Second Age of Darkness

by Diane Lindmark

  They all sat in silence for several minutes, then Broderick asked, "The farmer Anderson, he is her father, isn't he?" Malachi nodded. "What are his feelings towards her now?"

  "I don't know. That's next on my list of things to do. I know she doesn't want it, but they are going to have to come face-to-face at least once. I don't think she will ever be able to fully move past it until it is done. She has to actually know whether he can accept her as she is, or turn his back on her. I wasn't able to get a good feel about it. I don't know what he'll decide. I fear he will declare her a whore and blame her for the death of her brother, then refuse to have anything to do with her."

  Septis cleared his throat. "Anyone who would blame that child for the death of her brother deserves to have their own throat cut. And if that is what he decides, then he's not worthy to call himself her father and I will do my best to make amends for his shortcomings."

  "Does that mean you are willing to accept her as my bride and your daughter?"

  "I think I would accept any woman except that wretched Wendy," replied Septis.

  Malachi laughed. "No worries, that woman I would never get within twenty yards of willingly."

  He turned to Alec, but before he could ask, Alec said, "Aye, I will kneel before her as my Queen and give her my undying devotion, and when your child is born, it will have my fealty without hesitation or reservation."

  *****

  Malachi went back to his quarters before dinner. As he approached, the guard said softly, "She must've been exhausted. She hasn't moved around at all. I am pretty sure she's asleep."

  Malachi entered quietly. She lifted her head off the pillow and stretched. "What time is it?"

  Malachi smiled, crossed to her, and sat on the edge of the bed. "Nearly dinnertime, chatty."

  She looked a little worried. "Would you prefer I go back to not speaking?"

  "No, absolutely not, but I do have a bone to pick with you, woman. Why didn't you tell me about one of my men putting his hands on you?"

  She hesitated a long moment. "I didn't know if you'd be angry with me."

  Malachi sighed. "I would never be angry with you because some guy got fresh."

  "How did you learn about them?" she said, stretching and cuddling back into the covers. "You know, you have a very nice bed."

  Malachi narrowed his eyes. "You said them?"

  "Aye, there were several, who as you put it, got fresh; but just as you promised, when I indicated I wasn't interested, they left me alone. Most of them just asked me to have dinner with them, or go for a walk, though a couple had roaming hands." She laughed as Malachi looked annoyed.

  Malachi crossed his arms over his chest. "Well, in the future, woman, if any of my men get fresh with you, you tell me immediately … so I can flatten them."

  Chapter 31

  Stargazer Castle, Scottish Highlands

  November 5, 2231

  Malachi paced up and down the length of his office. He wished he would've chosen a less auspicious day, but if everything was going to blow up in his face, why not on Guy Fawkes' Day? The worst part was, he couldn't remember the whole poem. All he could remember – he chuckled to himself, was Remember, remember! The fifth of November / The Gunpowder treason and plot / I know of no reason / Why the Gunpowder treason / Should ever be forgot! There was a knock at the door. Malachi crossed himself, said a quick prayer to God, then taking into mind the day it was, he asked the Catholics of old to pray for him. "Enter," called Malachi.

  Broderick entered, showing Mr. and Mrs. Anderson into the room. Malachi smiled at them both and ran a quick appraising eye over Mrs. Anderson, who was clearly dressed to meet her King. She was wearing a long plaid skirt, a nice white blouse and a plaid shawl, though he was pleased to see it was not Edmund's red and black plaid. Malachi gestured to the sofa. "Thank you for coming, Mr. and Mrs. Anderson, if you would please be seated." Malachi turned to his brother. "The other wee thing is in the Throne Room."

  Broderick took a deep breath and let it out slowly, then cleared his throat and nodded. "As my King commands."

  Malachi turned his attention back to the Andersons. They seated themselves, but looked distinctly uncomfortable. Malachi knew there was no way he would manage to sit still, so he decided to remain standing. As an awkward minute stretched on, Mrs. Anderson said a little hesitantly, "I see the preparations for your brother's wedding are going very well. Is there anything I, or any of the farmers' wives, could do to assist you in this matter?"

  "Actually, a large part of the preparations, though they will be up in time for my brother's wedding, they are not actually for his wedding. The women seem determined to have the entire castle decorated before …"

  The door opened and Broderick entered. Malachi turned to look as Phryne entered on Broderick's arm. Broderick closed the door behind him quickly. Phryne turned around to leave. Broderick put his hand on her shoulder. "Neither one of us is getting out of this. I suggest you stop fighting and just get it over with." She shook her head fiercely.

  Malachi looked back at the Andersons, who were both staring in opened mouthed astonishment. He sighed and crossed to Phryne, who was still struggling against poor Broderick, trying to get him to open the door.

  Malachi crossed to her and gently grabbed her by each arm and pulled her away from Broderick. He was in the process of trying to turn her to face him, when Mrs. Anderson shouted in near hysterics, "Take your hands off of her you animals! Don't you touch her!" Malachi, who could see Broderick's face over Phryne's shoulder, saw his brother start and his eyes go wide. Malachi looked over his shoulder just in time to be slapped by Mrs. Anderson. She started slapping him and hitting him crying hysterically. "Take your hands …" Smack, smack. "Off of her …" Kick. "Right now …" Smack, smack. "You pig!" Malachi brought his forearm up to protect his face and neck.

  Broderick was having a hard time remaining standing, he was laughing so hard. He couldn't ever remember watching Malachi cower. It was definitely quite amusing to watch. "Dammit, Broderick, will you stop laughing and pull this wretched woman off me!" snapped Malachi.

  "It's your own stupid fault. I told you this was bad idea," Broderick replied, still laughing.

  Anderson pulled his angry wife off of the King and wrapped his arms tightly around her, trying to restrain her. Mrs. Anderson snapped as she struggled and squirmed against her husband, "Let me go! Let me go!"

  Anderson said firmly, "Calm down, woman, do you want the King to throw you in a cell?"

  "I don't care! I don't care what he does to me! He's not going to touch my daughter!" snapped Mrs. Anderson, then she started crying.

  Broderick, who was still laughing, said quite helpfully, "It's a wee bit late for that."

  Malachi rounded angrily on his brother, grabbed the side of his head, and slammed it into the door. "Shut up, you're not helping." Broderick turned and decked Malachi. A minute later, the two brothers were involved in a heated fistfight.

  Anderson rolled his eyes and murmured, "Brothers." He gave them a minute or two to get it out of their system and then hollered, "Stop it, immediately, the pair of you!" They both stopped, turned, stood up straight, and had identical sheepish looks on their faces.

  Mrs. Anderson gave a little gasp as she looked at the two brothers who'd clearly not bothered to pull their punches. Malachi had blood running from his nose and a busted lip. Broderick had a cut above his eye that was bleeding freely and blood running down the side of his neck, clearly from having his head bashed into the door. "Oh dear, you're going to be a sight for your wedding."

  The two brothers turned and glared at each other, then started laughing. "Not to worry, Mrs. Anderson, Broderick will be back to his usual ugly self in plenty of time for his wedding. Anyways, I don't think Abby cares what he looks like, she's only marrying him because I made her do it."

  Broderick turned and glared at his older brother. "You want to go again?"

  Malachi reached up, gripped the bridge of his nose and straightened it, fiddl
ed with it for a second, then said, "Not really, I would prefer it if the Andersons didn't get to know the real us quite this quickly." Then remembering about Phryne, he looked around, expecting to find her cowering in the corner, but to his surprise, she was moving towards him carrying a bowl and a couple of cloths. She set it down on the table, soaked a cloth, and threw it at him. He caught it and started wiping away the blood, then she threw one at Broderick, who also began cleaning off the blood.

  Mrs. Anderson gasped. "Aye, your daughter's not the only one with the unique gifts. And my sincerest apologies for getting in a fight with my idiot younger brother; I intended this to go a wee bit more peacefully." He moved to the bowl and washed the blood off of his hands. He gripped Phryne by the arm and pulled her back towards her parents. When she began to struggle, he wrapped his arm around her waist and gripped her jaw and turned her to face him. "Stop it now, you can't avoid them forever. Eventually, you and they are going to end up in the same room together. Might as will get it over with now and anyways, it might not go as badly as you're afraid it's going to … okay?" She shook her head fiercely. Malachi sighed. "Well, too bad. Whether you like it or not, you're going to have to at least go and face them. I insist upon it." Malachi hesitated a moment, then said, "I refuse to allow you to alienate your parents without at least trying first." She pursed her lips together and looked down at the ground. Malachi moved behind her, gripped her by the waist and pushed her in the direction of her parents with her practically digging in her heels.

  Anderson released his wife so she could hug her daughter. "Oh, my beautiful lassie!" Mrs. Anderson released her.

  Mr. Anderson immediately hugged his daughter. Phryne burst into tears. "I'm sorry, Daddy. I got Peter killed and then I didn't save him. I wanted to, but he was dead and I was afraid about the rabbit so … so …" At this point she became incoherent.

  Anderson hugged her tighter stroking her hair. "No, you did nothing wrong. It wasn't your fault, and you were right not to try. I'm glad you remembered about the rabbit; that was good."

  Broderick and Malachi both looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders in confusion. Malachi waited until things seemed to calm down a bit, then he asked, "Rabbit?"

  Mrs. Anderson, who was patting her daughter's back, turned to face him. "I'm assuming from what you said, you already know that she can heal others." Both men nodded. "When she was about five, a dog killed her rabbit. When she found the rabbit, it'd been dead for some time. She was so upset. She was cradling the rabbit, wishing her bunny was still alive. Its wounds all closed and it came back to life, but it attacked her. It started fighting her, and when my husband came out, it attacked him. That bunny had been the sweetest wee thing, now it was a different creature. Dougal had a very difficult time getting a hold of it so he could …" she pitched her voice low, "do away with it." This time the brothers exchanged astonished looks.

  Dougal interrupted. "I'd like to take my daughter home now, please." Phryne pulled free and began shaking her head. "I see no reason for you to stay. I want to take my daughter home." Phryne took several steps backwards till she bumped into Malachi, then she grabbed his arm and wrapped it around her like a shield. Dougal glared at Malachi. "So, you too are going to keep my daughter prisoner?" he said angrily.

  "She's not my prisoner. I have told her on many occasions she is free to go." Phryne wrapped both of her arms around Malachi's arm and clung to it tighter. Malachi wrapped his free arm over her shoulder and pulled her against him. "But she doesn't want to. She has graciously consented to be my wife, and as I was about to say before Broderick and Phryne entered; all the additional wedding preparations you're seeing is the ladies preparing the castle for Phryne's wedding, not mine. They couldn't give a damn about me," he said with a smile.

  "If my daughter is free to go, then why doesn't she speak for herself?" demanded Dougal, crossing his arms over his chest.

  "I'm working on that. She still doesn't like to speak. Until I came here, she'd not spoken in seven years. She's getting pretty talkative when it's just me and her, but she's still afraid around other people. She might not ever be comfortable speaking around other people." Malachi reached up and gently caressed her cheek with a finger. After a moment, he moved his hand down and placed it over her belly. "If she left now, it would kill me, because I could not survive the loss of another woman and another child."

  Broderick looked at his brother sharply. The earnestness in his voice compelled Broderick to move to stand behind his brother, reach up, and grip his shoulder tightly. He knew it had pained Malachi to mention it. It surprised him that he did.

  Dougal opened his mouth, but was elbowed in the ribs by his wife. "Phryne, do you really want to stay?" Phryne smiled broadly and nodded. She let go of Malachi's arm with her right hand, reached down, and placed it over Malachi's hand. Mrs. Anderson turned to her husband and put her hand on his shoulder. "Dougal, that is the downside to having a daughter. Eventually, you have to give her away. But I think if you play nice, you won't really be losing her."

  "Is my wife right? Will we be able to come and visit our daughter and our grandchildren?"

  "As much as you like; we're going to all be family."

  Epilogue

  Stargazer Castle, Scottish Highlands

  November 20, 2231

  Phryne looked at herself in the mirror. She was surprised at how well she looked in the green and black of Malachi's plaid. The dress had belonged to Malachi's mother; she had worn it when she married his father. It was a lovely dress. Her shoulders were bare, though it had long sleeves and was entirely plaid with full skirt, but the plaid skirt was pulled up high on her left hip allowing the white muslin underskirt to show. She smiled as she remembered Septis asking to have a private word with her. When he had shown her the dress he looked so shy, it surprised her, and then he asked very sweetly if she would do him the honor of wearing Malachi's mother's wedding dress. Though, of course this was the dress she wore when she married his cousin, Malachi's biological father. He had also given Abby the dress she had worn when she had married him. She smiled again and thought it was cute that the old soldier was so sentimental. She picked up her bouquet and turned to face her father. She shrugged her shoulders in question.

  Her father's eyes filled with tears. "You look lovely, lass." He offered her his arm and escorted her out of the castle where a large crowd was waiting, lining the road to either side. Waiting to catch sight of their future queen as she walked to the church, Sylvie leading the way, followed by Abby, then herself and her father. As they walked by, the crowd turned and followed them. They entered the church and her father escorted her down the aisle to Malachi, with Broderick and Duff standing behind him. They all looked very handsome in full Highland dress. Her father grudgingly handed her over to Malachi and she and Malachi knelt.

  Phryne tried hard to pay attention to the Mass, but she found her mind kept wandering. She was brought back to the present when Malachi gently pulled on her forearm. She quietly repeated her vows after Father Glennhill, then she placed the ring on Malachi's left hand. Father Glennhill turned to Malachi who repeated his vows in a loud, clear voice, and placed the ring on her left hand. He turned her hand over and kissed her palm right at the base of her thumb.

  Father Glennhill turned to Broderick. "If you would do the honors." Broderick drew his knife and with an apologetic glance at Phryne, cut a small slice where Malachi had just kissed, just enough to draw blood. Phryne winced. Malachi turned his right hand over and Broderick cut a very deep gash in Malachi's hand.

  Father Glennhill took their hands and pressed the wounds together, then held out his hand to Abby, who immediately handed over a four inch wide strip of Malachi's plaid. Father Glennhill took it, blessed it, and then bound their hands tightly together. Then Father Glennhill held up both of his hands and said in a very loud, clear voice, "By the power invested in me by God's Holy Church, I now pronounce you husband and wife." Everyone cheered, then he leaned in and whispered, "You m
ay kiss your bride." Malachi hesitated momentarily. He knew his bride did not like to be the center of attention. If he kissed her properly, everyone would cheer louder and it would provoke many lewd remarks later; so he bent down and kissed her on the cheek. There were a few disappointed murmurs, but Malachi smiled at Phryne and winked. She smiled back. Father Glennhill made a circling motion with his hand. "Now remember, you two have to make it all the way to the wedding feast still tied together. Your first lesson in working together," Father Glennhill said with a laugh.

  Sylvie winked at Duff who nodded and grinned back. They both turned and Duff headed down the right and Sylvie down the left.

  Malachi and Phryne turned around to face their audience. Father Glennhill again held up his hands. "I present to you, King Malachi and Queen Phryne." Again, everyone cheered as Malachi and Phryne headed down the aisle, having rice and flower petals thrown at them. As Malachi reached the end of the aisle, he saw Duff and Sylvie standing there. Duff dropped something over to Sylvie, then Malachi realized what it was and grinned. The two dropped down on their knees and held a broom about six inches off the ground. Malachi squeezed Phryne's hand tightly as the two jumped over the broom, sweeping away the past and beginning anew.

  The End

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15