It was a big booty and Diamantha was rather astonished that he had spent so much money on her and Sophie, but Cortez didn’t seemed troubled by it at all. When Oliver returned with a barrel he had purchased from the spice vendor, he and Cortez carefully packed all of the newly bought items into the barrel that smelled of cinnamon and proceeded to roll it down the avenue towards The Bloody Cross.
As night fell, it was very loud and crowded inside the tavern that smelled strongly of unwashed bodies and roasting meat. People were eating and laughing, and Cortez was met at the door by James and Drake. It seemed that people liked to eat at the place but no one had money enough for the expensive rooms, so Drake had procured all four of the tavern’s sleeping rooms at a rather costly price. Cortez was in a spending mood and paid it without question.
With his knights picking up the big barrel and following him to a narrow staircase in the corner that led to the upper floor, Cortez took Diamantha and Sophie to the rooms upstairs, inspecting each room until settling on the biggest one. He escorted his wife and child into the airy, well-furnished room and his knights brought in the barrel, plus Diamantha’s two other satchels, the cage containing the pets, and Cortez’s saddlebags. As the knights left to get themselves and the men settled, Cortez shut the door behind them, shutting out the noise and smoke from the common room below.
It was suddenly very quiet in the big room and Cortez looked around. There was an enormous bed, another smaller bed in an alcove that was more than likely meant for a servant, and then back behind the master’s bed was a sectioned off area with a painted wooden screen that shielded a half-barrel bathtub and a chamber pot. In truth, it was quite luxurious and he grunted with satisfaction.
“Well,” he said, “it ’tis a better chamber than we have had this entire trip. In fact, it is very nice.”
Diamantha agreed. “It seems clean,” she noted, inspecting the bed and the coverlet and not finding the usual vermin on it. “I would hope it is for the price you paid.”
Cortez began removing his gloves, setting them on a table near the door. “It is of little matter,” he said. “You have put up with enough hardship on this trip. I will provide you with comfort when it is available.”
Diamantha smiled at him as she went to the big window in the chamber and opened the wooden panels, revealing a lovely view of the cathedral across the street with the fading sunset as a backdrop. Meanwhile, Sophie had opened her pet cage and a puppy, two kittens, and a fox kit had emerged. The puppy, excited to be out, wriggled his tail furiously as he jumped on Sophie, trying to lick her face. Both the kittens and the fox kit were curiously poking around, while the rabbit seemed content to stay inside the cage. Diamantha watched her daughter as she played with the puppy.
“That cage is too small for all of those animals,” she said, observing the group. “We will have to find something bigger or we will have to let the rabbit and fox go.”
Sophie heard her and turned around, her young face distressed. “No, Mama!” she insisted. “They are my friends!”
Diamantha sighed. “I know they are, sweetheart,” she said. “But they will soon grow big and will want to find other animals of their own kind to live with. You cannot keep them forever.”
Sophie’s lips molded to a pout. “But they are mine,” she insisted.
Diamantha wasn’t going to argue with her. She went over to Cortez, who had a big booted foot upon the chair next to the table, fussing with a strap on his left boot that had broken.
“Is it possible to find a bigger cage before we leave on the morrow?” she asked. “Those poor animals are very crowded. Or, we could simply set the fox and rabbit free tonight after she goes to sleep.”
He glanced up at her, his fingers still toying with the boot. “I shall find a bigger cage.”
Diamantha had a feeling that would be his answer. He’d rather hunt all night for a cage than see Sophie disappointed. She sighed faintly, putting a gentle hand on his dark head.
“You do not have to,” she said. “She will not hold you responsible if I let two of her pets go. They are wild animals, anyway. She cannot keep them forever.”
He finished messing with the strap and stood up. He was preparing to say something to her but, as he gazed into her sweet face, he ended up taking her into his arms instead. She was so soft and warm and compliant against him, that supple body, the memories of which made him shudder.
“I will find a bigger cage,” he assured her again, a twinkle in his black eyes. “For now, however, I am famished and I am sure you are, too. Shall we go down into the common room to eat?”
Diamantha shook her head. “Nay,” she replied. “It was so loud down there and I do not want to take Sophie into that atmosphere. It is not someplace she needs to be. May we eat in our room? It would be much better, I think. I can put her down to sleep early.”
Cortez nodded, kissing her on the nose, then the mouth, and utterly losing himself in her musk. Her taste was delicious and sweet, but before he lost himself too much, he pulled back with a groan.
“Another kiss like that and I shall not leave this room for the rest of the night,” he muttered, rubbing his nose against hers. “I shall bring something back up to you. Do you want hot water for a bath, too?”
Diamantha was collapsed against him, basking in his strength. She’d come to crave it. “That would be nice,” she said. “But please eat with your men if you want to. Sophie and I will eat here and then go to bed. I am sure you would like to spend some time with your men.”
He shrugged. “I see them every day.”
She grinned. “You see me every day,” she said, laughing when he made a face at her. “Please spend some time with your men. I am sure there is much you wish to discuss with them and you will not do it if I am sitting next to you. I do not need to hear all of your business. Rest assured that I will be here when you return.”
She was more astute than he had given her credit for. It was true that there were things to discuss with his men that he would not discuss around her, things such as their approach to Falkirk and how to recover Edlington’s body once they arrived. Things she didn’t need to, and probably didn’t want to, hear. But he had been so consumed with her the entire trip that he’d hardly had any conversations with his men other than those that pertained directly to their daily activities.
“Do you swear you will be here when I return?” he asked.
“I do.”
“You will not trick me and sleep elsewhere?”
She grinned. “I will not, I promise.”
He opened his mouth to reply but a squeal from Sophie cut him off. The rabbit had bolted out of the cage and Sophie was now in mad pursuit. With a grin, he watched the little girl chase the rabbit around the room as he shook out his gloves and put them back on again. Sophie was having a marvelous time chasing the rabbit, but the little bunny was terrified so Diamantha put a stop to it.
“Sweetheart, you frighten the rabbit when you chase it,” she said to her daughter, taking the girl by the hand and leading her over to the cage where the other animals were. She put the bunny back in the cage and sat her daughter on the floor. “Please play with them without chasing them. Be kind to little creatures.”
Sophie was undeterred as she took a piece of straw from the cage and teased the kittens with it. The puppy was wandering around beside her, sniffing the floor and looking for scraps. Cortez headed for the door as Diamantha bent over her daughter and the menagerie of pets. He was thinking it was all quite sweet; the running rabbit, the jumping dog, the squealing little girl, and his beautiful wife. It was the most wonderful thing he’d ever known.
“I shall return as soon as I can,” he told her. “I will have a meal sent up to you and something for the animals, too.”
Diamantha straightened up and looked at him. “That would be quite kind of you, my lord.”
There went that familiar wink again as he opened the door and shut it softly behind him. Diamantha went over to lock it, he
r thoughts lingering on the tall, handsome husband that was now hers.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Coven Castle
Four days after Cortez’s departure, Andres was still keeping his father in the vault of Coven, although the cell was considerably more luxurious than any vault in the country outside of the Tower of London. Most prisoners did not sleep on comfortable beds with servants to tend their every wish, but Gorsedd had just that. He lived like a king.
Andres was with him daily, sitting with his father for hours on end and listening to his father talk about family history. He kept relieving the death of his grandfather, over and over, pounding the horrible end into Andres’ brain and then cursing Diamantha for her family ties.
It was an exhausting experience for Andres, who was growing increasingly resentful that he had to remain with his father while everyone else continued on to Scotland. By the end of the fourth day of listening to his father rant, he’d finally had enough. Gorsedd was in the process of describing his mother’s torment with the de Velt raid on her ancestral home when Andres finally exploded.
“Enough!” he shouted, startling his father. “Great Bleeding Jesus, do you have any idea how foolish you sound? You are living in the past, old man. You are living the horrors that your family has already lived. When does it stop? Tell me that, Father – when does all of this horror and hatred stop?”
Gorsedd looked at Andres with a mixture of hurt and anger. “Your great-grandfather was impaled on a stake, alive, and….”
“I know!” Andres roared, putting his hands on his head in anguish. “I know he was impaled alive. That is all I have heard for days and days. But he is dead. The man who did that to him is dead. And you have had the gall to blame a woman who never knew her ancestor and who has probably never done a terrible thing in her life? That makes you a beast, do you hear? You are a foolish old beast living in the past and you do not care who you hurt with old hatreds. When are you doing to stop this? Don’t you realize what it is doing to you? Or me or Cortez?”
Gorsedd wasn’t used to Andres yelling back at him. The man had sat and listened to him rant for days and hardly said a word about it other than pleading for calm. Now, Andres’ irritation was unleashed and Gorsedd was offended by it.
“Your family is everything,” he pointed out angrily. “We have an obligation….”
“The family you speak of is dead!” Andres yelled, interrupting him. “Everyone you are speaking of is dead and no amount of talk can bring them back. But your family is alive. Your boys are alive. Cortez and I are your family and all you have done is hurt Cortez by blaming his wife for something she had no control over. Is that what you want? To hurt Cortez? The man adores you, Father. See what damage you have done to him with your hate-mongering. What do you think Mother would have said to that?”
Andres’ words gave Gorsedd pause. He fell back to regroup, trying not to think on Allegria de Bretagne’s reaction to his behavior but he couldn’t quite ignore it. Even in death, Allegria was a very strong personality and he could just hear her yelling at him in Spanish, and then in a language he could understand when he would plead with her. He could hear her yelling even now. Nay, she would not have been pleased with his behavior at all. She adored Cortez, her eldest son, and had been fiercely protective over him.
“You’ll not bring your mother’s memory into this,” he said to Andres.
But Andres would not be stopped. “I can and I will,” he said. “You know that what you did was wrong. You hurt Cortez and you hurt his wife. If Mother were alive, she would make you beg forgiveness. Well? What are you going to do about it?”
Gorsedd looked away, he had to. He could no longer face Andres because the man was correct, he was absolutely correct.
“Your mother is not here, so your question has no meaning,” he grumbled.
Andres pulled something out of his tunic and slapped it down onto the table next to Gorsedd. When the man looked over, he saw the pieces of the silver collar he had torn from Diamantha’s neck, the collar that had once belonged to Allegria. The woman had worn the necklace constantly, as much a part of her as anything else was. The sight of the collar had Gorsedd slipping into deep uncertainty.
“Mother is here now,” Andres said, pointing to the collar. “Look at this and tell her why you hurt Cortez and his wife. Let her tell you what a fool you have been.”
With that, Andres quit the cell, locking it before heading up the stairs to the ground level above. Gorsedd sat long after his son had gone, gazing at the pieces of the silver collar, seeing it around the neck of his wife and hearing her words in his head. That necklace embodied all that Allegria de Bretagne had been; strong, shiny, and beautiful. She was the love of his life, much as Cortez and Andres were. Family was everything. His family. Perhaps it was time to let the past die, after all.
Collecting the pieces of the collar, he held them to his chest and wept.
Penrith
It was like old times that evening at The Bloody Cross, minus Andres, whose presence was sorely missed. Cortez sat with James, Oliver, and Drake at a table that was wedged up against the front of the tavern, near the front door, and angled so that they could see everyone coming in through the front door before those entrants saw them. After having food and copious amounts of hot water sent up to Diamantha, Cortez sat in the common room with his men and enjoyed the meal and conversation.
The room was even more packed now than it had been when he’d arrived, full of travelers, merchants, whores, a few soldiers that belonged to him, and other soldiers that did not. He thought he saw a few men bearing colors he recognized, the colors of Baron Coverdale who controlled a good deal of land in the area, but he couldn’t really tell and he didn’t want to stare because staring was often taken as a challenge. So he listened to Drake tell stories about his wild brothers, laughing appropriately when Drake’s humor harangued out of control. He knew for a fact that Drake was the wild brother although the man managed to hide it well.
“Will Andres be joining us at some point, Cortez?”
It was a question from James. In private, Cortez permitted his knights to address him by his given name because that was the level of trust they had between them. These men were as close to him as Andres ever was, men who had been with him through both good and bad times. He took a long drink from his cup of wine that was heavy and tart, and smacked his lips.
“Hopefully,” he said. He eyed his men a moment before continuing. “I have not spoken to you about my father’s behavior since it all happened. I suppose I can tell you that I do not know much more about it than you do. You heard what my father said and even when I tried to speak with him afterwards, he still adhered to those views. Andres remained behind at Coven Castle not to be my father’s jailer but to be his caretaker. According to my father’s majordomo, it would seem my father’s mind has been failing him as of late, which possibly explains his behavior. In any case, Andres is there to see for himself. It is his intention to catch up to us in a week or two, but I suppose time will tell.”
The knights digested the information. It was Drake who finally spoke. “I knew Rob Edlington for years and I never heard that Lady de Bretagne was related to Jax de Velt,” he said what they were all thinking. “A fearsome and dark heritage she bears.”
Cortez nodded. “One hundred years later, one would hope that people have forgotten about his atrocities but evidently that is not the case,” he said. “Seeing how my father reacted, that is more than likely knowledge we should not speak of outside of this circle.”
The knights agreed, sipping their wine in silence, until James suddenly snorted into his cup. The other three looked at him curiously.
“What do you find humorous about that?” Cortez asked.
James shook his blond head. “It is not the fact that she is related to de Velt that I find funny,” he said. “I was thinking of my great-grandfather, Christopher de Lohr, and how the man must have bargained with de Velt for the marriage contract.
Can you imagine being in the room when England’s two greatest warlords face off on the subject of their children? A marriage, no less? By God’s Bloody Rood! Oh, but to have listened in on that conversation!”
Cortez’s lips twitched. “De Lohr must have faced the man in full armor, even for a contract negotiation,” he said. “I cannot imagine I would have sat in a room with de Velt and not have had every bloody weapon I owned strapped to my body.”
The knights snickered. “I would have done it from the other side of a closed portcullis,” Oliver muttered. “It is common knowledge that my parents came from two families that hated each other for generations, and their marriage was shocking enough. But marrying into the House of de Velt… I cannot imagine what de Lohr was thinking.”
“Mayhap their children were in love,” Drake said. “Wasn’t it his daughter who married de Velt’s son?” When Cortez nodded, Drake continued. “Then that settles it. The man probably had no choice. How could he deny his daughter if she loved a de Velt offspring?”
“Easily,” James said. “He could have sent the woman to a convent or beat the foolish notion out of her. One way or the other, marrying into the House of de Velt, especially back in their generation, must have been an appalling prospect.”
No one could disagree. As Cortez opened his mouth to continue, the front door to the tavern opened and two very large, very well armed knights entered. In fact, they were knights of the highest order, bearing Coverdale tunics and weighed down with a myriad of war implements. One was very tall and one was very broad about the shoulders. They looked rather out of place in the filth and levity of the tavern, with people eating and laughing around them. They looked like they were about to step onto a battlefield. The pair stood by the door as they evidently scouted out a place to sit.
Brides of the North Page 135
