“I am rousing the countryside against you,” he declared. “You will not be laughing when I join forces with Netherghyll and even Skipton and run you out of Shadowmoor. If I were you, I would swiftly leave because if you remain, it will only mean your death. I am giving you fair warning.”
Daniel lifted his eyebrows. “Netherghyll?” he repeated slowly.
Bramley nodded firmly. “That is what I said,” he snapped. “I am going there now to seek the Lord of Netherghyll’s assistance against you and your unlawful holding of Shadowmoor. We will chase you out of West Yorkshire altogether!”
Daniel was greatly amused by Bramley’s plan. “Netherghyll, you say?”
Bramley snapped. “Are you deaf?”
Daniel scratched his chin casually. “I may be deaf, but you are certainly dumb,” he said, looking at Caston. “The man said Netherghyll.”
Caston shook his head with disgust, focusing on Bramley. “You wanted to know who I was,” he said to the man. “I am Sir Caston de Royans of Netherghyll Castle. My father is Baron Cononley and we are allies of Shadowmoor and Daniel de Lohr. If you set one foot on my father’s property, he will send his entire army after you and I promise you that you will not survive. Then we’ll bury your body and the bodies of all your men and erase any trace of you from this earth. If Henry asks, we will say we have never seen you. Is this in any way unclear?”
Bramley was taken aback. He was also quite embarrassed. He looked at Brynner accusingly. “You did not know who this man was?”
Brynner was looking at Caston with horror. “I have never seen him before,” he said. “I told you that I did not know those at Netherghyll.”
“You should have known!”
“I told you that I did not!”
Now they were starting to argue between then, a shameful thing, indeed, but Bramley was unable to control his embarrassment. He began to shout, and shove, and the sword he had in his hand was waving about wildly. Threatened, Caston and Daniel unsheathed their broadswords, as did Caston’s men. They were waiting for the charge.
With the Netherghyll soldiers all assembled, those who had accompanied Daniel and those who had remained in the livery, the odds against Bramley’s men were even. As people in the street began to scatter, sensing a very big fight coming, Bramley marched in Daniel’s direction and swung his sword near the man’s head. Infuriated, Daniel grabbed the man by the collar and hit him right in the face with the hilt of his sword.
After that, the battle was on.
People screamed and ran as the two sides came together in a great clash. With Bramley on the ground, he was getting trampled but the problem was that Daniel wouldn’t let anyone get to him to help him stand. He stood over and on Bramley as la Londe and de Witt charged him, trying to get to their liege, but Daniel refused to move.
Caston was at his side and between the two of them, they very effectively contained la Londe and de Witt. But then the daggers came out when the broadswords proved ineffective and when Daniel wasn’t standing on Bramley, he was using his feet and fists to dislodge the dagger that la Londe held. Caston disarmed de Witt and hit the man in the head hard enough to knock him unconscious. With de Witt down, Caston turned his attention to la Londe.
The shaggy Bramley knight was overwhelmed by Daniel and Caston, who went at him with a vengeance. At one point, Bramley tried to get to his feet when Daniel was distracted with la Londe, but when Daniel saw Bramley trying to rise, he kneed the man in the head and sent him back to the dirt, dazed. With Bramley and de Witt down, Caston subdued la Londe and Daniel went after Brynner.
Brynner was not armed but he was fighting a fairly good fistfight against a Netherghyll soldier. Daniel came up behind him and threw him in a headlock, dragging him to the outskirts of the battle. Squeezing the man with his big arm, he rumbled into his ear.
“You evidently did not hear me the first time when I told you that if I saw you again, I would kill you,” he said. Then, he released Brynner by throwing the man to the ground. As Brynner struggled to stand up, Daniel snatched a sword from the nearest soldier and tossed it to Brynner. “Now you are armed so this is a fair fight. Let us get on with this because you are hardly worthy of my skills or my time.”
Brynner stood there, looking at Daniel with more contempt than Daniel had ever seen. But behind that contempt was a great deal of sorrow and shame, a maelstrom of emotions that weren’t necessarily directed at Daniel. It was simply the turmoil that was being battered about, like flotsam, in Brynner’s soul.
“There was a time when I was unbeatable with a broadsword,” he told Daniel. “I should have probably told you that before you gave me a weapon.”
Daniel lifted his sword offensively. “It does not matter,” he said. “I will make short work of you no matter how great you think you are.”
Brynner snorted, with some irony. He looked at the sword, a short-blade sword usually used by men-at-arms. It had been the first time he’d held a sword since he’d given his up those years ago. Since he’d sold it, just like his horse, to pay for his drink. Now that he held it in his hand, he felt somewhat different. Memories swamped him.
“I know you believe I am a drunken fool and you are not far wrong,” he said, “but there was a time when I served Okehampton with my sword. That was years ago, but I was quite good.”
Daniel was about to charge the man but something in his tone made him pause. “You served at Okehampton?” he asked, unable to conceal his doubt. “Hugh de Courtnay?”
Brynner nodded. “I did, indeed,” he said, holding up the sword to inspect it. “I am a knight, like you. I was one of de Courtnay’s captains. I had prestige and money. I had a great deal. I was even part of the contingent that de Courtnay sent to support Richard Marshal against Hubert de Burgh a few years ago when de Burgh was accused of squandering royal money. So you see, de Lohr, I have not always been as you see. I was great, once.”
Daniel had to admit that his opinion of Brynner changed slightly after that speech. The House of de Courtnay, rulers of Okehampton Castle, were a very fine family and known for their military acumen and the conflict he had spoken of, against Hubert de Burgh, was something his uncle had mediated in. If Brynner had been part of that situation, then that gave him some credibility. Of course, he could have been lying, but Daniel didn’t think so. There was something in the man’s eyes that suggested he was being honest, perhaps for the first time in a very long while. Daniel frowned.
“Then what happened to you?” he asked. “What happened that you should drown yourself in drink and ally yourself with the likes of Bramley?”
Brynner features were full of irony. “It does not matter any longer.”
“It might make a difference in whether or not I ram my broadsword through your belly. Tell me what happened to you.”
Brynner eyed him a moment before shrugging. He was fairly certain he couldn’t hold off Daniel if the man was truly intent on killing him and, to tell the truth, he wasn’t all that afraid to die. But something in holding a sword again, any sword, brought back memories he thought he’d long buried.
“A woman,” he said after a moment. “She was to marry me but chose another on the eve of our marriage. Life was not worth living after that. Now that you know, call me pathetic and do whatever it is you plan to do. But know that, once, I was a good knight. I could have given you a good fight under the proper circumstances.”
Daniel lowered his sword completely. The look on his face straddled the line between irritation and disbelief. “A woman?” he repeated. “You let yourself fall apart over a woman?”
“Aye.”
At least he was honest about it. As the battle went on around them, Daniel found himself in the midst of a very odd conversation with a man he had sworn to kill, for Liselotte’s sake. The man had murdered his own father. But the conversation with Brynner had opened Daniel’s eyes to a great many things.
In fact, for the first time in his life, he understood the pain behind Brynner’s s
tatement – not being able to have the woman he loved. Daniel thought of Liselotte and what he would do if he was unable to have her. It was then that he began to realize that whatever he was feeling for her, the strength of what was in his heart, surely must have been love.
It could be nothing else.
From the wanderer who swore there was no woman on earth that he would ever fall in love with, it was a shocking realization. Confusion began to swamp him.
“Then you must have loved her a great deal,” he finally said.
Brynner nodded, still looking at the sword. “I did.”
Daniel wasn’t sure what to do now. The man had confessed his demons to him, or at least the root of the issue, and Daniel was torn about the situation. He was also swept up in his own personal turmoil. Perhaps Brynner had reasons for being the way he was and, to Daniel, there was always something redeemable about a man. Especially a knight. Perhaps in loving the man’s sister, Daniel could understand what had driven Brynner to this point in his life. Surely there was no greater sorrow than a love unreturned. But his indecision to deal with Brynner at the end of a sword changed when Brynner suddenly charged him.
For a drunkard, he was very fast, and Daniel barely had time to raise his weapon before Brynner was on him. In that split second, Daniel ducked down so that Brynner passed over the top of him and, in the same movement, brought his sword up into Brynner’s soft belly. He felt it when his sword penetrated Brynner’s torso, cutting through the man, cutting deep. Brynner collapsed, mostly on Daniel, and the two of them tumbled over.
Daniel immediately withdrew his sword as Brynner lay in the dirt and the rich red blood began to flow. It trickled in a steady river from Brynner’s body, mingling with the moist dirt of the street. Shocked with the rapid turn of events, Daniel knelt over Brynner as the man gazed up at the sky, his eyes wide and staring.
There wasn’t much Daniel could say to the dying man but he found that he was angry at him for having charged. “Why did you do that?” he demanded. “It did not have to be this way.”
Brynner swallowed, labored, and looked at him. “You were going to kill me, anyway.”
Daniel sighed sharply. “I do not know,” he said. “Mayhap I was. But mayhap I was not. We were talking… you made me feel pity for you and your plight. A man can always change, l’Audacieux. Why did you not give yourself that chance?”
Brynner swallowed again. “My… my father’s death,” he mumbled, fading. “It really… it was an accident. He tried to charge me and I grabbed his dirk. I did not… intentionally kill him. You will tell my sister that.”
Daniel exhaled slowly, with regret. “Why did he charge you?”
“Because I… I wanted him to give Shadowmoor to Bramley.”
“But why?”
Brynner’s eyes moved to the sky again, as if seeing things that Daniel could not. A man with a perpetual scowl on his face for the past few years, ever since Maud left him, now his expression held an element of calm.
“Because I wanted a winery in France,” he said, breathless now that his life was ebbing away. “I was promised that, you know. Shadowmoor for the winery. But mayhap… mayhap finally having some peace will be the better bargain. You did me a… a favor….”
With that, he exhaled one last time and his eyes closed. Daniel stood over the man, feeling sorrow and regret that he did not expect to feel. But something Brynner said stuck with him… I was promised a winery….
Clearly, the man was made an outlandish promise by someone who wanted something from him, badly enough that he would prey upon the man’s weakness to get what he wanted. The same man who couldn’t beg, borrow, or buy Shadowmoor, the same one who had starved them to the point of hopeless poverty. Everything had happened because of Bramley’s greed.
Infuriated, Daniel stood up, his sights set on Bramley. He was going to beat the man senseless once and for all, giving him a beating he would never forget. Men like Bramley understood two things – their own wants and violence. That was literally all they understood. But Daniel understood a good deal more than that. He pushed through the men who were still wrestling, still fighting, and finally spied Bramley over near the edge of the skirmish.
Bramley was dirtier than usual, covered with mud from the road he had fallen upon, and there was a trickle of blood coming out of his nose. Daniel threw men out of the way to get at him and by the time Bramley saw him, it was nearly too late. Bramley screamed and de Witt was there, having recovered from being knocked out, and the man charged at Daniel. Daniel dropped low, missing de Witt’s first strike, and came beneath the man with a crushing blow to his chin. De Witt, already dazed from having been knocked senseless, fell over and was trampled by men who were still fighting. Daniel reached out for Bramley and grabbed the man by the hair.
The punches began to fly. Daniel was so angry that his emotions were fueling his fists, and he beat Bramley down to the ground with his heavy blows. Bramley tried to protect his face but the more Daniel pounded him, the more dazed he became until he could no longer protect himself. Blood spurted from a broken nose and cut lips, but still, Daniel kicked and pummeled him. He finally picked the man up and tossed him over the side of the livery fence, coming around to find his victim barely stirring in the horse dung. As Bramley flirted with unconsciousness, Daniel stood over him.
“Now,” he said, his lips white with rage. “This is your final warning. You will forget about Shadowmoor, and Netherghyll, and anything else you have your eye on in this region. You will go back to Bramley Castle and you will stay there. If I see you again, make no mistake – I will kill you. That is a promise. For the chaos you have caused because of your greed and selfishness, you deserve nothing less. When my uncle arrives, I am going to send him to Bramley Castle and let him deal with you. You will be lucky if you survive him. Is this in any way unclear?”
Bramley was on his belly, trying to rise to his hands and knees. “I… I will kill you, you bastard,” he breathed, spitting out two teeth. “I will tell Henry what you have done.”
It was the wrong thing to say. Daniel kicked the man, as hard as he could, in the belly and Bramley went down, rolled up into a ball and suffering a world of pain. But Daniel didn’t care and he didn’t look back. He picked him up and tossed him over the other side of the livery fence so he was back in the street again so his men could get to him. Daniel marched out of the livery yard, his gaze finding Caston.
The Netherghyll knight had a bloodied lip but he was smiling, thinking this all to be a good deal of fun. But his smile vanished when he saw Daniel.
“Gather your men,” Daniel told him. “We will finish our business here and return to Shadowmoor. If any of Bramley’s men continue to fight, kill them. I am finished with this bastard and all he stands for.”
He sounded furious and Caston’s brow furrowed. “What happened?” he asked, looking around. “Where is Bramley?”
Daniel simply nodded his head in the direction he had come from. “He is in a world of hurt right now,” he said. “I will tell you about it later. But if I could impose upon you to have your men collect Brynner l’Audacieux’s body for transport back to Shadowmoor, I would be grateful.”
Caston’s eyebrows lifted in surprise. “He is dead?”
Daniel nodded. “He charged me,” he said. “I had no choice. I was defending myself. But it was a reckless move, something I am coming to think was not an accident.”
Caston nodded in understanding, wondering what the full story was behind it. He would find out later. For now, Daniel didn’t seem to be in a talking mood and he didn’t blame him. He began to shout to his men to stand down, to withdraw from the skirmish, and as he and his men settled down the fighting, Daniel headed back to the seamstress’ stall where he had left Liselotte.
He didn’t relish telling her that her older brother was dead, at his hand no less, but it had to be done. Even if she had no use for the man, he was still her brother. Surely there were still some familial feelings involved at
his passing. But when he finally found Liselotte, cowering at the rear of the seamstress’ stall, he couldn’t have been more wrong about her reaction.
He would swear, until the day he died, that the relief on her face was a palpable thing.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Canterbury Castle, Kent
One week later
The wind was blowing off of the sea to the north, creating great and blustery conditions around the castle and town of Canterbury. It was cold and damp, as a squall had passed through only minutes before. Everything was sopping, struggling to dry out as the clouds cleared and the sun appeared. In the bailey of Canterbury Castle, a man dressed in heavy robes and a woolen scarf around his neck emerged from the big square keep and headed for the gatehouse.
He looked like he was running, sloshing through the mud and glancing over his shoulder every so often as if looking to see who was following him. He’d escaped the keep, really, before his wife grew wise to the fact that he was out in the elements, because he’d heard tale from a servant that there was a messenger at the gatehouse, a royal messenger, and he wanted to get to the messenger before his wife discovered he was outside.
He loved his dear wife and he knew that she was only concerned for his health, but sometimes her constant attention annoyed him terribly. She kept him sequestered in the keep, mostly against his will because he was recovering from a terrible illness he’d caught last winter. Now, he felt like a prisoner, finally free of his jailor, as he made his way to the gatehouse.
But soldiers saw him moving and the call went up, alerting the gatehouse that the Earl of Canterbury was on his way. David de Lohr, Earl of Canterbury, was within twenty feet of the enormous gatehouse when a knight suddenly emerged from the guardroom that was located just inside the gatehouse. Quickly, the knight ran to him, splashing through muddy puddles as he went.
The de Lohr Dynasty: Medieval Legends: A Medieval Romance Collection Page 184
