Wildly Romantic: A Multi-Genre Collection

by Lana Williams

  “I’m sorry about your son,” said the earl, pushing the trencher they shared toward her. “I know how hard it is to lose a child.”

  “I haven’t lost him yet,” she said, pushing the trencher back to him, not having the appetite to eat. “And you haven’t lost your son, he is right here in the same room.”

  “Nay,” said the earl. His eyes focused across the room and settled on Onyx. “I have truly lost him after all. He wants nothing to do with me, and I’m afraid I can’t blame him. But he doesn’t understand.”

  “And I don’t understand why you won’t let me see my son. I don’t care what the risk, I need to be with him. He’s frightened. He needs me.”

  “I’m sorry, but there is a guard posted at the door. The healer said his fever is high and welts have already started to show under his arms and in the groin area. There is nothing we can do. Just accept it, Lady Lovelle. When the plague hits, the infected is usually dead within a few days.”

  “And you won’t even allow me to say my goodbyes. What kind of man are you?”

  “When your father was alive, I promised him that I would look after his children if anything ever happened to him. Your brothers have already died of the plague, and I will not let that happen to you too.”

  “My father would never have asked you that if he thought he was going to die so soon. He didn’t know he was going to be murdered.”

  “What ever happened to that Scotswoman who poisoned him?” asked the earl, taking a sip of wine as he spoke. “I hope she got what she deserved.”

  “Oh, don’t worry, she did,” she said, pushing back her chair and getting to her feet. “She just died from the plague. And that woman just happened to be the only mother Onyx ever knew.”

  She left the earl with his mouth hanging open, and went across the room to sit with the boys. She settled onto the bench at the trestle table next to Aidan. Ian and Onyx had their backs turned, having a drink and staring at the fire. The travel bag was on the table, and she reached inside. Aidan’s baby squirrel ran up her one arm, down the other, and jumped over to Aidan’s shoulder.

  “Oh, that scared me, you little rascal,” she said. “Gee, I hope Tawpie hasn’t been killed by now, as I left her back at the castle.”

  “She is a wildcat, she’ll be able te fend fer herself,” he said.

  She noticed Onyx hadn’t even turned around and used this to her advantage. She needed to work quickly before he stopped her, but she’d do anything to save her son. She dug back into the bag, taking out the chest and opening it atop the table. She lifted the Book of Hours from inside, hurriedly flipping to the back and held it in front of Aidan.

  “Please, I beg you,” she whispered. “Read me the charm that wards off the plague. I need to try to use it on my son to save him.”

  “He willna read that fer ye,” said Onyx, coming over and taking the book from her hand.

  “Onyx!” She jumped up and put her hands on her hips. “Give him back the book. I need him to read it so I can try the charm on Charles. Please,” she said, almost crying. “It’s the only hope I’ve got.”

  “He willna read it, and ’tis no’ yer only hope.” He took the book and flipped through the pages as if he were looking for something.

  “What do you mean?” she asked.

  “I am goin’ te read the charm, Love. And I am goin’ te do whate’er it says in here as well, even if it means standin’ naked and purring like a kitten.”

  “Och, thet’s no’ a bonnie sight, I assure ye,” said Ian coming to join them. “Thet’ll scare any illness away.”

  “You’d do that for my son?” she asked, seeing a side of Onyx that she really liked.

  “I’d do it fer ye,” he said, looking deep into her eyes and reaching forward and kissing her on the lips. “I am goin’ te stay at Charles’s side and keep reading this book until it makes a difference.”

  “But . . . if it’s the plague . . .” She couldn’t believe what he was saying.

  “If it’s the plague, then aye, I might get it as well. But I live te take risks, and this is one risk that I willna let ye take.”

  “Dagger, ye are addled,” said Ian. “Ye could die from this.”

  “Thet’s right,” said Aidan. “We may ne’er see ye again.”

  “Lady Lovelle may ne’er see her son again either,” he said. “I canna allow her te risk her life. I have already been thrown amongst the dead, bloating bodies consumed by the Black Plague and cheated death, managing to survive. So, you see, I have the best chance here.”

  “Oh, Onyx, thank you,” said Lovelle, throwing her arms around him.

  “There’ll hopefully be time for that later,” he said, finding the page and sitting down to read it. “Now there are a few things I’m goin’ te need and hopefully ye three can help me get them.”

  * * *

  Onyx walked into the boy’s room and closed the door quietly. He knew this was a risk being in here. Still, it was the risk he would take to show Lovelle how much she meant to him, and that he wanted to help her. He also wanted to make amends for not being there for her when he’d promised to help her mother. He was only too glad to find out from his friends that her mother had survived and not had the awful plague after all.

  “Who are you?” asked the boy as Onyx came closer to the bed. The room was dark and only one small candle was burning. It smelled musty inside and a chill hung in the air.

  “Me name is Onyx,” he said, then noticed the boy jerk and blink when he saw Onyx’s eyes. “Ye dinna need te be afeard o’ me. I willna harm ye.”

  “You are the man who tried to kill the earl,” he said.

  Onyx just let out a deep sigh and settled himself on a chair next to the bed. “Aye, thet would be me.”

  “Why were you trying to kill him? The earl is such a nice man.”

  “I am no’ sure how much o’ our conversation ye heard, Charles, but the earl is me faither.”

  “My father died not that long ago,” he said. “I didn’t like him either. I should have tried to kill him too, just like you.”

  “Nay, dinna e’er say thet. A faither is someone a laddie should honor and respect, even if he is no’ the nicest te ye.”

  “But you don’t seem to honor or respect your father. You almost seem to hate him.”

  That took Onyx by surprise, and he knew that sometimes wisdom came out of the mouths of the young. The boy was right. How was Onyx to be any kind of example to Charles when he still held a vengeance for his own father in his heart?

  “We dinna need te talk aboot that, lad. I am here te try te . . . heal ye o’ yer illness.”

  “Why?”

  “Och, laddie, ye ask as many questions as yer mathair.”

  “Are you friends with my mother?” His eyes looked up curiously and the wisdom within them was not missed. This boy almost reminded Onyx of himself at that age. He had dark hair and pale skin, and the bright blue eyes of his mother.

  “I am,” he said. “Actually, we are more than friends.”

  “Are you going to be my new father?”

  Onyx didn’t know what to say to that. He hadn’t really thought about this until now. The whole idea rather scared him. Instead of answering, he pulled some herbs out of his pouch and laid them on the table.

  “How are ye feelin’ laddie?” He reached out and touched the boy’s forehead. He was burning up with fever.

  “I think I have the plague,” he said. “And no one wants to come near me, not even my own mother.”

  “Thet’s no’ true. I am here.” He took the boy’s hand in his to comfort him, noticing the red, raised welts starting on his arms. It certainly looked to be the beginning of the plague. “Yer mathair wants te be here wit’ ye, but the earl willna allow it.”

  “Because I’m going to die and she’ll die too, right?”

  How could he tell the boy it was probably true? It would be no way to give him any hope at all. Onyx knew that a good part of healing and being cured was what a p
erson believed. He thought of the old hag’s words saying we curse ourselves by our thoughts and actions. Mayhap it would be possible then, to heal oneself as well. He just needed to get the boy to start thinking in a positive manner.

  “Ye are no’ goin’ te die, laddie. I have a secret charm I am goin’ te use on ye and it will cure ye. And then ye can go back and be wit’ yer mathair again.” He hated lying, but needed to calm and comfort the boy. He needed to make him believe. His heart broke for him, and also for Lovelle. He started pulling the things out of his bag that the charm told him to use. He laid sage, comfrey, wormwood, and vinegar on the table. The boy just looked at him curiously.

  “What are you doing?” he asked.

  “I have some things thet might help in curin’ ye,” he told him, next taking out the candles, as well as the salt, followed by onions, garlic, lily root, arsenic, and . . . he blessed himself before he pulled out the last item . . . dried toad. He had no idea where Aidan found that and neither did he want to know.

  “You look like you’re going to make us something to eat,” said the child.

  “Nay, ye dinna want te eat these things, believe me.”

  Last of all, he pulled out the Book of Hours and laid it on his lap.

  “What is that?” Charles asked.

  “’Tis a book . . . o’ prayers and devotion,” he said, flipping through the pages. “And auld mysterious Gaelic charms.” He’d probably go to hell for even attempting to use these charms on the boy. These were works of the devil or at least some kind of witch. They had to be, as no one in their right mind would use arsenic and, God forbid, dried toad on anyone no matter what the case. He didn’t feel good trying something like this, but he also didn’t want the boy to die. He didn’t know what else to do.

  Onyx was glad the charm to ward off the plague didn’t require for him to croak like a frog or do anything that was too out of the ordinary. It only involved administering the things to the boy’s skin, reading the words, burning candles and herbs, and throwing salt at him. He was also glad the boy didn’t understand Gaelic, because he felt like a fool reading the incantation that sounded ridiculous in any language.

  “So that’s it?” asked the boy, after Onyx finished. “Am I cured now?”

  Onyx threw some salt at himself as well, and figured he might as well use some of these things to hopefully keep him from getting the plague.

  “These things take awhile,” he said. “I may have te repeat this every hour fer at least the next few days.”

  “What about the rest of the book?” Charles eyed it curiously. “Read that, too.”

  He looked down to the book and just shook his head. “I dinna ken how te read Latin, laddie.”

  “Then let me read it. Part of my training of being fostered by the earl is learning to read and write Latin.” He held out his hands, and Onyx hesitated, then realized that the boy needed something to keep his mind off dying and this could be just the thing.

  “All right,” he said with a smile. “I’ll look at the bonnie pictures, and ye will read te me instead.”

  Charles seemed to like that, and actually smiled. Onyx felt a feeling, not in his bones this time, but instead in his heart. He wasn’t sure what it was, but he liked it. He liked Lovelle’s son. If the boy were going to die, then he’d be here right by his side until the end. Everyone deserved to have someone care for them and love them. So Onyx decided he would fill that void.

  Chapter 24

  Lovelle paced back and forth in front of the fire in the great hall, with Aidan and Ian sitting at the trestle table behind her. Aidan was feeding his squirrel nuts, holding them in his mouth and bending over the table with the squirrel reaching up and using its mouth to take them from him.

  “Ye are nuttier than thet squirrel,” complained Ian taking a swig of ale. “Why dinna ye jest leave the thing outside and let it fare fer itself? ’Tis old enough now.”

  “Nay,” said Aidan pouring some ale into his cupped palm, and letting the squirrel drink from it. “I am this poor thing’s faither now. That is, now that I killed and ate its mathair.”

  “Then mayhap I’ll jest eat the damned thing and we’ll be done wit’ yer addled little games. Let me at it, as I’m hungry.” Ian pulled his dagger from his sheath and Aidan lunged across the table and grabbed it. Ian then got him in a headlock, pushing his body down on top of him, both of them sprawled across the top of the table. The squirrel jumped atop Ian’s back and started to scold him.

  “Stop it, you fools,” said Lovelle, running a hand through her unbound hair. These past four days had been hell on her, and she’d not even put up her hair as was proper for a lady. She’d hardly even eaten a bite, as she was so worried about both Charles and Onyx. “My boy could be dead, and your friend as well, and yet you two are wrestling around like pigs in the mud.”

  “Pigs? I dinna really smell thet bad, do I?” Aidan asked from under Ian. The squirrel jumped off Ian’s back and started to investigate some leftover crumbs on the table.

  “Ye would scare away a rat wit’ yer appearance,” said Ian, letting Aidan out of the headlock.

  “Well, at least I’m no’ a pig. And I wouldna talk, as after havin’ me heid trapped under yer armpit ’tis no’ walk in a garden o’ roses I assure ye.”

  “There’s the earl,” Lovelle interrupted, waving her hand above her head until he joined them. “Have you heard anything about my son or Onyx?” she asked anxiously. “Are they all right? Please tell me they are still alive.”

  “Onyx hasn’t been out of the room in days,” he said. “Only to use the garderobe, and he didn’t talk to anyone. I’ve had food and drink left by the door for them, but no one is allowed inside so I don’t know what is happening.”

  “What about the plague?” she asked. “Has it claimed many more lives?”

  “The infected from the castle have been disposed of quickly, and the pallets they’ve used have been burned as well. And everything has been cleaned with vinegar or boiled in water. I’ve managed to more or less keep everyone contained in the castle, and we haven’t seen a new outbreak in days now. So hopefully, the plague is not going to be in England long this time.”

  “I want to see Charles,” she said. “Please.”

  “I can’t let you do that.”

  “Mama?” she heard from behind her, and turned to see her son in Onyx’s arms as they stood in the entrance to the great hall.

  “Charles, you’re alive!” She ran to him and threw her arms around him as well as around Onyx. “What happened? So it isn’t the plague?” she asked, feeling the tears of joy in her eyes.

  “Dagger cured me with the Gaelic charm,” the little boy said with a big smile.

  “Dagger?” she asked, and looked to Onyx.

  “We have become close in the last few days,” he told her. “I told the laddie he could call me Dagger if he wants.”

  “So the charm really worked?” She was so happy she could burst.

  “I dinna ken,” he said. “Becooz yer son read the prayers in the Book o’ Hours e’ery day as well. So I’d say somethin’ cured him. And though it looked as if he were gettin’ the plague at first, fer some odd reason, the fever broke and the swellin’ left his body. I think we’re safe te say thet neither o’ us is goin’ te die from the plague after all.”

  She took her son in her arms and hugged him, letting loose with a flood of tears. “Thank you, Onyx. Thank you so much for risking your life to save my son. I am so happy that you are all right as well, and I promise you, I will never forget this.”

  “Aye,” said Ian, coming over and clasping arms with Onyx.

  “Good te see ye back,” said Aidan, doing the same, with his squirrel perched on his shoulder chattering away as if it were trying to say something.

  “What’s that?” asked the boy, pointing to the squirrel.

  “That is me pet. His name is Reid,” said Aidan.

  “I want to play with him,” said Charles, and he reached out to pet it
.

  “Go ahead,” said Lovelle, putting her son down. Aidan took the boy’s hand, and Ian followed as they made their way to the trestle table.

  “Thank you,” she said again, and wrapped her arms around Onyx. She reached up and kissed him, thinking how good it felt to be in his embrace. “I don’t know what I would have done if I had lost either of you.”

  “Well, ye dinna need te think o’ thet again,” he said. “Becooz when I was in there, I realized how much I liked being a surrogate faither te Charles. And I also thought aboot me life and how I couldna go thru it without ye, Love.” He kneeled down on one knee and took her hand in his. “Lady Lovelle,” he said, using her true name for one of the first times. “Tell me thet ye will fergive me fer every wrong I’ve done. Please. Marry me and be me wife.”

  “Really?” she asked, her heart overflowing with joy. “Are you sure you want to do this, Onyx?”

  “I am sure,” he said, looking up to her with sincerity in his eyes. “I . . . love ye, lassie. And I want te spend the rest o’ me life wit’ ye.”

  “Yes!” she shouted. “I accept. I want to spend the rest of my life with you as well.”

  Aidan and Ian overheard and came over with Charles to offer their congratulations. Then Lovelle noticed the earl just standing there quietly. He walked over to Onyx with an outstretched arm.

  “My congratulations, Son,” he said, but Onyx just looked at his hand and then glanced the other way.

  “Gather up yer things,” Onyx said to Lovelle and his friends. “And gather up Charles’s things as well, as we’ll all be leavin’ first thing in the mornin’.”

  * * *

  Lovelle stood in the courtyard the next morning, preparing to leave for home. It was a beautiful day as the sun was actually shining, and servants scurried around the bailey going about their daily chores. Everyone seemed to be a little less cautious of the plague since it had subsided, and mothers even let their children out to play again.