The Dark Spawn (Battle Lords of de Velt Book 5)

by Kathryn Le Veque

  That bit of news brought hope and excitement. Anteaus ran for the keep where his father was, while Ares and Atlas headed to the gatehouse to make preparations. Everyone was moving with a purpose except for Cole, who was left with the women.

  He looked at the three of them.

  “Well,” he said. “It looks as if you are going to have thousands of men on your doorstep very soon.”

  “How soon?” Gaia asked, already thinking about the numerous new knights to pinch.

  In fact, Cole could hear her eagerness.

  “Armies do not move very quickly,” he said. “If they are in Hexham, I would say that they should arrive here by this evening. It is just a few hours’ ride for a man on a swift horse.”

  Corisande’s eyes widened. “This evening?” she gasped. “God’s Bones, I must get organized. I will need lodgings for the knights and the commanders. Gratiana, go to the knight’s quarters and remove all of the soldiers who are sleeping there and have the entire place scrubbed. It smells as if pigs have been living there. Gaia, you will help me with the keep. I cannot have the Earl of Hereford and Worcester sleeping on anything other than a clean and comfortable bed. Run ahead and tell the servants of his impending arrival and have them boil water and vinegar so they can start scrubbing the floors. Hurry, ladies!”

  With that, she suddenly turned for the kitchen yard, rushing to tell the cook of the meal that would be needed for the evening. Cole watched her run off as Gratiana and Gaia lingered.

  “I do not know what she is so excited about,” Gaia said. “The keep is clean enough.”

  Cole looked at her. “The state of the keep reflects directly on the chatelaine,” he said. “She wants to make a good impression, which is something you should be concerned with also. Do as she says and see to the servants.”

  Gaia turned those big, blue eyes to him and latched on to his arm. “I am much better when I am entertaining guests, not preparing for them,” she said. “I am excellent with conversation and I know how to make guests laugh. Cori can deal with the servants. That’s what she is good at.”

  There was something condescending in that remark that Cole didn’t like. Gaia had a high opinion of herself, a spoiled little lass who firmly believed the world should fall at her feet.

  He unwound her hand from his arm.

  “Go,” he said, firmly and quietly. “You have been given a task. Do not disappoint me and ignore it. There are great knights arriving tonight and I do not wish to be embarrassed because you have not done as your sister asked and they are faced with slovenly quarters.”

  Gaia wasn’t at all deterred by him removing her from his arm. She grinned up at him, impishly.

  “As you wish,” she said, turning for the keep. “I should not want to embarrass you.”

  Cole felt it, then; a sharp sting on his left buttock right where it met his thigh. He was wearing fine leather breeches today, thin and comfortable, and Gaia had managed to pinch him right through the leather. She wasn’t quite out of arm’s length, so he lashed out a trencher-sized hand and spanked her right on the buttocks. It sounded like the crack of the whip and Gaia yelped as she put a hand to her arse, looking at him accusingly.

  Cole smiled thinly.

  “My apologies,” he said. “My hand slipped.”

  Outraged, Gaia stormed off towards the keep. Cole watched her go, a real smile playing on his lips, as he heard giggling behind him. He turned to see Gratiana standing there.

  “I am sorry,” she said, putting a hand over her mouth. “I should not have laughed, but… but she has deserved that for a very long time.”

  Cole fought off the smile that threatened to broaden. “As I said, my hand slipped.”

  “So did hers when it pinched you.”

  He looked at her a moment before finally breaking down into a snort. “She’ll think twice before letting her hand slip again,” he said. “And you, my lady? You have duties, too.”

  Gratiana nodded, looking off to the knight’s quarters. “I know,” she said. “But I was wondering… this army that is coming? Does this mean we will see more fighting here?”

  “Do you mean to ask if they will attract trouble?”

  “Aye.”

  Cole shook his head. “I do not think so,” he said. “I would not worry about it, my lady. Whatever happens, we will keep you safe.”

  She was reassured, but not too terribly. There was still worry on her face. “My home is very peaceful,” she said. “Until the battle last month, I had never even seen a siege. It has given me new respect for men who see battle after battle. That kind of carnage and destruction must do something to your soul.”

  Cole looked at her. Gratiana was a dutiful girl from a lesser noble family and, truth be told, her goal was to marry very well to help her family’s circumstances. Cole suspected that was why she had her eyes on Anteaus, but the man was out of her reach simply for the fact that he was a de Bourne, a descendant of the Kings of Northumberland. Undoubtedly, all three de Bourne brothers would be expected to marry very well.

  He wondered if she knew that. It was a pity, really. Gratiana was a nice girl and she was compassionate, like Corisande.

  It was a pity she might never get what she wanted out of life.

  “It does,” he said after a moment. “Maybe you will understand why some men are so terribly hard. Sometimes it is what life has done to them. It is difficult facing death like that on a regular basis and not be affected by it.”

  Gratiana looked up at him, lifting a hand to shield her eyes from the sunlight. “You face it, yet you are not hard,” she said. “In fact, you bear the name of England’s most notorious warlord, yet you are nothing like the name would imply.”

  He smiled faintly. “You’ve not seen me yet in battle,” he said. “I am hard enough. Harder than most. Now, you have duties to attend to and I shall not keep you. You did well today with your target practice.”

  Gratiana smiled gratefully and headed off towards the knight’s quarters. Cole didn’t give her a second thought as he turned for the kitchen yard.

  The last place he had seen Corisande.

  The kitchen yard seemed to be devoid of servants. Cole suspected they were all inside the kitchens listening to Corisande tell them what glorious guests they were to have that evening.

  One thing he’d learned about Corisande over the past month, among many, was the fact that she was a perfectionist. She liked everything perfect and she wanted to make each and every visitor feel as if they were the most important visitor The Keld had ever known. It was an enormously impressive skill, this woman who could make people feel very special, and he hovered outside of the kitchen door, listening.

  He could hear her voice inside.

  Something about the dulcet tones of her sweet voice filled him with more joy and contentment than he had ever known. There was satisfaction in his heart that he’d never had before. As he leaned against the wall next to the door, listening, he knew he could have listened to her forever. He’d never known a life like this.

  He’d never known a woman like this before.

  That’s why he’d come back to The Keld after the incident with Alexander MacDuff. His father had sent him to Alnwick to tell Yves de Vesci everything, but the entire time he was away from The Keld, he missed Corisande something fierce.

  A yearning that tore his guts out and then some.

  So, he returned to The Keld when he was supposed to return to Pelinom. He told Alastor that his father wanted him there in case something more happened with the Scots, so he was there as the eyes and ears of de Velt and William Marshal, which made sense to Alastor even if Cole thought it was a rather weak premise. But he served both masters so, in reality, it was the truth.

  But his truth was that he couldn’t spend one moment more away from Corisande.

  It had been an unconventional month of courting her, although it really wasn’t courting because he’d not spoken to her father, nor had he even told his father. The issue of Audri
e de Longley still hovered over them, but there was no opportunity for Cole to get back to his father and tell him about the situation and there was certainly no opportunity for him to get to Northwood Castle to speak with Audrie.

  Therefore, the situation was a little uncertain as far as asking Alastor to court his daughter, but he knew he’d have to ask the man sooner or later. He was certain that people weren’t oblivious to the fact that he was quite attentive to Corisande. Surely something like that hadn’t escaped the notice of Alastor, Ares, Atlas, and Anteaus. The person who hadn’t noticed was Gaia, but that was because she was wrapped up in her own little world. Gaia only saw what was important to her, not the blossoming romance between her sister and the big de Velt son.

  But Cole had never been so aware of something in his entire life.

  So, he stood there and waited for the chance to speak to Corisande alone. Perhaps he’d even steal a kiss. He’d done that several times over the past couple of weeks. In fact, he saw an opportunity now as servants began to leave the kitchens, spilling out into the yard and not seeing him because he was pressed back against the wall next to the door. He could hear Corisande’s voice growing closer as she told the cook to make one of her specialty pies for the evening’s guests. She walked out of the door, passed right by him without seeing him, and headed in the direction of the buttery.

  The buttery was its own stone building built against the kitchen wall, cold and perfect for butter and cheese and milk. There were no servants in that direction, so Cole followed Corisande. His movements were stealth and silent, surprising for a man of his bulk, but the moment she opened the door and peered inside, he wrapped her up in his arms from behind and carried her into the buttery, shutting the door behind them.

  Corisande had yelped at first, startled by someone grabbing her, but she immediately knew that it was Cole. In fact, she started to giggle as he nuzzled her neck, her shoulder, the back of her head, before spinning her around and slanting his mouth over hers. Any resistance she had, however weak, fled as her arms went around his neck.

  These kisses were becoming something that Cole’s days revolved around. The urge to taste her overwhelmed him until it was no longer something he could ignore. She tasted as good as she looked and the feel of her in his arms was well worth the risk of being discovered.

  He wanted more with every breath he took.

  Pulling Corisande tightly against him, his kisses became more insistent. His tongue licked at her, gently prying her lips apart and snaking into her mouth. Against him, Corisande collapsed completely, overwhelmed by his strength and his power. She was coming to crave his touch, though she wasn’t apt to let him know it. Pretending to be resistant to him, even ignoring him, had lit a fire under the man until it exploded in moments like this.

  And she loved it.

  “Well?” he said, his lips against her cheek. “Do you want me to stop, you little minx?”

  Corisande was breathless and flushed. “Nay,” she whispered. “But if my brothers catch us, they will not take kindly to you.”

  His response was to kiss her again, suckling the life from her. Corisande couldn’t catch her breath and her entire body was hot and tingling. Cole’s touch lit a fire under her, too, and perhaps that was why she was inclined to ignore him, to not fall into his arms every time he looked at her. His touch made her want to do things with him that only naughty women did. She knew about the ways of men and women and she’d seen enough servant women being groped by soldiers to know that men liked to touch parts of a woman’s body that even a woman didn’t touch very often, so she well understood how men and women could behave with each other.

  Cole made her want to behave like a wanton.

  “I have not had the chance to speak to my father about Audrie,” Cole said as he nibbled her jaw. “I have wanted to do this properly, Cori, but the more that time passes, the more I am not sure if that is even possible. I do not know when I will see my father again to speak on something other than warfare and it is something I wish to do personally, but I may not be able to. Would you object to my sending him a missive and telling him of the situation?”

  Corisande’s hands were on his big shoulders as he had his way with her. “Nay,” she said. “The sooner you do it, the better.”

  “Then I shall,” Cole said, pulling back to look her in the eyes. “But I want to ask your father’s permission to marry you before the situation with Audrie is resolved. I will be truthful with him and explain everything, but I wish to do it now. I do not want to wait another moment, Cori. May I?”

  Corisande hesitated and he saw it. He gave her a pained expression and she hastened to reassure him. “I am not sure how he will react if he knows you are betrothed to another woman.”

  “I am not betrothed to her.”

  She put her fingers over his mouth to shush him but he ended up kissing them, softly and gently, which only caused her resolve to weaken further. “I know,” she murmured. “But mayhap you had better not tell him, not unless you have to.”

  “I have to,” he told her. “Thanks to Essien, Anteaus already knows there was something between Audrie and me, and he will undoubtedly tell your father, so I have no choice. I do not want your father to think the man who wants to marry his daughter is a liar.”

  Corisande cupped his big face. “My strong and noble knight,” she said softly. “Truth is important to you.”

  “It is the only thing that makes a man truly honorable.”

  She smiled faintly, stroking his stubbled face. “You have always been honest with me and I appreciate it more than you know,” she said. “You know that you will always have my honesty as well. I cannot imagine not having that between us. It is the foundation upon which everything else is built.”

  He leaned forward to kiss her again, this time with more emotion than lust. It was a kiss that shook him from his head to his toes, something that consumed his entire being.

  “I never knew I could feel this way about someone,” he murmured. “You are strong and admirable and brilliant, Cori. How is it that a woman like you could even consider a man like me?”

  Her hands were still on his face. “Because you are kind and gentle, strong and wise,” she said. “I am the one who is unworthy, Cole. You are from a great family and as your father’s heir, you should marry the daughter of an earl.”

  “I do not want to marry the daughter of an earl,” he said. “I thought I made that plain. I want to marry the daughter of the man who would be the King of Northumbria if there was such a kingdom. I want to marry Princess Corisande.”

  She grinned. “I am not a princess.”

  “You will always be my queen.”

  Her smile faded as his sweet words touched her deeply. Leaning forward, she kissed his cheek, his chin, before pausing to look him in the eyes.

  “Speak to my father before the day is through,” she whispered. “I will tell my brothers so they know what you are about to do. I am sure they will support you. They like you a great deal.”

  Cole shook his head. “I appreciate the offer, but I shall speak with them,” he said. “This must come from me. You will tell your sister and make sure to tell her not to pinch me anymore. If anyone is going to pinch me, it will be you.”

  Corisande’s eyes narrowed. “Did she pinch you again?”

  “She did. And I swatted her for it.”

  Corisande’s eyes widened and then she began to laugh. “God’s Bones, that little goat deserved it,” she said. “Well done, my darling. I applaud you.”

  His smile faded. “Say it again.”

  “Say what? Well done?”

  “My darling.”

  She put her arms around his neck, pulling him against her tightly. “My darling,” she murmured. “You are my dearest darling.”

  He held her close in a moment that was ever so pivotal for him. “And you are mine,” he said. “I have never had anyone call me by a term of endearment. There is something about it that makes me feel as if I be
long to someone, a bond that cannot be broken.”

  “It cannot,” she assured him. “It will not. But you must speak to my father.”

  He released her, setting her to her feet. “I will do it now,” he said. “I want to do it before de Lohr arrives and I will be occupied with other things.”

  “What other things?” she asked.

  He looked at her a moment. In the past month, he had never told her about his work for William Marshal. All she knew was that he called Pelinom Castle home, so she went on the assumption that he served his father. He did, that was true, but the higher power in his life was William Marshal. It was quite possible that The Marshal would send him on another mission once the threat of the Scots invasion was over because when one served in the stable of England’s greatest spies, one did not simply walk away from it.

  Truth be told, Cole wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to walk away.

  He could see now that he was going to have to tell Corisande the extent of his service for William Marshal, but not now. There would be time for it later. She was a reasonable woman and he was certain she would understand.

  Perhaps she would even be proud of him.

  Pride in a husband who served with the most elite knights in England.

  Odd how he’d never thought about someone being proud of him for doing his duty, but he very much wanted that approval from Corisande.

  It meant everything to him.

  “My father is involved in this crisis with the Scots,” he said after a moment, avoiding a heavy explanation until they had the proper time to discuss his service for The Marshal. “I will be as involved in this situation as your own father and brothers, so that means I will be involved with de Lohr and the other warlords who are coming north. I fear I may not see you as often as I wish, but know that I will be thinking of you. You are the queen of my heart, Cori, and I worship every moment with you.”

  He gently cupped her face, kissing her on the soft cheek, as she flushed madly with his sweet words. She still hadn’t gotten over the frantic blushing she did when he was kind and complimentary with her.