Epilogue #3
“I’m glad,” Creston said sincerely. “I truly am. You cannot know how I have worried about you, hoping your mother married a man who would accept you. She was in such a difficult position. I prayed that her husband was good to her.”
“He was,” Theo assured him. “He was good to us both. He was an older man, with daughters, and when I was born, he was overjoyed—and I do mean overjoyed. They never had any more children, so when my father died years ago, I inherited everything. I was his heir, his son, and he was very proud of that.”
It did Creston’s heart good to hear that news, more than he thought it would. A man in need of a son had found a boy in need of a father. Tears stung his eyes as he smiled at the young knight.
“Thank God,” he said hoarsely. “I am so glad to hear that. You cannot know how that eases my heart.”
Theo nodded faintly, still studying Creston’s face as if he’d never seen another face in his entire life. His curiosity, his scrutiny, was overwhelming.
“I have had a good life,” he said. “I just wanted you to know. And… well, I suppose I just wanted to meet you. Now I see where I get my handsome looks.”
Creston burst into soft laughter, though there were still tears in his eyes. “I was thinking how much you look like my father,” he said. “The resemblance is uncanny.”
“And you have other children now? Other sons?”
Creston nodded. “I married my wife about ten years after the debacle with your mother,” he said. “We have six young children, though one of them, the eldest, was stillborn. I still include him when I speak of my children because he existed. He is important to us, still.”
Theo’s eyes glimmered with some warmth. “That is generous,” he said. “You are compassionate.”
“I love my family.”
Theo’s smile grew. “You are happy?”
“Never happier,” he said. “And you?”
Theo nodded. “Verily,” he said. “In fact, there is a young lady I am fond of. I am hoping for a betrothal, though negotiations have been difficult. I have no parents any longer, so it is just me, and I believe her father thinks I am too young.”
Creston grinned. “You are not too young,” he said. “Besides, you have de Royans blood. That means you were a man when you were born. If it would help, I will write to this man and tell him so.”
Theo chuckled. “Hopefully, that will not be necessary,” he said. “I hope to convince him on my own.”
Creston didn’t want to overstep his bounds, but it seemed to him that Theo might be lonely, given both his parents were gone.
If he were an only child, other than older sisters, it might be a difficult time for him.
It might be why he’d come to England, seeking his biological father.
Truthfully, Creston couldn’t get a good feel off the knight as to why he’d actually come.
Perhaps it was nothing more than curiosity.
He wanted to know.
“May I ask you a question, Theo?”
“Please.”
“Why did you come to see me? Is it more than simply meeting me?”
Theo didn’t seem to have a quick answer for that. He shook his head and shrugged, looking at his feet as he tried to come up with an answer.
“I am not sure,” he said. “As I said, I did want to meet you, but I loved my parents. They were good to me, so I am not looking for another father or mother, but I suppose every man has a right to know where he came from. Who he came from. I wanted to see for myself.”
“Are you satisfied, then?”
Theo nodded. “I think so,” he said. “But now that I am here… would it be too much if I wanted to come to know you a little better? If you do not want me to, I completely understand.”
“I would be honored.”
That seemed to ease Theo’s mind a little. “And your children… I only have older sisters who are long since gone. I’ve never had any other siblings.”
“How would you like me to introduce you to them?”
“What do you mean?”
“What should I call you when I introduce you?” Creston asked. “Brother Theo? Cousin Theo? Theo from France who has randomly come to visit?”
There was a smile on Theo’s lips as he considered the questions. “You would let me meet your children?”
“Is there a reason I should not?”
Theo shook his head. Then he sighed and stood up. He took a few steps, pacing away from Creston, considering his question. In the end, he snorted with soft irony.
“I always thought my father was a warlord from France,” he said.
“Raul has a lineage that goes back centuries. I was proud of that. But when he was gone, my mother told me that Raul was not my father by blood, that my real father is a knight from England named Creston de Royans. I never intended to seek you out until I met a knight at court who had trained at the Blackchurch Guild and one of his trainers was a knight named Creston de Royans. That is how I found out that you were a Blackchurch trainer. Surely there could not be two Creston de Royans in this world. So I came.”
“And here you are,” Creston said. “What is it you wish to know? That I am the Earl of Sidbury? That makes you the son of an earl. And our family? Descended from the Northmen who plundered the area of Roian, France, many centuries ago. Family legend says that we are descended from the leader of that raid, a man named Golden Helgarth. He married a local woman and had twenty children, or so the tale goes. You have a very proud lineage, Theo. It is your blood and you are entitled to know your history.”
Theo pondered the information, hearing about his true lineage for the first time. “All the way here, I was wondering if I was somehow betraying Raul by coming to meet you,” he said. “My father was a generous man. I do not think he would condemn me for it. I hope not.”
Creston stood up, facing the young man who seemed perhaps a bit overwhelmed by the conversation. He thought of what to say to him, hoping it would be of some comfort.
“When I married my wife, she was pregnant with another man’s child,” he said.
“It is no secret, so I am not divulging unknown information. When she told me about the child, I immediately thought of Mary, carrying my child, and I prayed she had married someone who would treat my child well. It seemed that I was in a similar situation, preparing to raise the child of another man, and I had nothing but love and acceptance for the child because that is what I wanted for you—love and acceptance.”
Theo was listening closely. “Was he the stillborn you mentioned?”
Creston nodded. “He was,” he said. “But the point is this—had Quinton grown to manhood and wanted to seek his father by blood, I would have encouraged him to do so. There is a natural desire for a man to know his lineage, and I understand that. I hope his father would have accepted him, and, to be honest, I would not have been threatened by their relationship purely because I am secure in my love for my son. A man can have two fathers and, I believe, he can be richer for it. I would hope that Raul de Betheny would believe the same thing.”
Theo thought on that a moment before smiling timidly.
“You are very wise,” he said. “I miss that about Raul. You remind me of him a little. Truthfully, given that you are a Blackchurch trainer, I rather imagined you to be a barbarian. Christ, was that an insult? I did not mean it the way it sounded.”
Creston started laughing. “You were right,” he said. “What we teach can sometimes be barbaric. But we are a collection of the most civilized, educated, and experienced men in the world. I hope it does not shame you that I serve here.”
Theo shook his head quickly. “Never,” he said.
“In fact… part of the reason I am here is because I was hoping to explore the possibility of training here. Everyone knows that Blackchurch knights are the most elite warriors in the world. Imagine what I could take back to Charles’ court were I to be Blackchurch trained. ”
Creston shrugged. “If that is something you would like to discuss, I am happy to do so.”
“Would you be training me?”
“There are several different trainers and each one teaches certain skills, but to answer your question, I would teach you a certain segment.”
“What segment is that?”
“Are you sure you want to know?”
Theo grinned in a gesture that looked very much like his father. “Why?” he said. “Is it terrifying?”
“It can be.”
“Then I am looking forward to it.”
Creston could only chuckle at an eager young knight with his entire life ahead of him and with the ignorance of saying he was looking forward to Blackchurch training.
That told him that Theo probably didn’t know much about Blackchurch other than what he’d heard.
That being the case, he was in for an eye-opening experience.
“Would you like to discuss it privately?” Creston finally said. “Or would it be too much if you were to come and share supper with my wife and me?”
Theo’s smile faded. “Would it be too much of an imposition?”
Creston shook his head. “We’ll take it slowly,” he said. “Slowly for us all because, for certain, these are unfamiliar waters for us both. But I do not think one supper would be too much. Do you?”
“Nay, my lord.”
“Good,” Creston said. “Come with me, then. I want you to meet my wife.”
“I would be honored, my lord.”
He was a polite, mannerly young man. Creston had only known him all of ten minutes, but already, he was proud of him.
That pride only grew in the days and months to come.
Theo de Betheny did, indeed, endure Blackchurch training.
For five years, he was at the top of his class, from Tay’s brutal introductory course all the way through Ming Tang’s final instruction on the power of the mind in battle.
All of the Blackchurch trainers knew that he was Creston’s bastard son, but no one treated him any differently.
He had de Royans blood and, therefore, was family.
He also had the natural ability to excel.
Once he graduated, they were all sorry to see him go.
Until St. Sebastian offered him a position as an assistant trainer.
And with that, Theo de Betheny became part of Blackchurch just as his father was, and in the years to come, when the core trainers retired one by one, Theo was there to take over Creston’s class for good while Creston retreated to Axen Castle, living his best life alongside his wife as the Earl and Countess of Sidbury.
Life, for them, went on.
Creston never did speak with his brother again, knowing he’d been in on the plot to destroy Blackchurch, but the silence between brothers never bothered him because he had his own family, a big family, that would never betray him.
It was all he ever needed. In the end, Creston and Ophelia had nine children, all of them accomplished men and women, all of them educated and happy.
All of them married and had their own children, and when Creston lay old and gray in his bed, he had fifty-four grandchildren to carry on the de Royans name.
Counting Theo and the young lady from France that he eventually married, the grand total was sixty.
And this was for a man who had been forced into an unwanted marriage.
Not strangely, he wasn’t sorry about it.
Once, Creston had told his brother that Blackchurch had been his salvation, but he realized as the years went on that he hadn’t known the meaning of that word at the time.
True salvation came when he married Ophelia, the most remarkable woman he’d ever known, and in the years following their marriage, he’d discovered true deliverance.
Deliverance into a life, and love, that grew into legend.
That’s what it was all about.
If I cannot be close to her, then I will settle for the ghost of her.
That was what he’d told Cruz, once. Luckily for Creston, he’d settled for all that and more.
And so had Ophelia.
Their love, and legend, lived on.
* THE END *