Fearsome Brides

by Kathryn Le Veque

Daniel simply lifted his shoulders. “He is having more fun down here,” he said. “Let him enjoy himself a little while longer.”

  “And he cannot enjoy himself with his wife and child?”

  Daniel took her free hand, kissing it. “Of course he can,” he said. “But the man cannot belt out a chorus of Tilly Nodden, can he? It will wake the baby.”

  Liselotte fought off a grin, watching her eldest son as he stomped around on a tabletop nearby, singing the song of the cross-dresser, Tilly. “He reminds me a good deal of you at this age,” she said. “You were so very lively, Daniel.”

  “I still am.”

  Liselotte laughed softly, patting his cheek. “Aye, you are,” she said. “Forgive me, sweetheart.”

  Daniel turned to his wife, grinning. They sat there for some time in comfortable silence, enjoying their wine and enjoying the entertainment that the drunken knights provided. It was good to see such joy with men who faced life and death on a daily basis. Daniel was growing weary as the hour grew late, thinking on retiring, when the door to the hall suddenly lurched open, spilling forth a collection of knights.

  Since all of the knights at Canterbury were already in the hall, the sight was a curious one. Still, it didn’t take long to figure out who they were; Daniel and Liselotte turned to see three familiar faces entering the hall, bundled up against the cold May weather. Emerging from the shadowed doorway and into the light and warmth of the room, Gallus, Maximus, and Tiberius made their presence known.

  “Gallus!” Daniel, surprised, called over to them as he rose to his feet. “Maximus! Welcome to my humble home!”

  Gallus and Maximus headed in his direction but Tiberius, lured by the song and dance and drunken revelry, headed over to Chad and the others. Daniel hugged Gallus, and then Maximus, as the brothers sat heavily, with exhaustion, across the table from him.

  “You did not tell us you were coming,” Liselotte said. “I would have ordered a great feast prepared in your honor. As it is, we have venison and rabbit, for my sons went hunting today. It is plentiful but not elaborate.”

  Gallus, his face sporting a few days’ growth of stubble, waved her off. “You are always the consummate hostess, Lady de Lohr,” he said. “Your hospitality is well known. We will be quite happy with whatever you can provide.”

  Another loud voice joined in the chorus of Tilly Nodden and those at the table looked over to see Tiberius with a cup of wine in hand, already singing loudly with Chad and the other men. Daniel shook his head, snorting.

  “Tiberius has that revelry streak in him,” he said. “I am not sure who it comes from, but someone in the de Lohr bloodlines loved a good party. I have that streak, as does Chad, as does Tiberius. My wife was just commenting on how lively I used to be.”

  “You still are,” Maximus said, accepting a cup from the nearest servant. “You are as lively as a man half your age.”

  Daniel dipped his head in gratitude. “You have my thanks,” he said. He took a deep drink of his wine, smacking his lips. “So you have come to help celebrate the birth of Chad and Alessandria’s daughter, have you? That is well and good. She is a fat, healthy baby and we are very blessed.”

  Gallus scratched his cheek as Maximus cast him a glance. Daniel and Liselotte should have suspected there was more behind their visit than simply to help celebrate, but neither one of them noticed that, between the de Shera brothers, there was something on their minds. Their expressions spoke volumes.

  “Aye, you are,” Gallus replied. “My best wishes and congratulations on the next generation of de Lohr offspring. She is healthy, you say?”

  Liselotte was the one who answered. “Very healthy,” she said proudly. “And big, too. She was a very big girl when born. It took poor Aless two days to bring her forth, but have no fear – Aless is well and so is the child. Some babies simply take longer than others to be born, ’tis all.”

  Gallus focused on the woman. “She was big, you say?”

  “Aye, verily.”

  “Then she was not… born early?”

  Liselotte shook her head. “Nay,” she said. “She was right on time. Why do you ask?”

  Gallus sighed heavily, looking at Maximus, before hanging his head and shaking it. Maximus eyed his brother a moment before replying. “Because Chad and Alessandria were only married in September,” he said. “That would mean this child was conceived before they were married if, in fact, she was not born early, as you say. I will be truthful, my lady – we have come because it seems that Chad had to marry our cousin, if you get my meaning.”

  Liselotte’s eyes widened and she looked at Daniel, who remained calm. Suddenly, the mood of the conversation took an odd and sobering turn. Daniel was not only surprised by it, but he was offended as well.

  “I get your meaning,” he said steadily, some of the joy out of his expression. “Do you not think that has crossed our minds, also? We can count, too.”

  Maximus didn’t waver. “I realize that,” he said quietly. “But we came to ask Chad the truth of the situation. It has occurred to us that Chad may have forced himself upon our cousin given that he was her escort, alone, for several days, and therefore behaved not as an escort should.”

  Daniel was becoming annoyed. “Are you serious?” he demanded. “You have not spent the past several months around them, Max. You have not seen how they adore each other, so even if Chad did something unseemly, as you say, it matters not now. They love one another and they have a beautiful child as a result. Did you wait until you were married to bed your wife?”

  Gallus and Maximus nodded emphatically. “I can truthfully say that I did,” Maximus said. “So did Gallus and Ty. We all did.”

  Daniel pursed his lips wryly. “Then you think you are a better man than my son, who may or may not have demonstrated his love for Aless before they were properly wed?” He shook his head reproachfully. “Mayhap you waited until you were married to bed your wife, but you, Maximus, have a bastard from another woman and we all know that Tiberius was no saint, either. Many women and their angry fathers will attest to that. And you have the gall to come to my home accusing my son of forcing himself upon a woman before he properly wed her? I am shocked to say the least.”

  Maximus backed down, ashamed, as he lowered his gaze, but Gallus spoke up. “We are not accusing him of anything, Daniel,” he said quietly. “We simply want to know the truth.”

  Daniel was becoming angry. “Why?” he wanted to know. “Will it change how you feel about him? Will you punish him for touching her? How dare you come to my home acting as if neither you nor your brothers have sampled the flesh of a woman you were not married to. You were not virgins when you met your wives, any of you.”

  He was rightfully heated and Liselotte finally entered the conversation, putting her hand on her husband’s, trying to calm him down. An irate Daniel was never a good thing.

  “If what you say is true, then it really is of little matter,” she said calmly. “He and Aless love each other a great deal. They always have. What has you so perturbed that you would ride all the way from Coventry to ask Chad such a personal question?”

  Gallus was trying not to feel like a fool. He looked at Maximus, who simply lifted his big shoulders. It had been their intention on coming to Canterbury to champion their young cousin, but perhaps they were really being foolish, after all. Perhaps it really didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. Gallus kept looking a Maximus for support, who finally lifted his shoulders again, this time with irritation, and refused to say anything. He kept his gaze on his wine. Gallus sighed heavily.

  “Because she is our family and we look at her as we do any other female member of the family,” he said. “If a man did this to my daughter, I would kill him. If a man did this to your daughter, you would do the very same thing. Aless’ brother is an idiot, her father cared nothing for her, so Max and Ty and I had appointed ourselves her protectors in a sense. Can you not understand, Daniel? Someone in the family should care for the girl and we ha
ve made it our business to do so.”

  Daniel understood, somewhat. His manner softened. “So you have appointed yourselves the defenders of her honor.”

  “Something like that.”

  Daniel’s gaze lingered on Gallus for a moment, looking to Maximus who kept his gaze averted. He sighed. “That is noble, but unnecessary,” he said. “Chad is her defender now. What are you going to do if he tells you that your concern is none of your affair? Will you demand satisfaction?”

  Gallus was coming to feel even more foolish now. “I will not put myself between a husband and a wife, of course,” he said, eyeing Lady de Lohr, who was still gazing at him anxiously. “I know Chad loves her and that she loves him. Hell, I love Chad. We all do. But an early baby… he took liberties that he should not have.”

  Daniel moved to pour Gallus more wine. He had cooled down a bit now that he understood their motives. “It happens,” he said simply. “He married her. He did the right thing. Fortunately, he loves her. You should be satisfied with that.”

  As Gallus stewed on the situation, wondering if he’d made an arse out of himself with foolish concerns, Chad broke away from the group of singing and drinking knights and made his way over to the feasting table where his parents were sitting with Gallus and Maximus. The first thing he did was throw himself on Maximus’ back where the man was sitting, bear-hugging his head and practically smothering him.

  “I love you, Max,” he said, drunkenly and exaggeratedly. “I love you dearly, my hairy friend. When are you going to shave your beard?”

  Maximus was trying to pull himself out from underneath Chad’s arms. “I will shave my beard when you cut your hair,” he said, finally pushing Chad away. “Go embrace Gallus. He has been waiting for you to do so.”

  Chad happily focused on Gallus, who put up a hand just as Chad threw his arms around his head and shoulders. Gallus found himself blinded as Chad hugged his face.

  “Gallus,” Chad muttered, kissing the man loudly on the cheek. “Thank you for coming. I have a new daughter. She is beautiful. Have you seen her yet?”

  Gallus wiped the slobbery kiss off his cheek. “I have not,” he said, eyeing Daniel, who was shaking his head in resignation at Chad’s drunken behavior. “I should like to congratulate you, Papa. I bring my wife’s best wishes as well.”

  Chad grinned broadly. “I am a papa now,” he said, looking to his father. “Do you hear? I am a papa just like you.”

  Daniel fought off a grin. “Aye, just like me,” he said. “Sit down before you fall down.”

  Chad pushed himself in between Gallus and Maximus, shoving the brothers apart. “She is a beautiful lass,” he said. “She has red hair like her mother. I think she is going to look like my Aless. I have the most beautiful wife in all the land. Don’t you agree?”

  Gallus looked at Chad, finding it very difficult to be angry with the man. Chad was a man with a true and noble heart; he knew that. They all did. And if he bedded the woman he loved before he married her, was it really Gallus’ concern? Of course it wasn’t. But in his defense, Gallus’ only concern had truly been for Alessandria. Knowing how his uncle and cousin had treated her, he felt compelled to stand up for her.

  But it was a ridiculous stance. He knew that. Now that he sat with Chad and saw the man’s joy, he knew it was ridiculous. He, therefore, sighed heavily to Chad’s question and lifted his cup.

  “She is a de Shera,” he said, forcing a smile. “Of course she is beautiful. And I am pleased that she has found the love of her life in you. I could ask for nothing more.”

  Chad was back to kissing him again and Gallus fended him off. “She is my heart and soul,” Chad said, putting his hand over his chest as Gallus stood up and went around the other side of the table to sit next to Daniel. “My Aless… she is the most wonderful woman in the world. I was so fortunate to have found her. Thank God for Henry’s terrible determination to hold her hostage. I would have never met her had I not been told to go to Newington Priory. It was destiny!”

  “Aye, it was destiny,” Gallus agreed from across the table. “Had it not been for you, Henry surely would have taken her. She would have found herself married to someone else, more than likely.”

  That brought Chad’s ire. “I would have found her and killed the man!”

  “How would you have known?”

  That brought Chad to a halt. He cocked his head, trying to reason through his alcohol-hazed mind. “You have a point, dear Gallus,” he said. “I would have never known. I would have been forced to marry someone else and my beautiful daughter would not have been born. It would have been tragic.”

  Maximus, still sitting next to Chad, put his hand on the man’s shoulder. “You needn’t fear,” he said. “You found her and she is yours.”

  Chad nodded, stealing Maximus’ cup and taking a long drink from it. “She is mine,” he declared. “She has been mine since the beginning. Since the moment I took her from Newington, she was mine. I knew she was mine the moment I saw her sitting in the tub in the knight quarters, trying to keep that silk dress over her body to protect her modesty. She was hiding all of that beauty from me.”

  Gallus and Maximus looked at him in shock. Daniel, given what they had only recently discussed, could see what they were thinking. He put out a hand to catch their attention.

  “It is not as he makes it sound,” he said, his voice low. “Henry’s men were in the keep so I had Chad take her to the knight quarters to hid her from the Six. Unfortunately, there was a fire whilst Aless was taking a bath and Chad and the other knights were forced to put it out. She was caught in a less than desirable position but my wife was there the entire time. Nothing unseemly happened. It was simply… unfortunate.”

  Gallus and Maximus understood somewhat but Chad was smacking his hands on the table. “Nothing unseemly happened,” he repeated his father’s words rather exaggeratedly. “But she was mine even back then. I knew it. We fled to Lady du Bexley’s home and I told Lady du Bexley that she was my wife. I did not want Lady du Bexley to think ill of my Aless.”

  Gallus was looking at him from across the table, his gaze intense. “If you told Lady du Bexley that Aless was your wife, then I am assuming the two of you shared a room.”

  Chad nodded before he even had time to think about the implications of his answer. “It was that night that I realized I loved my Aless,” he said sweetly, putting his hand over his heart. “I loved her then and my love for her has only grown. Are all men so fortunate, Gallus?”

  Chad didn’t realize that, around him, his father and Gallus and Maximus were adding up the situation, coming to suspect what may have happened at Lady du Bexley’s manor. The timing on the birth of the child was perfect and Daniel cast a long look at Gallus, wondering how the man was going to react. His answer wasn’t long in coming.

  “Not all men,” Gallus said. He decided to simply come to the point because Chad’s tantalizing hints were making him mad. He’d come all the way from Coventry to discover the truth, even if the truth really didn’t matter at this point. “Since you shared a room with my cousin, can I assume that you behaved properly, Chad?”

  Chad looked at him. He may have been drunk but he wasn’t a complete fool, at least not yet. Through the veil of drunkenness, it now began to occur to him what Gallus was asking and it further occurred to him that his parents were listening, too. It was a very personal answer Gallus was seeking but one that, Chad suspected, he already knew the answer to.

  There was no use in denying it.

  Chad and Alessandria had figured out fairly late in her pregnancy that the child had been conceived on that momentous night at Lady du Bexley’s manor. The baby grew big, very fast, and even the midwife had commented on it. But it didn’t occur to Chad that others might wonder about the timing of the baby as well. After all, his beautiful baby girl was born less than nine months after their marriage. Therefore, he supposed there was no use in denying the obvious. Men could count the months, after all.

&nb
sp; “I behaved like a man in love,” he finally said. “And Aless behaved like a woman in love. She loved me, then, too. Draw your own conclusions, Gallus, but whatever you think, and whatever outrage you may feel, know that my daughter was conceived in love. Not many children can make that claim. Not many parents can, either.”

  With that, he stood up and staggered back over to the drinking, singing knights, leaving a subdued table in his wake. Daniel, knowing that Gallus and Maximus had their answer regarding the child conceived before marriage, looked to the brothers.

  “Well?” he said. “He did not lie to you. He was honest. Are you satisfied?”

  Maximus looked at Gallus; it all depended on him. Gallus was the one with the strong will, the powerful sense of right and wrong, at times, sometimes ridiculously so. Certainly, Maximus had his own opinions and if he really disagreed with Gallus, the man would listen to him. Most of the time, he agreed with him. But in this case, Maximus would defer to Gallus. He had seemed to be the one, from the beginning, most willing to take up the defense of Alessandria. As the Earl of Coventry, that was his duty as well as his right.

  But Gallus was looking at Daniel, not oblivious to Maximus’ gaze. His expression was one of resignation, of acceptance.

  “He loves her,” he said. “If anyone understands that, I do. Love is the most powerful force of all, over kings and loyalties and even escort duties. You can read his love for the woman all over his face. Everything about him screams it. Aye, I am satisfied, Daniel. I apologize for ever questioning him.”

  The men were friends again and Daniel put his arm around Gallus, hugging him, as he went to pour them all more wine. All was well in their world, now with a new generation of de Lohr having been born. Liselotte, having watched the entire exchange, was full of relief and joy for her son as well as for her husband and the de Shera brothers. She knew that their motives had been true. Alessandria was very fortunate to have so many noble men to watch out for her.

  More than that, she had a fiercely protective mother-in-law. As Daniel and Gallus and Maximus drank to baby Katrine’s health, Liselotte caught a flash of something she’d not seen in some time.