by Amber Dane
He leaned back up and took her mouth in a hot kiss, then he drew back as breathless as she. ‘Good morningtide.’
Caroline choked on her words. ‘Morningtide to you, husband.’
He winked at her and she felt the heat rushing up her chest. A knock came to the door.
With their breakfast spread before them, Darc bent over, naked and pulled on a sliver of roasted meat he took from the trencher. Mildred had delivered their full platter of delicious things to eat. She had smiled at Caroline from the door, but Darc, she had given him a look Caroline could only say was akin to a scowl. She still found it amusing now as she watched her husband.
He was carrying on about the maid’s behavior.
‘You know, that woman…’ he wagged the sliver of meat he held between his fingers. ‘Whilst you were gone, she took on some airs I will have you know. Ha! To be scolded by a serving woman is plain madness. The woman is not too old for a beating for not remembering her place. Or worse.’
Caroline snatched the piece of meat from him and popped it into her mouth and gave him a sidelong glance. ‘You would not dare beat, Mildred.’
Darc puffed out his chest and said firmly. ‘I most certainly would. I will not have any servant here speak to me or behave in the way that she did. Ever. Best you remind her of her station.’
Caroline looked at him, her expression dubious as she picked up her cup. ‘You lie. Had you any intention to have that carried out, you would have done it then. ‘Tis well over two months now and you had time aplenty to see it carried out. Besides had you done so, I would be even more sore with you.’
Darc stood with a grunt and strolled over to the window near her and pretended that something outside had caught his eye. ‘Mayhap what you say is true, but I will have her respect, Caroline.’
‘She respects you wholly, husband. She was worried. ‘Twas not only me she was concerned about.’
‘Your son and the babe. Aye, I know.’
‘Nay. Not just us.’
He turned and gave her a look. Caroline read the surprise in his eyes and the question. She smiled a little. ‘Your well-being as well. Believe it or not. She is a wise old woman indeed. And to think a beating as a reward for showing her lord some concern.’
His flush was immediate. ‘A scowl of concern? Hmm, funny way to show it.’
Caroline rose from her place at the table near the bed and walked over to stand next to him at the window. ‘She is not the only one that shows concern that way.’ She remarked. His response was a grunt. Caroline pulled his arm around her waist. ‘You are lord to many. You had their admiration and support long before I left and aye, it took change in some. But, they all respect you no less, Darc. You are no beast to them. They see the real you as…’ she reached up and cupped his scarred cheek, ‘as do I.’
Her soft palm against his skin released the ache that had seized his chest and Darc pulled her into his arms. He was pleased when she did not resist and settled in his embrace. God he loved this woman!
CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
Early the next morning Darc entered Caroline’s chamber just as Laur was exiting with Kelbie in tow. Darc walked over to his wife and he returned the beautiful smile she bestowed upon him.
He could not stop himself from pressing a light kiss to her lips. When he pulled away her eyes were still closed and he was glad for it gave him the moment he needed.
Caroline opened her eyes and stared at his outstretched hand.
Her eyes shot back up to lock with his.
He said softly, ‘The last piece, Caroline.’
Darc opened his fist and in his palm there lay her father’s ring. Caroline could not move. After a moment she barely felt his fingers on hers to place the ring in her own hand. His warmth clung to the thick band and moved her out of her shock.
She was quiet for so long. The only sign of her emotion was the rapid rise and fall of her chest. Darc wished she would curse, just say anything.
Then she did as she closed her fingers over it in a tight fist. ‘A favor, husband.’ She said in a low, but strong voice.
‘You ask and it shall be granted.’ He instructed.
Her eyes shot back open and she fixed her steady gaze on him. ‘Will you take me back to my home?’
‘Aye. I will take you wherever you wish to go.’
The strain and pain in his voice did not go unnoticed by Caroline. Still, she took great pleasure in his quick response and that he did not argue her request nor question it. She closed her eyes again and savored the warmth of his fingers on the back of her clasped hands.
She loved this man with a fierceness that scared her.
But her hurt still stained her heart.
Tears smarted behind her lids when she felt the light brush of his tender lips against them. He kissed each lid and his warm breath fanned her face when he said, ‘We will leave at first light. I leave you now to see that all is arranged for our journey. Rest easy, my love.’
Caroline did not move from her spot until the chamber door had shut behind him. Shaking, she lay down on the bed and curled into a ball, the ring in her fist, pressed against her heart and she let her emotions escape.
Home.
Finally.
Darc did not think he could hurt or suffer any more than he already did. Caroline wanted him to take her home. He’d thought all had been righted between them. How wrong he’d been on that.
She had spoken words of her love to him but something was still not right.
He watched her now through the carriage window.
Days had passed since he’d agreed to her request and still she had barely spoken much to him on their journey here outside of her short answers to his questions about her well-being. He had thought they were making some ground, some headway and that his determination to win her heart and trust back over the past month had begun to chip away at the glacier of ice she held for him around her wounded and bruised heart.
But nay, he’d made nary a dent.
Shouts from his riders up ahead came that they had reached her lands.
So much senseless death, sadness, heartache and greed Caroline thought. The long trip from castle Renald to here had put an ache not only in her heart but her back. She would say naught of it to Darc for he’d looked ready to turn back each time she peeked out the carriage window up at him.
The babe was safe and she knew the ride would do no harm. But he would worry and despite trying to win her back, he’d cast it all aside to see her to safety. The babe had slept for most of the journey. And now, aye, their child kicked, strong and healthy for the last half of it.
The gates to her childhood home were nowhere in sight. She feared she’d not be able to go through with it now that the memories came flooding back. But her father’s face swam before her and her heart filled with the love she held for him and knew she could not not do it. A weak smile came to her lips as she moved to get out of the carriage.
The sight that greeted them was naught more than ruins. One wall stood and the mound was caved in. What once had been a moat years ago, marsh plant had grown and tall grass made its bed in some places. Darc frowned.
Why had she wanted to come back to this?
Caroline’s mournful cry drew him to the carriage. She’d gotten out and climbed down before he’d a chance to help her.
He froze looking at her for a moment.
All color had drained from her face and she looked older, more frail than before and lastly afraid to him. The fear he felt moved him and he went to draw her into his arms.
‘Nay. Nay- all is well.’
‘Are you sure of this? You look…’
She gave him a sharp look and he was glad to see color bloom on her skin. Two rosy faint circles appeared on her cheeks.
‘Just queasiness from being stuck in that carriage and the babe is all ‘tis, husband.’
The bite in her words almost made him smile. Some life back in her. A man could hope could he not?
‘Your c
ry worried me. I just wished to help you is all.’
‘Then do so by helping me over those mounds of rubble there if that is what you wish to do.’
‘Aye,’ came Darc’s quick response and he almost cracked a smile at her haughtiness. It was better than her silence.
He knew not what she sought near the wall but he would see her to it as it was what she wanted.
Halfway there he picked her up in his arms and gazed down at her awaiting a blistering glare or words. But she only gave him a blank stare at his hasty explanation.
‘The ground is too soft. I do not wish for you to sink or lose a slipper.’
Her lips twitched and she looked away from him.
Once there he set her down on a hard piece of earth he tested with his own boot. She dropped to her knees and began to dig with her hands.
‘Caroline, stop! What is it that you do?’
‘Dig here.’
‘So the purpose of the spiked shovels, aye?’
She nodded and reached up to clutch at his hand. Dirt and the smell of wet mud met his nose. Darc drew her up against his side and enfolded her into the circle his arms, disturbed by the slight tremors that now shook her.
She said nothing as he leaned down and wiped away the smudges of dirt from her skirts.
She refused his order to return to the carriage hours later when the men broke through to steps made of smooth rocks that led down to an arched corridor.
He looked at her. She had gone a deathly shade of white.
‘What is this?’ he demanded.
‘The place my father was murdered. His tomb.’
A chill swept over Darc at her somber expression.
The steps had held up over the years and though she protested he carried her down after a few of his men went first and returned with a shout up that it was safe to enter.
The corridor, Darc saw, was actually a tunnel built into the ground, stone, rock and mortar interwoven among wooden sturdy beams, thick pillars supported even more tunnels.
Without hesitation the moment he set her down, Caroline headed for the one on their right.
Darc grasped her arm and told her with a warning. ‘I brought you here. But I go first, wife. Caution.’
She gave him an exasperated nod. ‘But I know where I go ‘tis safe, I assure you.’
Caroline gave up when he refused to budge on it. Stubborn man. She admitted his attentiveness warmed her heart.
One of his men lit an old torch that hung from the metal grate attached to the wall; giving them more light the deeper they went. But Caroline needed no light. She had not lied, she knew where the two things she sought sat by memory.
Darc watched her every move as he and the others followed closely behind her. There were several secret passageways, but she maneuvered through them with skill.
‘Cedric always coveted every little thing Halvard possessed, even if all he held was stolen and belonged to others, right down to his women. He broke Helen for naught. This ring holds all to my true dowry and ‘twould have been given to an English nobleman of my father’s choosing with my hand in marriage. But now, ‘twill go to my Norman husband.’
Darc said nothing and just watched her as she rubbed the big jewel.
They had traversed the passageways for a while until she had come to an abrupt halt to where they stood now in front of a flat smooth surface of one of the walls. She seemed to be so far away and lost in deep thought.
Then he heard a soft shifting, followed by a very faint clicking sound. Then she lifted her misty eyes to his and held her hand out to him. The ring had become something else. A key.
Neither Cedric nor Halvard ever realized what they sought all along had been right under their noses. They both had worn the ring.
Darc said. ‘It was here all along-the one part at least. Right on their greedy little fingers.’
What Cedric had wanted so badly from her. The corners of one side of Darc’s mouth tilted up as he shook his head in disbelief.
She smiled weakly, mournfully, ‘My father was a very skilled craftsman. He built many things in our home that were beautiful. A wise man among other things, husband.’
Darc remained quiet along with his soldiers not wanting to interrupt her. The wistful smile she wore told him how much she missed her father.
Then, she cleared her throat and turned her back to them all once more. She gently pushed on a spot in the wall and with a shift of the rock and a cloud of dust, an opening appeared. A veiled shelf hidden behind the sturdy wall.
A medium sized chest, the lid covered in dirt sat upon it. Leather and metal straps bound the middle and metal corners garnished the dark wood with a small locket in the middle. The key fit perfectly.
After the chest was opened, Darc took a step back.
His wife’s dowry was grand and of fine quality. What glittered from the box would have driven any man seeking wealth to do anything to have at it. And it, unfortunately had.
But it would not him.
He’d his own riches and did not care about her dowry. But Darc could easily see why her father had so carefully guarded and secreted this well and had died to protect it for his only child.
He pulled the box out and froze at what lay behind it. A glimpse into a windowless smaller room filled nigh to the ceiling with more.
He handed the chest to two nearby knights and looked at Caroline.
She nodded, a beaming smile upon her lovely face and then she drew his head down to whisper in his ear. Darc’s heart swelled at the words that left her lips.
The second passageway held the second reason Caroline had needed to come here. It still took her by surprise and raw emotions flooded her.
A dried and empty groove running from a depression in the ground of what once had no doubt been a cesspool laid her father’s skeleton.
Uncovered and exposed where he’d been slain. Slaughtered for greed.
Overwhelming grief gripped her and she threw herself across his bones and wept. ‘Father. Father-Oh, Father…’
No one said anything.
Much later, Caroline vaguely remembered Darc’s strong hands picking her up and carrying her out of the caverns.
Her tears dried by the time his men had properly buried her father’s remains.
‘Twas close to eventide and the dark clouds that had followed them here disappeared and the sky was clear. She thanked the men as they made a makeshift marker for her father next to the place her mother was buried.
Caroline knelt and prayed over both graves.
After all this time she could finally put things to rest and look to the future as King William had once bid her. A winsome smile came to her lips at the thought of how miserable she’d felt that day so long ago. She could hazily recall the deep emotion, the disdain she’d felt because now in its place-her heart bloomed and beat rapidly with love for the giant turning her way now. A surprised and worried frown upon his handsome face.
Her tender gaze never leaving him as he raced across the mounds of dirt to her side.
The dark cloud over her life had lifted, finally. And she was willing to trust it. Trust him. Hope and dreams she’d thought long out of her reach had come true because of this man beside her. Aye, they’d gone through their own hell of obstacles, but they had survived and were all the better for it.
Darc had grieved for and with her and when her eyes met his, his heart swelled. He understood now why she had needed to come here.
She had needed to lay all to rest.
What he now saw in her wide honey-colored depths took his breath away.
Without a word spoken she walked directly into his arms.
Darc buried his head in her soft waves and pulled his cloak around them. She wrapped her arms around his waist and held him back just as tightly as her embrace would allow.
The wind picked up but he still heard her words when she spoke.
Though she had told him this once before, this time, the depth of her emotion filling her voi
ce made him know that for as long as he lived, he would never forget this moment.
‘I love you so it hurts me, Darc.’
Devotion choked his words. ‘Ah, Caroline, my love. Thank you.’
She lifted her head to look up at him then. ‘Nay. I thank you. Now. Take us back home, husband. Our boys await our return.’
Darc could not hold back his loud and happy roar. He felt her shake with her laugh in his arms. Her round belly pressed against him and he felt their babe kick. His hand slid down over her middle as he said with a smile, ‘Aye, wife, home.’
He planted a hot kiss on her smiling lips.
He told the men to load the carriage and he helped her carefully back inside.
Mounting and turning his horse around, Darc was the happiest man on earth. She’d not come here for the treasure. She’d come for so much more.
‘You’re all the treasure I need.’ She had told him when she’d revealed the hidden treasure Halvard and Cedric had greedily sought and murdered for.
As he watched the last load being placed onto the second cart, he shook his head. Now he knew why she had been so persistent in bringing it along.
CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN
‘I want to know about you, Darc.’
‘I have told you.’
‘Nay you told me about your brother. About Adelay. I wish to know about you.’ Caroline pressed her hand to his scar and he tried to move out of her caress but she would not allow it. He stood rigid in front of her. They were in their chamber.
They had moved her belongings into his larger room weeks ago, the day they had returned from burying her father.
Kelbie and Cal now shared her old chamber. Old Agnes, though Darc had forgiven the woman, he could not bring himself to forget and had her sent off to Gest Manor.
Caroline pressed tighter against him and repeated her query. He took her hand and turned it over in his staring at it strangely. When he looked back at her, Caroline wanted to cry at the depth of emotion she read in those magnetic eyes she’d given her heart to.
‘What would you like to know?’ he asked her softly.