But Matthew wasn’t dealing well with the news. The greatest knight he’d ever known was suffering from a cancer and trying to pretend as if nothing was amiss. Gaston was proud that way and Matthew knew it. Therefore, he wouldn’t insult his friend by acknowledging what they both knew – that Gaston’s time on this earth was limited.
To Matthew, that made their remaining time together all the more precious.
As Matthew lingered in thoughts that were tearing at him, Gaston went through a series of heavy coughs before turning to see Matthew standing a few feet away. Once their eyes met, Matthew forced a smile and approached, reaching out a hand to Gaston. The man took it strongly.
“Gaston,” Matthew said as he looked at him appreciatively. “It is very good to see you.”
Gaston smiled wearily at his dearest friend. “And you,” he said. “Although I had doubts that Boden would make it to Wellesbourne in one piece. Did you see his new stallion?”
Matthew grinned. “I did,” he said. “It has a crazed look to its eyes.”
“That is because it is crazed. I warned him, but he would not listen.”
“So Gage tells me.”
Gaston glanced over at his youngest son, who was in the process of disbanding the escort. “Gage listens to his father so he has a good horse,” he said. “Boden, however, does not listen to me and if that horse dumps him on his arse, I will not lift a finger to help him.”
“Some sons simply do not want to listen. I have a couple of those, too.”
Gaston returned his attention to Matthew, the smile fading from his weathered face. “Speaking of sons,” he said quietly. “I am sure you know why I am here.”
Matthew nodded. “I know.”
“May we go inside and speak?”
Matthew didn’t say a word. He simply led his friend across the bailey towards the keep, laughing softly when the man scolded Boden at a distance because the horse was still dragging the knight across the dirt. Boden waved his father off, assuring him that everything was under control, and Gaston merely rolled his eyes. Clearly, his son was lying to him.
Matthew could only laugh.
Alixandrea was at the entry of Wellesbourne’s tall, proud keep to greet Gaston, and he kissed her cheek and greeted her warmly. Gaston also greeted red-haired William Wellesbourne as the young man dashed past his parents on his way out to see his friends, Gage and Boden. He moved so quickly that he nearly knocked his mother down, resulting in a motherly swat to the buttocks. But William smiled that big Wellesbourne smile in response, which usually eased any anger his mother might have. As Alixandrea went to see to the refreshments, Matthew took Gaston into his well-appointed solar.
It was a chamber the two men had spent a good deal of time in over the years, and Gaston immediately began to remove what armor he could. He was in a place of comfort now, and he was exhausted from his journey, so he pulled off his helm and began to unfasten the leather straps he could get to, pulling off pieces of plate and placing them near the door.
Matthew, meanwhile, had moved to a table that contained a cut crystal decanter and several cups.
“Do you need help with that protection?” he asked.
Gaston shook his head as he pulled off the right vambrace, or forearm protection. “Nay,” he said. “Just let me get some of these pieces off so I can sit down. Christ, it was a long trip.”
Matthew poured the wine. Approaching Gaston with two cups, he held one out for the man. Gaston accepted the cup gratefully.
“I suppose we should get down to business,” he said as he sat heavily on a cushioned chair made from a cow’s hide. “And I will start by telling you what Trenton has told me. He came to Deverill a few days ago, completely unexpectedly. I have not seen my son in six years, Matt. Did you know that? Six long years.”
Matthew nodded, taking a drink of the rich red wine. “He told me,” he said. “He hasn’t seen you since he married Adela.”
Gaston took a long swig of his own wine, draining half the cup in just a couple of swallows. “It would be easy to say that if I’d known she’d drive such a wedge between us, then I would never have brokered the marriage between them, but that is not true,” he said. “My relationship with Trenton was fracturing before that, even, ever since he went to serve Henry in the capacity in which he presently serves. Adela was simply the catalyst that drove in the wedge for good.”
Matthew went to take a seat near Gaston, his gaze on the man. He looked pale to him, or perhaps it was his imagination talking. Knowing he was ill made him see things that weren’t there.
“There is no wedge,” he said patiently. “Trenton still adores you. He’s still that little boy who looks up to his father and wants to please him.”
But Gaston shook his head. “The wedge between Trenton and me started when he was a lad, when his mother fed him lies about me,” he said. “Mari-Elle would tell him that I never wanted a child, that I did not want to be a father to him. You remember that.”
“I do.”
“I have always thought that there is some part of Trenton that always believed that, no matter what I did to prove otherwise.”
Matthew leaned back in his chair. “I do not think so. It is his adult life that has created these problems you two seem to share.”
Gaston looked at him, knowing he meant the situation with Lysabel. Now, the pleasantries were over, the small talk was finished, and the meat of the situation was upon them. Gaston drained the rest of his cup and set it down.
“Trenton has told me that he is in love with Lysabel, but you have asked him to leave her alone so that she may have a chance for a decent marriage,” he said. “Is this true?”
“It is.”
Gaston scratched his head, recalling everything he thought of on the journey to Wellesbourne. There was much he wanted to say to Matthew but, in truth, there was very little he could say. He didn’t disagree with the man, for the most part. But he had a special perspective on all of this that he wanted to share.
“I will not argue the point with you, for it is your decision to make, but I want you to think back to the time when I met Remi,” he said softly. “Do you recall? I was sent in to take command of Mt. Holyoak Castle, a property that belonged to her husband. Remington was married to a beast of a man, and I was married to a succubus in human form. You knew Mari-Elle, Matt. You knew the depths of her evil.”
Matthew nodded, thinking back to Gaston’s first wife, the cold and regal woman Gaston had been forced to marry. It had been a contract marriage, and a nightmare of a situation.
“I did,” he said. “Evil was exactly what she was. She would have ruined you had you let her and, in that sense, that makes her not too different from Adela. Both you and Trenton married women who wanted nothing more from you than your name and your money.”
Gaston sighed. “Adela was my doing,” he muttered. “I thought she would be a good match for Trenton, providing him with French support and connections. But I ended up forcing him to marry a woman who, in reflection, is much like his own mother was.”
Matthew thought he could see where the conversation was going. “Gaston, I know Trenton is miserable with her,” he said. “I know this is a hellish marriage and I would not be lying if I said that with Lysabel, he seems like a changed man. That morose, serious, and sometimes humorless man transforms around Lysabel and the girls and becomes someone kind and wise and generous. My granddaughters adore him, and so does Lysabel. But you must understand that I, too, condemned my daughter to a hellish marriage with Benoit de Wilde and the worst part is that I didn’t even know it. It was Trenton who had to save her from a man who had been beating her for years.”
Gaston had heard all of this and he wasn’t unsympathetic. “I know,” he said, holding up a hand and preventing Matthew from continuing. “Let me finish my train of thought and then see if you can understand my perspective. When I met Remi, I knew she was married. I was married, also, but I had never felt married. Still, I wasn’t one to take a
lover, so in the beginning, there was no real romantic interest in Remi. But those feelings developed quickly and I found myself in love with a married woman. You know this, Matt, and you also know that my love for her was so strong that I tried to force the hand of the church to annul her marriage, and my marriage, so that we could be together. Therefore, if anyone understands Trenton’s pain, it is I, for I went through nearly the same thing.”
Matthew knew this was coming from Gaston’s personal experience and he stood up, wandering over to the hearth, which was dark now as the sun was setting. He began to pick up pieces of kindling and tossing it into the fireplace.
“Gaston, if you’ve come to beg me to change my mind, I’m afraid that I cannot,” he said. “Lysabel has gone through hell for years. Do you think I will give my approval for her to become the mistress of a man who is married? Of course I will not. It will ruin any chance she has of a decent marriage.”
Gaston understood that. “I realize that,” he said. “But let me ask you this – you have said yourself that Lysabel adores Trenton.”
“She does.”
“And Trenton adores her. They are two adults, Matt. We’re not speaking of children who do not know what is best for themselves. We are speaking of two adults who deserve to be happy. If it is without marriage, then who are you to stand in their way?”
Matthew didn’t reply right away. He continued to stack kindling before taking a flint and stone and sparking the birth of a blaze.
“So you are asking me to permit my daughter to become your son’s whore,” he said quietly, turning to look at Gaston. “Is that what you are asking me?”
Gaston shook his head. “A whore is an object, a possession,” he said. “Trenton loves your daughter and that makes her far more than a possession.”
“And what title would you give her?”
“An adored companion.”
Matthew stood up and faced him. “If this was one of your daughters we were speaking of, I wonder if you would be so liberal.”
Gaston looked away, a pensive expression on his face. He coughed a few times, something that sounded wet and rough. “I do not know,” he finally said. “But we are not speaking of one of them. We are speaking of my son and your daughter, who happen to love each other. Trenton is married to a woman he despises, and the feeling is mutual. Do our children not deserve to find their happiness together? I would like to see Trenton happy just once in my lifetime. I would like to know that the pain I have caused him has been healed.”
Matthew was once again reminded of Gaston’s frail health. As the fire in the hearth began to blaze, he reclaimed his seat across from Gaston, his manner moody and subdued. He wasn’t usually moody by nature, but being confronted with a situation he felt strongly about, and a dear friend’s illness, had him off balance.
“You are asking me to condone an affair,” he finally said. “Whatever feelings Trenton has for Lysabel, his intentions will never be honorable.”
“What do you mean?”
“He cannot marry her. Do you not think people will know that? They will talk and her reputation will be ruined. Is that what you truly wish for Lysabel?” He threw up his hand in exasperation. “And what of my granddaughters? Do you think I can find suitable and honorable husbands for them when it comes time, knowing their mother is a concubine to a married man? Would you ruin their chances, too?”
Gaston heard the passion, the distress, in his friend’s voice. “Of course not,” he said. “Matt, all I am saying is that they are two people in love who should be permitted to make their own decisions. I loved a married woman, once, and I refused to let her go. Trenton has that same tenacity.”
Matthew cocked an eyebrow. “What are you saying? That he is going to defy me?”
Gaston hesitated. “I am saying that love will find a way, with or without your approval.”
Matthew didn’t like the sound of that at all. Frustrated, he sighed heavily. “Gaston, you know I love you and you know I love Trenton, but I will not let him carry on a dishonorable relationship with my daughter. I do not want to say he is unwelcome here; I do not want to say that any de Russe is unwelcome here, but I must protect Lysabel and my granddaughters.”
“From what?”
“From something that can never be!”
There was that passion in his tone again. Gaston and Matthew had never been at odds and, frankly, Gaston couldn’t remember if they’d ever had an argument, but this conversation was one of the most volatile they’d ever had. Considering the subject matter, that was understandable.
“I can see your point of view, my friend,” he said quietly. “But in matters of love, there is no easy answer. You think that Lysabel will forget about Trenton if they are separated, but is that really true? Would you have forgotten about Alix so easily if your love for her had been denied?”
Matthew sighed once again. “I did not fall in love with a woman who was already married,” he said. “Though I fault you not for the circumstances with Remi, because surely, they were complicated to say the least, this situation is different.”
“How?”
“Because it is happening to my daughter.”
Gaston could see that there was no budging the man. In truth, he wasn’t sure he had really been trying to. He was merely pleading Trenton’s case. But he had hoped that Matthew would be a little more reasonable. Still, given that the man felt tremendous guilt for the marriage to de Wilde, it was understandable that he was extremely protective of Lysabel’s future happiness.
He had to ensure his daughter found a happy and honorable life.
Not a life as the mistress of a married man.
“And it is happening to my son,” Gaston said after a moment. “Your path with Alix was different, so you do not know what it means to love a woman who is legally bound to another man. You have no idea the pain of such a thing, so I do not expect you to understand. But I would hope that you would at least understand that not all things in life are clear cut, and not everything is as easy as you make it out to be.”
With that, he stood up, weary and somewhat disheartened at the course of the conversation. Matthew was defensive, and probably had every right to be, but Gaston realized that he’d been looking for more understanding from the man. The White Lord of Wellesbourne was a man of great compassion and wisdom, and he’d hoped that would carry over into Trenton and Lysabel’s situation. But Matthew was only seeing it from a father’s perspective and nothing more.
Matthew didn’t let him get very far. “Where are you going?” he asked.
“To rest.”
Matthew blew out a deep breath. “Come back here,” he said. “Gaston, you and I have never had harsh words between us and I do not intend to start now, but this is something too important for you to just walk away.”
Gaston came to an unsteady halt somewhere over near the hearth. “What point is there in me remaining?” he said. “Your mind is made up. I cannot change it. But I will tell you that you may be headed towards heartache if you do not put love above the Wellesbourne reputation. It seems to me that is all you are truly worried about.”
Matthew stood up and looked at him. “That is not true and it is not fair,” he said. “I am worried for my daughter.”
“You were wrong the first time you chose her a mate. Why not let her make the decision the second time?”
It was an unfair dig, but it was the truth and they both knew it. Matthew eyed him a moment. “She is still my daughter.”
“And you are telling me that you know what is best for her better than she does? She is a grown woman with two children, Matt. She’s no longer the foolish young maiden you evidently think she is.”
“I will not let her be Trenton’s whore, Gaston.”
“Nobody is asking you to. They are not looking for your blessing, simply your understanding in the matter.”
Matthew was starting to feel cornered and, truth be told, irritated at Gaston. It was true that he had no experience in l
oving a woman who was legally bound to another man, but that didn’t mean he didn’t know what was right and what was wrong. As he stood there, pondering how to reply, the door opened and servants appeared with trays of food and drink. Alixandrea was leading them in, smiling at her husband and his best friend.
“Gaston, I brought you mulled wine,” she said gaily. “I know how much you like it.”
Gaston’s gaze was on Matthew. It took him a moment to reply and when he did, he turned away.
“I am not thirsty,” he said. “Is there a place I may rest?”
The smile faded from Alixandrea’s face. “Of course,” she said. “The chamber you always use when you are here is being readied.”
Without another word, Gaston lumbered through the door, heading for the stairs that led to the upper floors. When he disappeared from sight, Alixandrea turned to her husband.
“What happened?” she asked, her eyes wide.
Matthew was feeling defeated. So very defeated. He didn’t like quarreling with his best friend.
“He has come on behalf of Trenton,” he said. “He does not want me to interfere in Trenton and Lysabel’s affair.”
Alixandrea watched her husband as he went over to the wine she’d brought and started drinking from the pitcher. He didn’t even take a cup. She knew how torn he was about this; she, too, was torn, but she also understood a woman’s heart. She understood that Lysabel was in love for the first time in her life and she was desperate and miserable without Trenton.
“Matt,” she said quietly. “I am your wife, but I am also the one who knows you best in this world. And I can be completely honest with you without being judgmental.”
He looked at her. “Well? Let’s hear your honesty, then.”
She put her soft hand on his arm. “Your daughter is in love,” she murmured. “I have tried to tell you this, but you have not been listening to me. She is in love with a man who has treated her better in just a few days than Benoit treated her in twelve years. She is not going to forget about Trenton so easily. You have mentioned betrothing her to Ranse, but even if she marries him, it will be with Trenton on her mind and in her heart, and that is not fair to her or to Ranse.”