Dark Destroyer (28 page)

The entire gatehouse erupted in laughter as Linley roared with disgust, now covered in piss. Stephan, shaking his head at the antics of his men, made sure to bellow at them to scold them for what they had done, but he was unfortunately grinning when he did it so his reprimand was not taken too seriously. After that, no one took Linley seriously, either.

As the soldiers of Hyssington went about their duties, Linley spent the rest of the morning bemoaning his daughter’s situation and demanding to see Gates. During the spring, summer, and fall months, Hyssington’s gates were open to those wishing to do business within her walls – smithies, hunters who had leather hides to sell, farmers with their produce, and even men who would sell peat for fires and dried grasses for the livestock. But in the winter, the gates remained closed for safety reasons, mostly because starving Welsh might take advantage of it. Therefore, Lord Linley was kept outside the gates, left to his drunken temper tantrums, as those inside the walls ignored him.

That included Stephan and Tobias, who went about their duties once they were certain Linley wasn’t going to cause trouble or do anything more foolish than he was already doing, like trying to climb the walls. They went about securing posts, dealing with problems among the men, repairing weaponry that needed refurbishment, and other duties that had been assigned to them. Stephan was in the armory, in fact, inspecting some of the weaponry they’d brought back with them from France when he heard a commotion around him. Since the armory was in the gatehouse, all he had to do was stick his head out of the door to see what was the fuss was about.

He saw it soon enough. At mid-afternoon during this sunny day amongst melting snow, Gates and Alexander were returning from Shrewsbury with Lady Kathalin and twenty men riding escort. And Lord Linley, who was closer to the incoming party than the sentries were, was running out to greet them.

Ordering the gates opened, Stephan ran after him but he wasn’t fast enough. He could hear Linley swearing at Gates already.

“You… you
bedswerver
!” Linley was screaming. “You devious bastard! You are the father of Helene’s child!
It is you
!”

After a very quiet ride from Shrewsbury, Gates hadn’t expected a confrontation at the gates of Hyssington. He had seen Linley running at him from a distance and, to be truthful, it wasn’t as if he didn’t have suspicions about the man’s intentions. In fact, he was quite certain what the man’s intentions were but there wasn’t much he could do about it.

Gates would have bet money that Helene had finally confessed to Linley who the father of her son was, perhaps in another attempt to coerce Gates into marriage. Whatever the case, Gates knew why the man was here, knowing that his indiscretions were about to be shouted for all to hear. For Kathalin to hear. He had warned her of moments to come like this, and here one was, unexpectedly, right on his doorstep.

He braced himself.

“Greetings, Lord Linley,” he said evenly. “What brings you to Hyssington?”

Linley had come to halt, as had the escort, but Linley had eyes only for Gates. “What do you have to say for yourself?” he demanded. “What do you have to say before I cut your belly open and laugh at your misery?”

Gates just looked at the man. He wasn’t about to admit to anything, or play any manner of game with Linley. He could be verbally brutal when he wanted to be, as Helene had discovered when she tried to force him into marriage. Now, Helene’s drunkard father was embarrassing him and that didn’t sit well. But before he verbally speared the man, he thought to give him the chance to quietly make his point. As he opened his mouth, Stephan suddenly came shooting through the gates, racing towards him.

“I am sorry, Gates,” Stephan said as he came up to them, putting himself between Gates and Linley. “He has been here all morning. I had hoped he would go away before you returned from Shrewsbury.”

Gates simply nodded. “It is no matter, Bear,” he said steadily, focusing on Linley. “The man obviously has something to say to me. Did you wish to speak with me about something, Lord Linley?”

Linley was trying to move away from Stephan so he could have a clear line of sight to Gates, but Stephan kept moving, kept putting himself in between them. Gates finally called him off and Linley shook a fist at Gates.

“You are the father of Helene’s son,” he said angrily. “She told me so!”

Gates remained quite calm. “My lord, I have no idea what your daughter told you,” he said. “I have been in France for nearly a year and a half, so clearly I have been out of the country for a very long time. That would make it rather impossible to do what your daughter has accused me of doing.”

“It happened before you left!”

Gates merely shrugged. “If that is what you believe, I would be more than happy to escort you into Hyssington where I may hear your grievance in private.”

Linley stomped his boot, which was foot covering in the purely academic sense of the word. It was really the remains of a shoe that had been wrapped, and rewrapped, over his foot. When he stomped it in the mud, half of the shoe started to come apart.

“You will hear them now, de Wolfe,” he said. “Just as everyone else will. They will know what kind of a man you really are!”

So much for remaining cool. “Oh?” he said, preparing his verbal attack. “And how would you know what kind of man I am? I see that no tankard of cheap ale has escaped you this day. I can smell you from here. Moreover, if you wish to speak on your daughter, then I am sure there are ten or twelve men here who would know more about her than I would. Are you sure this is something you wish to discuss for all to hear?”

The verbal arrows hit their mark and Linley’s anger took a dousing. He appeared astonished that Gates would say such a thing and his mouth, that great gaping thing that smelled of rot and ale, popped open.

“You
slander
her?” he hissed, incredulous.

Gates turned around, waving Alexander and Kathalin and the escort through. He even motioned to Stephan to leave them. Whatever was to be said was between him and Linley, and he was already greatly perturbed that the man was shouting accusations for all to hear. When Stephan, Alexander, and the soldiers began to move, Gates returned his focus to Linley.

“Listen to me and listen well,” his said, his tone no longer friendly. “Whatever your daughter has told you cannot be proven. She has already come to Hyssington, twice, to demanded money and I will tell you what I told her – I can produce a dozen men from this fortress that will gladly swear that they have had their way with your daughter and they will do it before the priest, so unless you want your daughter to be dragged down into the depths of rubbish that you are attempting to drag me into, I would suggest you look elsewhere for a husband for your daughter and for money to pay for your drunken habit. You are the sad remnants of a once-great house so if anyone is to be embarrassed by all of this, it should be you. Your need for drink above all else has driven your daughter to do some very desperate things for money.”

Linley was shocked to the bone, devastated and infuriated by Gates’ accusations. Not that some of them weren’t the truth, but no one around him had ever had the courage to say it to his face. With a roar of pure rage, he rushed Gates, who was still astride his big war horse. It was a very easy thing for Gates to lash out a booted foot and kick Linley squarely in the head with it. The man fell like a stone.

As Linley toppled over, Gates heard a gasp behind him. He turned, swiftly, to see Kathalin dismounting her palfrey and rushing to Linley’s side. Gates was off his horse in an instant, pulling her away.

“Nay,” he told her, his voice low and severe. “Leave him be. I told you to go into the castle with the others.”

Kathalin was looking at the man who was now sitting up, rubbing his forehead. “You did not tell me anything,” she said. “It was your men you ordered about. Who is this man, Gates? Is it true what he said about his daughter and you?”

Gates faltered. He didn’t want to lie to her, considering he had warned her of this exact situation, but he wasn’t about to admit fault in front of Linley. Taking her by the arm, he turned her towards the gatehouse. Stephan happened to turn around before entering the gates and Gates caught his attention, waving him back over to escort Kathalin.

“Go inside with Stephan,” he told her quietly. “I will not discuss this with you at this moment.”

Linley, still rubbing his head, looked up and saw Kathalin. He pointed at her. “You
dare
to bring another woman into Hyssington, de Wolfe?” he demanded. “My daughter is the only woman you should be thinking of!”

Gates was trying to push Kathalin in Stephan’s direction but she wouldn’t move. She was looking at Linley.

The truth was that Kathalin was genuinely curious about the situation. She had heard the man accuse Gates of fathering a child with his daughter; it had been difficult not to hear it. But as she listened, something occurred to her; this was the exact situation Gates had warned her about, the fears of his past humiliating her. But she didn’t feel humiliation in the least – in fact, she felt a good deal of protectiveness over Gates. Perhaps this was a chance for her to prove him wrong and to show him that his past, in all of its ignoble glory, truly didn’t matter to her.

The ride that morning from Shrewsbury had been filled with a terrible, tense silence between them. She had fallen asleep last night holding his hand and had awoken the same way, but very little had been spoken between them. It seemed as if there was nothing left to say, as if everything they could have said to each other had already been spoken. What was left was a heartbreaking and terrible stalemate. But now… a drunken man accusing Gates of fathering a child… perhaps she could, indeed, show Gates that his fears were unfounded.

Perhaps this was the opportunity she had hoped for.

She wanted to take it.

“Your daughter has a child, my lord?” she asked. “Am I to understand you believe it to be de Wolfe’s?”

Linley frowned, waving her off. “Speak not to me, harlot!”

Kathalin’s eyebrows lifted. “Harlot?” she repeated, but offended and amused by his accusation. “You have the gall to call me a harlot when it is your daughter who bore a child out of wedlock? I should say you have misdirected that accusation.”

Linley’s features tightened angrily. “Be gone!” he bellowed. “I will not speak to such vermin!”

Kathalin could hardly believe the nerve of the man. “I am Lord de Lara’s daughter,” she said frankly. “You are not only a drunken fool but you are an ignorant one as well. At least my father raised me properly and respectably, for it is not I who bore a child out of wedlock but your own daughter. Instead of blaming Gates, you should be blaming yourself.
You
were the one who raised a woman too willing to warm a man’s bed. It is your fault alone.”

Linley was looking at her with much the same rage and offense that he used when looking upon Gates. He struggled to get to his feet but with his drunken state and the blow to his head, his balance seemed to be elusive.

“I will not hear this from you, woman,” he said, rolling to his knees. “This is between de Wolfe and me. Be gone with you!”

Kathalin snorted. “You stood there not two minutes ago and declared that you would have everyone hear your business,” she said. “Now we have all heard it. You come to accuse the man of fathering your daughter’s child when it could just as easily be any other man at Hyssington. You have insulted Gates for all to hear and I will not stand for it. This man has recently survived the big battle at Poitiers and he has not come back to England to be challenged by the likes of you. You are not worthy to even speak to him. Be gone, you old fool. Be gone before I run you out of here myself.”

Linley was on his feet by now, weaving dangerously. The expression on his face was pure venom. “No woman will tell me what to do.”

Before Gates could stop her, Kathalin took a step towards the man and shoved him, hard, on the chest. He fell over again, back into the mud.

“I just did,” she snapped, feeling Gates as he took her arm and gently tried to pull her away. “Get out of here and do not come back. We will hear no more of slander you cannot prove.”

Linley was on his belly on the ground, trying to push himself up, as Kathalin turned away from him, being pulled along by Gates. He had her by the arm still, moving her away from the confrontation. She was upset, that was true, but not overly so. In fact, she felt rather pleased with what she had done. How she had proved to Gates that whatever had happened in his past did not matter to her. But it would be up to him whether or not he could figure that out for himself. There would be no more talk from her, no more trying to convince him that his past was of no consequence. Now, she would leave it up to him to decide.

She would let her actions speak louder than her words.

“I can walk by myself,” she said, though not unkindly, as she removed her arm from his grip. “Come inside the fortress now. Waste no more time with that idiot.”

Gates let her go, watching her walk back through the gatehouse with Stephan by her side. He simply stood there, watching her go, and realized that he had a smile on his face. She had handled Linley quite ably and had taken charge of the situation as a de Lara would. He’d never seen that side of her until now, a growing moment in the life of a secluded convent ward. She was secluded no longer and command came natural to her, as a de Lara.