It was done.
Day moved into night, and all of Wellesbourne had joined in the wedding festivities. Even the off-duty soldiers were drunk. The castle was lit up and could be seen for miles around, and the wine and music both flowed freely. Trenton and Lysabel walked hand in hand among the guests, receiving their blessing and well-wishes, as the girls sat sleepily with Alixandrea and Remington, who ended up taking them up to bed when the hour grew late. The last Trenton saw of his mother, it was with Brencis hanging on to her neck, cuddling up to the woman.
Already, they were family.
“My girls love your mother,” Lysabel said softly as she watched Remington follow Alixandrea from the hall. “She is a truly wonderful woman.”
Trenton smiled, his arm around her shoulders and a cup of wine in his hand. He gave her a squeeze as his attention turned to the great hall, with its smoke and laughter and revelry going on.
“Look at Dane,” he said, pointing with the hand that held the cup. “He has only been watching that gambling game. The second my mother leaves the hall, he’ll rush to join it.”
Lysabel giggled when, as predicted, Dane inserted himself into the middle of a gambling game over near the hearth. “He is a grown man,” she said. “Are you telling me that he is still afraid of his mother?”
Trenton looked at her. “Aren’t you?”
Lysabel continued laughing, conceding the point. Her gaze moved over the hall, seeing both family and friends alike enjoying themselves. Cort, William, Gage, and Boden, the troublemakers, were laughing and drinking along with Matthieu and Daniel, older brothers who weren’t quite as silly and gay as the younger knights, but they were enjoying themselves nonetheless.
Markus was also there along with Trenton’s men, Timothy, Adrian, and Anthony, who had come from the village of Westbury to witness the wedding at Trenton’s summons. Trenton had sent a missive to The Horn and The Crown tavern, where they had been waiting for him, and they’d come on the run. He’d only spoken with them briefly when they arrived, and it had been clear that they were surprised by the wedding to Lady de Wilde.
Considering the last time they’d seen the woman was the night they’d killed her first husband, to say that they were surprised was putting it mildly. Still, when Trenton explained everything, they understood – in his quest to ensure she was safe after the harrowing events with her husband, Trenton had fallen in love with her. It was as simple as that. Perhaps that was the most shocking of all to them, that the Trenton de Russe they knew could actually show such feeling.
But it was feeling that was exceedingly obvious.
“Trenton?” Lysabel asked over the noise of the hall.
“Aye, love?”
Her gaze was lingering on Timothy and Adrian and Anthony as the men drank heartily with Markus. “When your men return to London, are you going with them?”
Trenton looked at his men, also. He’d been with them for many years, and they’d lived side by side for most of that time. He found it ironic that in the biggest adventure of his life, the one with Lysabel, they hadn’t been with him at all.
But perhaps they weren’t meant to be.
They were from another chapter in his life.
“I will,” he said, “but only to give Henry my resignation in person.”
She smiled up at him. “Are you certain?” she asked. “I do not wish for you to surrender something you love to do. You told me once that you felt as if you made a difference. That you were shaping a kingdom.”
He looked down at her. “That is true, but there is more to it,” he said. “I think I was hiding from something, hiding from what my life had become. I was doing what I wanted to do because there was nothing else for me. But now… now, there is so much more for me. I told your father that I would give it all up for you and I meant it. We shall retire to Deverill Castle for now, but I shall petition Henry for permission to build a new castle at Westbury, something bigger and more beautiful than you can possibly imagine. You deserve something as grand as I can give you.”
She reached up, touching his face sweetly. “Only if you’re certain.
“Never more certain of anything. You are what is most important to me now.”
Lysabel leaned in to him for a hug and he kissed the top of her head. But as she looked at the hall, she spied her father and Gaston sitting at the very end of one of the tables, deeply involved in their conversation.
Two great knights with their empires laid out before them, and their children marrying to cement a great legacy. It was a proud and powerful dynasty they both shared, The Dark One and the White Lord. Lysabel’s gaze lingered on Matthew.
“My father seems much happier the past few days,” she said. “Don’t you think so?”
Trenton spied the two older men also. “Aye,” he said. “He is back to hugging me again. He has not done that since this whole thing started.”
“He loves you,” Lysabel said. “He has always loved you. I think he feels bad for the way things went, for the position he had to take. Truthfully, now that things have calmed down and everything worked in our favor, I understand what he was trying to do. It was a terribly difficult position for him, though.”
Trenton nodded. “It was,” he said. “In hindsight, if the same thing had happened to Cissy or Cinny, I cannot say that I would not have reacted just as your father did.”
“Did you tell him that?”
“Not yet. But I will.”
“Why don’t you do that now? I want to see my daughters before they go to sleep. Come up when you have finished with my father and bid them a good sleep.”
Trenton’s gaze lingered on his father and Matthew, seeing how wrapped up in their conversation they were. He could only imagine what they were discussing; the past, their dedication to each other, and their dedication to a braver, stronger England. Perhaps, they were discussing the future. Trenton could only imagine Matthew’s grief at facing a future without his very best friend, because it was a grief that Trenton suffered every single day, knowing that each day with his father was precious.
And each day might be the last.
That was why he was so glad his father was here with him now, seeing his joy as he embarked on a new life with the woman he loved. It had been a hard-fought battle, but they’d been victorious, and it was a victory for all to share. Trenton had already discussed with Lysabel the importance of spending what time he could with his father at Deverill Castle, for as long as he could. She wholeheartedly agreed.
It was something more to love her for.
“I will talk to him,” he said. “But give the old men their time together. That time between them is rare and few these days. For now, I have something else to do.”
“What?”
“I have a man to thank.”
Lysabel knew who he meant.
Ranse de Troyes hadn’t attended the wedding, or any of the festivities even though he’d been invited. He’d politely declined, instead preferring to remain at his post to ensure Wellesbourne Castle was safe and the wedding uninterrupted. It was his wedding gift to the happy couple, but Lysabel suspected there was more to it. It would have been difficult for any man to witness a marriage that should have been his, and she didn’t blame him for staying away.
The man who had made this all possible.
Therefore, she smiled in understanding at Trenton’s statement and kissed him before heading from the hall, following the path of her mother and mother-in-law as they’d taken her girls to bed.
Trenton watched her go, his heart fuller than he ever knew possible. A new wife, new daughters, and a baby on the way made him more content than he’d ever been. A whole new life was laid wide before him and the world was at his feet. Together, with Lysabel, he would conquer it all.
He would be the man his father had always wanted him to be.
As Trenton headed out of the hall on his way to thank de Troyes, he looked up into the brilliant night sky and remembered that on a night very simila
r to this one, he’d discovered the love of his life in an abused, beaten lady who, in spite of her sorrows, had never let it destroy her. Her strength and her dignity were the things legends were made of, but the adoration he felt for her was something only dreamt of.
Trenton de Russe had finally learned the meaning of what it meant to love.
* THE END *
Children of Trenton and Lysabel
Cynethryn
Brencis
Raphael (Rafe)
Gaston
Brandt
Matthew
Trevor
Kristienne
Lucian
The de Russe Legacy:
The White Lord of Wellesbourne
The Dark One: Dark Knight
Beast
Lord of War: Black Angel
The Iron Knight
Dark Moon
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.
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Dark Moon (The de Russe Legacy Book 6) Page 34