The de Lohr Dynasty

by Le Veque, Kathryn

  She knew he would break her heart but she almost didn’t care.

  “Sir Daniel,” Glennie said, breaking into the warm moment and shattering it with her voice. “If you travel so much, how do you have the means to do so? You have a lovely horse and big weapons, and that takes a good deal of money.”

  Before Daniel could answer, Easton scolded his daughter softly. “Glennie,” he said. “You do not ask a man about his money. That is impolite.”

  Daniel laughed quietly, lifting a hand to show he was not offended. “It is a reasonable question, my lord,” he said to Easton. Then, he looked at Glennie. “I have a considerable fortune of my own but I also aid lords or friends if they require a skilled sword. I have been known to fight other men’s battles from time to time. With the de Lohr name and my excellent training, I can command an excellent price. And I have also been known to enter tournaments with big purses. That is fairly easy money and I have won my share.”

  Glennie smiled dreamily at the thought of Daniel competing in a gallant tournament, but her amorous thoughts were interrupted as her brother spoke.

  “Ironic you should mention a tournament,” Caston said. “I saw postings in Skipton today that there is to be a tournament next month to mark some kind of spring celebration. I was thinking on entering.”

  Daniel was quite interested. “Is that so?” he asked. “Who is the sponsor?”

  “The city merchants,” Caston replied. “You know how that is; they pool their money for a sizable purse, which attracts decent competition as well as spectators, and then they make their money back and more besides when they sell food or other items on the day of the tournament.”

  “There is no lord sponsoring the event?”

  Caston shook his head. “Not that I am aware of, although the Lords of Skipton Castle may have a hand in it,” he said. “They usually do. De Romille is very active in his town.”

  “Do you know him?”

  Easton replied. “I do,” he said. “He is a good man.”

  “Will you consider entering, Sir Daniel?” Glennie asked hopefully. “If Caston enters and you enter, it will be quite exciting.”

  Daniel lifted his eyebrows, suggesting indecisiveness when he really was quite interested. “I am not sure,” he said. “Your brother might defeat me. Then I would be ashamed. I would be forced to end my own miserable life.”

  It was a jest and Glennie giggled, turning to Liselotte. “Help me to convince him to compete,” she said. “What fun we will have! Have you ever been to a tournament, my lady?”

  Liselotte shook her head, embarrassed. There was so much of life that she had not had the opportunity to experience and she was shameful of the fact. “I have not,” she said hesitantly. “I have heard they can be most exciting.”

  Glennie nodded eagerly, returning her attention to Daniel. “You see?” she said. “Lady Liselotte has never seen a tournament. Surely you must compete so that she has the opportunity to see it!”

  “Then I must consider it, mustn’t I?”

  “You must!”

  Daniel’s attention moved to Caston. “Will you be competing, my lord?

  Caston grinned. “If you are, then I will,” he said. “Surely I cannot turn down an opportunity to best a de Lohr in competition.”

  “We will see.”

  “Aye, we will.”

  Daniel laughed, as did Caston, and the men raised their cups to one another as if to toast each other’s chances were they face off in a contest. But Daniel didn’t say anymore after that, quiet and thoughtful, as he nursed his wine. As Easton and Caston tossed around the reality of Caston competing in the tournament, Daniel was considering it very seriously, but not merely to impress Liselotte or win the purse for his own personal gain. He was thinking more on how far the money in that purse would go for the inhabitants of Shadowmoor if he were to win it.

  Truth be told, they needed it much more than he ever could. It would be a great opportunity to provide them with coinage, as a gift, because he knew for a fact that pride would keep them from taking any of his personal fortune that he should offer them. He saw that the night before when he suggested that he should buy stores for the fortress since he was to be a guest there. They were ashamed that a guest should have to provide for his own meals. Even in town on this day, purchasing clothing for Liselotte had been a strained situation. She had resisted his attempts before Glennie managed to break her down. Therefore, Daniel knew Liselotte and Etzel wouldn’t take money from him. They were too proud, and rightfully so. But winning a purse at a tournament and presenting them with that gift was quite different.

  Different, indeed.

  Without saying any more about it to his hosts, it was an idea he took with him when he was shown his chamber for the night by Glennie and her father. The bower was large and comfortable, and as he stood in the doorway, servants were hastily building a fire in the cold hearth that hadn’t been used in a while.

  As the servants coaxed forth a blaze, Easton and Daniel discussed the missive Daniel would be writing that night, the one that would summon de Lohr military might. Daniel had vellum in his saddlebags and promised to have a message to Easton within the hour, but it was difficult to keep his concentration as Glennie stood next to her father and batted her eyelashes at him. She was doing everything but stand on her head to get his attention, but he soundly ignored her.

  As this foolery was going on, a servant showed Liselotte to a chamber on the floor above, and when Glennie stopped her flirtatious overtures in Daniel’s direction, she suggested that Gunnar, who was still with the dogs, should like to sleep with Daniel. Daniel agreed and promised to return to the hall for the boy before he went to sleep to make sure the lad didn’t spend the night sleeping in a dog pack.

  Glennie seemed to think it was quite humorous, a young boy who was much happier with dogs than with humans, but she stopped giggling long enough to throw Daniel another seductive look when Easton forced her to bid Daniel a good sleep. She sauntered off after her father, deliberately switching her hips back and forth, but Daniel shut the door on her before she could turn around to see if he was still looking at her. Realizing that Daniel wasn’t watching her, Glennie stormed off, pouting, after her father.

  Daniel stood just inside his closed door, in his borrowed room, and silently laughed at the woman’s antics.

  The evening, for all concerned, had been both entertaining and enlightening.

  *

  The first thing Daniel did when alone in his borrowed chamber was empty out his saddlebags to find the sturdy wooden box that contained his writing implements. He had a few sheets of vellum, a clump of uncolored sealing wax that was nearly gone, his signet stamp, sand, two quills, and about a half of a glass phial of precious ink that was wrapped up in dried grass to keep it from breaking.

  All of these things he pulled forth and put carefully on a small table in the room, positioned next to the hearth. He took the next hour to scribe out a missive to his Uncle Christopher, explaining the situation at Shadowmoor and asking for both the man’s military help and for his uncle to draft a missive for Henry asking him about Bramley. He knew his Uncle Christopher would take his request quite seriously because he wasn’t one to make requests of his family, ever. In this case, however, he would make an exception.

  Missive sanded and sealed, Daniel left his chamber and went in search of Easton to deliver the missive. He almost didn’t make it – he was housed in the long, barrack-like building attached to the keep complex and it was all a bit of a labyrinth. He entered one corridor, thinking it led to the hall when it really led to a big bolted door that led out into a garden of some kind.

  Backtracking, he found the correct corridor and ended up in a type of foyer with the hall beyond. A very old servant who had been sweeping the dirt floor of the hall saw him standing there and, at Daniel’s request, scurried off to find Easton.

  When the servant fled, Daniel delved deeper into the hall and immediately spied not one l’Audacieux
but two near the hearth. Gunnar was now sleeping on the ground with the dogs all piled up around him, and on him, and Liselotte was sitting near her brother, and near the fire, with a plate of food in front of her.

  She was still eating. Daniel had been smiling as he approached the table but when he saw that she was eating still, still very hungry, his smile faded. Sympathy tugged at his heart at the sight of Liselotte eating yet again, perhaps fearful she wouldn’t eat again for some time to come. She was gorging herself while she could.

  A sad state, indeed.

  “Why are you still up?” Daniel asked softly as he sat across from her. “It is very late.”

  Liselotte appeared embarrassed and contrite that he had caught her eating again. She swallowed the food in her mouth.

  “I… I came to see to my brother,” she said quietly, just above a whisper because the boy was sleeping nearby. “I found him like this. I did not have the heart to wake him.”

  Daniel looked over at the boy, who was using one dog as a pillow while two other dogs were using him as a pillow. He chuckled softly.

  “He certainly likes the dogs,” he said. “I am not entirely sure I have the heart to wake him, either, but he cannot sleep here.”

  “Why not?”

  Daniel looked at Liselotte. “Because he is not a servant or an animal himself,” he said patiently. “All fine lads must sleep in a bed, in this case, in my chamber. There are two beds in it. I have one and he will have the other. Don’t you want him to sleep in a good bed?”

  Liselotte’s gaze moved to her brother once more. “I suppose,” she said. “But… but not yet, if you please. Let him stay just a little longer. He loves animals and was very attached to the dogs at Shadowmoor.”

  “I did not see any dogs at Shadowmoor.”

  Liselotte looked at him, sharply, before lowering her gaze back to her food. “We were forced to eat them.”

  Daniel should have guessed that. He felt rather bad that he had commented on the lack of dogs, now once again bringing light to their dire situation. On the heels of the natural sympathy he had for their plight, that he’d always had for their plight, he realized that he also felt quite protective over them. He really didn’t know why; at first, his determination to help those at Shadowmoor had been nothing more than a mission, a self-imposed purpose, but now there was more to it. It had something to do with the beauty across the table from him, something in her eyes that showed such hope and trust in him. He’d never seen such trust, not from anyone. He didn’t take it lightly.

  But there was more to it than that and he knew it.

  Something warm was growing in his heart for Liselotte, something he could no longer control.

  “No more,” he said, his voice low. “You will not worry over anything like that anymore. Eating dogs, or the lack of food… it will not happen again. I vow it upon my oath as a knight.”

  Liselotte still had a big piece of cheese in her hand, preparing to take a bite, but his declaration had her lowering the cheese back to the table. “May… may I ask you something, Daniel?”

  “You always have permission to ask me whatever you wish.”

  Liselotte’s brow furrowed as she thought carefully on her words. “My father told you last night that we are not your responsibility,” she said. “But you continue to behave as if we are. The trip to town today, these beautiful clothes, and everything you told Sir Easton tonight… you behave as if we belong to you, as if we are your obligation. I am very puzzled as to why you should think so. You do not know us and we do not mean anything to you, yet you have taken us on as if to champion us. Please do not misunderstand; we are very grateful. My father believes that God has sent you, but I already told you that. Still… I am very afraid that somehow, someway, we will be indebted to you and there is no way we can ever repay you.”

  Daniel watched her from across the table, her beautiful face highlighted in the firelight. “The terrible behavior of others against you makes you surprised when someone is kind to you,” he said quietly. “You want to trust that I am a man of my word but you cannot, not yet. You are waiting for my true motives to be revealed, are you not?”

  Liselotte averted her gaze, nodding her head after a moment. “Mayhap that is true.”

  Daniel smiled faintly. “You needn’t worry that there is an ulterior motive,” he said. “I… well, I suppose I am different than most men. It seems to me these days that knights in particular are cynical. They have seen so many years of war and fighting amongst the nobles of this country. Even my friends are weary of the battles, of their lords switching sides, and of the lies told on behalf of truth and justice. As for me, I see what has happened around us. I know that the king has not helmed our country as strongly or as honorably as we would have hoped. But in spite of the turmoil and ignoble lords, I choose to uphold my knightly vows of helping the less fortunate and championing the defeated. You, my lady, fall under both categories. When I see you, I see an opportunity to do something good and noble so that when I stand before God, I can tell Him I did all I could to help someone’s life for the better. Mayhap that will balance out all of the sins I have committed.”

  Liselotte was listening to his words, understanding just a bit more of the man in that careful speech. “Then you see us as your salvation?”

  “In a way, mayhap.”

  “Helping us is your penitence before God to right your wrongs?”

  Daniel’s smile grew. “It is possible,” he said. Then, he reached across the table and put his hand on Liselotte’s slender, warm fingers. He squeezed tightly. “When I say that my intention is to see Shadowmoor restored, I mean it. When I say that I will rid you of Bramley’s suit, I mean that as well. You are too fine and noble a creature for the likes of him. You deserve a much better husband.”

  Liselotte was gazing into the man’s eyes, her heart beating so forcefully that she was sure it was about to burst from her ribs. His hand on her fingers was just this side of heaven, bringing about a giddiness she had never known. She could hardly catch her breath because of it.

  “I am not sure any man will want a woman with no dowry,” she said, her voice trembling. “You know that I have nothing to offer and in spite of what you said earlier today, when you said that it does not matter what I wear because the right man will see what is beneath the clothing, I find that difficult to believe. You are the only man who has ever stopped long enough to notice our plight or help us. There are not many men like you in this world, Sir Daniel.”

  Daniel’s eyes glittered. “I would agree,” he said. “But there are exceptions. I know a few. Mayhap I will find a husband for you.”

  For some reason, that offer was a blow to Liselotte’s heart. She didn’t want him to find her a husband. She realized, as she looked at him, that she wanted him to be her husband. In truth, she’d wanted it all along, trying to tell herself that it could never be, but the reality was that she wanted him very badly.

  Now, his offer to find her a husband made her feel like weeping. She had known all along he was going to break her heart and she hadn’t cared; still, she wondered if she would be brave enough to accept the fact that he truly did not want her.

  “That is kind of you,” she said, pulling her hand away from him and lowering her gaze, “but I would prefer that you did not.”

  Daniel could sense a change in her mood. “Why not?”

  She shook her head, popping a piece of white cheese into her mouth. “It would be very awkward for a man not related to my family to choose a husband for me,” she said. “In fact, men will wonder why you are doing it. They will wonder what is wrong with me. You are an eligible bachelor and I am an eligible maiden. They will wonder why you do not marry me yourself.”

  Daniel couldn’t help but think she was trying to find out, for herself, why he did not want to marry her. He thought he’d been clear about it and he should have been offended by her attempts to probe him but he found that he wasn’t because she made a good deal of sense. In fact,
the more he thought on someone else marrying her, the more he didn’t like it. Nay, he didn’t like it at all. He didn’t want to be tied down to one place, to one woman, but he also didn’t want that one woman to be tied down to anyone else. It was a dilemma, indeed.

  The bachelor’s soul began to show even more cracks now, big and gaping ones.

  God, what is happening to me?

  “You do not want me, Liselotte,” he said quietly. “I have told you that I wander. You would not want to be married to a man who travels for months on end, sometimes years, and then returns to you when it is convenient. That is no life for you.”

  Liselotte still had her head down, realizing she was verging on tears. Unused to emotions of any kind, she found her defenses crumbling.

  “You need not make this something that would be unsavory to me,” she said. “You may admit that I am not someone you would consider marrying. You may, indeed, admit that you have no attraction to a woman with nothing to offer except a legacy of poverty. A de Lohr should marry well and I am not of your class, so you needn’t make it sound as if I am the one who would not want you. Quite the contrary, my lord; I would take you as you are and I would not expect you to change, nor would I want you to. It would make you miserable to try. So do not tell me that I would not be happy as your wife for you do not know what is in my heart.”

  It was a startling and unexpected speech. As Daniel sat there, somewhat stunned, Liselotte suddenly bolted up from the table. Embarrassed, and verging on an emotional outburst, she tried to flee the room but Daniel stopped her. He was up, running after her, grabbing her by the arm before she could get away. Liselotte refused to look at him, trying to pull from his grip, but Daniel held her fast.