The Duke and the Dryad (Elemental Series) (22 page)

“Aye, old man, it is true,” said Wolfe,
then turned to look at Rae. “Sweetheart, what is your father’s name? You never told me.”

“Why don’t you ask him?” she said, busying herself, searching through the ashes, trying to find any bit of remaining life beneath. “He is standing right next to you, and yet you treat him as if he weren’t here.”

That made Wolfe very uncomfortable. He didn’t know how to talk to a madman. Still, Rae was right in her proclamation and he knew he should try to talk to him as he would anyone else. He needed to try to get to know her father.

“What is your name, sir?” he asked, noticing the man wasn’t even looking at him.

“Sir Irving at your service, Duke of Manterra, I see. I would serve you now, if only you should let it be.”

That took Wolfe by surprise. He didn’t know
how to answer. He just chuckled. Rae looked up to him, but she was not laughing.

“He is seriou
s, Wolfe. He wants to serve you. You should be happy that he thinks of you in such a high regard to offer his services.”

“Aye, of course,” he said, looking to the man and then over to Sir
Braden, desperately and silently crying out for his help.

“So are you accepting his
offer of service or not?” asked Rae.

He didn’t know how to answer. Did Rae really think he was going to consider a madman as one of his knights?

“I – I suppose I could find a position for him doing something – in the castle.”

“He was once a knight – fo
r that evil bastard, Lord Clive,” Rae reminded him.

“I understand,”
Wolfe said. “And I am sorry to even admit that evil bastard was my uncle. Rae . . . Sir Irving, please accept my sincere apologies for everything that man has done to you and your family.”

“It was good to see my mother again, last night,” said Rae. She started picking up charred branches and twigs and stacking them in a pile. Juturna rushed over to help her, as well as Sir Braden.

“So,” said Sir Braden, “do tell me about the fae who kissed my wound and healed me.”

“She did not heal your wound,” grumbled Wolfe. “’Twill be months before you are back to normal.”

“Really,” Sir Braden answered, throwing down the sticks and raising his hands above his head and waving them around wildly. “Then how come I can do this and without any pain?”

“It must be because you had a decent night’s rest. Now just think how you’ll feel a month from now,” said Wolfe.

“You are wrong, Lord Wolfe.” Sir Braden started turning cartwheels just to prove his point.”

“Stop that, or you’ll break open the stitches,” Wolfe warned him.

“He has no stitches,” said Juturna, wiping the dirt from her hands on her skirt. “I checked his wound myself this morning. ’Tis as if the man was never struck by an arrow in the first place. No stitches, no pain and no scar.”

“How could this be?” asked Wolfe, turning to look at Rae in question.

“’Tis true,” said Rae. “My elemental friend of the air, Portia-Maer, must have taken a liking to Sir Braden, since he was able to see her. One of her powers is being able to heal with the kiss of air upon a wounded person.”

“One of her powers?” asked Sir Braden. “She has more?”

“Aye,” said Rae. “”But I am not allowed to tell you.”

“What?” a
sked the knight. “Please, I need to know.”

“Aye, Rae, I am curious as well,” said Wolfe.

“I am sorry,” she said, shaking her head. “But that would be like betraying her trust. ’Tis more or less an agreement between us made when we were children. If she wants someone to know her powers, then she is the only one who can tell you. I only mentioned her healing power of her kiss, since you’ve already experienced that.”

Wolfe suddenly realized it was much too quiet.
“Rae, what happened to your father?” he asked.

“I don’t know. Papa
, where are you?” she called out.

“There he is,” said Juturna, pointing up the hill toward the cave.

They all hurried after him, stopping when they saw what the old man was looking at on the ground. It was the charred bones and remains of Wolfe’s uncle, lying where Wolfe had thrown the man once he hauled his dead body from the cave.

“Oh!” cried out Rae, hiding her face against Wolfe’s chest.

“Who is it?” asked Sir Braden, using his toe to investigate the charred bones.

“That is what is left of my uncle,” said Wolfe, feeling a strange emptiness within him. “And as evil as the man was, and even though he didn’t deserve to live, he was still the only fami
ly I had left.”

“You are right,” said Rae, pushing away to actuall
y look at the dead man’s bones. “I have been selfish, Wolfe and for this I apologize. I think you should bury his remains, and not let them lie here in the open. You can bury him right here in the forest if you’d like.”

“Nay,” said Wolfe. “I cannot leave him here, when this forest runs through your blood, Rae. And especially after what he’s done
to your mother and to nature as well.”

“Shall we bury him back at the castle?” asked Sir Braden.

Wolfe couldn’t have that, either. He was planning on asking Rae to marry him soon, and if Castle Manterra was going to be her new home, he couldn’t have her seeing the grave every day of the man who killed her mother. That would never do.

“Nay,” he said. “Although we would take his remains to the castle and finish burning them in a bonfire. Then I would take his ashes and place them somewhere else.”

“Throw them into the sea, mayhap?” came Juturna’s suggestion.

“The man was evil and his soul
is certainly going to hell,” explained Wolfe. “I think his remains need to be scattered somewhere closer to the heavens instead. Perhaps the mountains would be a better place to leave him.”

“Of course,” said Juturna, “that
makes more sense. And Mount Calila lies between Manterra and Thorndale. That may be a good place.”

“I agree,” said Wolfe. “So that is what we would do.”

“Wolfe,” said Rae. “I would like to spend time here for the next fortnight if you don’t mind. I would spend the days here and come back to the castle at night. I want to try to heal the forest.”

“And I want to help you, Rae.”

“As well as me,” said Sir Braden.

“Count me in,
too,” said Juturna.

Sir Irving just wandered around, talking to himself.

“What can we do to help you?” he asked Rae.

“The forest will start to grow again soon. A fire, tho destructive
, also brings about new life from the ashes. But I would like to help it out by planting a small vegetable garden where my hut used to be, as well as a flower garden near the standing stones, if you agree.”

“’Tis a grand idea,” said Wolfe. “And while I told you this was my forest
, that is not really so. You command the forest, and I would help you in every way possible to set it back to its normal state.”

The soft padding of feet crunching against the burnt ground behin
d them, caught their attention. Rae’s wolf ran up to her and nuzzled its head into her skirts. She laughed and hunkered down and buried her head in its black fur.

“Zev, I am so happy you were not harmed by the fire.”

“Is she really . . . hugging a wolf?” asked Sir Braden.

“That she is,” said Wolfe. “And though I once feared this wolf, I now know that ’twas only my fears about myself that kept me apart from nature.”

“What do you mean?” asked Rae, standing up to join him. Zev took off at a run, chasing something through the forest.

“What I mean is that since I’ve met you, Rae, I’ve come to question many of my beliefs. I was once ridiculed for being odd, or liking things
that were abnormal. So I learned to hate anyone or anything that fell into this category. I also blamed myself for my mother’s death, because I was the one who told my father about the druids at the stone circle.”

“Don’t blame yourself, Wolfe. You didn’t know he was going to kill them.”

“I realize that now, but still I feel the loss. But my mother believed in the druids, and after what I saw last night, I don’t feel the same about them anymore.”

“So you forgive them for killing your bull?”

“I never said that.”

“Do you believe now that I didn’t kill it?
Humphrey did.”

“I believe you, Rae. And though I am not happy about the bull, the druids did take part in saving the forest. And they helped me
to find you after my uncle captured you. So I would let them stay here, no longer insisting that they leave. They can stay right here, with their stone henge.”

“Thank you, Wolfe, that means much to me.”

“And you mean much to me, Rae-Nyst.” He took her into his arms and hugged her, wondering how long it would take him to locate a ring so he could ask her to marry him.

Chapter 19

It had been nearly a sennight now, and every day Rae went to the forest to plant and care for the earth to heal its wounds. Every night, she came back to the castle, and lay next to Wolfe, but didn’t couple with him.

He no longer got a good night’s rest, as while he patiently waited for Rae to heal, his body kept reminding him that
he hadn’t lain with a woman now in too long a time. And though he loved having Rae close to him, he found it distracting and taunting, not being able to touch her in the way he wanted.

He hadn’t gone to the forest with Rae for three days now, as he had thi
ngs to attend to on his demesne. He was also excited, as today the ring he’d commissioned a silversmith to construct for him was going to be delivered via messenger.

He paced the floor of the great hall, not knowing how or when to ask Rae to marry hi
m. The room was void of people, as the meal was over and everyone had gone about their duties of the day. Everyone, that is, except for Rae’s father, who sat at the dais like he owned the place, and watched him like a hawk stalking his prey.

“Your troubles are abound as you pace the floor,” said Sir Irving. “I’d pre
sume they are not because you are bored.”

Wolfe looked up, realizing the man was more observant than he’d given him credit for. He decided he needed to get to know Rae’s father if he was going to hopefully marry the man’s daughter. He walked ove
r to the dais and pulled out his chair and sat down across from him.

“I’d like to marry your daughter,” he told the man outright. “With your permission, of course, Sir Irving.”

The man laughed wildly, leaning back, holding on to the chair and splaying his feet in the air.

“What the hell am I doing?” Wolfe grumbled, standing to leave, thinking he was the insane one for asking a madman for permission. He started to head away until he heard the man’s reply.

“Yes!”

He turned slowly, not sure he’d heard correctly, or even that
the man knew what he was truly asking.

“Pardon me?” he asked.

“
The
Duke and the Dryad
are to be joined as one, and I give you my permission as sure as the sky has a sun.”

“So you understand me?” he asked, holding on to the chair and slowly sitting back down. “I love her, you know.”

“The dryad loves the duke too, I see . . . and now you will approach her on bended knee.”

“So . . . you think I should ask her to marry me on bended knee? Aye, I like that idea,” he said, nodding in thought.
“She is different from any of the arranged marriages. I respect her and her elemental powers and want to show it. But where? Where should I ask her to marry me?”

“The ring you give h
er, not alone . . . but with loved ones present at the henge of stone.”

“Of course!” Wolfe slapped the man on the back, almost knocking him off the chair
in the process. “Why didn’t I think of that? The standing stones. The perfect spot not only to ask her, but to marry her there as well. And aye, I would ask the druids to join the ceremony, mayhap Humphrey could perform the marriage as well, since no Christian priest would marry us.”

Wolfe jumped to his feet in excitement. “And would you do me the favor of giving your daughter’s hand to me in marriage at the ceremony, my
good friend?”

“Rae-Nyst I give to you, good sir,
. . . and I am in your service . . . but as to my position I am still not sure.”

“I have the perfect position for you, S
ir Irving, though it is not as one of my knights. I would appoint you as my advisor. You may seem like an addled old man to others, but to me, you are a wise sage. I would seek advice from you on many matters from going to battle, to what to serve for dinner, to what to wear for my marriage to your daughter.”

“Marriage?” Sir Braden walked into the great hall, a small box in his hand. “Did I hear you say your are going to marry Rae? And did I also hear you say that Sir Irving is now your advisor?”