Cassius was wiping at his face, gaining control of his composure now that he’d suffered his outburst. “But what if she does not wake up at all?”
Doncaster averted his gaze and dropped his hands from Cassius. “If she has been given too much, she will never awaken,” he said sadly. “I pray that is not the case. Mayhap prayer is the only thing that can save her now. Did Darian tell you about Amata and her confession?”
Cassius nodded. “He did,” he said, his voice husky from fatigue. “She actually confessed everything?”
Doncaster nodded. “She did,” he said. “To the priests, to the entire village. Her father brought her here to apologize to Dacia.”
“Did Dacia forgive her?”
“Nay,” the duke said, shaking his head as if to suggest just how badly that apology went. “It was not a pretty sight, Cassius. Dacia lost her moon and her sun because of Amata. In other words, she lost you. There was never any chance she would forgive the woman.”
Cassius seemed to look uncertain. “She has spoken those words to me before,” he said. “Did… did she speak about me after I left?”
“Only when Amata came,” the duke said. “When I look at you now, I know that her distress equaled your own. She had the same look in her eyes that you do. She was a shell, Cassius. A shell of who she used to be. Just like you.”
Cassius knew that feeling well. The duke, a man who usually kept to himself and didn’t get involved in the problems of others, seemed to be a man of understanding when he took the time to think of others.
Oddly, it gave Cassius some comfort.
“May I go to her now, please?” he asked.
Doncaster nodded, just once, stepping aside so Cassius could move past him and up the mural stairs. In the entry to the keep, Bose and Rhori and Darian stood, watching the conversation, now watching Cassius as he made his way up the stairs. Argos wriggled out from behind them and trotted after his master.
No one stopped him.
Now, the lovers would once again be united.
The rest was in God’s hands.
The door to Dacia’s suite of chambers wasn’t locked. Cassius didn’t even knock. He simply pushed the door open.
The rich and lavish chamber opened up before him, the largest chamber in the suite. Dacia’s bed was over near the far wall, positioned near windows in the spring and summer seasons, away from them in the fall and winter. Cassius could see the maid he recognized as Edie standing at the foot of her bed and a small, gray-haired man bending over something on the mattress. His back was turned to Cassius.
There were other maids moving about, silently, carrying linens or bowls of water. One was by the hearth, heating something over the flames in a heavy, iron pot. Cassius could see the steam. He came into the chamber but stopped immediately and began to remove his things. He’d no sooner pulled off his gloves than Argos darted past him, ran across the floor and hid under Dacia’s bed. The swift movements of the animal startled both the physic and Edie.
“What on earth was that?” the physic asked, trying to get a look under the bed.
“That was Argos,” Cassius said. “He is… Dacia’s dog.”
The maids gasped when they heard his voice. All of them. Edie rushed in his direction, her pale face full of exhaustion and hope.
“You came, my lord!” she said. “Sir Darian found you!”
Cassius nodded, still holding his helm. “Aye,” he said, putting everything on a table that was next to the door. He began to unstrap his sword. “How is she?”
Edie watched him quickly undress. “The physic thinks she is better,” she said. “But… oh, thank God you are here. Let her hear your voice and awaken, my lord. I know she will!”
Cassius pulled his tunic over his head, eyeing Edie as he put it on the table. “You are her maid,” he said. “Edie, is it?”
Edie nodded quickly. “Aye, my lord.”
“Were you here when she was given the poison?”
Edie’s eyes immediately filled with tears. “It was me,” she said. “She asked me to bring her sleeping powders and the names on the phials… I cannot read very well and I showed her the phial and she said it was the one, but it wasn’t. She hasn’t been sleeping, you see, and she wanted to sleep. I gave it to her, but it was an accident, my lord, I swear it. She wasn’t trying to take her life and I wasn’t trying to kill her.”
Cassius bent over at that point to shimmy off his mail coat. Edie watched him fearfully, finally giving him some help when he couldn’t get it off his wrists. He tossed the mail coat over the nearest chair.
“For being honest, I thank you,” he said quietly. “You have told me what I needed to hear.”
“What is that, my lord?”
“That she did not try to kill herself.”
Edie shook her head, horrified at the suggestion. “Oh, nay, my lord,” she said. “My lady would never think of such a thing.”
Cassius knew that, but he still wanted to hear it. In truth, that had been at the back of his mind, something he’d refused to acknowledge until now. A horrible fear that Dacia had been so distressed by everything that she had tried to end her pain permanently. Edie had eased his mind considerably on that account. He pulled off his padded tunic, leaving a thin linen tunic underneath. He hadn’t even started on his leg protection yet.
“The physic,” he said. “Send him to me. I would speak with him.”
Edie scurried away, over to the physic and spoke to the man as she gestured to Cassius. The physic left Dacia’s side and approached Cassius as he was removing one of his cuisses, or leg protection. He was just slinging it onto the table when the physic spoke.
“You are the betrothed, my lord?” he asked.
Cassius turned to the man. “Aye,” he said. “I am Sir Cassius de Wolfe. My father is the Earl of Berwick, Patrick de Wolfe. I am a member of the de Wolfe Pack that rules the Scottish border with Northumberland. If you’ve not heard of us, you should.”
The physic nodded quickly. “I know of the family, my lord,” he said. “I am told that you and Lady Dacia are to be wed.”
Cassius didn’t know who told the man that, but he was glad someone had. It made him feel as if the brutal separation from Dacia had only been a momentary nightmare. Everything was still as it should be.
He could only pray.
“We are,” he said after a moment. “What can you tell me about her condition?”
The physic turned to look at Dacia, lying on the bed and buried beneath a myriad of coverlets. “She was given a large dose of purpurea, which is mostly used for swelling. It helps reduce the swelling in the hands and feet, but in larger doses, it affects the heart and the breathing. Lady Dacia was ill to begin with when she was given the dose and it is taking her body longer to overcome it.”
Cassius’ brow furrowed. “Ill?” he repeated. “What was the matter with her?”
The physic looked at Edie and because he turned to her, so did Cassius.
“Edie?” Cassius said imploringly. “Was she ill?”
Edie had a look of sadness about her. “She would not eat and hardly slept,” she said. “I was having to amend her clothing because she could no longer fill it. She was grieved, Sir Cassius, as I have never seen anyone grieve before. Aye, she was ill. Ill and weak. That is why she wanted to sleep, so she could think clearly and send for you.”
Cassius felt as if he’d been hit in the gut. “She… she was? That was her intention?”
Edie nodded. “Aye,” she said, seeing his relief and disbelief. “She loves you, my lord. Being apart from you made her ill.”
Cassius didn’t need to hear anything more. His gaze moved to the figure on the bed and, without another word, he made his way over to it. His first glimpse of Dacia lying pale and unconscious on the linens put his stomach in knots and a lump in his throat, but he resisted the urge to give in to the grief. He was here, with her, and that was all that mattered. Falling to his knees beside the bed, he bent over her form, hand on
her head, as he kissed her forehead and cheek, gently.
“My beautiful lass,” he murmured, tears forming. “I am here, Dacia. I will never leave you again, not even for a moment. I am here to stay, I swear it. But I must tell you how much I love you. I do not think I have ever told you plainly. I have let innuendos and actions speak for me and I should not have done that. I should have told you how much I love you every hour of every day. You are my moon and sun, too.”
He bent over and kissed her freckled cheek, completely unaware that the physic had left the room and Edie had silently ordered the maids out. Even if Cassius had known, he wouldn’t have cared, because this moment was only for him and Dacia. Just the two of them, as if no one in the world existed but them.
It was their golden hour.
A time of total truth.
Cassius placed his forehead against her face, feeling her warmth against him, one hand on her head and the other seeking out her fingers, buried beneath the coverlet. He found a soft, warm hand and brought it to his lips.
“I should not have left you,” he murmured. “I am sorry that I did. I suppose I did it because I was hurt and confused, but that doesn’t matter any longer. I am here and that is all that matters. Please, angel… wake up and look at me. Wake up and tell me how much you love me.”
He kissed her face again, her lips, feeling more desperation that she wasn’t immediately responding to him. He had hoped, foolishly, that the mere sound of his voice might bring her out of her stupor. Perhaps it still would.
Perhaps he simply wasn’t talking enough.
Despair begin to feed his mood.
“Since you do not feel like talking right now, I shall talk until you feel like making this more than a one-sided conversation,” he said, stroking her forehead with the hand that was on her head. “There’s not much to tell about the two weeks we have spent apart. I did not get any further than Pontefract because I simply didn’t want to get any further away from you. I know that sounds strange, but it’s true. I couldn’t bear to be further away from you than necessary. Darian found me at a tavern in Pontefract called the Barrel and Blood. He’s a good man, Darian is. Not many men would go after the lover of the woman they wanted to marry. He’s also a cousin to the House of de Wolfe. Did I ever tell you that?”
There was no reply, but he thought he might have seen her twitch. Her eyeballs seemed to be rolling around beneath the closed lids.
That spurred him on to continue talking.
“Darian told me about Amata,” he said. “So did your grandfather. He suggested that Amata’s apology to you did not go well and I must say, I support whatever you said or did. For everything she’s done to you, the woman deserves worse than she received, I am certain. I saw you slap her once, and it was deserved, so can I assume that there was more of the same. Did you slap her right out of the window? I have thrown a few bodies out of the window myself, lately. But that’s a story for another time. Or, mayhap I’ll tell you now. It all started when four Maltravers soldiers came to the tavern for some respite. That’s not what they got. One of them said that Argo should be killed and a rug made out of his hide, and that started a nasty fight. But no one says that about our dog and lives to tell the tale. He may be ugly, but he is our ugly.”
With that, he looked under the bed, calling Argos forth, who gladly came out and jumped on the bed next to Dacia. The dog laid right next to her, licking her on her chin. Cassius snorted.
“Angel, if you do not wake up and fight off the dog, he is going to lick you to his heart’s content,” he said “I will not pull him off you. That is your prerogative.”
He continued to chuckle as the dog licked happily, but Dacia didn’t move, so he eventually called the dog off. Argos laid his head down beside her and promptly fell asleep.
“He is weary like you are,” he said as the dog began to snore. “He has had an exhausting day. We both have. But I do not want to miss a moment with you, angel. Watching you sleep… there is nothing better that I could ever think of.”
He kissed her cheek again, stroking her forehead tenderly. She twitched again, a little stronger this time, and his heart leapt with anticipation. Was she finally coming around? Or was it her death throes? He knew it was morbid to think such things, but in his state of despair, he couldn’t help those thoughts.
To distract himself, he began to talk.
More talk.
Not knowing what else to do or say, he started from his childhood. He spoke of his birth at Berwick Castle, the second of six children. He spoke of his upbringing, how he spent one summer in Bjorgvin, the big city where his grandfather lived. He spoke of learning the Northman’s language, at his grandfather’s insistence, but it was a difficult language to learn. He spoke of his father actually having to sail across the sea to collect him and his older brother because Magnus had decided to keep them just a little while longer. His father and grandfather had very strong words over Magnus wanting to keep his grandchildren.
He was never allowed to visit his grandfather again after that.
The sun eventually set, casting ribbons of pink and orange light into the chamber, only to gently fade away as the veil of night fell. Edie silently entered the dark chamber, bringing tapers with her and lighting the other tapers around the chamber, filling it with a soft and golden light.
Cassius was sitting on the ground now, next to the bed, still talking about anything he could think of. Edie smiled timidly at him as she went about lighting the tapers and he smiled back, weakly, letting her know that her presence was welcome. She was just in time to experience a series of dog farts, so powerful that even Cassius’ eyes watered. All of that beef he’d fed the dog back at the tavern was having an effect on the canine’s guts, so Edie found a fan that Dacia sometimes used in the summertime and fanned all of that horrific smell towards the windows. Cassius ended up laughing so hard that he wept.
He was hoping the noxious fumes might stir Dacia and, indeed, she did stir a little.
That nasty but powerful smell gave him hope.
He kept talking.
The night deepened and Edie brought Cassius some stew and bread, which he gratefully devoured as he told Dacia about his training at Kenilworth Castle and then later at Lioncross Abbey Castle, seat of the House of de Lohr. He told stories about older knights who liked to target him and his brothers because they were so tall, and it was a triumph to be able to best the massive de Wolfe brothers. He was quite proud in saying that no man had ever bested him or his older brother, though Titus and Magnus had been taken down more than once.
Towards midnight, Cassius began to grow weary. He’d talked a blue streak for hours on end and now that he was completely sober, his head was beginning to ache and his body screamed for sleep. He was just finishing a story about a wedding feast at Bamburgh Castle a few years before that included a massive tournament when there was a soft knock at the door. Cassius turned to see Father Lazarus being ushered in by Edie.
In truth, Cassius wasn’t sure how he felt about the man’s appearance. He knew that Father Lazarus had been Dacia’s ally when the rumors were flying but, somehow, he didn’t like seeing the man in the chamber. As if Dacia needed last rites or absolution. Stiffly, he moved to stand up but Father Lazarus waved him down.
“Nay, my lord, please stay where you are,” he said. “The duke sent word to St. George’s, telling us of Lady Dacia’s illness. I have come to see how the lady is faring and pray for her full recovery. I hope you do not mind.”
In truth, Cassius didn’t. She needed all the prayers she could get. He motioned the man towards the bed.
“Come in, Father,” he said. “Your concern, once again, is appreciated.”
Father Lazarus smiled as he came near the bed, his gaze inevitably moving to Dacia, pale and unmoving.
His smile faded.
“The poor lass,” he said sadly. “I have known her for most of her life. She has suffered so much. Losing her mother and father at a young age, being curs
ed with people around her who did not love her like they should have. Even so, she was always good to the poor and the sick. She took care of those who needed tending. And now… this.”
Cassius was looking at Dacia, feeling the impact of Father Lazarus’ words. They were words one would say at a funeral and he didn’t like it one bit.
“She will recover,” he said firmly. “She is simply exhausted and the powder she was given has had a lasting effect. But she will awaken soon.”
He sounded so positive that he was clearly in the realm of denial. Father Lazarus looked at him, hearing anguish in those words as well.
But he wasn’t going to dispute Cassius.
“They say that everything happens as it should,” Father Lazarus said quietly. “God has a plan for us all, my son. I think that mayhap Lady Dacia’s life happened the way it should because all of it seems to point to a great reward.”
Cassius looked at him, puzzled. “What do you mean?”
Father Lazarus walked to the foot of the bed, his gaze moving to Dacia. “She was born with a face that some consider less than perfect,” he said. “I had a sister who had freckles like Lady Dacia, so I never saw anything strange in them. My sister was a beautiful woman, I think, and so did her husband. But she had to find the man who saw that beauty in her. It took time and tribulations for that to happen.”
A thought occurred to Cassius. “Then that is why you have been sympathetic to Dacia.”
Father Lazarus shrugged. “In a way,” he said. “I understand what a woman like her must suffer. I feel that it is the same with Lady Dacia as it was with my sister – she has been through tribulations. She has never had a suitor as far as I know. I heard she chased them all away, and it is a good thing, too. She would have never met you had she not, a man who sees the beauty in her. That is God’s plan for her, my son – you are her great reward.”
WolfeSword: de Wolfe Pack Generations Page 28