Authors: Netherworld
“It was
my
fault!”
William opened his mouth to shut them both up but Aimery threw a punch at his brother and they both went down, tumbling over a table and crashing to the ground. William began yelling at them, moving to pull them apart, as Keller just stood there and rolled his eyes. He realized, to his surprise, that he was very close to grinning at the foolery of the Ashby-Kidd brothers. He’d seen them pull this kind of idiocy before and he’d always yelled at them, frustrated at their behavior. But at this moment, all he could feel was amusement, especially when Wellesbourne began tossing them about.
“Enough!” William roared, grabbing George by the neck and throwing him off his brother. “Sweet Bleeding Christ, Aimery, get off the damn ground. What is the matter with you, behaving like that?”
Aimery was furious as William yanked him to his feet. “George only backed off the pursuit of d’Einen because of me,” he insisted angrily. “It is not right for him to take the blame when it was clearly my fault.”
Keller put up his hands. “Shut your mouths, all of you,” he snapped. “God’s Bloody Rood, what a stable of knights I have. Throwing punches and demanding to be blamed for a failure? I have half a mind to lash you to the vault and beat you all senseless. Yet as much as it would give me hours of endless joy to do that, I must refrain. The fact of the matter is now that d’Einen has escaped us, we must locate him. That is our task at hand.”
George and Aimery managed to calm themselves, but it was a struggle. William slapped George on the head and directed the young man across the chamber, well away from his brother. When William was sure they weren’t going to charge each other again, he turned to Keller.
“As I told you, I have sent scouts out to pick up d’Einen’s trail,” he said quietly. “But I must ask this question; do you truly care if the man is returned? If he is gone, then the trouble he creates is gone, including the threat to your wife and her sister. Nether will be a more peaceful place, one would hope.”
Keller, too, was calming after his initial rage. The antics of the Ashby-Kidd brothers had managed to loosen him a bit. In fact, he was coming to appreciate these men who served under him. They were competent in spite of what he had said, and they were genuinely dedicated to his service. He’d spent the past two months trying not to get close to them, to let them into his world and into his thoughts, but he was coming to think that the wall he’d put up around himself to protect his damaged heart had been too big a wall. It was lonely being isolated like that. Chrystobel had already succeeded in knocking down some of that wall. Perhaps he needed to lower it further to include the men that served him. Especially Wellesbourne; he suspected the man would make a fine friend. With a heavy sigh, he turned away and sought out the nearest chair.
“And I would agree with you except for one thing,” he said, easing his big body onto the oak frame chair with the rigid back. “It is my fear that d’Einen has gone off to rouse trouble against us. His father mentioned that he was friends with a local lord. What if he goes to that lord and manages to rouse the man against us? At least if he is locked up in the vault here at Nether, he cannot create trouble.”
William agreed, somewhat. “I still say he’s better off away from Nether,” he said, scratching his blond head in a weary gesture. “But I will tell you what the scouts say when they return. Mayhap he has not gone too far and capturing him will not be an issue.”
Keller sat back against the chair, shifting when the wound in his back pained him. He shifted around a few more times until he could find a comfortable position.
“Mayhap,” he agreed softly as he moved around. Once he was comfortable, he cast William a long glance. “I understand that you tried to tell me of this situation last night but Lady de Poyer would not wake me. Is this true?”
William looked at him. “Who told you that?”
“I did,” George said helpfully from the other side of the room.
William gave George a rather exasperated expression before returning his focus to Keller. He hadn’t told Keller of Chrystobel’s intercession when he had gone to rouse the man, fearful that her actions would bring her husband’s anger against her.
“She said that you were injured and exhausted,” he said. “I told her that it was an urgent matter but she said unless the Romans were pillaging the castle and murdering people in their beds, she was not going to wake you. She was very firm about it.”
“And you naturally complied.”
“I had little choice.”
Keller suspected as much. He held William’s gaze for a moment before exhaling heavily and looking away. “I suppose that if I am angry with anyone, it should be her,” he muttered. “But I cannot bring myself to do it.”
William could see that the man was calming and he was thankful. “She was only thinking of your health,” he said. “You
were
injured and you had not slept in two days.”
Keller pondered his wife’s protective instinct. He’d never known anyone to be protective over him, ever, and he wasn’t sure how he felt about it. He felt humbled, but he also felt suspicious. Why should someone care for him so much that they would be willing to protect him? He cleared his throat softly, uncomfortably.
“This is something very new for me,” he admitted quietly. “Is this how a woman normally behaves? That is to say, are you sure she was only thinking of me?”
William fought off a grin. “Of course I am,” he said. “She certainly wasn’t doing it to be cruel.”
Keller seemed rather perplexed by the thought. “Women can be domineering,” he said. “I have seen it. Are you sure she wasn’t trying to dominate me?”
William couldn’t help the smile. “God’s Bones, de Poyer, of course not,” he said. “She was doing what you would have done in the same circumstance. Would you not have tried to protect the woman if she was lying there, injured and sleeping?”
“Of course I would have.”
“Then you can understand what she was trying to accomplish. She was protecting her husband, and that happens to be
you
.”
It was a foreign concept. As he sat there and pondered the fact that his wife was evidently concerned for him, a soldier entered the solar. Keller, and the other knights, turned to focus on the man who was singularly fixed on Keller.
“What is it?” Keller asked.
“An army approaches, my lord,” the soldier said.
Keller’s brow furrowed as he stood up stiffly from his chair. “What army?” he asked. “Are they flying colors?”
The soldier nodded. “De Lohr pennants, my lord,” he replied. “Blue and yellow.”
Keller looked at William, satisfaction in his expression. “Our reinforcements are here,” he said. William was already moving, shooing George and Aimery out of the solar as Keller followed, speaking to the soldier as he went. “Open the gates and send out riders to greet them.”
The soldier fled as Keller continued on his normal pace, heading for the keep entry, but as he passed the stairs that led to the upper floor, he came to a stop. He looked at the stairs, narrow dark stone leading up a narrow dark passage, and thought of Chrystobel on the floor above him. As lady of the keep, it was her job to make arrangements for visitors, so Keller headed up the stairs to inform her of their arrival. By the time he reached the chamber door, he realized he was actually a little giddy at the thought of seeing her. He made sure to smooth at his hair, a weak attempt at grooming, before knocking on the door.
Rapping softly, he waited a few seconds before lifting the latch and opening the door. As the panel swung open, he immediately spied Chrystobel sitting by the hearth with some kind of sewing in her lap. Izlyn was sitting at her feet, playing with sticks from the kindling. It would seem that building with sticks was her favorite pastime, as Keller had seen her do it before. Chrystobel smiled brightly at him when their eyes met.
“Greetings, husband,” she said. “Are you finished meeting with your men?”
Keller stepped into the room. “Aye,” he replied, unwilling to elaborate on the subject he and his men had discussed. When he’d left his wife, he’d only told her that he was meeting with his men and nothing more. “We were interrupted by the announcement of approaching visitors. I’ve come to tell you to expect several more men for the evening’s meal.”
Chrystobel set her sewing aside and stood up. She was dressed in a surcoat of dark green wool that fit her delicious figure snuggly. In fact, she looked alluring and beautiful, and he couldn’t take his eyes off her shapely torso and gently flaring hips as she approached him.
“Of course,” she said seriously. “I will make sure there is enough food for all.”
Keller’s dusky gaze lingered on her. “Thank you,” he said, his mind returning to what William had said as he looked at her.
She was protecting you.
He felt like the most fortunate man in the world but in the same breath, he couldn’t believe that such a glorious creature could actually feel something for him. The thought only made him feel giddier. “I believe these visitors will be staying with us for some time. They are English knights, sent to reinforce my ranks, so if you could prepare a spot in the keep for them to sleep, I would be grateful.”
Chrystobel smiled again, her expression open and friendly. “I will make sure they are comfortable,” she said. “Is there anything else you wish?”
It was such a sweet question. Keller felt like an idiot because everything about her seemed to make him feel weak. The walls of defense he’d kept up, so practiced around him, had fallen and he could feel himself opening up again. It was terrifying and thrilling all at the same time.
“Nay,” he said, shaking his head. “I will be with our visitors, so please send a servant should you need me.”
He turned for the door but Chrystobel put her hand on his arm, stopping him. “Wait, please,” she said, smiling timidly when he turned to look at her. “I was wondering if I might speak with you for a moment. I will be brief, I promise.”
Keller nodded. “Of course,” he said. “What is your wish?”
Chrystobel cleared her throat softly, perhaps a bit nervously, and glanced at her sister before speaking. “My brother,” she said, her tone very soft. “Has he been located? Is he finally locked up?”
Keller realized she didn’t want to upset Izlyn with such talk, so he motioned for her to follow him out onto the landing. Once outside of the chamber on the dark and dank landing, he closed the door behind them quietly.
“Your brother escaped Nether yesterday,” he said, his voice quiet. “I understand that Wellesbourne came to speak to me last night about it but that you sent him away.”
Chrystobel nodded, trying not to appear too contrite. “I did,” she said. “You were sleeping so soundly that I did not want to wake you. Did I do wrong?”
Keller smiled faintly, shaking his head. “You did not,” he said. “Wellesbourne wanted to tell me about your brother escaping Nether. We have sent scouts to follow his trail.”
Chrystobel looked at him, worried. “Will you bring him back?”
Keller shrugged. “William pointed out to me that to have him away from the castle means peace for us all,” he said. “But there is a larger part of me that wants to bring him back to face justice for the murder of your father, among other things.”
Chrystobel thought seriously on both points. In fact, she looked rather bewildered. “Away from Nether?” she murmured, more to herself than to him. “I… I have rarely known him to be away from Nether. He has always been here, lurking about.”
Keller studied her intently, seeing both fear and relief in her expression. It occurred to him that she should have some say in all of this, considering how much of it directly affected her. For so long she’d had no control over her brother. Now, Keller would give her some of that control back.
“What would be your desire?” he asked softly. “Do you want me to bring him back here and punish him or do you want me to let him keep running, so long as he stays far away from here?”
Chrystobel looked at him, surprised he would ask her such a question. She took it very seriously. “I…I do not know,” she said. “I never thought… that is to say, I never believed I would ever know a life without living in fear of my brother. It does not seem real.”
Keller watched her befuddled expression, daring to reach out and brush her fingers with his own. The mere touch between them sent bolts of excitement racing through his big body and when she latched on to his fingers, holding them tightly, he actually thought he might swoon. Everything in his chest welled up so that he could hardly breathe.
“It is real,” he replied. “You will never again have to fear the man so long as I am alive. If you want me to track him down and punish him for killing your father, I will. But if you simply want to let the man run off forever, out of your sight and out of your mind, then I understand. I will leave the choice to you.”
Chrystobel clutched his fingers with both hands, feeling his warmth and strength. It was an overwhelming sensation, one that made her heart race with joy. As she gazed up into the man’s dark blue eyes, all she could feel was pure and blissful attraction. He may not have been the most handsome man she had ever seen, but he had a rugged beauty that was beyond compare. She was so caught up in the soft pout of his smooth lips and the square cut of his jaw that she nearly forgot to reply to his statement.
“Punishing him will not bring my father back,” she whispered. “I simply want him away, Keller. I never thought I would know this opportunity but now that is here, I do not want to see him ever again and I do not want to think of him ever again. I want to erase him from my mind completely. If Gryffyn is running, let him run. Let him run forever as long as it is away from Nether.”
Keller nodded in agreement, lifting her hands to kiss them sweetly. “If that is your wish,” he said softly. “But if I ever see the man again, make no mistake. I will kill him. If he ever returns to Nether, he is a dead man.”
Chrystobel nodded, feeling warm and safe and protected by his declaration. “Of course, Keller,” she said. “I support whatever you will do to that regard.”