“Not only has my father banished Trenton,” she said, “but to truly ruin our chances, he has betrothed me to another man.”
Now it was Dane’s turn to appear surprised. “He did?” he said. “To whom?”
Lysabel waved him off, sad and defeated. “I do not think you know him,” she said. “He is a good man by all accounts, and under any other circumstances I am sure it would have been a welcome betrothal, but I am not interested.”
“Who is it?”
“The captain of my father’s guard. Ranse de Troyes.”
Dane let that sink in. “I know him,” he said. “You must remember that I am also the captain of my father’s guard, and de Troyes and I have served together from time to time. And Trenton knows of this?”
“He knows of the betrothal, but I do not know if he knows who I am pledged to. I’ve not seen him since my father made his decision.”
Now, it made sense as to why Trenton had run so fast to Matthew when he’d been told of Adela’s death. He was trying to stave off Lysabel’s betrothal with important information. Still, it also underscored the critical nature of the situation – people’s lives were at stake, in so many ways, and Lysabel had to be told about something that could very well change the course of her life, as well.
“Listen to me,” he said urgently. “There is something you should know. Trenton’s wife, Adela, has been killed in a fire. He has only just been told and he went straight to your father to tell him. Even now, my father is with your father in his solar. They are discussing the situation and if you have any desire to be with my brother at all, then I would suggest you make yourself part of that conversation.”
Lysabel’s eyes widened and a hand flew to her mouth in a shocked gesture. “Trenton is… he is…?”
“A widower,” Dane supplied softly. “And he is free to marry you.”
Lysabel stared at him as she realized what he was saying. Her first instinct was that Dane was lying to her for some reason because, certainly, the timing was all too coincidental. But she knew in the same breath that Dane was an honorable knight. He was a de Russe. There would be no purpose to him lying about such a thing.
Adela was killed in a fire.
She could hardly believe it.
“Dane,” she finally gasped. “Please… it this really true?”
Dane nodded. “It is. I swear it.”
She stood there, seemingly dazed. “God,” she breathed. “I should not rejoice in the woman’s death, but…”
He cut her off, again. She had to understand his sense of urgency. “She was evil, Lysabel,” he said. “Mayhap, it is a sin to be happy for her death, but I do not care – her wickedness knew no bounds. For every curse she hurled at my brother, and at the House of de Russe, she has paid for it and I am not sorry. You should not be either. Now, go to your father’s solar – and hurry.”
Lysabel didn’t say anything more. She had just heard perhaps the most important information she’d heard in her entire life, and Dane was correct – there was no more time for conversation.
She had to act.
With a shriek, she fled the solar with Dane on her heels, racing down the darkened corridor until they emerged into the dimly-lit foyer. The first thing Lysabel saw was Trenton, who looked at her as if he’d seen a ghost. His expression was wide and his cheeks were pale when their eyes met. The longing in his eyes was unfathomable, but by the expression on his face, he knew that she had been told about Adela. The fact that Dane was standing with her told him everything.
Dane hadn’t gone to find the privy, after all.
But Lysabel didn’t stop to talk to Trenton. She rushed right past him and straight into Matthew’s solar.
And that was when the real battle began.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
“Papa!”
Lysabel burst into Matthew’s solar as her father and Gaston stood somewhere over near Matthew’s cluttered table. When they both turned to her in surprise, she rushed to her father, grabbing hold of the man and nearly bowling him over.
“Papa, I just heard!” she cried, throwing her arms around his neck. “Trenton is free to marry me!”
Gaston had to reach out to steady Matthew so Lysabel wouldn’t topple him. She was nearly hysterical in her excitement, and Gaston turned to see that Dane, Cort, and Trenton had filtered back into the chamber after her, all of them standing in a cluster near the door.
That tense little group told Gaston everything he needed to know about Lysabel’s unwelcome appearance. Clearly, Trenton had run off to tell her what had happened and Gaston was so angry at that moment that he was close to throttling the man. When Gaston looked at Trenton with an expression to kill, Dane caught a glimpse of it and captured his father’s attention, shaking his head and pointing to himself. Gaston understood when Cort nodded and pointed to Dane, too. Then, it was all he could do not to beat the pair senseless.
“Get out,” he growled at them. “Get out and stay out. Wait for me in the foyer and if you stray one inch, I will hunt you down and you will be very, very sorry.”
Dane and Cort moved to leave, but Trenton didn’t budge. His attention was on Lysabel as she threw herself at her father, and Gaston knew as he looked at the man that there was no way he was leaving voluntarily. He was closer to Lysabel than he’d been since yesterday, and he wasn’t going anywhere. But Gaston tried.
“Trenton,” he said quietly, trying to turn the man for the door. “Please leave. I will be with you shortly.”
But Trenton held his ground. “If you want me out of here, you are going to have to physically carry me,” he said, meaning every word of it. “I am staying, Da.”
Gaston didn’t want a fight on his hands. Shaking his head in resignation, he turned back to Matthew and Lysabel just as the woman kissed her father on the cheek, joy beyond measure on her beautiful face.
“Oh, Papa, is it not wonderful?” she gasped. “Trenton and I can now be married! You have nothing more to worry over!”
Matthew was looking at his daughter gravely. “You do not belong here, Lys,” he said. “Please leave. Gaston and I are in discussion.”
Her happy expression faded. “About what?” she asked, looking between her father and Gaston. “What more is there to discuss? Trenton is a widower. I am a widow. There is no reason why we cannot be married now.”
Matthew removed her hands from his neck and turned her towards the door. “Please, leave,” he said quietly. “I will seek you when I am finished here.”
Suddenly, Lysabel was realizing that there was no joy or celebration in the room, certainly not to the extent that she was feeling it. Both her father and Gaston looked extremely serious and she took a step away from her father but she did not leave. She looked between the pair, men she had known and loved her entire life.
Men who held her fate in their hands.
God… why was no one being happy about this?
“Nay,” she said frankly. “I will not leave. I am tired of leaving the room when my life is being decided for me. Papa, forgive me for disobeying you but, in this case, I must. Why do you both look so serious? There is nothing more to be concerned with. Trenton is no longer married. He and I can now be together. Is that not cause for celebration?”
Gaston looked at Matthew, who was looking at his daughter. “Aren’t you forgetting something?” Matthew said quietly. “You are betrothed to another.”
Lysabel scowled. “De Troyes?” she said, incredulous. “I hardly know the man and in no way owe him any sense of obligation. You made the contract, Papa, not me. I had nothing to do with it.”
“It is still a contract.”
“You did not even tell him the truth of it!”
“De Troyes?” Trenton suddenly spat. “Is that who she is betrothed to?”
Gaston threw up a hand at Trenton to keep the man silent, but all it did was anger him. He stomped his feet and turned his back to the room, marching over to the solar door and slamming it in the faces of his broth
ers, who were still standing there and listening in.
He didn’t want an audience.
That slamming door was a rude gesture, one that nearly severed Cort’s fingers when the door slammed against the jamb. While Cort shook off his stinging hand, Dane was already planning his next move.
He’d heard enough.
Dane could hear Matthew’s strained voice inside the solar and he knew what he had to do. So far, Adela was dead because he’d gone to Penleigh, and now Lysabel was in her father’s solar, pleading for her happiness with Trenton because Dane had fetched her. He was sticking his nose into business that didn’t concern him, but it concerned Trenton, and that was enough for him. He only wanted to see the man happy and would do whatever he could to ensure it.
So what if he was acting like a nosy fishwife. He was making a damned good one. And if Trenton had any hope of being happy, then Dane had someone else to pull into the equation now. Leaving Cort standing by the solar door, he ran out into the bailey in search of the third piece to this complicated puzzle –
Ranse de Troyes.
The knight was involved in something much bigger than he realized and according to what Dane had just heard, he didn’t even know it. As far as de Troyes knew, he’d received an honorable proposal of marriage and he’d accepted.
But it had been far more than that.
Dane knew Ranse. As he’d told Lysabel, he’d know the man for years, since they both served in allied armies. He was a truly noble and kind knight, well-respected by everyone, and Dane thought the man would like to know the situation for what it was. Perhaps, it would help him make an educated decision about the rest of his life.
No man wanted to marry a woman who was in love with another, and Dane was fairly certain that de Troyes wasn’t an exception.
He had to find him.
The de Russe escort was still out in the bailey, with men milling about in confusion now that Trenton and Gaston had gone into Wellesbourne’s keep. As he ran towards the group, one of the de Russe sergeants approached him.
“My lord?” he asked. “Are we to wait here for Lord de Russe?”
Dane wasn’t exactly sure. He came to a halt, turning to look at the keep and knowing what was going on in the place, before finally shaking his head.
“Nay,” he said. “Disband the escort and put the horses away. Send the men to the troop house to wait for further orders.”
The sergeant nodded sharply. “Aye, my lord.”
As he turned away, Dane stopped him. “Where is de Troyes?” he asked.
The sergeant began to look around before finally pointing to a knight who was standing at the edge of the stable, near the gatehouse.
“I do not see him,” he said. “But that is Markus de Aston, one of Lady de Wilde’s knights. He might know.”
Dane thanked him and headed towards the tall, red-haired knight he’d indicated. When Dane came near, he caught the man’s attention with a wave.
“You, there,” he said. “De Aston, is it? I’m Dane de Russe. Gaston de Russe is my father. We’ve met before, but briefly. You served Benoit de Wilde.”
Markus nodding his head, sending away the two men he’d been talking with. “Aye, my lord,” he said. “It is an honor to see you again.”
Dane nodded shortly. He hated to sound rushed, but time was of the essence. “Likewise,” he said. “Can you direct me to de Troyes?”
Markus nodded. “I can do better than that,” he said. Then, he turned to the gatehouse, with several men on the wall near it, and emitted a piercing whistle between his teeth. When a group of them turned to him, he waved an arm. “De Troyes!”
A man separated himself from the group on the wall and made haste down to the bailey. As Dane watched, a muscular man with blond hair to his shoulders quickly approached, the light of recognition in his eyes when he saw Dane.
Dane smiled in return, but he found himself taking a second look at him, sizing up Trenton’s competition. Dane knew all about the man’s wife dying in childbirth last year, and as Lysabel herself had said, he was a good man. It wasn’t an unattractive match. As de Troyes came close, he reached out a hand to Dane.
“Dane,” he said fondly, shaking the man’s hand. “You are finally taking the time to talk to me, eh? You ran past me like a madman earlier.”
Dane snorted. “I had business to attend to,” he said. “But I am here now, and you must come with me.”
Ranse did, without hesitation, leaving Markus behind. He followed Dane, who was moving at an extremely fast pace in the direction of the keep. In fact, he started to run and Ranse ran beside him, keeping pace. There was a strange sense of urgency as they moved.
“Is something the matter?” Ranse asked. “What has happened?”
Dane wasn’t sure how much to tell him, but he had to tell him something. “I have been told that you are betrothed to Lady de Wilde.”
Ranse was running beside him, his long strides keeping pace with Dane’s short, swift ones. “Indeed,” he said. “It all happened rather suddenly.”
Dane grunted. “So I have heard,” he muttered. They were drawing into the shadow of the keep now, with the entry straight ahead. “There is a discussion going on now that concerns you, I am afraid. You will want to hear it.”
Ranse wasn’t sure what he meant. “Discussion?” he repeated. “About me?”
“Aye,” Dane said.
Silence followed as they passed through the entry, heading towards the solar door where Cort was still standing. Dane noticed that the solar door was open again, but from the angle of the entry into the chamber, they could hear the discussion quite plainly. They could hear Trenton, and Matthew, and Gaston, and on occasion, Lysabel’s high-pitched voice. It was clear that she was quite unhappy, as was everyone else in the chamber.
Coming just short of the open door, Dane turned to Ranse.
“Do yourself a favor, Ranse,” he said softly. “Listen.”
Puzzled, Ranse did as he was told.
When Trenton slammed the door of the chamber, he didn’t notice that it bounced against the jamb and swung back open again because he was too busy pacing, too busy agonizing over what he’d just discovered. As Gaston kept an eye on Trenton, who was close to throwing a tantrum, Matthew dealt with Lysabel.
For several long moments, he didn’t say anything. He was trying to organize his thoughts, trying to keep from losing his temper. As far as he was concerned, his daughter and Trenton were acting irrationally, like love-struck children. But the truth was that it wasn’t difficult for him to understand that. He knew what it was to be in love, to be so mad over someone that nothing else in the world mattered. But he was trying very hard to keep it all in perspective, hoping he could make them both understand his position on the situation. The death of Trenton’s wife didn’t solve the problem.
He had to make them see that.
“Lysabel, I will explain the situation again so that you and Trenton both understand it,” he said. “I made the contract and it is a valid one. I made it, and de Troyes accepted. I did not tell him about Trenton. I told you that I did not tell him because I did not want the memory of the man destroying any chances you and Ranse have for a pleasant life together. Ranse is a good man, with an excellent reputation, and he will be a fine and loyal husband.”
Lysabel was looking at her father in horror. “But I do not want him, Papa!” she cried. “My God… do you not understand any of this? Are you so blind to anything I want or need that you are truly ignoring everything I say?”
Matthew took a deep breath. “I am trying to provide you with a stable home life, something that Trenton has never been able to establish. Ranse, however, has proven himself a steady and attentive husband. You must understand that I am trying to do what is best for you both.”
“And the best for us both is marrying the woman I love to the captain of your guard so that you may keep her here, under your wing, forever?” Trenton said, his lips trembling because he was so angry. “Tell me
, Uncle Matthew, do you ever intend to let her out of your sight again? Or is marrying her to de Troyes keeping her here where you have control of her, always?”
“Trenton,” Gaston hissed at his son. “You will not speak to him with such disrespect.”
Trenton turned to his father. “Oh?” he said, a sarcastic tinge to his voice. “And what respect has he shown me during this entire ordeal? I have been treated like the lowest form of life ever since I told him of my feelings for her. I would have done better not to be honest about it and simply steal away with her, but because I respected the man, I told him. And what has it gotten me? Betrayal and disregard. It is as if the man hates the very sight of me for loving his daughter.”
Gaston couldn’t disagree with him, and he turned to Matthew rather beseechingly, knowing that this situation was going to get very bad, indeed, if they didn’t gain control of it.
But Matthew was looking at Trenton, not Gaston. The knight’s words had given him a dose of something he hadn’t been seeing – his own behavior. Matthew had always thought of himself as a fair man. That was how he’d earned the “White Lord” moniker, but in that instant, he could see that perhaps he’d been anything but fair with Trenton. With a sigh, he turned away from Lysabel and headed towards Trenton.
“Is that what you think?” he asked, his tone quiet. “Do you really think I have shown you betrayal and disregard?”
Trenton nodded without hesitation. “Haven’t you?” he asked. “I was your favorite de Russe son, someone you professed to love, until I told you of my love for Lysabel. Then, it is as if I became your worst enemy. I was honest with you and you turned on me. Do you have any idea how that feels?”
Matthew lifted an eyebrow. “And do you have any idea how it feels to know that you would destroy my daughter’s life, and damage the reputations of both houses, simply for your own selfish wants?” he fired back quietly. “You are not thinking of anyone other than yourself, Trenton. You do not see what your love for my daughter will do to all of us. If anyone has been betrayed, it is me. It is my family. Because you simply do not care what happens to us, so long as you get what you want.”