“Sean!” he said. “Return to me. Send a soldier for Gerard. There is something more I need to discuss with you.”
Sean sighed heavily, but he didn’t let John see it. As one of the royal soldiers ran past him, going to find Gerard, Sean returned to the king’s chamber, wondering when he was going to have the opportunity to tell Christin and Alexander of the king’s directive. He was in a bind and he knew it, but nothing on earth was going to force him to show any measure of disloyalty to the king and his wants. He’d worked too hard to get here. For all John knew, Sean was the perfect knight, the perfect bodyguard, and the perfect killing machine.
As the minutes passed and Gerard eventually joined them, Sean could see that this was going to turn out to be a very big problem. He needed to break free of the king and couldn’t seem to do it. When Gerard left with his orders, the king kept Sean with him, discussing a future journey to Nottingham.
But Sean could only think of one thing.
Run, Christin, run!
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“Well?” Christopher said steadily. “Does anyone want to tell me what I have just seen?”
Alexander’s heart sank. This wasn’t how he’d planned to approach de Lohr about his daughter and, in truth, he was quite shocked to see Christopher in their midst. Releasing Christin’s hands, he stood up to face the man.
In truth, it was all he could do.
“My lord,” he said evenly. “It is good to see you. I was unaware you were attending today’s festivities.”
Christopher was focused on Alexander as if there were no one else around them. Not even Christin. But she saw the way her father was looking at Alexander and she hastened to break his concentration.
“Papa,” she said, putting herself between Alexander and her father. “You did not tell me that you were coming to Norwich for the king’s celebration.”
Christopher’s intense gaze shifted, now looking at his eldest daughter. “I will speak to you later,” he said. “Go to your chamber and wait for me.”
Christin could hear the tone of his voice and it wasn’t a friendly one. She’d heard that tone before and it always struck terror into her. She’d never been one to disobey her father but, in this case, she was going to.
She was afraid of what would happen if she left.
“Papa, please,” she said, trying to stay on an even keel. “What you saw… it was not what you think.”
“How do you know what I think?”
Christin lifted her eyebrows in a gesture that looked very much like her mother. “You think we are out here being foolish and clandestine,” she said. “You think that this is something meaningless and reckless. I tell you that it is not true; it is anything but meaningless and reckless. Sherry and I… he was going to speak to you but he did not know you would be here. If he had, he would have met you at the gate.”
Christopher’s gaze lingered on her before returning to Alexander. “I told you to leave us, Christin,” he said. “Go to your chamber, please.”
“Papa, I…”
“It’s all right,” Alexander interrupted her. “Go ahead.”
Christin looked at Alexander, who was focused in on Christopher with the same intensity that Christopher was focused on him. Knowing she should obey at this point, since her father had every reason to be upset, she nodded in resignation. She was going to have to let Alexander address this since Christopher’s anger was directed at him. But not before she spoke parting words to her father.
“Papa,” she said. “I am going, but know this – I was a willing participant. He did not force himself on me. And… and I adore him. He makes me happier than you can imagine. Please do not ruin this for me.”
With that, she walked away, heading towards the apartment building and her chamber, which happened to have a view of the garden. As she scurried away, Christopher maintained his eye contact with Alexander.
“She does not want me to ruin this for her,” Christopher said. “What, exactly, would I be ruining?”
Alexander could feel the tension. It was like a fog, swirling between them. He’d known Christopher for so long, as they’d served together in The Levant and since, and he’d never once been on the man’s angry side, so this was something new. He knew what Christopher de Lohr was capable of. Rather than become cagey or defensive, he reasoned that the best thing to do was to face it head-on.
He had to be honest.
“Up until yesterday, there was nothing to ruin,” he said. “But yesterday… Chris, I have spent the past several days with Christin, along with Peter and Bric and Kevin, escorting her back to Norwich Castle after the visit at Ramsbury. I’ve known of your daughter for a few years but I’ve never spent any time around her. There was never any reason to. She is a de Lohr and the House of de Lohr is in a class all its own. I never presumed to attain a de Lohr bride, nor did I have any ambition for one. But you have raised a woman of astounding bravery, wit, and charm, and as we came to know one another, I found myself succumbing to her. I do not know how it happened, but it has. As a man who loves his wife, and I have heard rumor that you do, then surely you can understand how these things simply… happen.”
Christopher was still staring at him. He was genuinely trying to decide how to react to all of this. He’d come on the hunt for his daughter and found her in the arms of Alexander de Sherrington.
Sherry.
An Executioner Knight.
“Do not bring my wife into it,” he finally said. “Do not even breathe her name, for this has nothing to do with my wife and everything to do with you and my daughter. Christ, Sherry, you’re twice her age.”
Alexander cleared his throat softly. “I know,” he said, averting his gaze somewhat nervously. “I pointed that out to her.”
Christopher scowled. “Was this her idea?”
Alexander shook his head quickly. “Nay,” he said. “As I said, it just happened. We were speaking one moment about something completely neutral and in the next moment, we are declaring our feelings for one another. In fact, we discussed when I was planning on approaching you to ask for your daughter’s hand and she was right. Had I known you were going to be here today, I would have met you at the gate. It would have been the first thing out of my mouth.”
Christopher looked at him a few moments longer before finally looking away. He just couldn’t look at Alexander any longer without wanting to wrap his hands around the man’s throat. Turning away, he began to pace, digesting everything and trying not to become angry about it. Anger wouldn’t solve the problem and there was most definitely a problem as he saw it.
“Sherry, you know I greatly admire you,” he said. “You know that I like you personally. You are a fine knight and a loyal friend. But when it comes to my daughter, you must forgive me for being her father and not your friend. Do you understand that?”
“I do.”
Christopher came to a halt and looked at him. “No offense intended, but I never considered you for my daughter,” he said. “Not only are you twice her age, but the things you have done in your past, Sherry… my God, there are a half-dozen situations in The Levant alone that come to mind when you were less than noble when it came to the treatment of the enemy. I have seen what you are capable of. And I am supposed to allow you to marry my daughter?”
Alexander folded his enormous arms over his chest. “And I have seen what you are capable of,” he said in a quiet but firm counter. “That does not make you any less a loving father and husband. It makes you a formidable soldier who will do anything to gain victory. One has nothing to do with the other.”
“Explain.”
“Just because I can kill a man and his child, both of whom have betrayed Christian knights, does not make me an undesirable husband.”
Christopher cast him a long look. “It’s not just that,” he muttered. “I know what you did on your way home from The Levant. It took you eight years to return and I know what you did during that time. You spent some of it at the Lateran Palace as a gues
t of the Holy Father and you lived like a sultan with a harem. You did not think I knew that, did you?”
Alexander lifted his big shoulders in a dismissive gesture. “It was not as bad as all that.”
His casual reply brought Christopher’s anger around. “Then explain it to me so there is no misunderstanding,” he growled. “You want to marry my daughter? Then tell me why I should consider a man who looks at a woman as no better than a pet.”
Alexander’s jaw flexed. “I was at the Lateran Palace as a guest of the Holy Father,” he said evenly. “But the man used me as a personal attack dog and rewarded me handsomely. I was given a home of my own and twelve women, to be used by me at my discretion. Although I have great admiration and appreciation for women, I am not the kind of man who needs a different one in his bed every night and the women given to me grew fat and bored for lack of use. You did not hear that part, did you?”
Christopher frowned. “Are you telling me that you ignored twelve beautiful women?”
“I did not say that. But I did not have a different one in my bed every night, and there was not one of them that I was fond of or particularly interested in.”
“Then they were whores.”
“Aye.”
Christopher threw up his hands. “And you expect me to allow you to marry my daughter?”
Alexander lifted a dark eyebrow. “Tell me truthfully that you never sought out the comfort of a whore before you married your wife,” he said. “If the answer is no, then I will drop my pursuit of your daughter. I cannot undo the past; all I can do is make you a promise for the future. I will never disrespect Christin, I will always ensure she is safe and warm and happy, and I will be faithful to her for the rest of my life. Upon my oath, I swear this. Now, answer my question – did you ever seek the comfort of a whore before you married your wife?”
It was a clever question, one that had Christopher backed into a corner because he knew very well what the answer was. He couldn’t even lie to Alexander because everyone knew of the escapades of the de Lohr brothers and Marcus Burton in their youths. He’d been a wild buck in those days, so denying he’d ever found comfort with a whore was stupid. It simply wasn’t true.
Heavily, he sighed.
“Aye,” he said. “But we are not talking about me. We are talking about you.”
“And what I’ve done in my past is no worse than what you have done. Moreover, it will remain in my past.”
He sounded sincere and given that Christopher had known him for so long, he knew that he meant it. Alexander de Sherrington did not go back on his word, in any case. It was true that he couldn’t continue to throw stones at Alexander, knowing he shared much of the same past in certain aspects. He also couldn’t attack the man’s character, which was beyond reproach.
Therefore, he tried another tactic to see if he could shake the man loose.
“You say that these feelings for my daughter have happened within the past couple of days,” he said.
Alexander nodded. “They have.”
“Is it possible they are a whim?”
Alexander smiled humorlessly. “For me, nay,” he said. “I never do anything on a whim. But I did ask Cissy that question.”
“Cissy?”
“She gave me permission to call her by that name.”
Christopher grunted, feeling like he was losing control as his daughter gave out permission for someone to use a family nickname. Even if it was Alexander. But the fact that he wanted to marry Christin made him something of an enemy at the moment.
“And when you asked her, what did she say?” he asked.
Alexander shook his head. “She assured me it was no whim,” he said. “I believe her.”
Christopher didn’t have much to say after that. He’d said what he needed to say and now he needed to digest everything. Perhaps even talk it over with David. And then he needed to take his daughter home to Lioncross and lock her in a chamber and throw away the key.
Well, it sounded good in theory, anyway.
“I do not wish to discuss this any further at the moment,” he finally said, turning away from Alexander. “You must give me time to deliberate on everything. I was not expecting this when I came to Norwich today, so you can imagine it is something of a surprise.”
Alexander nodded, relieved that the man at least wasn’t swearing at him or trying to kill him. “I understand,” he said. “I wasn’t expecting you, either, so I don’t suppose I was too succinct in my presentation. I haven’t had time to work up a truly good sweat about this.”
Christopher smiled humorlessly. “You will do me a favor and stay away from Christin today, please,” he said. “I do not want to have to worry about you two ending up in another amorous embrace while I am thinking this all over.”
“As you wish.”
“And The Marshal is here. He is gathering his men together and asks you to meet him in the lower bailey where his encampment is being set up.”
“I will be there.”
“If you see any other of The Marshal’s men, tell them the same thing.”
“I will.”
Christopher simply walked away after that and Alexander stood there, letting himself feel some relief that the situation hadn’t turned violent. Exhaling heavily, he happened to look at the women’s apartment block to see Christin in one of the windows. When she saw that he was looking at her, she waved at him. He waved back, rather sorry he’d promised Christopher he’d stay away from her for the remainder of the day.
He suspected it was going to be more difficult than he imagined.
In fact, he knew it was a promise he couldn’t keep.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
David saw his brother coming.
Beneath crisp blue skies, the men had just finished setting up their encampment on the opposite side of the bailey from John’s encampment, next to William Marshal’s, when David saw Christopher coming through the big gatehouse that led to the keep. He could tell that his brother was upset simply by the way he walked.
He was stomping.
That was never a good sign.
David didn’t go to greet him. He knew that Christopher would come to him soon enough, so he simply stood there, watching his brother’s body language and suspecting he must have had a row with Christin. David couldn’t imagine what it had been about, but he would soon find out.
As he stood there and watched, William emerged from a nearby tent. He had a dagger in his hand and was sharpening it on a pumice stone as he wandered over to where David was standing. He, too, could see Christopher stomping about and he paused in his sharpening to watch.
“Your brother appears upset,” he finally commented. “Has he had a run-in with John already?”
David shook his head. “He went to find Christin,” he said. “I cannot imagine what she might have said that would have upset him so.”
William wasn’t sure Christin had anything to do with it, but he kept his mouth shut. His money was on an encounter with the king. He spit on the stone and continued sharpening the dagger, one given to him by his wife and one he wouldn’t let the squires tend to when they were maintaining the rest of his weapons. This little dagger had sentimental value, surprising for a man who usually gave little stock to emotion. Therefore, he carefully worked the blade as Christopher marched up on David.
In fact, his gaze was moving between David and William. His mouth was working as if he wanted to say something, but he finally hissed and threw his hands up, turning away and heading into the big de Lohr tent that was flying the bright blue and yellow standards on this day.
David and William looked at each other curiously before David finally turned for the tent. “I shall see what this is about,” he said.
William was still grinding the blade against the stone. “Go ahead, but you and your brother will attend me in a few minutes when the other men gather.”
“Aye.”
As David headed into the tent, William started to turn away but thoug
ht better of it. Although he wasn’t one for eavesdropping, he wanted to make sure Christopher’s anger had nothing to do with the king. The two had historically shared a contentious relationship, so any flare in that dynamic was never a good thing.
Perhaps listening in might not be a bad idea.
Unaware that William was positioning himself outside, David entered the tent to find his brother gulping down a rather large cup of wine. Casually, he came around to collect his own cup.
“Did you find Christin?” he asked nonchalantly.
Christopher swallowed the gulp in his mouth. “I did,” he said. “Do you want to know where I found her?”
“Where?”
“In the arms of Sherry.”
David didn’t quite get the meaning at first. He took a drink of his wine as the words settled and, puzzled, he looked to his brother.
“In the arms of…?” He frowned in confusion. “Sherry? I don’t understand.”
Christopher looked at him as if he were a fool. “They were embracing, David,” he said, making a gesture indicating a hug. “You know – embracing.”
Now, David understood. “Sherry?” he gasped.
Realizing his brother finally got the message, Christopher snorted. “Aye, Sherry,” he said. “I found them in the garden and they made the perfect picture of two lovers.”
David’s mouth was hanging open. “Sherry?”
Christopher slammed his cup to the tabletop and poured himself more wine. “Alexander de Sherrington and my daughter are fond of one another,” he said. “In fact, Christin told me that she adores him. He told me he wishes to speak to me about her, which I can only assume to mean that he wants to marry her.”
David was astonished. “Sherry wants to marry?” he repeated. “That is the most outrageous thing I have ever heard. I never imagined him to be the type. And with Christin?”
“Aye.”
“But he’s twice her age!”
“I know,” Christopher said in the same outraged tone that David had used. “But according to him, and her, their feelings for one another are real. Christin thinks I am going to ruin this for her.”
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