Rise of the Defender (113 page)

     Nearly a week after his arrival, Dustin
appeared one morning in his bedchamber. It was well before dawn and he was
startled to see her standing next to his bed, dressed in a soft white
nightshift. There were circles under her eyes and he wondered if she had slept
at all.

     “What is wrong, honey?” he asked with
concern.

     Dustin opened her mouth but nothing came
out. Hot tears began to spill from her eyes and she angrily wiped them away.

     “I….I had a nightmare again,” she
whispered, embarrassed and exhausted.

     He pulled the coverlets back. “Come here,
with me.”

     She shook her head hard and jumped back. He
swung his huge legs over the side of the bed. “Then tell me,” he said gently.
“What was the dream about?”

     She was shaking. “Chris,” she whispered.
“Ever since he died, I have had the same dream every night. I dream that I am
just awakening in the morning, and it is bright and lovely and the sun is
streaming in through the windows. He's lying next to me with his arms around
me, and I can hear him talking about something, I never know what.” She
cracked, sobbing pitifully. “I can smell him, Marcus. I can smell his skin and
feel its texture, and I feel so warm and content. And then I wake up to a cold,
empty bed and I feel as if my grief is new. Every time I feel as if my heart is
being yanked out and smashed. I cannot take it anymore.”

     His eyes were soft with sympathy. “Of
course you cannot.” He opened his arms to her. “Come here, Dustin. Let me
comfort you as I have so wanted to do.”

     She stopped fighting him for the moment and
allowed herself the luxury of his comfort. He was warm and soft and wonderful,
and in no time she was asleep in his arms.

     Marcus held her well into the morning
hours. She slept limply, dreamlessly, and he knew it was because she felt safe
with him. He would chase all of her bad dreams away. She curled up against him,
her face pressed into his chest and he knew right then that he was taking
Dustin back with him on the morrow. No one had taken charge of her since
Christopher's death, they had all let her run her life her way and she was
going to kill herself if she continued. Someone had to take charge of her, and
that someone would be him.

     Late in the morning he tucked Dustin into
his bed, kissing her temple sweetly and allowing himself to feel some
happiness. He had what he had come for. Washing his face, he donned his
clothing and set out with determination.

     Marcus took over Lioncross that day. Not
since Christopher had left had it run with such purpose or fortitude. All of
Christin's belongings were packed as well as everything Dustin owned. Bedding,
linens, carpets, everything was loaded into two wagons that were secured in the
bailey. The army camping outside the wall was given orders to prepare for
departure.

     Edward was furious that Marcus was taking
over Lioncross as he was. But Marcus was a baron and technically Edward was of
a lesser station, so there was very little he could do. He certainly did not
want Dustin to leave, but as he saw it, he only had two options; either talk
some sense into her or hope that Richard arrived before they left. Even with the
latter, he could not be certain that Dustin would stay. Richard loved Marcus
and was most likely to grant him anything - even the dead Defender's wife.

     Edward cornered Dustin in the afternoon
when she went out to her garden. As she had done day after day, she began to
hoe and he stood by silently and watched.

     “Are you really going to go with him?” he
asked her.

     Dustin hoed absently. “I guess so. I am so
confused, Edward, I do not know what to do anymore,” she looked at him. “This
is my home. It is Chris' home and I do not want to leave, but I almost feel
like I have to. Staying here day after day, seeing the things we loved
together, cuts me to the core. Mayhap if I go with Marcus, I shall clear my
mind and see things more rationally.

     “He wants to marry you, Dustin,” Edward
said, his voice low. “Who's to say that once he gets you to Somerhill that he
will ever let you return to Lioncross? Will you indeed marry him?”

     Dustin shrugged. “I do not know, Edward I
do not know anything anymore.”

     Edward sighed, feeling the situation
slipping away from him. “Do you love him?”

     “Nay,” Dustin shook her head. “I shall
never love anyone but Chris. I have told Marcus that, but he doesn't seem to
care.”

     “Is it fair to give the man false hope by
returning home with him, then?” Edward pressed quietly.

     “I have never given him any hope
whatsoever,” Dustin insisted. “I have made it very clear that I will only love
Christopher. But Christin needs a father, and I will eventually need
companionship. I like Marcus, Edward. He is a decent man and he was my
husband’s best friend.”

     Edward leaned against the wall, running a
weary hand over his brow. “There is nothing I can say to stop you?” he asked.
“I think you are acting rashly. I think Marcus is making your decisions for you.”    

     The hoe dropped. “No one makes my decisions
for me,” she said sternly. “But I must decide what is best for myself and for
Christin. I am sorry if you cannot accept that, Edward. But Lioncross is mine
now and I would hope that you would run it ably in my absence. Gowen will still
keep the books, but you are in charge of the castle. And have no doubt that I
will return.”

     He gazed at her, a hundred thoughts
tumbling through his mind. He knew she wasn't thinking properly and that Marcus
was very persuasive. The man had caught her in a weak moment and somehow had
convinced her that returning to Somerhill was best for her.

     But Christopher was gone, never to return.
Mayhap it was for the best that Dustin go with Marcus and start a new life for
herself and for Christin, away from the grief and memories that were slowly
killing her.

     “Then I will say nothing more than to wish
you complete happiness, Dustin,” he said after a moment. “Chris would want you
to be happy.”

     Her eyes filled with tears and she bit her
lip. “I know,” she whispered. “Lord, Edward, sometimes I do not think I can go
on anymore. His absence is like a huge gaping hole in my soul, never to heal
and I swear to you that sometimes it is all I can do to keep from killing
myself. But I promised Chris that I wouldn't if anything ever happened to him,
and I should not like to be spanked in Paradise in front of the heavenly hosts
for disobeying him. ‘Twould be most embarrassing.”

     He grinned. “No doubt. And knowing Chris,
he would stop at nothing to take his hand to your behind.”

     She brushed a tear away. “Did they tell you
how he died? They won't tell me. And where is this Gowergrove Castle that I
might visit his grave someday?”

     Edward’s smile faded. “Archers, I believe,
felled him. Zephyr, too; they found them together. Gowergrove is at the
southern tip of Sherwood and should you decide to go there, I would wish to go
with you and pay my respects, also.”

     She nodded, absorbing the information with
a blustery sigh. Now that she had some idea as to how he died, she felt a
strange sense of peace. But it did nothing for the ache in her heart.

     “I miss him so, Edward,” she murmured.
“Will the pain ever go away?”

     He put his arm around her shoulders
comfortingly; this Lady Dustin sounded more like the lady he had grown to know,
not like the crazy, irrational creature that had been raging about the keep for
weeks.

     “In time it will fade, that I promise,” he
assured her. “But it may never truly go away.”

     Dustin sighed, letting him comfort her for
a moment. Marcus entered the garden, then, and they could both see the
possessiveness in his expression.

     “What goes on here?” he asked mildly.

     “Nothing,” Dustin let go of Edward. “We
were speaking of Lioncross and other things.”

     Marcus eyed Edward with a great deal of
suspicion, much to Edward’s annoyance. “Good God, Marcus, we weren’t plotting,”
he snapped. “We were saying our good-byes, considering you are planning on
leaving tomorrow.”

     Marcus' gaze was cool at the sharp tone but
he let it slide. “Come along, Dustin,” he said. “I want you to make sure
everything you will need or want is packed.”

     Dustin preceded him from the garden, but
Marcus paused at the gate to throw Edward another hard glance.

     “She is mine now, de Wolfe,” he hissed.
“You would do well to remember that.”

     He was gone, leaving Edward fuming.

     Before sunset that evening, an approaching
army was sighted and Edward knew that it had to be Richard and David. There was
no other alternative. With renewed vigor, he ordered the dinner portions
doubled and the remaining unoccupied bedchambers prepared. He waited until
everything was moving smoothly before seeking Marcus out.

     As he suspected, he and Dustin were holed
up in Lady Mary’s solar playing a game of Fox and Hounds. Marcus kept her very
much to himself, very isolated from the others. Edward could not help the
satisfaction that crept into his voice.

     “Richard and David are approaching, my
lord,” he said evenly. “Mayhap you would like to greet them in the bailey?”

     Marcus' lifted an eyebrow as Dustin shot to
her feet. “Richard and David?” she repeated, agitated. “I do not want to see
them.”

     “Mayhap so, but they are here nonetheless,”
Marcus put up a hand to calm her. “Why do not you go upstairs and change into
one of your new surcoats? That would please me.”

     “Nay!” she yanked away from him, toppling
the game board. “I do not want them here, either of them. They are to blame for
my misery and I hate them.”

     Marcus stood up. “Calm down, honey,” he
said softly. “You shall only have to see them a moment and then never again. I
promise I shall keep them away from you.”

     Edward did not like the wild look to her
eye. All of the healing that had occurred with Marcus over the past week was
rapidly slipping away.

     “Richard killed Christopher,” she said
pointedly. “He is responsible for everything that has happened.”

     “Be reasonable, Dustin,” Marcus said
steadily. “Christopher served Richard of his own accord; no one forced hm. He
is not the first man to die in the service of his king, and he certainly won't
be the last. Richard is not responsible in the least and I am sure his grief is
great. Chris was his dear friend.”

     She eyed Marcus with doubt and agitation,
knowing his words made sense but not wanting to admit it. She had to blame
someone for her husband's death, and Richard was the most obvious target.

     “I hate him,” she seethed. “And I am going
to beat David to a pulp if he sets foot in my keep.”

     Marcus never did ask what had happened
between Christopher and David, but at this moment he decided to find out.
Dustin was obviously very angry with her brother-in-law.

     “What happened between Chris and David that
you should hate him so?” he asked her.

     She jutted her chin out, turning away from
him. “He accused me of horrible things and we fought. Christopher banished him
from Lioncross.”

     “You fought?” Marcus repeated with mounting
disbelief. “Do you mean that you actually exchanged blows?

     “I slapped him and he slapped me back,”
Dustin replied. “Christopher was going to kill him, but he exiled him instead.”

     Marcus shook his head. “What did he say to
you that was so horrible? I know for a fact that David adored you, Dustin. What
happened?”

     She looked him in the eye. “He accused me
of being your whore and of bearing your child. So I hit him.”

     Marcus was almost physically impacted by
the statement. Edward watched him as he tried to keep his steady demeanor, but
it was apparent he was shocked. After a moment, the veins on his throat
throbbed.

     “Then David does not set foot in this
castle,” he said in a low voice. “I shall run him through if he tries.”

     “You will have no choice,” Edward informed
him. “He comes with Richard, and Richard will gain him entrance. You cannot go
against our king.”

     Marcus glared at Edward; he did not like
the way this was going already. He could not take Dustin with him tomorrow as
planned if Richard was here, and he did not want David near her, yet Edward was
correct in that he had no power to deny him entrance to Lioncross.

     Muttering a curse, he turned away. Horns
sounded on the wall outside and they knew that the army's arrival was imminent.
The huge outer gates were already swinging open.

     Marcus turned to Dustin. “Honey, go
upstairs. Wait for me there.”

     Dustin turned immediately and quit the
room. Edward and Marcus exchanged glances before proceeding out into the foyer
and onward to the bailey.

     As they expected, David and Richard entered
the courtyard side by side. Slightly behind them rode Sir Philip de Lohr, and a
host of other distinguished knights that had come to pay their respect to Lady
de Lohr. Edward and Marcus were stunned; they thought that only Richard and
David and a few vassals were coming, when in fact, the army that had come with
them was made up entirely of knights that had served with Christopher in the
Holy Land. Marcus recognized every man he lay eyes upon, as did Edward, and
they swapped awe-struck gazes.