Legendary Warrior

by Donna Fletcher

  “Why?” Her look remained confused.

  He smiled. “For it could mean you are falling in love with me.”

  Chapter 19

  Reena was lost in her thoughts as she and Brigid sat at a table before the hearth in the great hall, a roaring fire keeping them warm. It was late afternoon, and Reena had not seen Magnus since early morning, when he’d left the keep to scout his borders with a troop of men.

  His words from the night before echoed in her mind.

  Could mean you are falling in love with me.

  She had been considering the possibility since last night, the exciting and frightening prospect having haunted her before Magnus had made mention of it. Could it be true? Could she actually be falling in love with the Legend? But did he feel the same toward her? Was love nipping persistently at his heels?

  Brigid sighed and sat in silence beside her friend, her hands hugging the goblet of hot cider in front of her, though she had not taken a sip, nor had she touched the small cakes on the platter in front of her.

  Reena sensed something troubled her friend. She waited, but she remained silent. She raised her goblet and finished the last of her cider. When she reached for a small cake from the platter, Horace immediately raised his head from where he lay curled by her feet. He yawned, stretched and sat up to stare directly at her.

  He had grown considerably in the last few months and would grow even more before the season’s end. He was already a good size, with large paws, a body to match, a big head, and loveable eyes and droopy ears. And he had grown more attentive and protective than anyone expected.

  Reena, as was her way with him, gave him half of her cake. He took it and, satisfied with the one bite, returned to snuggle at her feet.

  Brigid finally broke her silence. “He is a good dog.”

  Reena shook her head and looked at her friend. “Are you going to tell me what troubles you? I have been waiting patiently since we sat down.”

  Brigid sighed. “You know me too well.”

  “It is plain on your face for anyone to see.”

  “No one looks as closely as you do.”

  “More fools them.” Reena reached out and placed a gentle hand on her friend’s arm. “Tell me.”

  Brigid looked around the great hall. Servants scurried about in preparation for the evening meal several hours away, while the Legend’s warriors wandered in and out to talk and drink. Those guarding the posts ate when time allowed. With the constant activity, there was little privacy.

  “We could go to my bedchamber,” Reena suggested, realizing the reason for Brigid’s hesitation.

  “Why not the tower room?” Brigid asked, and a slow smile warmed her face.

  Reena had to agree. Brigid had worked hard to convert the empty, cold room into one of warmth and welcome. Magnus had even been stunned when he had first seen the results of Brigid’s efforts. The task had served her well, for it had kept her busy, leaving little time to think of Kilkern. Thomas had remained a constant at her side and had helped her with the work in the room.

  Together, along with Horace, Reena and Brigid climbed the stairs to the tower room and settled in the comfortable wooden chairs with plush dark green velvet seats that were grouped in front of the small fireplace. Wooden chests, a table and chairs, tapestries covering the walls and windows to help block the cold, and a plethora of candles had turned the barren room into a comfortable sanctuary.

  “Tell me,” Reena urged, eager to help set her friend’s mind at ease.

  Horace gave one loud bark, then settled himself in front of the hearth, his attention on Brigid as though he waited to hear her words as well.

  Brigid laughed and rubbed his head, then turned her glance on Reena. “I loved my husband very much.”

  “Everyone knows that.”

  Brigid rubbed her hands together in worry. “I thought with a love that strong I could never possibly love another.”

  Reena suddenly realized what troubled Brigid. She remained silent, allowing her to voice her concerns.

  “John invaded my every waking thought and often my sleep as well. I could think of nothing but him, the love we shared, the plans we had made, the children that I would never have, but recently—” She stopped and shook her head, tears beginning to fall from her eyes. “I have not thought of him; I think of another.”

  “This is good,” Reena said, leaning forward to comfort and encourage her friend with a squeeze of her arm.

  “Nay,” Brigid snapped. “How could it be good? If I truly loved my husband, how could I so soon love another?”

  “Do you not see,” Reena said. “It is because you loved John so strongly that you can love another. You learned what true love really is and would not dare settle for anything less. You know it and feel it in your heart. John had a good, loving soul as you do, and two loving souls cannot help but love deeply. Thomas has a good, loving soul, and that is why you have fallen in love with him.”

  Brigid gasped. “You know?”

  Reena grinned. “I have watched you both fall in love in front of my eyes.”

  “You think Thomas loves me?”

  Reena looked at her oddly. “Has he not told you of his love?”

  “Nay, he has made no mention of it. He has not even kissed me, though his touch is gentle, but that is only when he offers help. And then I think perhaps that is why I feel this way about him, he protects me and is good to me.”

  “Like your husband was to you.”

  Brigid smiled through her tears. “Thomas is actually more tolerant of me than John was. He bakes bread with me and enjoys it. John would never have helped with women’s work.” Tears ran down her face. “But that made no difference, for I loved John.”

  “You loved him for who he was, and Thomas loves you for who you are, just as you love him for who he is.” She thought of the advice she offered her friend and thought it was good advice for herself in dealing with the Legend side of Magnus. If she was falling in love with Magnus, then she was falling in love with the Legend as well, and she would need to accept him for who he was.

  “He is not big and ugly as some whisper,” Brigid said adamantly in defense of Thomas. She wiped at her tears and giggled. “I like that I can step behind him and no one can see me, and he lifts me with but one arm, yet he is gentle in his enormous strength.”

  Reena sat back in her chair, bringing her legs up to tuck beneath her. “I am happy for you and Thomas. You are both good people and deserve to love.”

  Brigid shook her head slowly. “But he has made no mention of love to me. I have only realized my feelings toward him and—”

  Reena waited, knowing her friend had difficulties with her feelings because she felt she betrayed her dead husband.

  With gained courage, Brigid spoke. “I find my feelings growing no matter how hard I try to ignore them. I look forward to seeing him and I do not grow bored of our time together. We always find things to discuss or laugh about, and even silence is comfortable with him.”

  “Then love him and be done with it.”

  “I feel—”

  Reena wasted not a moment; she finished voicing what her friend could not. “Guilty for loving him, when you should not. John would want you to be happy, as you would want the same for him. Do not waste time in doubt and guilt. Love Thomas, Brigid, love him with all your heart.”

  “How?” Brigid asked. “He has shown no sign of loving me.”

  Reena laughed. “It is obvious.”

  “Again you see what others do not.”

  “Magnus sees it.”

  Brigid brightened. “Perhaps Thomas has made mention of his feelings to him.”

  “Would you feel more comfortable with your own feelings toward him if I found out how he felt toward you?”

  “Aye, I would. You would not mind inquiring, discreetly of course?” Brigid asked with a grin.

  “If I do, what then will you do about it?”

  “You challenge me,” Brigid said.

>   “Aye,” Reena admitted. “Thomas is a shy man with women. He thinks himself ugly, and while he loves you, I think he finds it difficult to believe that you could feel the same for him. So it will be up to you to make your feelings known to him.”

  “Find out how he feels toward me, and then I will gather the courage and speak with him. But what of you?” Brigid returned the challenge.

  Reena acted as if she did not understand. “What do you mean?”

  Brigid laughed and shook her head. “I know you as well as you know me, Reena. We have grown up together and have known things about each other before a word was spoken. As you have seen my love for Thomas bud and grow, I have seen the same with you and Magnus, though I must say, his love for you has been evident.”

  “You speak nonsense,” Reena said.

  Brigid laughed again. “You know it is not nonsense. Magnus keeps you forever at his side.”

  Reena sighed and slumped back in her seat. “I am confused.”

  “Sounds like love,” Brigid teased.

  “I had thought love was more simple and more defined.”

  “If only it were,” Brigid said and relaxed back in her seat.

  “The ache in my stomach—”

  “Is part of love.”

  “The constant thought of him—”

  “Is love,” Brigid repeated.

  “I tingle when he is near,” Reena whispered.

  “Love.”

  Reena grew silent, staring at the flickering flames in the hearth.

  “Why do you fight your love for him?”

  Reena turned to her friend. “I ask myself that question. How can the Legend love me?”

  “Why would he not?”

  “Gossip says the Legend knows not of love, and look at me.” Reena held out her arms as if offering herself for inspection. “I am not exactly the type of woman the Legend would find appealing.”

  “You never did pay attention to gossip, nor cared about it. Foolish tongues make for foolish minds, you would say.” Brigid’s tone turned adamant. “And why would the Legend not find you appealing? You are truly beautiful.”

  “True enough about gossip,” Reena agreed. “But me appealing to the Legend?” She shook her head.

  “You have come to know the Legend—”

  “Nay,” Reena corrected. “I have come to know Magnus.”

  “They are the same.”

  Reena shook her head. “They are not.”

  “Then you do not look close enough.”

  Brigid’s words startled Reena, and she stared wide-eyed at her friend. “I look too closely?”

  “What is in front of our eyes is usually what is the most difficult to see.”

  Reena turned away to stare at the flames and think on her friend’s words. The Legend was not in front of her long enough for her to know him—or was he? Was she failing to see what was in front of her? And if she did, was she failing to see the possibility of love? She turned her eyes to her friend, when suddenly she remembered something, and her gaze shifted quickly to the concealed door in the wall.

  “I had forgotten.”

  Brigid looked at her strangely.

  “I have been so busy mapping the keep that I forgot about the chests in the concealed room.”

  “Of what do you speak?”

  “Secrets,” Reena answered and sat forward. “There is a concealed room here, and when first I saw the tower room the door to the concealed room was ajar. Inside were two chests. One of the chests contained journals.”

  Her voice lowered to a whisper, and Brigid sat forward, the better to hear her.

  “One journal was written in French by a woman who wrote, ‘Today I gave birth to a son and I named him Magnus.’ ”

  Brigid gasped. “Magnus’s mother?”

  “I had the same thought.”

  “Could Magnus have brought the chests here?”

  “And placed them in a concealed room in the tower?” Reena shook her head. “That would not make sense. Besides, the room looked as though it had not been opened in some time.”

  “Unless he did not want anyone to know about them.”

  “Or the chests had been here all this time.”

  Both women grew silent in thought.

  Brigid broke the silence. “Thomas has made mention that Magnus does not allow anyone to take from him what is his. Could this land, this keep, be rightfully his?”

  “The king granted him this land for a favor well done.”

  “But why this land?” Brigid asked.

  Reena shook her head. “I do not know. And what of this map Kilkern claims was stolen from him. Could it actually exist? Would it show the two lands as one?”

  “If the two lands were actually one property, then who does the land rightfully belong to? Is it Kilkern property or Dunhurnal property? And why was the land divided?”

  Reena had her own questions. “And how is Magnus’s mother part of it all?”

  “Where are the chests with the journals? Reading them would help solve the mystery.”

  “If only I had paid heed to the chests. I grew busy mapping the keep and gave no thought to the journals. When I recalled reading the brief passage, I went in search of the journals, but the chests were already removed from the tower room.”

  “What of the concealed room?” Brigid asked with excitement.

  “It has been closed each time I have visited this room.”

  Both women stood.

  “Do you know where the concealed room is located?” Brigid asked.

  Reena nodded and hurried over, Brigid close behind her, to the section of the wall she knew contained the concealed room.

  She ran her fingers over the seam of the door. “It is here, but I do not know how it opens.”

  Brigid felt where Reena’s hand touched. “A lever or something must work the door, otherwise the door would be too heavy to move.”

  Reena looked about, Brigid joining her in the search.

  “It would be close by,” Brigid said.

  Reena nodded, running her hand over the stones near the door so as not to overlook anything.

  “The peg,” Brigid said, her excitement growing. She hurried to a section of the wall where a metal peg protruded. She pulled on it, pushed up, attempted to twist and turn it, but the sturdy peg remained solid in the wall.

  “Here, I found it,” Reena said, barely above a whisper. “Come feel this in the wall.”

  Brigid hurried over and let Reena take her hand and guide it over the wall. She felt a slim, long piece of cold metal hidden between the stones.

  “Amazing,” Brigid said. “It cannot be seen and barely felt if one did not know to look for it.”

  “Someone certainly wanted something kept hidden.” Reena yanked on the metal lever, and Brigid’s hand joined hers as they both struggled to move the lever. It finally gave way, and a section of the wall creaked slowly open.

  Reena was quick to collect two candles from the table, and the two women, hugging close beside each other, entered the room. They looked about, Reena holding her candle high to cast light over the dark, dank, cell-like space.

  Brigid gave a small gasp and pointed to the back wall. “An iron ring to chain a prisoner. A cell for sure.”

  “But why up here in the tower room when a dungeon exists below the keep?”

  Brigid voiced her thought. “Someone did not want anyone to know who was kept here?”

  “I would say that might be so.”

  “There are no chests here.” Brigid shivered. “It is cold and damp and would be so terribly dark without the candles. I cannot imagine someone chained to the wall and left in such darkness. The darkness alone would frighten me.”

  “A torturous thought for sure,” Reena agreed. “And one I cannot help but wonder over.”

  At that moment the two heard a creak. When they both turned toward the sound, the door began to close quickly.

  “Hurry,” Reena urged Brigid and pushed her through the opening,
which had become considerably narrower.

  Brigid gave a yell and barely managed to clear the closing door. She turned to help Reena, and both women realized there was not sufficient space for her to squeeze through.

  “I will get help,” Brigid said as the door closed completely shut, and she shivered as she raced from the room, hearing Reena’s final word as her candle flickered out.

  “Hurry!”

  Magnus entered the great hall after a day of riding his borders and making certain his land was well guarded. He had traveled over hills and meadows, though the weather was anything but cooperative. A cold wind and snow flurries certainly did not announce that spring was but a week or so away.

  His warriors did well in guarding his holdings. They were alert to their surroundings and aware of any intruders, except, of course, the Dark One. But then no one seemed to be able to prevent his entrance anywhere, and he was a friend who was welcome anytime at the keep.

  His men were aware of every stranger that traveled his land, some proving harmless, others proving suspicious, but all were watched and their actions reported to Magnus. He knew Kilkern kept a watchful eye on Dunhurnal land, and he could almost predict Kilkern’s next move. Right now the man gathered force behind him, hoping to sway the king to his cause, as well as those lords whose lands surrounded Kilkern land. But Magnus was patient and his plan was to take no action, at least not yet.

  Magnus sat on a bench before the hearth, stretching his legs out to warm his chilled bones. A pitcher of ale was quickly brought to the table. He was filling a tankard when Thomas entered the great hall.

  Thomas joined Magnus at the table and appreciated the warmth of the hearth and the taste of the ale.

  “We are well protected,” Thomas said, reaching for the full tankard.

  “From what we see, but it is what we do not see that needs our attention.”

  “Kilkern works on the king.”

  “Of that I have no doubt,” Magnus said.

  “You sound as if you worry not about it.”

  “Kilkern’s complaints will benefit us.”

  “How so?” Thomas asked.

  “It never helps when too many know too much, and Kilkern has a loose tongue and thinks it benefits him.”