Kellen finished with, “It was Sir Royce who planned my death and coerced Catherine into poisoning me. He also tried to stab Lady Gillian, poison her food, and murdered Frederick. Is that not so, Valeric?”
Valeric, his face a study in misery, threw himself to the ground at Kellen’s feet. “My lord, I have a confession to make.”
Kellen grabbed the boy by his shirt and forced him to stand. “Yes, yes. We already know Sir Royce was your sire.”
“Aye, my lord, but the knife, the poison—
“’Twas Lord Royce’s doing. It is at an end. Do you understand?”
The boy searched Kellen’s face and swallowed, relief etched on his young features. “Aye, my lord. Thank you.”
The healer finally arrived and tsked over Kellen’s injuries. When the man went to stitch the cut on Kellen’s arm, Gillian lunged forward and screeched.
“You didn’t wash your hands!”
Kellen sighed heavily. “Gillian, stand back. I do not wish you to hover.”
“Just wait a minute, okay?” Gillian ran upstairs and was relieved to see her bags were in the room she’d shared with Marissa. She quickly found the key hanging on one of the gold chains around her neck, opened the padlock on one pack, and retrieved hand cleaner, antibiotic cream, alcohol swabs, and bandages from the first aid kit. She stuffed them in her pockets, snapped the lock into place, and hurried away.
When she returned to the hall, Kellen’s wound was half stitched.
“You didn’t wait!”
The healer snorted. “This isn’t the first wound I’ve tended to, missy.”
Gillian hovered, feeling helpless, on the verge of tears, and unsure about what to do.
Lord Hardbrook took her by the arm and led her toward a bench. “Lass, are you all right?”
She sank down and, feeling breathless and dizzy, raised a trembling hand to rub her forehead. “Fine. Fine. Just a little shaken up, you know?” When she realized she was the center of attention, she flapped a hand in embarrassment. “It’s just not every day that you see . . . see . . . ” She sucked in a breath. “I’m just not sure I can do this, after all.”
The healer finished stitching, and Kellen quickly stood and moved around several of his knights to sit beside her on the bench. He firmly pulled her onto his lap. “You will be all right in a moment.”
As tears pricked her eyes she realized the last thing she needed or wanted from the injured man was sympathy. It embarrassed her.
“Shh. Shh.” His arms encircled her, pulling her to his chest. “You
can
do this. You will.”
Gillian leaned her head onto his shoulder and sobbed. “What do you want from me?”
He chuckled and rubbed her back. “I want companionship, laughter, children, you. I want it all, love. I want you to marry me.”
She noticed he didn’t mention money and she appreciated it. She sniffed, wiped her eyes, and tried to get hold of herself. “Yes,” she nodded, face flushing, feeling everyone watching. “I want those things, too.”
“I also want to know your name, lass.”
That made her chuckle. “Gillian Rose Corbett.”
“Of? Where are you from?”
She laughed. “Seattle, Washington.”
Lord Corbett snorted and stepped forward. “Of Corbett Castle, daughter.”
Gillian lifted her head, her brows knitting as she studied Lord Corbett’s patrician features. The last time she’d seen the man he’d been denouncing her. Now he was claiming her? “I don’t understand.”
“There is nothing to understand.” Lord Corbett looked around the room at all the wide-eyed family, friends, knights, and servants. “As much as you like to pretend otherwise, and I will say, you have been a most difficult and willful child, you are my daughter and we will have our alliance with Lord Marshall.”
Lady Corbett, her beautiful face serene and confident, stepped forward to stand beside her husband. “Yes, child. No more of this dissembling. You will claim us as we do you. Gillian Rose Corbett of . . . ” She looked pointedly at Gillian.
Gillian smiled at Kellen, chuckled, then looked at Lord and Lady Corbett and bowed her head. “Of Corbett Castle.”
***
After Sir Royce’s body was sent to Royce Castle, Gillian tried to get Kellen to go upstairs to rest, but he wouldn’t let her out of his sight. When she invited Lord and Lady Corbett to her room, he followed.
He wouldn’t lie on the bed so she forced him to sit, gave him a quick kiss on the cheek for the intense, hungry way he watched her, then dug her genealogy book out of one of the packs. She set it on the small table beside Kellen and opened it as the Corbetts gathered around.
“This is a genealogy book. I looked through it to see if I was truly related to the two of you.” She glanced up shyly. “I am.”
She opened the book to a page near the front and pointed. “See, here’s my name, and here are my parents’ names.” She flipped through until she found Lord and Lady Corbett’s information nearer to the end. “And here you are. See?”
“The paper is so fine.” Lord Corbett leaned closer. “But the words are difficult to decipher.”
“Not to me.” She read aloud his entire name, his parents’, and grandparents’ names.
Lord Corbett pointed. “What is this?” he slid his finger across several black marks on the page.
Gillian sighed. Trust the man to hone in on the one thing she didn’t want him noticing. “If you must know, they’re death dates. I planned to show you this book at some point, so I crossed them out. Your childrens’ and grandchildrens’, as well. There are just some things a person shouldn’t know.”
His mouth parted and, after a brief hesitation, he nodded. “Just so.”
She started turning the pages backward. “See this here? If you follow the names back to the front of the book, you’ll see I’m directly descended from you.” She flipped to the back and showed him the few treasured photos she’d chosen. “These are my parents. This is my brother. Here are some of our other relatives.”
As Lord and Lady Corbett gaped at the photos, Gillian explained the time travel the best she could. “Father Elliot said the chapel and the cemetery were both blessed by Saint Cuthbert.” She lifted her finger. “My ring has an inscription inside that says
Life flows for all time.
I don’t know how it works, but somehow I’m able to use this ring to go back and forth between centuries if I’m in the right place.”
Kellen sucked in a breath. “So the day you were running through the cemetery? You were trying to take me and Amelia back with you?”
Gillian searched his face, but he didn’t seem angry, he actually looked a bit smug. “Yes.”
Kellen smiled. “I’d steal you away as well, lass.”
As they grinned at each other, Lord Corbett took up where Gillian left off and started turning pages again, his gaze fascinated. He picked up Gillian’s hand and looked at the ring. “’Tis difficult to comprehend. But you are our daughter in truth?”
Lady Corbett turned to Kellen and she had tears in her eyes.
“Perhaps this fact might help to right the wrong done against you by our Catherine?”
Lord Corbett jumped in fast. “Yes. I would like to settle a dowry upon Gillian. Perhaps that would help to heal the past and start a bright new future. A strong alliance.”
Kellen raised a hand. “That is not necessary.”
Gillian agreed. “That’s very generous of you, my lord, but my parents left me well provided for.”
“Left you? Your parents are dead?” asked Lord Corbett.
“Yes, but they left me a . . . um . . . dowry. It’s why I was gone for so long. I had to collect it.”
Kellen straightened, then winced and rubbed one rib. “A subject we have yet to discuss. I still cannot fathom that you left for money! What if you could not have returned? What then?”
“Kellen! Stop moving around. You’re going to hurt yourself.”
“You are not to leave me again, do you hear?”
Gillian sighed. “I had a good reason for staying away, you know. It’s a rather large amount of money, thank you very much.”
“I thought you’d gone forever. I believed I had lost you.”
“But Marissa said you might be forced to pay a fine to the king—”
“I’d pay the fine ten times over rather than risk losing you. I am well able to provide for my wife and did not care for being abandoned! I did not need the money half so much as I needed you.”
Gillian’s lifted her hands up in the air. “Where is the gratitude? Anyway, do you know how hard it was to leave? To think Edith would have you? If you hadn’t changed the name of the city to Gillian, then I might have left you both to it and been miserable the rest of my life.”
Kellen shot to his feet. “I knew it! You had no intention of returning, did you? You should never have left me! I could have lost you forever and for what? A blasted dowry I don’t even need!”
Lord Corbett stepped in. “’Tis her father’s right to provide such.”
Gillian threw out a hand toward Lord Corbett, palm up. “Thank you! It was my father’s ring that brought me here and I can’t help but feel that perhaps he even had a hand in all this! Did you think of that? I can’t help but feel he would do everything in his power to see me happy.”
“Ah. Just so,” said Lord Corbett. “We will leave the two of you to sort it out. But remember, Gillian, we are your parents now. You are not alone and will never be so again. May I keep this for a while?” He indicated the genealogy book. “’Tis not easy to decipher, but it will bring me pleasure to try. And of course the faces are fascinating to look upon.”
Touched by Lord Corbett’s earnest assurances, Gillian nodded. “Of course. But you probably should keep it to yourselves as everything about it will seem strange to others.”
“Of course.” Lord Corbett bowed, then quickly scooped up the book. “Thank you.”
Within moments Gillian and Kellen were alone and she turned to see he was still angry.
She rolled her eyes. “What?”
Kellen glared for a moment longer, then sighed and sank back onto the chair. “Changing the name of the town was all I could think to do. I was lost without you, lass. I remembered you telling me it would be named Marshall one day and I thought,” he swallowed, “I thought you might live there.”
The pain in his words had the tension leaving her body and tears filling her eyes. “So you really do love me?”
“Aye. With all my heart.”
Gillian went to him and he quickly pulled her onto his lap and held her tight. “I love you too,” she said. “With everything in me.”
“If I had not thought to change the name would I have lost you forever?”
“I doubt it. It spurred me to immediate action, but I’m sure I wouldn’t have lasted a day before I was looking you up in any book I could find. If you hadn’t married Edith, I’d have come back. Maybe I would have, anyway.”
He looked upset again. He picked up her hand and tugged at the ring. He studied it, fear and loathing on his face. “I wish I could take this from you.”
Gillian followed his gaze. “I wonder . . . ” She twisted her finger, forcing the cut to reopen.
“Gillian!” He clutched her to him with both arms anchoring her tight.
The skin broke, just a bit, bleeding slightly and the ring slid right off.
After a shocked silence, Kellen snatched the ring from her and, fisting it inside one hand, stared at her with wide, incredulous eyes.
She stared back, equally stunned by what she’d just done. She could feel his heart pounding against her arm, her own matching its rhythm.
He cautiously relaxed his hold on her and, when she stayed seated on his lap, let out a pent-up breath.
Gillian laughed a bit hysterically. “I guess I have to be on holy ground for it to work.”
“You could not have known that!”
He sucked in air and wiped at his brow with his closed fist. “I will be keeping this.” He lifted the fist in front of her face. “You’ll not be getting it back. Ever.”
“Okay.” Happiness engulfing her, she laughed again. “You look so upset.” She slid a hand behind his neck. “Shall I cheer you up with a few kisses?”
Kellen wiped at his brow again, looked at her mouth, and chuckled. “Gillian. What am I to do with you?”
“Love me forever?”
“I intend to.” He pulled her closer, captured her mouth with his, and neither one of them said another word for a very long time.
As the guests listened to the singer, Marissa sat at the head table and glanced around the great hall to make sure everything ran smoothly, that every table had been served the fifth course of roasted quail, and that the platters of cheeses, walnuts and tarts were plentiful. She could not help the slight smile that tugged at her lips, and she picked up her cup of spicy mulled wine to hide her satisfaction.
Her husband reached out and covered her hand with his much larger and warmer one. “Happy?”
She set her cup down, enjoyed the heat of his skin, the way his touch made her feel, and the fact that her husband knew her so well. Her smile widened as she looked around at the feasting, the tables set up around the hall, the guests laughing and teasing the newlywed couple, and their obvious happiness.
“Aye, husband. I am.” Everything had gone beautifully, all the hours of planning and preparing had been worth it in the end, the bride and groom, as happy a couple as she’d ever seen.
Gillian was beautiful in green velvet with peacock feathers at ears, collar, and in her beautiful headpiece and bouquet. How Beatrice had thought of it, Marissa did not know, but the effect was stunning and would no doubt be much copied. Gillian’s groom obviously thought her lovely. He could not seem to take his besotted gaze off her.
Marissa glanced at her husband, who met her gaze and smiled. “It is good to be married,” she said.
He brought her hand to his mouth and kissed it. “Aye, wife, it is.”
When the singer finished his song, Marissa motioned for the two jugglers to perform, then glanced around, hoping the heat in her cheeks was not obvious to all.
Many had attended, it being midsummer and a goodly time for travel, but Marissa was sure Gillian would be glad when everyone finally left them in peace to enjoy married life.
Valeric, so obviously happy in his new role as squire in training, offered the happy couple more choice meats and cheeses for their platter, but she wondered that he bothered. She noted that neither the bride nor the groom ate much, but there was much touching, talking, and smiling between them.
Tristan and Edith were to be married in a sennight and, though the girl was still a bit distant with her future groom, he seemed to be keeping her well entertained as he tried to draw forth her smiles with his chatter.
She saw Lord Corbett questioning Gillian once more, as he seemed to do at every opportunity. When Gillian had turned to him before the wedding and kissed his cheek and promised to always be a good daughter to him, the man had nigh wept in front of the assembly.
Of course she could not fault the man. When Kellen had placed the ring upon Gillian’s finger and sworn an oath to be a good and true husband to her, and Gillian had made her own vows in return, the truth and love in their voices had left not a dry eye in the chapel. When he’d kissed her overlong and she had clung to him, everyone, including herself, had cheered.
She looked at her husband once more. He returned her gaze with a heavy-lidded one of his own that had the heat rising in her cheeks and left her wishing for the feast to be done with.
Yes. Married life was good indeed.
***
“Gillian?”
“Just a minute. I’m looking for something.”
Kellen shifted from one foot to the other and waited impatiently as Gillian went through one of her packs at the side of his bed.
Their
bed now. He smiled at the thought.
He glanced at the door he’d managed to bar against his men and considered that if he’d allowed them to strip them and place them naked in bed as was their plan, he would not now be wondering how to place his bride there himself. “Can this not wait?”
“Don’t you want to see what I bought for our wedding night?”
Kellen glanced at the bed. At the moment he really did not care what was in her pack, but could tell from Gillian’s quick glances and the quaver in her voice that she was a bit nervous, so feigned interest. “You’ve already shamed any dowry ever brought to man. There is more?”
Gillian shrugged. “I didn’t want you to feel you’d lost out by marrying me.”
Kellen shook his head at the worry. “I have never in my life seen jewels or gold so fine. If your goal was to produce a dower greater than the king could have provided, you succeeded.”
“I have other things, as well. Art supplies, sulfa drugs, band-aids, antibiotic ointment, a book on natural healing and—”
“Did you bring more chocolate?”
Gillian pulled the pack closed and glanced back at him. “No.”
His mouth curved. “You lie!”
“Hey. I bought you. I own you. I’m the one in charge here and don’t you forget it.”
He rubbed his chin. “Mayhap I am not for purchase.”
“Oh really?” She pulled out a gold coin and to his amazement, peeled it like a piece of fruit.
“What is that?”
“A coin.” She pulled what looked to be a thin sliver of chocolate from the middle and popped it into her mouth. “Mmm, mmm, mmm.”
“Chocolate?”
“Say it. Say, Gillian owns me.” She pulled out another coin and peeled it.
Kellen looked at the coin, but in fact was simply relieved that Gillian seemed to be relaxing so continued to tease her. “You must wait while I consider the matter.”
Gillian popped the chocolate into her mouth. “Mmm. Yummy.”
“Just give me but a moment to consider. But do not eat all the coins in the meanwhile.”
She pulled out another coin and started to open it and he lunged at her.
She screamed, then laughed as he took the thin sliver of chocolate between his teeth and ate it. He tossed the gold bits aside and picked her up in his arms and held her close.
Gillian lowered her gaze and, with her finger, traced a pattern on his shirt. “You didn’t let me find what I was looking for.” She parted the material enough to slide her hand onto his skin, making his heart speed. “I bought a nightgown for our wedding night. I think you might like me in it.”
“I am most certain I will.” His voice was low, gruff, and he could feel the shiver that moved through Gillian, engendering a matching response in himself. “Gillian what I was trying to say is that you cannot buy my love, because you already won my heart.”
She cupped his cheek and smiled and it was all the encouragement he needed. He kissed her and carried her toward the bed, protectiveness, satisfaction, and longing enveloping him as he lay her onto the mattress and followed her down.
As he moved back far enough to gaze down at her, she clung, her arms around his neck, love and acceptance shining in her eyes as she looked at him.
She was everything he could want. She was everything.
And she was finally his.
She pushed back a strand of his hair with her fingers, tucking it behind his ear, making him shiver anew. “I love you,” she said.
His heart squeezed tight. “And I you.” He touched his mouth to hers and could not help but smile against her lips when her arms tightened ever more, as if afraid he would escape.
She
was
everything. She had brought him back to life and given meaning to his dreams. He must have accomplished a great feat, then forgotten it, because the very fates had intervened to gift her to him.
Someday he would find the words to explain that had she been the most impoverished lady in the kingdom, he would have paid his entire fortune to have her, then counted himself prosperous.
She
was his fortune.
She
was his destiny. Indeed, he held his very future in his arms.