Fragments of Grace (Prequel to the Dragonblade Trilogy) (32 page)

“My lady,” he began slowly. “It
would seem that this is something that does indeed concern you.  Ingilby is
making a proposal to Keir and you are an integral part of that proposal.”

Chloë was so tense that her
stomach was in knots. She felt like she might vomit. “What proposal, my lord?”

Coverdale sighed again, with
great regret, and began to read:

To the honorable knight Sir Keir
St. Hèver

Be it known of your impending
marriage to the Lady Chloë de Geld is announced.  Be it also known that your
son, whom was long lost to you, is now in my possession. I will return you your
son on the condition that you present to me the Lady Chloë. The terms are
non-negotiable and should you refuse, I will kill your son and send his corpse
back to you in pieces. Give me Chloë and you will have your son, alive.

You have a fortnight to make your
decision.

John Ingilby

For a moment, no one spoke. 
Everyone seemed frozen with shock.  The first two people to openly react were
Michael and Kurtis; they lunged at Alphonse, surrounded by Coverdale soldiers,
and grabbed the man before he could make a reasonable attempt to defend
himself.

Michael had him by the neck,
throwing him to the ground as Kurtis pounced. He slammed Alphonse’s head onto
the floor as Chloë and Cassandra yelped with fright. Cassandra turned her face
away, weeping, as her husband began to pound Ingilby’s messenger.

“He is lying,” Kurtis roared.
“God damn you to hell for such lies!”

Anton picked that moment to enter
the solar. His brown eyes flew open wide at the fight, watching as Coverdale
and Michael tried to pull Kurtis off of Ingilby’s messenger.  It was a chaotic
scene with the women weeping and the men fighting, and Anton slammed the
chamber door shut so no one would see what madness was happening inside. It was
pure bedlam.

“What goes on here?” he demanded.

Coverdale couldn’t answer him. He
was bellowing orders to Kurtis, demanding that he release Alphonse.  But Kurtis
wasn’t listening, at least not right away, and pummeled Alphonse with his big
fists.  Cassandra, scared and upset, realized her husband was out of control
and she cried out to him.

“Kurtis!” she wept. “For the love
of God, please stop!”

Hearing his wife’s sobbing cry
broke through Kurtis’ fury.  He came to an unsteady halt, gazing up at his
weeping wife before returning his attention to the dazed man beneath him. He
couldn’t begin to describe what he was feeling at the moment; fury, grief, and
absolutely horror.  He was feeling everything his brother would have felt had
he been there to hear the missive.   He allowed Michael and Coverdale to pull
him up and he stumbled over to his wife, throwing his arms around her to
comfort her.  Beside them, Chloë was pale and shaken, weeping softly into her
hand.  Kurtis threw an arm around her, too, and pulled her in to their embrace.

Michael eyed Kurtis and the
frightened women as he yanked Alphonse to his feet. The man had a bloodied lip,
and was rather dazed, as Michael shoved him in to the nearest chair.   He
leaned over him menacingly as Byron handed Anton the missive.

“How did Ingilby come by Keir’s
son?” he growled.

Alphonse wiped at the blood on
his lip. “He found him. Now he has him.”

Michael shook his head,
struggling with his anger. “That is not a proper answer,” he snarled. “How did Ingilby
come by Keir’s son? Tell me now or I turn Kurtis loose on you again. This time,
I will not stop him from killing you.”

“Kill me and Ingilby kills the
boy.”

“Nay!” Chloë pulled herself free
of Kurtis and Cassandra’s embrace, her long red hair catching in the folds of
Kurtis’ mail.  Her expression was pleading.  “Please do not hurt him!”

Alphonse turned his attention to
her, his dark eyes drifting over her luscious form. “The terms have been
conveyed. The child’s life is in your hands.”

  Chloë was desperate, earnest.
“I will do whatever Ingilby wishes if he will only send the boy home to Keir
unharmed.”

A collective gasp went up between
Kurtis, Cassandra and, surprisingly, Anton. “You will do no such thing,” Anton
said firmly, having finished reading the missive that was still in his hand. “Ingilby
is a beast. You will not give in to this… this blackmail.”

Chloë looked at her father,
wiping the tears from her cheeks. “Why not?” she asked softly. “You would not
marry me to Keir before he left for Wales, so why are you so resistant to a
marriage to Ingilby? Is that not what you ultimately wish? For me to marry
well? Ingilby is wildly wealthy and a cousin to Northumberland.  Or perhaps you
simply do not wish for me to marry anyone. Perhaps you simply want to see me
wither away and die.”

Anton snapped a finger at her.
“Foolishness, Chloë,” he hissed, slapping the missive to the table. “You do not
know what you are saying. I denied your marriage to Keir because the man can
very well perish in Wales and I would not knowingly widow you. You already know
this. I am sorry you do not understand that I am doing what I feel is best for
you.”

“And now?” she was feeling
stronger, confronting her father without the devastating emotion that usually
accompanied this subject. “Father, if Ingilby truly has Keir’s son, then there
is no question of what to do. I will go to Ingilby and he will turn the boy
over to Keir. That is as it should be.”

“Nay,” Kurtis was at her side,
grasping her arm as if to physically prevent her from giving herself over to Ingilby.
“I will ride for Keir immediately. He must make this decision.”

She looked at Kurtis, his handsome
pale face that resembled his striking brother, and smiled faintly.

“There is no question, Kurtis,”
she insisted softly. “Keir cannot make this decision. It will tear him apart to
have to make such a terrible choice.”

A look of extreme pain crossed
Kurtis’ features. “Chloë, you cannot do this. Keir must know. He must make that
determination.”

Her voice was soft. “If the
question was presented to you, what would you do?”

Kurtis’ pale cheeks reddened as
he cast a sidelong glance at Alphonse, still in the chair and hearing every
word said.  He did not want the man reporting their conversation back to Ingilby,
in any fashion.  They had already said too much in front of him, including the
fact that Keir was in Wales.

“Get him out of here,” he told
Michael. “Throw him in the vault for now. We will deal with him at the
appropriate time.”

Michael nodded, yanking Alphonse
to his feet and thrusting him at the Coverdale guards.  Roughly, the man was
shuttled from the room and the door slammed behind him, leaving a tense and
ugly situation in its wake.  Everyone was edgy and uncertain, feeling the pain
of the proposal down to their very bones.   They all knew the stakes from an
emotional standpoint, from Keir’s standpoint, and none of them more keenly than
Michael. He made his way over to Chloë.

“Kurtis is correct,” he said in a
low, firm voice. “You cannot make this decision without Keir’s blessing. It
would not be fair to him.”

She looked up at Michael and her
composure began to slip. “Listen to what you are saying,” she whispered. “Were
you not there when Keir lost his wife and daughter? He told me he hit you in
the face when you tried to prevent him from seeing their burnt bodies. He has
been searching for Merritt for three long years. Do you truly think that if there
is a chance Ingilby really has the boy, he would not beg, borrow or steal to
have him returned?  Merritt is only a child. What he has endured over the past
three years must have been truly hellish. He deserves to be with his father and
Keir deserves to have the boy returned. It is the only solution.”

Kurtis couldn’t take it; he let
go of Chloë and moved to the nearest chair, collapsing on it and putting his
head in his hands.

“Sweet Jesus,” he muttered into
his hands. “Is this true? Is this really happening?”

Cassandra went to her husband,
kneeling down beside him and putting her arms around his shoulders.  Torn,
upset, she looked between her husband and her sister.

“Perhaps we must ask to see the
boy before anything is agreed upon,” she suggested. “If Ingilby is lying about
the boy, then there is no choice to make.”

“How did he know about the boy in
the first place?” Michael wondered aloud. “I do not understand how he could
even know.”

Coverdale, largely silent through
the exchange, shook his head and went to sit wearily at his table. “The siege
of Pendragon is not a secret in Yorkshire,” he said. “It is a sad and bloody
tale. Most, if not all, of the northern allies know of it.  It is obvious that
the man heard about it from someone. But I am very curious as to how the boy
came into Ingilby’s possession, quite coincidentally I might add.  Keir has
something that he wants, and now he has something that Keir wants. Very odd.”

Chloë’s gaze moved between
Kurtis, her sister, and Lord Coverdale.  Her tears were completely gone and her
composure was remarkably strong. It was strange how, when faced with the
heart-wrenching proposal, she felt a remarkable amount of peace with the only
possible decision. When she should have been hysterical with grief, she was
genuinely calm and collected.  In her mind, there was no other choice. For Keir
to have his son returned, she would gladly make the sacrifice.

“Listen to me, all of you,” she
said in her sweet, soft voice. “This is not a decision Keir should have to
make. It is a decision for me to make.  I love Keir more than anything on this
earth and because of that, I would do anything for him.  I would die for him,
and kill for him, and if it is within my power, I would give him back the one
thing that he wants perhaps more than anything else.  I love him enough to give
him his son back.  If there is any chance that Ingilby truly has little
Merritt, then I must take that chance.  If I can do this for him, I will.”

Kurtis held her gaze a moment
before turning away, clearly wiping at his eyes.  Cassandra went to her sister
and put her arms around her, holding her close.

“I understand,” she murmured,
fighting back tears. “You are making a great sacrifice, Chloë. But I completely
understand why you would.”

“It will destroy him,” Kurtis
said hoarsely. He looked at Chloë, his eyes watering. “You were not there when
he lost Madeleine and Frances. You did not see what the man went through.
Chloë, he will go through that again with your loss. I am terrified he will not
survive.  As much as I hate myself for saying this, he has lived without
Merritt for three years. The boy probably does not even remember him.  You and
my brother can have more children, but he can never find another you.  If you
do this, if you exchange yourself for Merritt, you will destroy him.”

Chloë went to her brother-in-law,
putting her hands on his rough cheeks and forcing him to meet her eye. Kurtis
was reluctant to gaze into the beautiful brown orbs but found himself
mesmerized, unable to pull away.

“Then tell me truthfully,” she
demanded softly. “You are so sure you can make this decision for your brother.
What would you choose if you were Keir?”

Kurtis sighed heavily and tried
to look away but Chloë would not let him. She shook him gently.

“Answer me,” she whispered. “What
would Keir do?”

Kurtis stared at her and his eyes
began to overflow. “I do not want to see my brother go through hell again.  If
you do this, he will not want to live.”

“Aye, he will,” she whispered.
“He will have Merritt to live for.”

Kurtis looked miserable. “He will
never stop trying to get you back, Chloë, not ever. He will kill Ingilby and
anyone else who stands in his way to get you back.”

“That is what I am counting on.”

“What do you mean?”

“Think on it.”

 Kurtis could see she was deadly
serious and, somehow, he wasn’t quite so emotional anymore.  The light of
realization came to his eyes.

“Then…,” he muttered, paused, and
started again. “Then you suspect this is not the end between you and my
brother?”

She smiled at him. “Of course
not,” she said. “I know that Keir will come for me. I have no doubt whatsoever,
especially if, after Merritt is turned over to Keir, I commit myself to the
nunnery at St. Wilfrid in Ripon. I will wait there until Keir comes for me. Who
says I shall ever have to spend a day as Ingilby’s wife?”

After the full impact of her
plans hit him, Kurtis appeared even more distressed. “It is a terrible chance
you are taking, Chloë,” he insisted. “Ingilby is surely no fool. If he suspects
treachery, then your life could be in danger.”

Chloë was resolute but not beyond
listening to advice. Kurtis seemed sincerely concerned and that forced her to
pause.

“Perhaps… perhaps we need to send
our own terms to Ingilby, then,” she said thoughtfully. “Perhaps we should tell
him that I will go to St. Wilfrid for safekeeping until Merritt is delivered to
Keir and is confirmed that he is indeed Keir’s son.  Once that confirmation is
achieved, Ingilby can collect me at St. Wilfrid, only by that time, I will have
asked for sanctuary and the protection of the church.  They will have to
protect me if I fear for my life, at least until Keir can come for me.  He will
bring his armies and fight off Ingilby.”