Avalyn watched the banners flap, noticing that the breeze was growing stronger. It usually did so before a storm rolled in. Over her shoulder, the boys were still leaping on their father and Barton, although William had managed to make it to his feet. She loved to watch them play. But the baby was hungry, demanding her attention, and she mounted the steps to the keep. As she neared the middle of the flight, the sentries on the wall shouted the arrival of a visitor.
Avalyn usually paid attention to the visitors in and out of Guerdley Cross; politics and the throne were still very much a part of their life and with their wealth and manpower, there was always someone of significance coming and going. Pausing on the steps, she watched the incoming rider astride the massive brown warmblood. There was nothing strange or unusual about the rider and William was already dusting himself off in preparation for greeting the visitor. Bordering on disinterest, Avalyn resumed mounting the steps. But something suddenly made her stop; she froze a moment, wondering why she was unable to continue and why the visitor had struck her as being oddly familiar. It wasn’t so much the horse, tack or pennants. It was the size.
Her heart suddenly began thumping madly in her chest. It can’t be! she told herself. Impossible! Face pale, eyes wide, she turned back to the visitor just as William reached him. She saw her husband take a stumbling step backwards as if startled. When the rider removed his helm, she could see why.
It was Brogan.
Had she not been holding Willow, she more than likely would have collapsed out of sheer surprise. She could hardly believe what her eyes were telling her. Unable to move much less think, she simply stood there, holding her daughter and struggling not to break down for all to see. William was speaking to Brogan; she could see his head moving. There was an exchange of some sort. And she very clearly saw when Brogan’s eyes fell on her. She felt his gaze like an arrow right through her chest.
It simply can’t be! Overwhelmed, she bolted into the keep, calling for Noe or Thel as she went. She was shaking so badly that she was positive she was going to drop the baby. When the ladies didn’t come quickly enough, she didn’t trust herself to mount the stairs and went into the solar. She plopped on the nearest chair as if unable to stand any longer.
Willow was fussing softly with hunger. Avalyn heard her daughter but her mind was in the bailey where Brogan was now speaking with William. She still could not comprehend what she had seen, still having difficulty grasping that the man was actually here. But why was he here? The baby’s fussing grew louder and without thinking, she unfastened the top of her surcoat and pulled her shift aside. Willow snuggled up to her mother’s swollen nipple and suckled contentedly. Under normal circumstances, Avalyn wouldn’t have dreamed of nursing the baby in a public room. But, at the moment, she wasn’t thinking at all. She was stupefied.
Her hands were shaking; in fact, her entire body was shaking. As she gazed down at her daughter tugging at her breast, it began to occur to her that although she was startled to see him, she did not feel a huge resurgence of emotion as she would have expected. It had been five years since she had seriously given the man any thought. More than anything, she felt relief that he was alive. But the overwhelming love she had once felt for him, the undying devotion that had driven her to the brink of ruin, was faded. She had found such contentment and happiness with William that the love she felt for Brogan, though it would always be there, was nothing more than a fond memory.
The shaking in her hands calmed and she stroked her daughter’s brown hair, seeing much of William in that round little face. She knew that, eventually, William would seek her out. He was probably more rattled by Brogan’s appearance than she was, terrified that he was about to lose his wife to a man who had captured her attention more than any other. But she felt an overwhelmingly strong need to convince him that his fears were unfounded. She loved her family, and William, too much to harm them. Brogan was a warm, distant memory and nothing more.
She was almost completely calm by the time she heard the front door creak open. She could hear soft voices and identified William’s right away. His voice always brought her such serenity, the calm manner in which he spoke reassured her like nothing else. His was the first face she saw when he peeked his head into the solar. She smiled at him, letting him know that she was all right. His eyes were wide on her as he stepped into the room.
“Avalyn,” he began haltingly, his face pale. “We have a visitor. It seems that….”
“It’s Brogan,” she said before he could torture himself any more with an explanation. She pulled the dozing baby off her breast and covered herself up. “I know; I saw him. Where is he?”
At a loss for words, William turned to look over his shoulder. As he stepped into the room, Brogan followed on his heels.
Deep blue met with golden brown. For a moment, they just stared at each other. Brogan was as she had remembered him, only a little older, with flecks of gray in his golden-brown curls. He looked more shaken than she did. It was an odd standoff as they studied one another, a million unspoken words filling the air. Their expressions varied from curious to almost painful, and the silence swelled to a splitting capacity. Avalyn could feel the pinpricks of tension as she gazed at him, calmly waiting for him to speak.
What seemed like hours of silence was only a few short seconds. As Brogan finally opened his mouth, the front door suddenly slammed back on its hinges. The sound startled the adults and Avalyn actually jumped. As she recovered her composure, three young boys rushed into the solar like a stampede of cattle.
Dru rushed to his mother with Boone on his heels. They began to clamor over who would hold the baby next, arguing and very quickly starting to throw punches which Avalyn deftly stilled with the magic of a mother’s threat. William managed to reach out and grab Ty before the boy could wreak any damage; as big as he was, he had been known to bowl people, and things, over.
“Gentle men,” William said sternly. “You will behave. We have a guest and I’ll not have the man spread tales of the wild animals I have raised.”
Dru and Boone looked at the massive stranger, their round faces and wide blue eyes curious and possibly a bit apprehensive. Ty, standing in his father’s grasp, also looked at the man; when their eyes met, it was a startling moment.
Avalyn watched Brogan’s face as he gazed for the first time upon the son he never knew he had. It was like looking in a mirror, for Ty most definitely possessed his father’s features and size. There was no way to deny the obvious. Brogan’s features tightened, but still, he said nothing. Only Ty, obviously to what was going on around them, was able to speak.
“My lord,” he greeted politely. “I am sorry if we disturbed you.”
Brogan stared at the boy, his eyes widening. For a moment, Avalyn thought he might burst into tears. She remembered his dead son from long ago, wondering if Ty looked anything like Shaw d’Aurilliac. Her nervousness was back, for she knew what the lad had meant to his father those years ago. No matter what shock they all felt as his appearance, she didn’t want the man to make a fool of himself.
“Brogan,” she said, capturing his attention. “We are surprised and honored by your visit. What brings you to Guerdley Cross?”
Brogan tore his eyes away from the lad, fixing on Avalyn once again. But his attention inevitably moved to the two boys standing next to her and the baby in her arms. He gestured to them.
“These children are yours?” he asked, his voice strangely hoarse.
She nodded. “This is Boone Inglesbatch, Drury Inglesbatch, and the Lady Willow Inglesbatch. And that young man in my husband’s grasp is our eldest, Ty Aubrey.”
Brogan looked back at Ty again, rampant emotions racing across his features. He fumbled to speak, not recovering very well. One hand still held his helm while the other gestured to a large wooden bench near the lancet window.
“Might… might I sit, my lady?” he asked in a weak voice. “It has been long journey.”
She nodded graciously, whispering
to Boone to take his brothers from the room. Dutifully, as Boone was very much like his father, he grabbed Dru’s hand and gestured to Ty to follow him. The three boys quit the room without another word. William remained by the door, alternately watching Brogan and watching his wife. He wasn’t about to go anywhere. When the boys were well out of earshot, Avalyn spoke.
“It has been a long time, Brogan,” she said softly. “To what do we owe the honor of your visit?”
Brogan was clearly having trouble speaking; he’d been in control when he had come through the gates, even up through William’s announcement that he and Avalyn had been married for years. But the sight of a young man who looked the exact image of his late son Shaw had him reeling.
“I came home to see to my mother’s burial,” he struggled to form coherent sentences. “I saw St. Alban. He told me that William had come to London looking for me. So I came.”
“It was many years ago that William went looking for you.” Avalyn looked down at the baby, sleeping against her breast. “I am sorry to hear about your mother. I pray that she did not suffer in her death.”
“Nay,” he said, watching her as she cradled the baby and feeling a strange tug to his heart. “She went peacefully. Since my step-father died a couple of years ago, St. Alban had been taking care of her. He took good care of her until the end.”
Avalyn nodded faintly. Then her head came up, her golden eyes fixing on him guardedly. “Why are you here?”
He lifted his big shoulders, fidgeting with his helm. “St. Alban told me that William came to London looking for me those years ago,” he said. “He told me that you had sent William to make sure that I had not killed myself in despair. He also told me that Aubrey had died on your wedding night. To be truthful, I did not even know if I would find you at Guerdley Cross. I took a chance that you would still be here, still lady of the manor as Aubrey’s widow. But I did not know that… that you had married William.”
“I tried to find you when I went to London,” William said from his position near the door; his voice was quiet, as steady as he could manage. “No one knew where you had gone. Not even St. Alban.”
Brogan looked over at him. “That is because I did not tell anyone. I simply… left.”
The baby stirred in her sleep and Avalyn motioned for William to take his daughter. William put the babe on his shoulder, gently rocking her, as Avalyn returned her attention to Brogan. Her expression was serious.
“It is true that I sent William to London to make sure you were all right, given the rampant emotions of our separation,” she said quietly. “But William was unable to locate you and we did not know what had become of you.”
“I realize that,” he said. “I left England altogether. I could not stomach to be here any longer.”
“Did you return to Saxony?”
“Aye.”
Avalyn began to understand. The question of Brogan’s disappearance those years ago had haunted her; she had been concerned that he had ended up in the Thames as he almost did the night they met. Satisfied with his whereabouts over the past several years, her thoughts then shifted to the purpose of his visit. “Then why did you come back to Guerdley Cross? Did you come to see if I still loved you? If I would still marry you?”
He wasn’t offended by her natural question; he merely lifted his big shoulders again. “Nay,” he said. “I assumed that a woman of your beauty and wealth would not remain a widow for long. Moreover, I cannot marry you. I married myself a few years ago. I have two small daughters.”
A good deal of the tension surrounding his visit vanished with that statement. “Truly?” Avalyn realized she was very glad to hear that. “And Lake? How is she?”
He smiled faintly, that same handsome gesture that used to turn Avalyn’s limbs to mush. “She is a beautiful girl of ten years on the verge of womanhood and I am already fighting off suitors,” his smile turned gentle. “My wife is the only mother she has ever known. They adore each other.”
Tears sprang to Avalyn’s eyes and she stood up, moving over to the bench where he sat. As she sat beside him, her hand came to rest on his arm. For the first time since his appearance, her guard was down and the tension in her limbs had disappeared. Suddenly, she was looking at a very old, and very dear, friend.
“I am so thankful to hear that,” she murmured. “I have so longed to know what became of her. And you have two more daughters?”
He nodded, gazing into the face of the woman he had loved so well, once. “Her sisters are Eve and Aglethe. I am afraid it is to be my lot in life to have a house full of beautiful daughters and armies of suitors at my doorstep.”
Avalyn laughed. “No doubt,” she sobered, studying his strong features. “And your wife; where did you meet her? Is she a good woman?”
“She is the best,” he said quietly. “We met in Calais, after I had left London with Lake. She was the daughter of a merchant I purchased some goods from. Her name is Lorette and it was she who encouraged me to come to Guerdley Cross.”
“She did?” Avalyn was surprised. “She is in London, then?”
He nodded. “Seeing to my mother’s shop. Lake is with her. Lorette thought it would be best for me to come and see how you had fared all of these years.”
Avalyn’s smile returned. “She sounds like a wise and generous lady,” she said softly. “But I do not understand why she encouraged you to come and seek me out?”
He sighed, patting her hand as it still rested on his arm. “I met her when I was dealing with the devastation of your loss. She knew how I felt about you. More than anything, she believes that I thought I had abandoned you. Though I’ve not spoken of you in years, when we returned at the event of my mother’s death, seeing the bread shop again brought back many memories. Then when St. Alban told me what had happened, Lorette thought I should come to Guerdley just to make sure you were all right.”
Avalyn gazed at him, her smile broadening. She squeezed his arm gently. “Just as I sent William to make sure you were all right all those years ago,” there was sweet irony in that realization. “I thank you for your concern. As you can see, I am quite well and quite happy. And I see that you are the same.”
He nodded, looking over at William as the man gently rocked the baby. “I could not have selected a better husband for you,” he said. “If it could not be me, then I am glad it was someone who loved you as much as I once did.”
Avalyn looked to William as well. “You were the one who taught me to love, Brogan,” she said. “Having learned the art with you, it was easier the second time. William has been a wonderful husband and father.”
Brogan simply nodded, feeling better than he had in a long time. Their lives had come full circle, though not with each other, and each of them was blissfully content. He patted Avalyn on the hand again and stood up. She rose beside him.
“Everything happens for a reason,” he said. “It looks like we both achieved glory even if it was with different people. But know this; I do not regret anything. If I had it to do all over again, I would still do it exactly the same way.”
She smiled in agreement, moving to William and their infant daughter. Inglesbatch shifted the baby, putting his arm around Avalyn’s shoulders. Brogan just stood there and looked at them both, many thoughts rolling through his mind at the moment. More than anything, he felt satisfaction.
“I just wanted to make sure you were all right, Avalyn,” he said quietly, knowing there was nothing more to say. “I feel much better knowing you are in William’s hands.”
She smiled faintly. Then she moved to him, reaching up to kiss him gently on the cheek. “And I feel much better knowing you are in Lorette’s. Please give her my thanks and my fondest wishes. And Lake… you will hug her for me every night, will you not? She does not remember me but that does not mean I cannot still give her a gentle piece of me, every day, through you. Will you do this?”
“Of course.” He was starting to feel emotional again, knowing how much he loved Lake and his
family. “I owe you and Lake everything, Avalyn. You saved my life that night on the Thames, but it was Lake who kept me going after we were separated. Were it not for you, I would have none of the joy and richness I have now. I suppose that is what I wanted to say to you most of all. I wanted to thank you for showing me that life was something worth living and that there are indeed good people in this world.”
Tears sprang to her eyes again. She nodded at him as he begged his leave, his gaze lingering on William a moment, conveying silent thanks for everything the man had done for him. He was almost to the door when they heard his soft voice again.
“You will tell Ty who is father is some day, won’t you?” he asked, his hand on the old iron latch. “I should like him to know if you feel it appropriate.”
Avalyn didn’t answer; she looked at William. The man had loved Ty since the moment of his birth, when he first held the squirming infant and swore he would honorably raise him. William was the only father Ty had ever known, and William could not have loved the boy more had he been of his own flesh. Avalyn would therefore leave the decision up to William.
Inglesbatch’s gaze lingered a moment on the massive Germanic soldier with the heavy accent. He knew that Avalyn would not respond out of respect to him.
“He will know,” William finally said. “When the time is right, he will know. But this I vow; your son will have what you never knew. He will inherit the Guerdley Cross baronetcy and vast wealth. He will also be a knight of the realm, the finest knight this land has yet seen. This I can do for him where you could not.”
A knight. Brogan could feel the emotions again stirring within him. His son would have what he had been denied. William was again doing him a favor he could never repay. He smiled at Inglesbatch.
Romantic Legends Page 32
