Hurry, now. We mustn’t be late.”
They watched him go until Kristian shrugged his shoulders and began to follow.
Fox and Amir fell in behind them. Realizing everyone was heading back to The Black Cock, Sinclair blew exaggerated kisses at Creston and went after them, finally followed by Tay.
That left Cruz and Ming Tang standing with Creston.
“Well,” Ming Tang said, his eyes twinkling, “I have no advice to give when it comes to marriage and women except to say I wish you well. Truly, Creston. You deserve all of the happiness in the world, my friend.”
Creston smiled at the man. “I am grateful,” he said. “I know your religion doesn’t allow for marriage, but I also know you stopped following it rigidly years ago. Maybe we’ll be standing in a similar situation in the years to come and I’ll be able to give you some advice. I hope so.”
Ming Tang shrugged. “It is of no concern to me,” he said. “But I shall take my leave of you and return to The Black Cock to ensure our friends do not get into any trouble.”
Creston snorted, shaking his head at the drunk group of revelers, as Ming Tang began to walk quickly toward the group returning to the village. When he disappeared into the gatehouse, following the crowd, Creston turned to Cruz.
For a moment, the two friends simply looked at each other and smiled. This was an important moment for Creston, not lost on either of them. A change in a life that neither one of them had seen coming.
“Do you believe this?” Creston exclaimed softly. “That I actually have a wife now? I would have never imagined this, ever. I did not think I would ever marry, but here I am.”
“Here you are,” Cruz agreed, his dark eyes glittering with warmth.
“Like Ming Tang, I have no experience with marriage other than to say: be the man I know you are. Be kind, be considerate, but most of all, enjoy her. The other wives seem to like her, so I hope that is a good omen. I hope she is good for you.”
“So do I,” Creston admitted. Then he sighed faintly and put his hand on Cruz’s shoulder.
“You have been my very best friend for years. I’ve never had a friend like you, Cruz.
Not ever. I was always alone in everything I did, but with you…
I am never alone. I will never be alone.
Nor will you. Though I take a wife, it does not change the bond between us. I hope you know that.”
Cruz grinned. “I know,” he said. “You and I are strong.”
“We are.”
“Get inside, now. She’s waiting.”
Creston nodded. Then he hugged Cruz tightly, an embrace of great friendship, before releasing the man and heading to his front door.
His wife was waiting.
As he opened the door, he heard a lot of whispering and scuffling.
His cottage had a back door in the area where food was usually stored and prepared, and just as he stepped inside, that door slammed.
He could hear laughing as the women ran away.
He grinned, knowing it was the other trainer wives. But then he noticed his cottage.
It didn’t look like his cottage at all.
It looked cleaned and tended and cozy. The big common room didn’t look the way he’d left it.
There was a fire blazing in the hearth, a dozen tapers in iron candlesticks on the mantel, two chairs with cushions, and several hides all over the floor.
He took a few steps inside, looking around at the furniture, which included a small table, another chair, and a spinning wheel.
For privacy, someone had strung curtains over the front window overlooking the square beyond.
Stunned that his barren cottage now looked like a comfortable home, he ventured farther into the common room and was looking around when movement off to his left caught his attention. He looked up to see Ophelia standing between the kitchen room and the common room, smiling at him.
He smiled in return.
She was clad in a robe of silk brocade and rabbit fur, her lovely hair spilling down her back.
She came toward him, her face flushed from the heat of the room, or so he thought.
Perhaps it was simply because she was excited or embarrassed, or maybe even happy to see him.
All Creston could see was her lovely face, and he felt his heart do a strange little leap.
In fact, he put his hand to his chest because it startled him.
He hadn’t felt anything like that since he’d been embroiled in his romance with Mary.
But he felt it again with Ophelia.
Astonishing!
“Lady de Royans,” he greeted her softly. “You look beautiful.”
Her smile broadened. “Thank you.”
The sound of her voice made his heart leap again, and he reached out to take her hand, feeling that warm and soft appendage against his calloused skin. It felt wonderful.
“The cottage,” he said, lifting a hand to the walls around them. “Did you have time to do what you needed to do?”