“Thank you,” he said. “Now, you will excuse me. I have duties to attend to.”
Gaetan watched the man go, feeling a great deal of pity for him. As he continued to stand by the fire, his thoughts turned towards Ghislaine and wondered if she had awoken yet. He was anxious to see her, anxious to start a new day with her as part of his future. As he contemplating making the trek over to her little cottage, he caught sight of de Reyne, de Moray, and St. Hèver coming out of the convening hall where they’d tried to sleep for a few hours after patrolling most of the night. Spying Gaetan, they headed in his direction.
As those three approached, Téo, de Winter, and Wellesbourne emerged from the village. They’d kept patrolling even after the others went to bed and now, with daylight upon them, they were heading back to perhaps sleep for an hour or two after a very long night. Aramis was missing but Gaetan knew it was because the man was still with Antillius’ daughters. He watched as his men came upon the fire, some of them yawning from too little sleep, some yawning from no sleep at all. It was an exhausted bunch.
“Well,” Gaetan said. “I would assume everyone survived last night intact?”
The men nodded their heads to varying degrees. “At least we know now some of the indigenous people we will be facing in this forsaken country,” de Moray muttered. “I am going to have to write to my father and tell him about those bone-men. It was like fighting demons straight out of hell; most frightening.”
The others had to agree. “I fought one man who had an entire skull on top of his club, the teeth filed to sharp points,” St. Hèver said. “The jaw was open and he kept trying to swing those teeth right at my head. That was rather traumatizing.”
Coming from the man known as “The Hammer”, that was saying something. De Reyne grinned at him. “Did you run from him or did you fight?”
Kye cocked his head. “I thought about running at first, but I knew he would chase me and it would not do for a man of my stature to be seen running from an enemy, so I stood my ground and gored him in the chest. In fact, I want to find that club. I will use it against our enemies and see if I cannot frighten them into surrendering with that thing.”
The knights chuckled at the thought. “There mere sight of you frightens them in any case,” Téo said, his gaze moving to Gaetan. “And speaking of enemies, when will we continue on to Tenebris? I am increasingly concerned that Alary and Kristoph will make it there before we will now that we have been delayed.”
Gaetan nodded reluctantly. “I was thinking on that this morning,” he said. “In fact, I was just going to see how Lady Ghislaine was faring, to see if she would be able to travel in the next few days.”
The knights began to look at each other, glancing at one another as if there was something on their minds but they were afraid to speak it. Considering what had happened last night between Gaetan and Aramis, they knew that the lady was a very sensitive subject with Gaetan and no one wanted to be on the receiving end of a beating for speaking his mind.
But Téo wasn’t afraid of that. He said what they were all thinking because it was something that needed to be addressed.
“It was forcing the lady to travel with her bad leg that caused us to end up here, Gate,” he said quietly. “The lady should not be moved until her leg can heal and we cannot wait here while it does. We are close enough to Tenebris that we can continue on without her. And we should.”
Gaetan looked at him. “After all she has sacrificed for us? I am surprised you would suggest such a thing.”
Téo stood his ground. “What happened to the man who wanted to reach Tenebris before Alary did?” he asked, hoping Gaetan would realize there were more pressing things happening than the lady he was besotted with. “Based upon what the lady told us of her brother’s lair, we decided that our only chance to save Kristoph would be to intercept them before they could reach Tenebris. We are in a prime position to do that. Would you now risk Kristoph’s life for well-meaning loyalty you feel towards Lady Ghislaine?”
Gaetan’s manner began to stiffen. “It is more than well-meaning loyalty and you know it.”
Téo nodded patiently. “Aye, I do,” he said. “I am not trying to diminish that. But we must get Kristoph before Alary takes him behind the walls of Tenebris. Gate, we can always return for the lady. Just because we leave her to go and save Kristoph does not mean we will not come back for her.”
Téo was the voice of reason in all things so Gaetan had no reason not to trust him. But then he started looking around at his men and saw that they all had similar expressions on their faces; they were fully in support of what Téo was saying. He was coming to feel as if they were turning against him.
“You, too, Kye?” he asked St. Hèver. “Do you feel this way? Do you all feel this way?”
The subject of Gaetan’s focus, Kye was very careful in his answer. “Gate, we know you feel something for the lady,” he said, a man of forthrightness. “We understand you do not wish to leave her behind but, in doing so, you are jeopardizing Kristoph’s life. Téo is correct – we can always come back for her. But our mission to reach Kristoph should not be dependent upon whether or not the lady is able to travel. I believe I speak for all of us when I say that we will leave this morning to continue on our mission. If you wish to go with us, all the better. But if you do not, we are going anyway.”
Gaetan could see that they meant no disrespect. His men would never do that to him. But he was also coming to see that he’d been a bit of a fool when it came to Ghislaine. He had promised not to leave her behind and he swore not to break that promise to her, which had been a foolish promise in hindsight. This entire mission north had been to rescue Kristoph and now that he was in love with Ghislaine, his focus had shifted from his friend and brother-in-law to a love he’d never expected to know.
He was starting to feel very, very foolish for not seeing any of this sooner. With a heavy sigh, he was coming to understand that it was quite possible his men were right and he, in this case, might be wrong.
Had his focus really changed so much?
“I never meant to jeopardize Kristoph,” he said quietly. “I hope you know that. But I suppose I felt that this mission was Ghislaine’s as much as it was ours because it was her brother who abducted him. And the situation is more complex that you know. I feel enough for Lady Ghislaine that I have asked her to be my wife and she has agreed. If that is foolish, then I suppose I am a fool. All I can tell you is that she has changed my perspective on life tremendously. I never thought I would take a wife much less one I adored.”