Daughters of the Dagger 03 - Amber (23 page)

Lucas felt all the air leave his lungs. He had never thought he’d be hearing these words coming from his mother’s mouth.

“Nay!” he cried out, feeling the blood rush to his head. The pounding in his ears was louder than drums and
he fell to his knees and hid his head in his hands. Amber rushed to him and covered him with her body, but he stood and just looked over at the priest, wanting to strangle the life out of him with his bare hands. “How could you do this to me, you bastard?”

“Lucifer, you are in
a church. You’d better watch your language or you may be struck down by the hand of God,” Father Armand warned him.

Lucas
gently pushed Amber to the side and took two steps toward the priest, his hands balled in fists, his body trembling as he walked.

“All these years of pretending you took me in as a
n orphan and that you didn’t know either one of my parents. All these god-forsaken years of putting me through a life of hell just to get your revenge on a man who used to be your best friend. You coveted everything he had and you wished you owned it and would do anything to try to get it.”

“Lucas, please,” said Amber, touching his arm, but he continued forward toward the priest as the man took a few steps backwards.
He moved toward Becket’s shrine and the wall of homage, the standing wooden partition with the huge ornate cross hanging upon it.

“You were the one to name me Lucifer, you told me
. Now I understand why. Because you wanted me to be the pawn that you could shape into your minion, and do all your dirty deeds for you. You made me sell fake relics and in the meantime you were stealing blind the villeins and keeping all the tithes for yourself rather than giving them to the poor. You took their food and their coin and even their seed to grow crops. You are a miserable, deceitful, despicable man and I hate you for trying to turn me into you!”

“I didn’t
steal from the villeins, I assure you.” He looked over to the archbishop. “I gave all the tithes to the church and to the poor.”

“I can vouch that that is a lie,” said Amber. “I saw the wealth in your personal room. You even kept my dowry for yourself.”

“They’re lying,” said the priest. “They’re lovers and that’s why they’re saying this. They’re protecting each other.”

“I saw the wealth in his room as well, archbishop.” Sister Dulcina walked forward, and Lucas hadn’t even seen her come in. “Thanks to the tip Amber gave me before she left on pilgrimage, I went
to your room when you were out one day, Father Armand, to find it locked. Since I am the abbess I have all the keys. I let myself into your chamber. I was stunned in disbelief by what I saw. That was the reason I accompanied you on this journey. Because I came to tell this to the archbishop myself. I am only too ashamed of myself that all these years I let you have control of not only the entire monastery but me as well.” She looked back to the bishop. “Everything they say is true, archbishop. Father Armand is the one to blame, not Lucas.”

“Why, Father, did you name me Lucifer?” asked Lucas. When the man didn’t answer, Lucas shouted out, “Tell me, dammit!”

“You were named Lucifer because I was overtaken by the devil,” the priest ground out. “He was the one to make me do these things and he was the one to make me lay with Lady Veronica in the first place. The devil is to blame and you are naught but his spawn. Yes, that is why I named you after him, Lucifer.”

“Stop calling me that name. You know I hate it.”

“Lucifer, Lucifer, Lucifer,” the priest taunted him and Lucas felt the rage inside him swell and he could no longer hold back his anger. He reached out and punched the man hard on the jaw, sending him stumbling backwards into the wall of homage in front of the shrine of Thomas Beckett. The large iron cross attached to the standing wooden partition rattled as he fell against the wall. The cross banged against the rosaries and trinkets that pilgrims and worshipers had left attached to the cloth covering the partition in honor to the patron saint.

Then Lucas pulled the sword from his side and probably would have stabbed him through the heart if his mother hadn’t called out his name.

“Lucas, my son, don’t do it.” He stopped with his arm raised and just looked down at the frightened eyes of the priest looking up at him. “Do not spill blood on sacred ground.” His mother came forward and touched him gently on the shoulder. “I love you, Lucas and don’t want you to live with the guilt of killing your own father even if he is naught but a deceitful liar and a thief. Put down the sword and let’s go home,” she told him. “I want to stop living in the past and live in the present just like you said. I have much to make up to you, and I have regretted abandoning you every single day of my life. Please, Lucas, don’t do it. I love you, son.”

In that moment something happened to Lucas to change his idea of never wanting to be loved. It felt damned good to hear his mother say she loved him, and als
o that she’d called him son. He knew she was right, and though he wanted more than anything to kill the bastard, he wouldn’t. He understood now why his mother abandoned him, and though he didn’t agree with it, it was behind them now. He wanted the chance to know his mother and dammit to hell he was going to get it.

“You’re not worth the time or energy of sticking my sword through you, though there is nothing else I’d rather do right now,” he told the priest, throwing his sword to the ground.
It clattered against the ornate marble floor, echoing loudly throughout the cathedral. “You are the one going to Hell for what you did. You’ll be the one that is excommunicated and sent to rot in the dungeon if you’re not beheaded first for all the crimes you’ve committed - not me.”

He turned then and
gathered his mother up into his arms, hugging her tightly to his chest. She cried and kissed him and hugged him back, and for the first time in his life he’d felt the love of a mother. His mother.

“Lucas, behind you!” cried out Amber, and Lucas raised his eyes to see Father Armand lifting Lucas’
s sword and rushing to stab Lady Veronica in the back.

“This is all your fault for speaking up
, bitch.”

Lucas threw his mother to the side for her safety, and stepped in front of the priest
to protect her, jumping out of the way of his own sword, but getting nicked in the arm in the process. He heard Amber scream his name from behind him and also the weeping of his mother. He lunged forward and threw his body into the priest in anger, managing to get him to drop the sword. They both went crashing into the wall of homage in the process, falling to the floor.

From
his position on the floor he could see the wall wobbling, and the iron cross clanging back and forth from the impact. Then the wall toppled over under the weight of the heavy cross, and as it came crashing down upon them, Lucas rolled out of the way just before it covered Father Armand’s body.

“Guards, get that off of him
, quickly,” shouted the archbishop.

Lucas pushed himself up to a sitting position, his hand covering his wounded arm that was bleeding profusely onto the cathedral floor.

It took half a dozen guards to remove the wall of homage from Father Armand, and when they did, the huge iron cross was laying atop him. They pulled it away to reveal the large gash across his forehead. His eyes were opened and bulging out, and Lucas didn’t have to wait for the guard’s announcement, as he knew that Father Armand – his father – was dead.

“Lucas, are you alright?” Amber rushed over to him and helped him to his feet. His arm was wounded and he was bleeding everywhere. She didn’t hesitate to rip off the bottom of her black robe into a strip and tie it around his arm. “Looks like I’m going to have to stitch you up again.”

He reached out with his good arm and laid it over her shoulder. “Thank you, sweetheart.” Then he looked over to his mother. “Are you alright, Mother?”

Lady Veronica walked over and reached out and kissed him on the cheek. “I have waited a lifetime to hear you call me Mother. And yes, I am fine since you risked your life to save me.”

“The Regal
e ruby is safe,” said one of the guards, holding it up for everyone to see.

“The Regal
e ruby was never in danger,” the archbishop relayed to the crowd.

“I don’t understand,” said Sir Romney. “Lucas stole it and the priest almost escaped with it, so how could it not be in danger?”

“Lucas?” The archbishop looked over to Lucas and motioned toward the ruby. “Would you care to have the honors?”

“I would love to
.” Lucas walked over to the guard and took the ruby in his hand. He held it up high for all to see, then threw it to the ground, smashing it into a million pieces at his feet.

Shouts went up from the small gathering
and a few of the bystanders talked amongst themselves.

“Lucas what have you done?” cried his mother.

“Don’t worry,” Lucas told her. “That was never the real ruby in the first place.” He pointed to the stand that usually held the mock ruby by the visitor’s shrine, high atop the tomb of the saint. “There is the true Regale ruby, right where the archbishop and I placed it this morning.”

“Lucas, I don’t understand,” said Amber. “So then … you never stole the ruby in the first place?”

“I thought about it,” he answered. “A lot, actually. But decided against it in the long run. I had it in my hand and had just decided to put it back and walk away when the archbishop walked in and caught me.” He walked over and took Amber’s hands in his. “Amber, I could not bear the thought of living without you, and that’s why I never stole it. Even if it meant giving up everything Father Armand promised me for stealing the ruby and bringing it back to him, I couldn’t do it. You mean more to me than any possession.”

“But why did he want you to do it in the first place?” she asked.

“Because he wanted to hurt me,” relayed the archbishop. “We were once friends but his jealousy of my good fortune caused him to do many evil things trying to attain what he wanted.”

“I am one of those evil things,” Lucas told her.

“Nay, don’t ever say that,” said Amber. “You are not a devil like you think, but rather just a fallen angel. I love you, Lucas, and I hope someday you can learn to love yourself as well.”

“Amber, you have taught me so much about myself since I’ve met you. And though my thoughts were at one time misled, I am starting today to make decisions of how I want to live the rest of my life. And I want you by my side, no matter if I have a castle and lands or just a hovel of wattle and daub. Would you accept that, sweetheart?”

“We both have lived with nothing, having given up everything when we were training for the Order,” she told him. “So this will be nothing we’re not used to. I have all I need as long as you are by my side, Lucas. That is all I will ever need.” She reached over and kissed him then.

“Amber, I have something I want to ask you with everyone in this cathedral as my witness. Will you marry me and by my wife, my little dove? I … I love you.”

Lucas had never thought he’d say these words to anyone, but since meeting Amber he’d learned a lot about love, as well as a lot about himself.

“That would make me the happiest girl in the world,” she replied. “Yes, Lucas, I will marry you and be your wife.”

Congratulations were exchanged with everyone. Then the guards prepared to take Father Armand’s dead body from the cathedral.

“Ironic that the thing that killed him was a cross,” said Mirabelle. “And he was a priest. Mayhap I shouldn’t be in here at all.”

Sir Romney laughed, “Aye, we may all be in danger of the walls coming down.”

“Father Armand was killed by God for the things he’d done,” said Lady Veronica, as they all viewed his dead body as it passed by them.

“Nay,” said Lucas feeling the guilt about to consume him. “I killed him.”

“How can you say that?” asked Amber. “It’s not true.”

“I’m the one who pushed him into the wall in the first place or the cross never would have fallen.”

“You did it to save me,” his mother reminded him.

“I should be dead as well. That wall was meant to fall on me but I moved out of the way. I am only glad this didn’t fall and break in the process.” Lucas stepped over the iron fence surrounding the shrine, and stood upon the dais to reach up and grab the true Regale ruby. He stepped back over the fence and held the ruby out to the archbishop. “I think it should be placed back in its secure spot before anyone gets the idea to steal it again.”

“I agree,” said the archbishop. “
And I think I’ll have to assign another guard to the secret shrine, as you’ve showed me it wasn’t safe to begin with. Lucas, will you do me the honor of putting it back?”

“I would love to.” He felt good that the archbishop trusted him enough to
ask him to do this, after Lucas had almost tried to steal it in the first place. He was sure the archbishop asked him in front of the others to prove his trust and so that they would trust him as well. He was a changed man now, and he knew that by the archbishop’s actions he was also showing everyone that he’d forgiven Lucas for his sins.

Lucas
made his way through the narrow passage that led to the secret shrine in back of the sacristy. He nodded to the guard who sat watch, and pushed the door open and entered, closing it behind him.

Candle
s burned brightly, lighting up the small room. He stopped suddenly in surprise to see an old woman kneeling in front of the shrine in prayer.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t realize anyone was in here.”

“Come in,” she said without turning around. “You obviously have a reason for being here.”

“I do,” he said, walking up to the dais. “I’ve been instructed by the archbishop to replace the Regal
e ruby back where it belongs.”

“Let me feel it,” she said, holding out her bony fingers.

“Lucas thought at first that perhaps she was going to try to steal it, but then he saw her clouded eyes and knew she was blind.

He held it out for her to feel, and she ran her fingers across it. Then she
ran her hand up his arm, feeling the piece of Amber’s robe tied around his wound.

“You are injured,” she said.

“Aye.” He took the ruby and stepped up onto the dais and replaced it in its proper holder.

“That is the robe of a nun tied around your wound. Someone loves you very much.”

He just looked at her and shook his head, wondering how she could know that cloth was part of a nun’s habit. “That’s right,” he said. “Amber loved me enough to give up being a nun.”

“Amber?” she asked. “That is an odd name.”

“Her mother named her after the jewel in a dagger.”

“A dagger like this, perhaps?” She pulled a dagger from the folds of her cloak and held it up in the firelight for him to see.
It had an etched, ornate design upon the two-toned metal with a large amber gemstone in the center of the hilt.

“Why yes,” he sai
d reaching out for it, “that looks like the exact dagger she described to me.”

The old woman pulled it away from him quickly. “Do you love her as well?” she asked.

“I do,” he admitted, “though I never thought I’d love anyone in this lifetime.”

“Prove it to me,” she told him.

“What?” he asked, not knowing why the old woman would even care.

“Tell me one thing you’ve done that proves you love her.”

Lucas looked up to the ruby, thinking of everything he’d been through. He’d given up everything he’d always wanted by not stealing the ruby. He could have gone ahead with the plan and attained many treasures just by living the life Father Armand wanted him to live. But he’d given it up because he knew that Amber was all that mattered to him and all he really wanted after all.

“I cannot prove the love I hold for her. Neither do I deserve her. I have a tarnished past that I am not proud of, but Amber’s love has shown me that riches and wealth are nothing if you hold no love in your heart. She is all that matters to me, and if I had known her years ago, I am sure I would have lived my life differently.
”

“Spoken like a true knight.”

“I do l
ove Amber. More than life itself. And I would give my life in a split second to secure that she’d be taken care of and happy for the rest of hers.”

“That’s good enough,” she said with a nod of her head and handed the dagger to him.

“Why are you giving me this?” he asked.

“It is to ensure she get
s that true happiness you just spoke of. Now go to her and never stop loving her for as long as you live.”

Lucas turned the dagger over and over in his hand, just lookin
g at its beauty. He couldn’t get over the fact this old woman would just give him such an expensive gift. He walked toward the door slowly, then realized he hadn’t thanked the old woman for the dagger. He turned back to thank her - but she was gone.

His heart jum
ped. The door to the room was still closed and he was standing in front of it, so he didn’t know how she’d disappeared so quickly or for that matter, where she’d gone.

He ripped open the door and looked at the guard. “Who was that old woman and where did she go?” he asked.

“What are you talking about?” asked the guard.

“The old woman who was praying in the chapel. Who was she?”

“No one’s been in the chapel all morning. That is, no one but you.”

“But she was
here, I saw her. She gave me this dagger.”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Is there a secret exit in the room? Another way that someone could get in and out?”

“Nay. And if there was, I’d think you’d be the first to know, as you were the one trying to steal the ruby in the first place.”

Lucas just shook his head and headed out to the main part of the church, staring at the dagger in his hand as he walked.

Amber spotted him from across the room and came running over. She looked down to his hand and squealed.

“You found my dagger!” He reached out and gave it to her.

“Aye
, Amber, and I want you to have it.”

“Where did you find it?” she asked.

“A blind old hag gave it to me … but then she disappeared. I don’t know,” he said, shaking his head. “Mayhap I am going crazy.”

“Nay,” she said with the biggest smile covering her face. “She has a habit of disappearing, as I’ve heard
that same story from both my older sisters. This is the dagger my mother gave me as a child. And this proves to me, Lucas, that we were meant to be together.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Don’t you see?” Her eyes lit up and her whole face seemed to glow. “Lucas, finding my dagger again proves to me that you are my true love.”