Chapter Sixteen #2
Stephen was staring at him fairly lucidly. “Kynan, I do not mean to be abrupt, but Joselyn has told me all of this and I do not want to hear it again. It feeds my anger like nothing else and makes me want to kill her father.”
Kynan’s expression was dark as he regarded the fallen knight. “What did she tell ye about the child?”
“That he was the result of a rape by an English soldier in repayment for a gambling debt.”
Kynan stared at him, finally shaking his head and looking away. There was anguish in his features. “Still she protects him.”
Stephen found himself forgetting all about his agony and injuries as he listened to Kynan’s hissed words.
He shifted his big body, ignoring the screaming pain as he struggled to sit up.
Kynan saw what he was doing and grabbed hold to assist. But Stephen was so heavy that it was like trying to prop up a horse.
“Protects who?” Stephen demanded. “Who is she protecting?”
Kynan was inches from the man’s face. In that instance, he could see that everything he had told him was true.
He did love Joselyn with a deep and agonizing vengeance.
Stephen was nearly beaten to death, but still, his only concern was for his wife.
Kynan spilled the truth without regard to whether or not he should.
He had a point to make and he would make it.
“Her father,” he whispered.
Stephen just stared at him, the agony in the blue eyes unfathomable. “She told me that the soldier raped her and fathered the child.”
Kynan had a good grip on him. “He did rape her,” he murmured. “But she was already pregnant from her father.”
Stephen suddenly couldn’t breathe. He stared at Kynan, his words rolling over and over in his mind, struggling not to go mad at the mere suggestion. It was fantastic, horrific and sickening all rolled in to one.
“Who told you this?” he finally hissed.
Kynan was trying to be kind, he truly was. He could feel the man’s pain radiating from his very pores, reaching out to infiltrate him and make him hurt, too. But Kynan’s hurt on the subject had dulled a long time ago. What remained was disgust and sorrow.
“Julia,” he muttered. “Alexander had confessed that he had taken his daughter’s innocence in a drunken rage. He allowed the soldier tae rape Jo-Jo to cover up the resulting pregnancy.”
“Then it was not in repayment for the gambling debt?”
“It was. But it was a sickenin’ coincidence.”
Stephen seemed frozen, unable to respond.
The revelations were too overwhelming and he was struggling like a drowning man to keep his head above water, his mind sane in the face of madness.
“She told me that she had her innocence taken when she was nine years old,” he whispered in a strangled tone.
“She said she had been used by her father twice before the soldier raped her and… oh, my dear God… she said her father used her twice. It never occurred to me that she meant literally.”
“She did,” Kynan replied. “Did ye not understand that?”
Stephen couldn’t even think straight. He was filled with such anguish that it was spilling everywhere. “So Cade is her father’s child?”
“Julia thought so, but I suppose we’ll never know for sure.”
Stephen closed his eyes and collapsed back onto the floor. He was such a big man that Kynan couldn’t support his dead weight. But he leaned over Stephen as the man lay on the floor, half-conscious and reeling.
“Listen tae me, Sassenach,” he lowered his voice, speaking urgently.
“I dunna tell ye the ugly family secrets tae drive wedges between ye and Jo-Jo. I tell ye because the child has known no happiness in her life and if ye truly love one another as ye say ye do, then I canna be the cause of more pain tae her. Alexander Seton is a wicked devil who hurt a young girl and gave no thought tae what he did. I watched it. From the time I was a young lad, I watched it happen and could do nothing tae stop it.”
It was a passionate speech, enough for Stephen to open his eyes and look at him.
The blue eyes were dazed, but fire still burned within.
Nothing Kynan could say would destroy the love he had for Joselyn.
If anything, it made him more in love with her, fiercely protective over this woman who had known such shame.
He blamed himself for not completely understanding what she had told him.
He should have been more intuitive, asking more questions to make it easier for her to tell him everything.
She had tried. He knew that. But he hadn’t understood clearly.
His heart ached so badly for her that he could feel the physical impact deep in his chest.
“Nothing you have said changes how I feel about her,” he muttered. “I love her more than I ever did. The child she carries is the result of a deep and abiding love that will never die.”
Now it was Kynan’s turn to look shocked. “Jo-Jo is pregnant?”
Stephen nodded weakly. “All the more reason to send her from Berwick. I want my wife and child safe.”
Kynan puffed out his cheeks, digesting the news and realizing he was thrilled with it. Stephen watched him with half-lidded eyes, seeing a flicker of a smile cross the man’s lips. That was the moment he began to think that he might have an ally in Kynan Lott MacKenzie.
“You told me once that I was not for the likes of Joselyn,” he muttered. “What made you change your mind?”
Kynan sat back slightly, regarding the big English knight. After a moment’s reflection on that conversation long ago, he lifted his shoulders and averted his gaze.
“The best thing that coulda happened tae her was marrying ye,” he said. “She came tae me before Berwick was retaken, beggin’ fer me help. She wanted me tae tell her what I knew and I wouldna do it. She told me that if anything happened tae ye that she would hate me forever.”
Stephen watched the man’s profile. “And this bothers you.”
He shrugged again. “Jo-Jo is like me little sister and I canna stomach her hate.” He finally looked to Stephen. “Ye offer her yer protection and love. I could see it in her face when she told me of her feelings fer ye. English or no, ye’ll always have my respect fer making the lass happy.”
“Your family means that much to you?”
“Doesna it mean that much tae ye, too?”
He had a point. “So what are you going to do?” Stephen wanted to know.
Kynan looked over at the tray of food on the table. He reached for it, setting it down on the floor next to them. Then he took the pitcher.
“I’m gonna try and lift ye up tae drink this,” he indicated the pitcher. “After that, we’ll discuss yer future.”
*
Tate knew that Kenneth was furious with him.
Although Kenneth was, more than any other man alive, able to control his emotions in any given situation, Tate knew simply by the look in Kenneth’s eye that he was beyond furious.
He was livid. He further knew this because Kenneth stuck to Joselyn as closely as a mother hen, making sure she was comfortable, fed, not too hot or cold, and generally well taken care of.
It got to the point where Joselyn actually had to chase him off. The man was as clingy as a shadow.
Tate knew that Kenneth was reluctant to use Joselyn as an envoy to gaining Stephen’s release.
But both men knew she was Stephen’s only chance, even if Kenneth was not ready to openly admit it.
He was more concerned with protecting her for Stephen’s sake, while Tate, although protective, was willing to let her take the risk in order to save her husband.
Both men were greatly torn. The closer they drew to the outskirts of Berwick, the more Kenneth’s fury turned to resignation.
He was coming to accept the fact that Joselyn was, indeed, Stephen’s only hope.
The party to Berwick consisted of Tate, Kenneth, Joselyn and about fifty men-at-arms. As they drew to within a mile of the city, Tate cut to the northwest and made his way to the River Tweed about a mile to the west of the castle.
Whiteadder Bridge lay before them, an expanse of wood across the gently flowing river.
They could see the castle from where they stood, a massive bastion poised at river’s edge.
Joselyn in particular gazed longingly at the castle, a place where she had known some of her worst and best memories.
She must have stood there for quite some time because it took her a moment to realize that Tate was trying to get her attention.