Finders Keepers (Norman Brides)

by Wood, Lynn

  Chapter Thirty

  Over the next few weeks, Melissa grew increasingly uncomfortable in her fatherin-law’s presence especially since Luke’s father appeared to be taking such great pains to see to her every comfort and make certain she felt welcome in her new home. While she was appreciative of his efforts, she felt as though she was accepting his hospitality under false pretenses. When she broached her dilemma with Luke, he was adamant about keeping the truth of his brother’s death between the two of them. At Melissa’s insistence they had yet to confide her condition to his father. Luke was anxious to do so. It was obvious father and son were enjoying the opportunity to get to know each other in a way they never had before. Luke kept telling her how much how it would mean to his father to know the succession was secure and an heir of his blood would one day become lord of the Michaels family interests.

  Between her husband’s pressure to announce her condition and the ever-present shadow of the dark secret she was keeping from him, Melissa found it impossible to relax in her fatherin-law’s company. So it was with a nervous smile curving her lips that she greeted him when she descended the stairs to the great hall one morning to find him seated alone in front of the hearth. She was surprised to find him there as both father and son were usually away from the keep during the day seeing to the running of the family’s vast business ventures. She looked around for a sign of Luke’s presence, but saw none.

  As if aware of her unease in his company, her fatherin-law admitted. “I sent your husband to one of the neighboring estates on a false errand.”

  Melissa’s face paled at his pronouncement. “Have I done something to offend you, my lord?”

  He rose from his chair by the hearth and crossed the distance between them to take her arm and escort her to the chair opposite the one he vacated. “I was about to ask you the same question.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “You continue to address me as my lord at every opportunity.” He reminded her gently.

  Melissa felt tears sting her eyes at his consideration. “I’m so sorry, my lord…It’s just I don’t know how I am to address you.”

  He nodded his understanding. “I know you’ve recently lost your father, and it is very possible it was with the assistance of my soldiers. I am aware that must be the cause of some of your unease with me, but you seem to have overcome those same circumstances with my son. It is obvious to the eyes of even the most casual observer the two of you are deeply in love. I am hopeful you may one day find it in your heart to forgive whatever part I or my men might have played in causing your grief and you might begin to regard me, not as your father of course, but as a father figure in your life.”

  Melissa closed her eyes against the old man’s pleading. She couldn’t do this anymore. She could not allow the huge lie between them to remain a secret any longer, especially when he obviously sensed her discomfort in his company and he was going out of his way to be so kind to her. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, but there’s something I must confess to you. Something awful.”

  His expression hardened instantly at her desperate admission. In place of his usual gentleness towards her was the ruthless lord he was reputed to be. Melissa thought whatever he suspected she was about to confess to him to cause such a change in his manner, it was nothing compared to the dreadful truth.

  Melissa lowered her gaze from the hard misgiving in his before she lost her courage and forced the words that would change everything through her clenched throat. “I killed your son.”

  “What?!” He catapulted out of his chair. In a single step he crossed the distance separating them and reached out in an almost violent motion to jerk her out her own. His hands bit into the tender flesh of her arms as he roared at her. “If this is your idea of a joke, I assure you it is in terribly poor taste.”

  “No, no of course not, how could I jest about a subject so dear to you?”

  “Take your hands off my wife.” Luke’s furious voice demanded from the entrance. In a glance he seemed to take in the picture of his father towering over her in a threatening manner and his tight grip on her arms. He crossed to where the two of them stood frozen in place at his sudden appearance. Not very much more gently than his father, he pulled her away from his father’s unresisting grasp.

  “Are you all right?” His eyes were filled with outraged concern as he stared down into her white face. She knew he could feel her trembling in his arms. Melissa was glad the long sleeves of her gown concealed the marks she was certain his father’s hands must have left on her upper arms.

  “Yes, yes, I’m fine. Your father must know the truth, Luke. I cannot live under his roof with this lie between us.”

  “That will not be a problem. We’re leaving. Now.” He started towards the door, ignoring her frantic protests by simply tugging her along in his wake.

  When her pleas for him to stop and listen to her had no effect on his intent to instantly leave the keep, and she suspected to never return while his father lived, she simply stopped moving her feet. Luke almost dragged her to her knees before he realized she was no longer following him. Before he could overrule her decision by simply picking her up and carrying out of the keep, she slipped her hand from his surprised grasp and ran back to his father, who was staring at her with a look of blank disbelief on his face.

  “Mason attacked me. I’m so sorry to add to your grief, but I would have you hear the truth from my lips and not an enemy of this house who may someday learn what happened to your son and use it against you and against us all.”

  His dark eyes probed hers trying to discern the truth of the heinous accusation she laid against his son, then he sank down in the chair behind him as if his legs could no longer support his weight and covered his face with his hands. Melissa knelt at his feet and explained softly, “I could not accept your kindness towards me knowing you would not offer it if you knew the truth.”

  “My son attacked you?” His voice was a harsh whisper of disbelief, but in his expression she witnessed his pain, and knew he believed her.

  Melissa nodded, her expression filled with regret at the anguish she knew she was inflicting. No father could hear his son was completely without honor and not be tortured by such knowledge.

  “I would not bring you greater sorrow by sharing the details of our encounter with you, but if you need to hear them, I will tell you what happened, but I swear to you, I was defending myself. My dagger was my only weapon. Your son lost his balance and fell into my blade, then went over the cliff where Luke found his body.”

  He nodded and met her anxious glance with eyes filled with pain and a deep regret. “How did you meet, Luke?”

  “I was gravely injured in the attack and took sanctuary in a nearby cave. Luke found me in his search for his brother. He cared for my injuries. We both assumed I was dying.”

  He nodded, understanding there was a lot she left unspoken and then he admitted in an all but broken voice. “I knew what he was. I prayed he wasn’t as bad as I feared and most of the time I was able to convince myself he could not possibly be as monstrous as the whispered rumors painted him. Of course no one would come to me directly to complain of my son and heir.” He paused for a moment and lifted his eyes to Luke’s shuttered face. “I blame myself. I could not love him as a father should care for his firstborn, especially after you were born.” Seeing Luke’s surprise at his confession, his father nodded his confirmation and added, “I knew from the moment I held you in my arms you were a son worthy of my name. You were the son of my beloved Rebecca. My heart longed for you to be my rightful heir. Even then, even at a young age, there was something dark inside of Mason. He was jealous of your mother and my affection for her. To overcome my own feelings of guilt I did not discipline him the way he deserved. Instead I saved the harshness of my discipline for you, and by doing so, you grew into the kind of man I longed Mason to become, even knowing he never would. That is my guilt. I allowed Mason’s jealousy of you and my own regret at not being
able to love him as I should to become twisted together and laid their burden upon you until things stand between us as they do now.”

  He turned his regret-filled gaze back towards Melissa. “I do not blame you for my son’s death. How could I? Your account confirms my worst fears about him. He was a man in need of dying. I am sorry for his sins against you, but I retain enough fatherly feelings towards him I can wish him peace in death from the demons that would give him no rest in life. He was aware of my pride in you,” he added, turning back towards his younger son. “I could not hide it from him, so he was constantly trying to turn me against you. I thought his harshness towards you would abate if he believed there was animosity between us, but even though I hid the true depth of my love and pride in you from both of you, Mason was not appeased. With the end result, I have lost both of my sons.”

  Tears streaming down her cheeks, Melissa turned pleading eyes to Luke’s expressionless face. She could see he was battling with the ghosts from his past, Mason’s abuse, and his father’s neglect. Could he not see now his father’s very real pain and regret? Could he not forgive an old man his delusions about the true depths of the evil that lurked within his elder son and accept his father’s very real longing to make up for his past sins against him?

  Luke released a heartfelt sigh and thrust a fist through his long hair. He reached down to assist his wife to her feet and offered in a voice filled with sorrow and resignation, but little of the rage the drove him earlier, “You have not lost me, father. If you had, I would not have brought my wife to live under your roof, nor would I allow the child she carries to be raised under your influence.”

  Melissa watched the dizzying array of expressions cross her fatherin-law’s face, first overwhelming relief, followed by confusion at the news he thought his son just delivered, replaced finally by incredulous joy. “What, what? You are with child? Are you certain?”

  Melissa reached out to grasp his trembling hands. “Yes, I am certain. Luke wanted to tell you earlier, but I couldn’t, not with that awful secret between us.” She smiled at the tears of joy glittering in his eyes, then lifted her own to Luke’s. He bent and brushed his lips across hers and pulled her back against him to circle her waist with his arms, resting his chin on the top of her head.

  “I am sure you understand, Father, it might take us a few tries before we produce the grandson you long for,” Luke teased with an understanding smile in his father’s direction.

  “And I shall welcome my granddaughters with open arms and an open heart. I should warn you both now I plan to brazenly spoil them.”

  “That is best,” Melissa replied grinning. “It was for just such a purpose God invented grandfathers. And with your permission, I believe I should like to call you, Meselin. It is a Salusian term of endearment for grandfather.”

  Smiling, all evidence of his earlier pain forgotten, he replied, “Yes, that seems exactly right.”

  Later that night, as Melissa lay tangled up in Luke’s embrace, she raised smiling eyes to his face. “Your father seemed pleased with the news of the babe.”

  Luke laughed. “Pleased is grossly understating the matter.” At his wife’s answering smile, he rolled them both over until she was on her back beneath him, staring up at him with an amused light in her eyes. His eyes roamed over her stunning face, and he brushed a soft curl away from her warm skin. He thought he would never grow tired of sharing these intimate moments alone with her. “You were right to tell him. The truth would have always lain like a shadow between us. Now the darkness has lost its sting. You’ve given me a great gift. You granted me the father I never knew.”

  “It seems only fair, since with you I’ve found the life I never dreamed possible for me.” As his lips bent to claim hers, Melissa was dazed by the realization Michel had been right all along. She did feel differently about a few things now that the right man had come along.

  Down the hall the lord of the keep lay awake staring up at the ceiling in the too large bed he once shared with his beloved wife. He was too restless to sleep. A wide smile curved his lips as he contemplated the bright future he believed he had squandered with his foolish indulgence of his older son.

  Despite his worst fears, a grandson of his would one day take his place as lord of all he reigned over. His latter days would be filled with the laughter of children roaming the ancient keep. If God was in the mood to tease him, his granddaughters would be as lovely and as wild as their mother.

  Grinning up at the ceiling, his thoughts with his beloved wife in heaven, he whispered softly, “Thank you, Rebecca, for restoring our son to me.”

  Epilogue

  A month later, Melissa woke in the dead of night and quickly squirmed free of Luke’s encircling arms. As she was getting ready to climb out of bed, Luke pulled her back against his naked chest. “Melissa, love, what’s wrong? Are you ill?”

  She shook her head in denial and continued trying to free herself from his restraining embrace. “No, I’m fine. Let go. I have to get dressed.”

  Despite his confusion, Luke grinned at her autocratic demand. He was certain his wife was going to have some unassailable reason why she had to leave their bed and get dressed in the middle of the night, but he was enjoying the feel of her warm flesh against his as she struggled to escape his hold on her too much to accede immediately to her wishes. “Why do you have to get dressed?”

  His wife tossed an impatient glance in his direction, pushed once more against the steel bands of his arms around her, and when there was no give in them, finally stopped struggling. She turned in his embrace to face him and relayed, “Michel’s here. He’s waiting for me. Please tell your father’s men not to detain him.”

  Luke was having trouble getting his mind around his wife’s certainty her twin brother was about to arrive on their doorstep. His wife took advantage of his confusion and his slackening grip on her to slip from his arms. She hurried across the room to retrieve a gown hanging in the armoire across the room and begin getting dressed. Resigned, he leaned back against the bed, “Wife, surely your brother will wait until morning to approach the gates.”

  “No, he will not. He will not approach the gates at all. He’s waiting for me at the boundary of the north wall. I will explain to you what I can when I return from speaking with him.”

  When Melissa headed for the door, Luke abandoned his futile effort to talk some sense into his determined wife and jumped from the bed to reach for his own clothes. “Wait, I shall accompany you.”

  Melissa paused at the door and turned to smile at the sight of her husband hurriedly donning his breeches. “I appreciate both your offer of company, and the restraint you are exercising over your natural tendency to lecture me, husband, but I must go alone. Michel and I have things to say to each other that cannot be said in another’s presence. I will remain within sight of the walls at all times. You may watch me from the tower. Please remember to inform the guard not to attack my brother and his men.”

  Realizing that was the only explanation he was going to get out of his wife at the moment, Luke caught up with her at the door, cupped her stubborn chin in his hand and replied, “I will expect to be suitably compensated for my restraint before the sun rises on a new day.” Seeing the answering laughter in his wife’s beautiful eyes, Luke took her arm and escorted her down the shadowed hall. He lit a lantern to guide their way in the dark and walked with her as far as the gates, where somehow, not surprisingly, Arden pranced impatiently close by. He gave his instructions to the astonished guard then turned to his wife, who he could see was preoccupied with the anticipation of her brother’s arrival. So restraining his natural curiosity for the moment, he helped her no longer slender form gain Arden’s back and then pulled her close to brush his lips across hers.

  “If you think to use your brother to escape me, I swear to you such a plan is doomed to failure. I will pursue you to the very ends of the earth until you accept your place is with me.”

  Grinning in response to his
teasing, Melissa echoed lightly, “My place?”

  After a swift ride to where Michel awaited her beneath the light of a full moon, brother and sister stood alone together. Their two figures combined to form a single shadow, or so it seemed to those observing them, presenting the illusion it was but one form the shadow captured rather than two separate ones. From the tower wall where Luke watched his wife’s reunion with her twin, he thought the illusion an appropriate depiction of the inseparable bond between them. His father stood silently at his side, observing the scene in the distance.

  “Phillip informs me a great army rides behind your wife’s brother. He said their numbers are so vast they appear as a dark shadow passing over the land.”

  Luke didn’t turn his attention from his wife. “Somehow, I am not surprised by your news. The Salusians refer to Michel as their prince. If I were a fanciful man, I would tell you my wife’s brother has a long-overdue appointment with his destiny.”

  “Indeed? Then I am sorry he does not appear inclined to avail himself of our hospitality. I would like to make his acquaintance.”

  “You would not forget the occasion. I met him once when he was a young boy. I never forgot our encounter. He met my glance with ancient eyes staring out of his young face as if he was an old soul who descended to earth to amuse himself for a while.”

  On the hill the subject of the two men’s conversation met Melissa’s anxious gaze.

  “You’re going back.”

  Michel smiled at his twin’s perception. “As I am well aware it would be a futile exercise to attempt to deceive the keeper of the stone, I will not deny my intentions.”

  Nodding, Melissa confessed softly, “I always knew you would. I just assumed we would return together.”

  Michel shook his head, as if he had always known he would undertake the approaching journey alone. “You and Rhiann have found your homes in this new order. It is time I reclaimed ours.”