His father nodded. “Put your shirt on, boy,” he growled. Colar hastened to comply. His father changed the subject abruptly. “Now, what of the girl?”
Kate was upstairs in Erinya’s room. The two girls would share a chamber. She had asked for a bath after dinner in a quiet voice, and his mother had ordered the householders to prepare one. He hoped she would know that it wasn’t like showers back home. Baths were a lot of work here. He hoped she would adjust to her new life. He wanted to make her happy.
Better bring it up now; it wouldn’t get any easier. “We wish to marry,” he said. “Much later, when we’re older, as people do in her world. Only Kate has set a condition, that she be allowed to study medicine, in Brythern if need be. She feels that she can do much good here, as she did in camp, by using her knowledge from home along with Talios’s teachings. And father, I think she is right. The learning they have there, it far outstripped anything here and anything in Brythern even. The things I learned, the things I could do . . .”
He trailed off. There was no way he could explain it to his father, and Lord Terrick’s expression had grown pained. He didn’t want to know. He didn’t want to hear that his son had left something of value behind. Colar’s Annapolis brochure was still folded and stuffed into his back pocket. It was probably in tatters. Soon he wouldn’t be able to read it, and the photos of the jets and the aircraft carriers would fade, and his sojourn on the other side of the gordath would fade as well.
“Well,” his father said. “You will be her husband. Can you live with that?”
I’ll have the greatest lady in all of Aeritan. He nodded solemnly, his heart pounding. He hoped Kate didn’t want to wait too long. The custom of late marriage would have to give way to Aeritan, after all. “I can, sir.”
Of all the responses his father could give, he didn’t think he could be any more surprised.
“Well, I had thought as much, with the two of you.” At Colar’s expression, his father shook his head. “Just don’t tell your mother yet. Let her have you back for a little while.”
“Yes, sir.”
Lord Terrick hauled himself heavily to his feet. “And here I’ve monopolized you far longer than I should have. Your mother wants you, and your brothers and sister, and I am sure your new lady as well. You have returned to us, son. Maybe one day you will understand what that means.”
When he was a father himself. Colar followed his father down the stairs where his family waited to welcome him home.
The afternoon sunlight streamed across the lawn at the farmhouse at the newly renamed Red Bird Stables. A rented white pavilion gleamed in the rich, lowering sun, and wedding guests gathered in clusters on the neatly mown grass, their heels sinking into the damp earth. People laughed and chattered, holding glasses of champagne. From his vantage point on the front porch of the elegant old house, Joe looked out over the view. It was like Mrs. Hunt’s gala, except that the old Hunter’s Chase Stables took its formality and cold beauty from its owner. Red Bird Stables was comfortable and worn, like a pair of favorite boots. Weeds had sprung up alongside the gravel drive, but they were Queen Anne’s lace and caught the gleam of sunlight with an ethereal air. The barns were comfortable and slightly worn, the fences tight and safe but no longer bright white. The horses browsed in the fields, a few watching the proceedings at the house with a quiet curiosity.
Across the cross-country jump course massed the trees of Gordath Wood, and his senses quivered. The gordath hadn’t yet been completely quieted but was merely quiescent. I reckon I can handle it from here, Joe thought, along with the old folks that Lynn had introduced him to. They called themselves a fancy word, perambulators, but it turned out they were guardians just like him.
And with Arrim on the other side, well, that was the best they could do. He looked over at Lynn, talking with elderly relatives on the lawn. She looked lovely in her wedding dress, a long, slim, white sheath that set off her dark hair and fine figure in a way that made him go weak at the knees.
They might even have started on the next generation of guardians already. They neither of them considered birth control when they got home. Lynn just put him to bed and joined him there when he was rested from the ass kicking Hare had given him. She gave him a glance just then and a smile over her flute of champagne, and he gave an answering smile back.
She looked happy, he couldn’t help but note, and he damned himself again for a fool. She told him what was between her and that captain or lord or whatever he was, and he knew better than to let it get to him. Still, it was hard, seeing the way they had looked at each other. Careful, he thought. You’ll end up like Lord Tharp. Best just let it go and make damn sure the gordath stays closed.
Something cold and wet nudged his hand. It was the dog. They had named her Cissy, and she answered to it eagerly. She panted and wagged, her eager brown eyes looking up at him. She was shiny and clean and had filled out, and took her job as guardian of the stables as seriously as he took his. He rubbed the dog’s soft ears. Women might need horses, but a man needed a dog sometimes, especially when he was lost in the woods. He wasn’t lost anymore, though. He had Lynn and the farm and the gordath to keep quiet.
He didn’t need to run anymore.
With Cissy at his side, he came down the porch steps, accepting the handshakes and congratulations from the wedding guests. The grass was soft under his dress shoes, and he could feel the cool seeping up into the soles. Felt strange not to be wearing boots, but his old boots hardly went with fine clothes.
“Joe!” His mother came up, wearing a lavender dress that didn’t suit her except for the beaming happiness that she wore with it. She gave him a kiss, and he held her. “What are you doing, leaving your wife alone on your wedding day?” she scolded lightly. She was a little tipsy.
“Just going to get her now,” he promised.
Isabella became serious now. “She’s a good girl. You treat her right.” The unspoken context, Not the way your father treated me, bounced between them. He gave her another kiss on the cheek.
“Always, Ma.”
At that moment Abel Felz stumped up to them. Joe had gotten his father’s height, which was to say, not so much, but Abel had thickened, his neck and jowls sagging and his belly straining at his old blue suit.
“So this is where you’ll be. I guess we’ll never see much of you.” His words were a bitter accusation.
Joe didn’t say anything. His dad was in one of his moods, and nothing he said could appease the old man. He and his mother exchanged a quick glance and then he caught movement out of the corner of his eye. Lynn. He was about to wave her off, but she came up to them, the deepening twilight making her almost glow in her gown.
“Mr. Felz, I didn’t get a chance to talk with you before,” she said, taking her father-in-law’s hand. “I’m really happy you could make it up for our wedding.”
“Big waste of time,” the old man snapped. “You don’t know anything about farming, and Joe should know better. Farmers can’t leave their land. Now who knows what’s happening back home. And Isabella gone all these weeks. People can’t just leave. It all goes to hell. People coming back and forth, crossing over. By the time I get home, it’ll be hell to put to right and quiet everything back down.” He glared at Joe and Lynn. “What are you looking at me like that for?”
Isabella took her husband’s arm. “That’s enough, Abel. Leave these poor children alone. You’re like to give me a heart attack with that rant. Let them be on their wedding day.”
She led him off, Abel still growling, and they stared at each other, dumbstruck.
“Well,” Lynn said at last. “I think that was a piece of the puzzle.”
Joe nodded. “He’s a bitter old bastard, and he made my life miserable. But he is a guardian.”
She folded her hand in his, and he pulled her to him and kissed her. It was a real kiss, a bedroom kiss, and they could hear the cheers and laughter of the guests as people turned to look. They both blushed and laughed an
d broke apart, but he kept hold of her hand. Joe thought that it was nice to finally stop moving. It was good to be home.
Red Gold Bridge Page 31