Edie set aside the sewing in her hands, a beautiful yellow piece. “I can remember in years past when we’ve had such dry summers,” she said. “But come September, the rains will come heavily.”
They were speaking casually, knowing Dacia was somewhere about, wanting her to hear them so she wouldn’t be startled by his appearance.
“They will,” he agreed. Then, he gestured to the sewing she had set aside. “It looks as if you are making something lovely. Mayhap for the warm weather to come?”
Edie held up the piece. “Aye,” she said. “’Twill be a lovely frock for my lady. In fact, I’ve been going through her clothing and pulling out the heavier garments to pack away until the colder weather returns. I’ve also been mending the garments she likes to wear when she works in the garden. Why, we shall have the very best herb garden in all of Doncaster this summer. Lady Dacia wants to grow some of the herbs that Emmeric used in his potions.”
She was pointing to a table where two bags sat side by side – one was singed and worn, while the other was Dacia’s very nice leather satchel.
“And be mindful of those poisons,” Darian said. “I told you that when I brought the bag.”
“You did, my lord.”
“Did you keep them?”
Edie shrugged. “My lady may wish to keep some,” she said. “It is not my place to remove them, so I put everything in her bag.”
She had a point. Darian snorted. “Poisons,” he said with irony. “What on earth did he have poisons for?”
Edie chuckled. “The maids and I were wondering the same thing,” she said. “Mayhap to use if his patient did not pay him properly.”
Before Darian could reply to what had become meaningless banter, Dacia picked that moment to enter the chamber from the smaller dressing chamber.
Darian stiffened when he saw her, wondering what direction she was going to go. Would she chase him away? Or would she let him remain? As he held his breath, she simply glanced at him, putting a pin in her hair to tuck back the unruly strands.
“Greetings, Darian,” she said. “What brings you here?”
She sounded completely normal. Utterly, completely normal and Darian was truthfully the slightest bit wary. He hadn’t expected her to be so… normal.
Carefully, he proceeded.
“My lady,” he greeted evenly. “You are looking well.”
That was a lie. As she came out from behind the table that was in the middle of the chamber, the one that held flowers or shoes, or anything else tossed upon it, he could see that her clothing was hanging on her. Not eating and hardly sleeping, she’d dropped a noticeable amount of weight, enough so that it was obvious.
Her clothing was hanging at her. It occurred to him that Edie wasn’t making new clothing because she wanted to. It was because she had to. Her mistress was wasting away before her very eyes.
It was a sobering realization.
“Well?” Dacia finished fussing with her hair and faced him. “What do you want?”
That was it as far as greetings went. She may have been normal enough, but she wasn’t exactly being amiable.
But Darian had come to change that, he hoped.
He had something to tell Dacia, something he thought her grandfather should tell her, but the duke had given that task to Darian because the man had just sat through several long and excruciating minutes of Hugh de Branton forcing his daughter to confess all of her worldly sins to the duke, including all the recent rumors about Dacia and Cassius, and was emotionally exhausted by the rant. Therefore, he sent Darian to summon his granddaughter because Amata needed to apologize to her, most of all.
Darian hoped that it was enough.
“My lady, I have been sent by your grandfather on an important matter,” he said. “May we sit?”
Dacia eyed him, considering his request. “I do not want to sit,” she said. “Tell me what you have come to tell me.”
Darian sighed faintly, thinking this wasn’t going to be a simple thing. But it was necessary.
“Very well,” he said. “Have you been watching the bailey today?”
Dacia shook her head. “Nay,” she said, her mood immediately darkening. “It does not interest me.”
Darian knew why. It was because Cassius was no longer in it. “Then you would not see any new visitors,” he said. “I have come to tell you that Amata and her father have arrived.”
Dacia looked at him in shock, for just a brief moment, before immediately turning away from him. “I do not wish to speak to either of them, Darian,” she said firmly. “Tell them to go away. I have nothing to say.”
“Dacia, please,” he said, trying to be gentle. “Amata has just spent the past several minutes with the duke, but she wants to speak with you. You have shut out the world for two weeks, but I am here to bring you some hope.”
She was marching away from him, but she suddenly turned around and marched towards him. “Hope?” she repeated as if he’d said something outrageous. “Why should you want to bring me hope? When you learned of my betrothal to Cassius, you would not speak to me at all, so why now the sudden need to be kind to me? Save your breath, Darian. I do not want to hear it.”
That was a blow to his ego, but he resisted reacting. “I am sorry I did not speak to you when I learned of it,” he said. “I suppose… I suppose I needed to reconcile myself to it before I could speak to you. I am sorry if I offended you with my silence.”
Dacia had started pacing with pent-up nervous energy that was verging on rage. “You did offend me,” she said. “You hurt me, but I left you alone. Now I am asking you to leave me alone. I do not want to talk about anything and I most certainly do not want hear anything Amata wants to say.”
Darian wasn’t leaving. He watched her pace in circles, wringing her hands, before deciding to tell her what their business was. He could see that she wasn’t going to agree to see them, so perhaps she needed an incentive.
“Hugh de Branton forced Amata to confess her lies about you,” he said. “Amata confessed them to the priests of St. George’s and she was forced to confess the lies to all of those who came to worship for vespers and matins. She told everyone that she spread those lies about you and Cassius and that they were not true. She wants to apologize to you personally. Now, will you see her?”
As he hoped, that brought a big reaction from Dacia. She stopped pacing, turning to look at him with eyes so wide they threatened to pop from her skull. For a moment, she simply stared at him, trying to process what he had said.
“You must be jesting,” she said, sounding weak and hollow.
He shook his head. “I am not,” he replied. “Her father has brought her here so that she may apologize to you. Dacia, she told everyone that she had lied. Now the entire village knows that you are innocent. According to her father, the priests know that you are innocent as well. Will you not at least let her apologize personally?”
Dacia stood there, her entire body quivering. Her gaze lingered on Darian for a few moments before looking away, struggling to digest what she had been told.
It was a hard fight.
“Where is she?” she finally asked.
“In your grandfather’s solar.”
Dacia flew from the chamber, slamming the door behind her and trapping Darian until he could yank it open and pursue her. But by that time, she was already down the stairs. The duke’s solar was on the first floor and even as Darian raced down the stairs, he could hear Dacia’s voice as she called Amata by name. He was running for the solar when he suddenly heard Amata scream.
By the time he entered the solar, Dacia had thrown herself at Amata and was pounding her with her fists as she lay on the floor. Hugh was trying to pull them apart, but the duke was doing nothing. He was sitting at his enormous table, watching Dacia beat on her cousin as Amata screamed.
Darian flew into action.
Reaching down, he yanked Dacia off of Amata as Hugh pulled his daughter to her feet. Dacia was still struggling again
st Darian, still trying to beat her cousin to a pulp.
“For everything you have done to me, I hate you until my last breath, Amata de Branton,” she shouted. “You have spent years turning everyone against me so that I had no friend but you. You made me dependent upon you, craving your companionship, and manipulating me and lying to me all the while. You have tried to ruin me for the last time, do you hear? I will kill you if I see you again!”
Darian was having a difficult time holding on to her. He pulled her back towards her grandfather’s table, his mouth by her ear.
“Stop, Dacia,” he said. “Calm yourself.”
Over on the other side of the room, Amata was weeping loudly. “Forgive me,” she wept. “I am sorry I hurt you, CeeCee, truly. Please do not hate me.”
Dacia’s surge of anger faded and the tears began to come. In Darian’s grasp, she began to tremble as a wave of emotion washed over her.
“Why?” she finally hissed. “Why did you do it? What did I ever do to you that you would hurt me so?”
Amata was exhausted and ashamed. She’d spent all night confessing her lies, telling her friends from town that nothing she had ever said about Dacia had been true. Girls that had been her friends for years looked at her with disgust and walked away, and now she was seeing that same disgust in Dacia’s eyes, only worse.
There was anguish there.
“I… I do not know,” she sobbed. “I suppose it was because you had everything and I had nothing. You are to be a duchess. I will be nothing unless I marry well and I hated you for what life had given you and not me. Never me! I wanted to see you suffer.”
Dacia was unmoved. “Then you accomplished your task,” she said, her voice quivering. “I suffered. I suffered all of my life, and I suffer worse now because you took away the only man I ever loved. You knew when you told those lies that you would be separating Cassius and me. That was your intention and it worked. He is gone and I am nothing without him. I will hate you with everything for the rest of my life, Amata. Go home and never come back. I do not want to see you ever again.”
Amata was a pitiful sight. “Please, CeeCee,” she begged. “Please forgive me. Do not turn your back on me. I am so sorry for everything.”
But Dacia simply shook her head. “You are only sorry because you were caught in your lies and forced to confess,” she said. “If you had not been caught, you would still continue perpetuating these falsehoods against me. Ruining me. Therefore, I do not accept your apology. You have wasted your breath.”
It was a harsh response, but there wasn’t one person in that chamber who blamed her except for Amata. She frowned.
“Have you no soul?” she demanded. “A good Christian would accept my apology. It would please God.”
Dacia smiled without humor. “As you have told everyone for years, I bear the marks of a witch,” she said. “Mayhap it is those marks that prevent me from accepting your forced and insincere apology. Now, get out of my sight. You are no longer welcome at Edenthorpe.”
Amata looked at her father for support, but he gave her no comfort whatsoever. He simply took her by the arm and pulled her towards the solar door.
“Lady Dacia,” he said quietly. “I hope you can find peace someday. Know… know that I am very sorry for my daughter’s actions. I am sure it is of no comfort to you, but I am sorry just the same.”
Dacia couldn’t even reply. She genuinely liked Hugh, or at least she had, but he had bred that horrific beast and she could not spare him the attention. Not now. She simply turned away, pulling herself out of Darian’s grip, as Hugh took the sobbing Amata away.
When the door to the solar shut behind them, there was a finality in the gesture.
It was over.
Amata was gone, for good.
When the solar was quiet, Dacia sat down in the nearest chair, exhausted and overwrought. Darian watched her a moment before looking to the duke, who was still sitting there.
“You did not stop her from attacking Amata, your grace,” he said with a hint of reproach. “Why not?”
The duke was watching Dacia carefully. “Because it needed to be done and it was best that Dacia do it,” he said without remorse. But his next words were directed at Dacia. “What do you intend to do now?”
Dacia was pale and shaking. Slowly, she looked over at him. “What do you mean?”
“Just that,” the duke said. “Amata’s confession has made you blameless, child. The priests know it, the village knows it. Everyone knows it, but I wish you had let me settle this matter sooner. This dragged out far longer than it should have.”
Dacia shook her head. “How, Grandfather?” she said. “There was nothing you could have done. The priests were going to believe what they believed, as were the villagers, and anything you did would have simply made it look as if you were defending your guilty granddaughter. The only resolution to this had to come from Amata and, quite honestly, I am shocked that she confessed. She has never accepted blame for anything.”
The duke grunted. “Her father forced her,” he said. “Hugh is a good man, Dacia. You must not hate him for his daughter’s crimes.”
Dacia looked away. “He let her get away with it,” she said. “He knew what she was doing and he had for years, yet he did nothing and he said nothing. He is not innocent in my torment, Grandfather, and he knows it. Mayhap I will forgive him someday, but not now.”
“You are holding a grudge, child.”
“Of course I am!” she practically shouted. “Because of Amata, I have lost something that was more important to me than anything on earth. I’ve lost my moon and my sun. How can I forgive or forget that?”
The duke sighed faintly. “You should have never sent him away to begin with,” he muttered. “Cassius wanted to help you and you would not let him.”
Dacia shot out of her chair. “I could not let him be tainted by those lies,” she fired back. “I was the target and he would have been damaged simply by his association with me, and I could not stomach that. I loved him enough to let him go.”
“You sent away a man who wanted to protect you.”
They hadn’t really spoken of this subject since it happened, mostly because Dacia refused to. In fact, she still wouldn’t be talking about it had Amata’s appearance not forced her hand. To think of it tore her guts to shreds. To imagine Cassius’ face brought her heartbreak that shattered into a million pieces of pain. She’d never experienced anything like it but she would always believe, until the end of all things, that she had done the right thing for him.
Her grandfather simply didn’t understand.
“He could not have protected me,” she finally said. “This was something I had to face alone, Grandfather. If you cannot understand that, I cannot explain it to you any better.”
“Would you have let him face a situation like this alone?”
Her first reaction was to voice her support for Cassius in any given situation, but she shut her mouth. It would open an entirely new world of argument and she didn’t have the strength. She didn’t want to face the possibility that she might have been wrong.
At the moment, she didn’t want to face anything.
She was so very weary.
“We shall never know,” she said quietly. “I am going to rest now. It has been a trying day.”
The duke and Darian watched her go, hearing her footfalls fade away as she mounted the stairs. The duke sat back in his chair, sighing heavily at the apex of a most eventful day.
“Do you know where Cassius is, Darian?”
Darian looked at him. He could have easily lied to the man, anything to keep Cassius away from Dacia and preserve what little hope there was still for him to marry her. But after seeing what her heartbreak had reduced her to, he couldn’t bring himself to make it worse.
Certainly, Dacia would heal. Broken hearts always did, eventually. But even he had to admit that there had been something very special between Dacia and Cassius. Just because he couldn’t have her didn�
��t mean he wished her heartbreak equal to his own. It occurred to him that he had to do to Dacia what she had done to Cassius –
He had to let her go.
He loved her enough to do that.
“Du Bois sent me a missive a few days ago that said they were at a tavern in Pontefract,” he said. “They were heading north to Castle Questing, but Cassius apparently hasn’t been able to move out of Yorkshire. According to du Bois, they are in a place called the Blood and Barrel.”
The duke mulled over the information. He finally shook his head. “I think she is making a terrible mistake,” he said. “She is letting Cassius slip through her fingers. I never agreed with her sending him away to begin with, but now… now that Amata has confessed her sins, there is no reason for Cassius not to return.”
“Do you want me to send him word?”
Doncaster nodded. “Aye,” he said. “But do not tell Dacia. If you do, she’ll have time to be furious with us. But if she knows nothing and suddenly opens her door one day to find Cassius standing there, she’ll thank us.”
Darian nodded. “It may be more complicated than that, but at least she may speak to him. She wouldn’t before he left, you know.”
“I know.”
“I’ll send word today.”
Darian turned and headed for the door, the duke stopped him.
“Darian,” he said. “I realize that this cannot be easy for you, but I will say that you have shown remarkable composure through this situation. You are to be commended.”
Darian knew what he meant. Losing the woman that a man had his heart set on was never easy. Weakly, he smiled.
“I simply want her to be happy, your grace,” he said. “I have reconciled myself to the fact that it is not with me.”
The duke nodded faintly, unwilling to comment more. He had acknowledged that sad dynamic as much as he was going to and he suspected Darian did not wish to discuss it further, either. Therefore, he waved his hand.
“Go, then,” he said. “If she will not send for the man, then we will. Mayhap you will make her happy, Darian. Just not in the way you had hoped.”
WolfeSword: de Wolfe Pack Generations Page 25