Chapter Sixteen
Axen Castle
Sidmouth
Devon
“You did what?”
The question came from Randa as she sat in her father’s solar, one that smelled of dogs because the man kept many.
At least twelve in the solar alone and an ever-changing number in the hall because litters of puppies were born constantly.
He never did anything about the dogs and simply let them have the run of the place.
Randa had hated living here.
“Father, tell me again,” she said when Oscar didn’t answer quickly enough. “What did you do?”
Oscar didn’t like being questioned and he certainly didn’t like Randa’s tone. He had a cup of wine in his hand and found himself staring at the dregs on the bottom of the cup through the ruby-red liquid.
“You are here by my good graces,” he said. “I would not speak so harshly if I were you.”
Randa eyed her father, knowing that he wasn’t beyond lashing out at her, but also knowing that he’d destroyed her relationship with her daughter.
It was difficult for her to acknowledge she’d had a role in it also, because as far as Randa was concerned, it was all her father’s fault.
He demanded, she succumbed, and Ophelia had suffered the consequences.
But what he’d just told her made her blood run cold.
“You just told me that you had a missive forged,” she said, trying to keep her voice down. “You said it would destroy Blackchurch. Considering that is where my daughter lives, I am naturally concerned.”
Oscar looked at her then. “You should not be,” he said. “In the end, everything will work out in my favor. Lia and her husband will come to live here, at Axen, and I will be able to teach him how to continue my legacy as the next Earl of Sidbury. It’s really very simple.”
Maybe it was, but Randa still wasn’t clear. She’d always known her father to be manipulative, and demanding, but what she’d seen from him since Ophelia’s marriage at Blackchurch was different.
Darker.
Something was stirring in Oscar that she was afraid of.
“Will you please tell me what you have done that will achieve this?” she asked.
Oscar drained the cup down to the dregs.
They were in his small solar in the entry of Axen Castle’s keep, the hereditary home of the Earls of Sidbury for over one hundred years.
It was a castle built from pale stone that sat atop a rise with the sea to the south and rolling hills to the north.
The elevation of the windows in this chamber afforded a brilliant view of the sea, and after pouring himself more wine, he gazed out this window, feeling the salty breeze on his face and watching the gulls ride the drafts overhead.
“Does it really matter?” he said. “All that matters is that, in the end, the situation is as I wish it to be. Nothing less.”
“But you sent a missive to the king?” Randa pressed. “What about? How will this end Blackchurch?”
Oscar thought on that question. “Sometimes, we must do things in life that are not entirely truthful in order to establish the greater good,” he said. “Do you remember when the pirates came and burned half of the town?”
“Of course I do.”
“And you remember the people that died because of it? My people?”
“I remember.”
“Then you know that action cannot go unanswered.”
Randa wasn’t exactly sharp. She was having a difficult time trying to figure out what her father meant. “And you had a missive forged to the king?” she said. “What did it say?”
Oscar turned away from the window and poured himself more wine.
“It is a dispatch from the French king thanking Blackchurch for supplying him with men and coin in his attempt to regain Gascony,” he said.
“Henry will read the missive, believe Blackchurch has betrayed him, and sweep in like the hand of God and destroy that place.”
Now it was becoming clear, and Randa was increasingly horrified. “But… but those at Blackchurch have done you no harm,” she said. “It was the pirates who—”
“Pirates who are kin to Lord Exmoor,” he said, interrupting her.
“Do you not understand me? I will seek revenge for Triton’s Hellions and the damage they caused me by exacting it from St. Abelard de Bottreaux’s cousin.
Blackchurch is proud of their alliance with pirates?
Then let them suffer the punishment. Let that punishment create guilt and hardship for Triton’s Hellions to see Blackchurch destroyed. ”
Randa was at a loss. She’d seen her father rage throughout the years, but not like this. Never like this.
“And you believe Lia will want to return home after what you’ve done?” she said, finding her voice and her courage. “You have already caused a rift between my daughter and me with your cruelty, but now you intend to destroy her husband’s livelihood?”
“He is to be the next Earl of Sidbury. He does not need a livelihood.”
“Then you will keep your vengeance secret?”
Oscar shook his head. “Of course not,” he said. “Those pirates will know who destroyed Blackchurch and why.”
“If the pirates know, then won’t the king suspect he has been tricked?” Randa pointed out. “That you lied to him so that he would bring his army to Blackchurch? How do you think King Henry is going to view Sidbury after that? You will not be in the monarch’s favor.”
Truthfully, that hadn’t occurred to Oscar.
He was so focused on destroying Blackchurch that he never gave thought to the fact that if he confessed he was behind their destruction simply to punish Triton’s Hellions, then surely that would get back to the king.
Henry would, mayhap, not be so pleased about being used by an earl to exact revenge.
Nay, he’d not thought that through completely.
But he was now.
Unable to admit the flaw in his plan—that his daughter had pointed out, no less—he downed the wine in his cup and poured himself more, his movements angry and jerky.
“You will not speak of this, Randa,” he said, taking a deep breath to calm his rage.
“I told you so that you could prepare to welcome your daughter and her husband home. Mayhap prepare a place for them to live, rooms they may settle into. But if I find you’ve told anyone why they are coming, you’ll not like my reaction. Do you understand?”
Randa knew he was threatening her. He’d done something quite serious and then foolishly confessed it to her.
She was sure he’d done it to gloat, but when she’d pointed out the error in his scheme, that darkness she’d sensed before seemed to overwhelm him.
Oscar wasn’t a man who took defeat lightly, which was why he’d taken over finding a husband for Ophelia when Cecil had run off to the abbey.
Randa originally thought it was because he believed he could find his granddaughter a much better husband than the potential one who had left her at the altar, but as she thought on that, something else occurred to her.
There had been a plan behind Oscar’s intentions all along.
“You planned this, didn’t you?” she said as realization dawned.
“When Cecil ran out on Ophelia and you demanded to be the one to select her betrothed, you were already thinking about revenge against those pirates. It was only by chance that Cousin Royston’s brother worked for Blackchurch and was not married.
You were already planning for this even then. ”
Oscar looked at her. “You are smarter than you look,” he said.
“Your husband understood the necessity of strategic marriage even if you do not. Of course, I was planning this, even back then. Marrying Lia to de Royans was not only a stroke of luck, but a stroke of genius. Since she married at Blackchurch, and we were present for the wedding, I am in a perfect position to tell the king that not only did I intercept the dispatch from Louis, but when I was at Blackchurch, I saw evidence supporting the dispatch. As a lord loyal to the king, it was my duty to report it all.”
Randa was flabbergasted at his ruthlessness.
“The ease with which you lie,” she spat.
“I never knew that about you until now. And what about Lia in all of this? If her husband is implicated in the support of France, how is he to be the next Earl of Sidbury? If he is part of Blackchurch, Henry will see all of Blackchurch’s command staff executed! ”
Oscar set his wine cup down and went to her.
“You worry overly,” he said. “Her husband will be innocent. I will see to that. Or mayhap I will not and let him suffer the sword like the others. Then I’ll find yet another husband for Lia who will not be an arrogant Blackchurch whelp.
I’ll find a man compliant and dutiful and willing to marry a pregnant woman for the cost of an earldom.
Truly, Randa, do not worry. All will be well in the end. ”
He seemed convinced, but Randa wasn’t. All she could see was death and destruction, a horrific fate for them all. Oscar was engaging in a game he couldn’t possibly win, only he didn’t see it that way. He thought he had control of everything.
But he didn’t.
God help them all.