Dark Steel

by Le Veque, Kathryn

  Then, the tears came.

  Papa…

  He couldn’t stand to see the man he loved most in the world so ill. It was breaking his heart. He couldn’t even speak for the lump in his throat, something that Gaston must have sensed.

  He held his son by marriage, but a man he could not have loved more even if he had been his son by blood. Hugging him tightly, he could feel Dane’s body shake as he sobbed a few times, so very emotional at the sight of his sickly father.

  “It is good to see you, Dane,” Gaston said, his voice very raspy because of the condition in his throat. “Do not despair. I am still here, still alive. And I had to come and see you, even though your mother tried to lock me in a room so I could not leave.”

  That brought laughter through Dane’s tears. He pulled his face away from his father’s neck, wiping at his eyes, trying to make light of a very emotional reunion.

  “I am not surprised,” he said. “How is my mother?”

  “Beautiful and strong.”

  “That is good to hear.” Dane looked Gaston over again, acquainting himself with his father’s state. “And you? I did not expect you to come when I sent the missive about de Lara’s death and my marriage, Papa. I just wanted you to know what had happened.”

  Gaston smiled faintly, cupping the man’s face with his big hand. “I know,” he said. “But I had to come. My son, the duke. I am so proud of you, Dane. But you already know that. I have always been proud of you, even when you were young and ridiculous.”

  Tears stung Dane’s eyes but he fought them. Instead, he smiled. “I love you, too,” he said quietly. “It is such a blessing that you are here. Come, now, meet my wife.”

  Taking the man by the hand, he led his father over to Grier and Cort, who were standing a few feet away in conversation.

  “Grier,” Dane said, catching her attention. “This is my father, Gaston. He is every bit as great as I have told you.”

  Grier focused on Gaston, a smile on her lips, as she reached out to take his hand. “My lord,” she greeted. “I have so wanted to meet you because I wanted to thank you.”

  Gaston’s gaze drifted over the beautiful woman. “Why is that, my dear?”

  Her smile broadened. “For Dane, of course,” she said. “You have raised a fine son. I am so very fortunate, and I wanted to thank you for that.”

  Gaston liked her already. Bending down, he kissed her on the cheek, grinning at her and holding her hands tightly as Matthew and Trenton walked up.

  “Dane,” Matthew Wellesbourne spoke seriously. A big man with curly blond hair that had mostly gone gray, he was Gaston’s best friend in the world and William’s father. He pointed to his frolicking son. “I sent Willie with you so the man could grow up. What I see now does not impress me.”

  They all turned to see William, Gage, and Boden wrestling in the snow, frightening horses as they went. As Grier fought off laughter, Dane sighed heavily.

  “I know you cannot tell by looking at him, Uncle Matthew, but he has, indeed, grown since he has been with me,” he said. “It is something about those three together that brings out the naughty lad in each of them. They will be doing that when they are old and gray, you know.”

  Matthew knew that, too. In a sense, it was good to see that some things never changed, not even his wild youngest son or the younger de Russe boys. The fact that some things stayed the same was oddly comforting.

  “I suppose,” he said, his gaze falling on Grier. “Your lady wife, I presume?”

  Dane nodded as he looked at Grier. “My dear wife,” he said affectionately. “My lady, this is Matthew Wellesbourne, Earl of Hereford, and standing next to him is my brother, Trenton. Greater men you will never meet.”

  As Matthew went to speak to Grier and Gaston, Dane went to Trenton. Trenton, his older brother by a year, and Dane were inordinately close, and Trenton was the man Dane respected most in the world next to his father. Trenton had married the year before and had given up his position with the king in order to settle down and help Gaston manage his estates.

  Now that Gaston was growing weaker, and sicker, Trenton had taken on a tremendous amount of responsibility. As the Earl of Westbury, he was the heir to the dukedom of Warminster.

  A more powerful man had never lived.

  Dane extended his hand to Trenton, taking it tightly. “I am surprised to see you,” he admitted. “The great and mighty Westbury on my doorstep. I have missed you, Brother.”

  Trenton grinned; like most of the de Russe male offspring, he looked like his father to a fault. He was the man’s size and strength, and nearly his personality, too. He’d had some demons in his life but, thanks to the woman he married, his life was finally running smoothly for once. For Dane, that was very good to see.

  “I have missed you, also,” Trenton said. “You and I usually do not spend so much time apart, but with my duties with Warminster, and your new holdings in the northern Marches, I’m afraid separation might be a new way of life for us.”

  Dane nodded, regretfully. “But I will always be at your side if you need me; you know that,” he said. Then, he glanced at Gaston as he lowered his voice. “Why is he here? He looks terrible, Trenton. I cannot believe Mother let him come.”

  Trenton’s gaze moved to Gaston, also. “When he received your missive about the dukedom and marriage, nothing could keep him away,” he muttered. “Mother actually locked him in a chamber, trying to keep him from going. The only way she would let him travel is if all of us went with him – me, Uncle Matthew, Cort, and Gage. She would not let him go without a huge support system.”

  Now it made sense as to why so many of his family members had come. “How has he been?” Dane asked.

  Trenton put his hand on his brother’s shoulder. “Not well,” he said honestly. “He spends most of his time with his grandchildren and he does not travel. That is why it took us so long to get here; we traveled slowly and stopped frequently, for his sake. But nothing would stop him, Dane; you have to know that. He is so proud of you and what you have become. I heard him tell Mother, once, that he could now die happy because Trenton and Dane had finally come into their own.”

  Dane closed his eyes, a brief and miserable gesture. “I hope he did not hasten that death by coming here,” he said. “Come, let us go inside the hall where it is warm. He should not be out here in the cold.”

  Trenton agreed. They moved towards the group that was now circled around Grier, and even though she was the center of attention, which usually embarrassed her, she was carrying on a charming conversation, bringing laughter from both Gaston and Matthew. It made Dane’s heart swell with gratitude to see that; his beautiful wife, now blossoming before his very eyes.

  He, too, couldn’t have been prouder.

  “Let’s not stand out here in the snow any longer,” Dane said, pushing between Cort and Matthew to take Grier by the arm. “My wife will be just as entertaining in the hall, where it is warm and we are not being snowed on.”

  The group of them began to walk towards the hall as the Warminster escort was disbanded behind them. However, William and Boden and Gage were still roughhousing, so they left those three to their own snowy fun. In fact, Matthew was watching the trio, shaking his head at their antics.

  “Is this what has been happening at Shrewsbury?” he asked Dane. “This place is so slow and unexciting that those three can spend all of their time wrestling?”

  Dane looked at the man in surprise. “Shrewsbury?” he said. “Slow?”

  Gaston put his arm around his son’s shoulders. “Admit it,” he said. “You’ve found a peaceful and completely dull command in Shrewsbury. Nothing exciting ever happens here.”

  Dane lifted his eyebrows, looking at his wife, who was looking at him with the same expression.

  Nothing exciting ever happens in Shrewsbury.

  Dane had to shake his head.

  “Give me time, Papa,” he said. “I will tell you just how unexciting Shrewsbury has been since I have assum
ed command. I think it might surprise you.”

  Gaston laughed softly. “I am an old man, Dane,” he said. “It takes quite a bit to surprise me. Have you even used the legendary Shrewsbury battle horn yet? That thing must be rusting for lack of use.”

  Dane had to laugh. “You think so, do you?”

  Dane was still laughing when they entered the hall, met by Charlisa and her gracious hospitality. By the end of the evening, not only was Gaston surprised by the deceptively peaceful Shrewsbury, so was everyone else. Shrewsbury wasn’t the bucolic corner of Shropshire that they thought it was.

  But more than the life-and-death struggle that Dane and Grier had been forced to endure, one thing was readily apparent to Gaston – the gap-toothed, skinny lad he’d first met those years ago had grown into a fine, strong man without a shadow of Guy Stoneley’s manner in him. Perhaps Dane was a Stoneley by blood, but his heart and soul were purely de Russe.

  And that gap-toothed, skinny young man had finally found his piece of heaven.

  * THE END *

  Children of the Duke and Duchess of Shrewsbury, Dane and Grier

  Rory

  Etienne

  Adreanna

  Felicity

  Sophie

  Sebastien

  Tristen

  Gregor

  The de Russe Legacy:

  The Falls of Erith

  Lord of War: Black Angel

  The Iron Knight

  Beast

  The Dark One: Dark Knight

  The White Lord of Wellesbourne

  Dark Moon

  Dark Steel

  Afterword

  I truly hope you’ve enjoyed Dane and Grier’s story. Now, to clarify a couple of things –

  As you’ve seen, Grier is the last of the de Lara family, the Lords of the Trinity Castles (or Lords of the Trilaterals, as they are also called). There are two branches of the de Lara family.

  The first branch is the Lords of the Trilaterals, which stemmed from Luc de Lara, who came over with the Duke of Normandy (see WARWOLFE for this character). The de Laras come from Spain, and Luc de Lara was the Count of Boucau. One of the direct descendants of this branch is Sean de Lara (LORD OF THE SHADOWS). You also meet Sean’s father and brother in ARCHANGEL, and the Lords of the Trilaterals are discussed a bit in that book, too.

  The second branch of the de Lara family is the Earls of Carlisle (DRAGONBLADE), because Tate de Lara was adopted by the de Lara family. Being the bastard son of Edward I, the king sent his infant son to the de Laras to both shield him and take care of him, so that branch of the family is de Lara in name only – by blood, they are Plantagenet.

  Therefore, Shrewsbury is not the Dragonblade/Earl of Carlisle branch, but the Sean de Lara branch. This book takes place three hundred years after Lord of the Shadows, but I think it’s particularly cool that Dane is now the Lord of the Trinity Castles as well as the Duke of Shrewsbury. I think Sean de Lara would have been very proud, and comforted, knowing that his family properties and family legacy are in the hands of a competent de Russe. Since my books cover approximately 450 years (the entire stretch of the High Middle Ages), sometimes there are centuries between books, especially with descendants, and the House of de Russe is my latest (most recent) house. They kind of close up the Medieval World and take us into the Tudor World.

  And with that, I hope you enjoyed the mini-family reunion at the end, brief as it was. It did my heart good to write about Gaston and Matthew one more time, and it does my heart good to see how fine and noble their children have become (except for William, Boden, and Gage, but they’ll have their time, eventually!).

  Much love,

  About Kathryn Le Veque

  Medieval Just Got Real.

  KATHRYN LE VEQUE is a USA TODAY Bestselling author, an Amazon All-Star author, and a #1 bestselling, award-winning, multi-published author in Medieval Historical Romance and Historical Fiction. She has been featured in the NEW YORK TIMES and on USA TODAY’s HEA blog. In March 2015, Kathryn was the featured cover story for the March issue of InD’Tale Magazine, the premier Indie author magazine. She was also a quadruple nominee (a record!) for the prestigious RONE awards for 2015.

  Kathryn’s Medieval Romance novels have been called ‘detailed’, ‘highly romantic’, and ‘character-rich’. She crafts great adventures of love, battles, passion, and romance in the High Middle Ages. More than that, she writes for both women AND men – an unusual crossover for a romance author – and Kathryn has many male readers who enjoy her stories because of the male perspective, the action, and the adventure.

  On October 29, 2015, Amazon launched Kathryn’s Kindle Worlds Fan Fiction site WORLD OF DE WOLFE PACK. Please visit Kindle Worlds for Kathryn Le Veque’s World of de Wolfe Pack and find many action-packed adventures written by some of the top authors in their genre using Kathryn’s characters from the de Wolfe Pack series. As Kindle World’s FIRST Historical Romance fan fiction world, Kathryn Le Veque’s World of de Wolfe Pack will contain all of the great story-telling you have come to expect.

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