Dane pondered this point of view for a moment. “Do you hate your father?”
“Nay,” Trenton shook his head. “I wish… I wish I could be just like him. I want to be as great a knight as he is.”
Dane looked at him sharply; that was his dream, as well. Jealousy spread over him but he fought it down as best he could. “We’re going to be fostering together, you know.”
“I know,” Trenton said.
Dane shoved his thumb to his chest. “I am going to be the best. I am going to work harder than anyone.”
Trenton’s brow furrowed. “Not harder than me. I am going to be just like my father.”
Dane prepared to retort sharply but bit it back, sulking back against the hay. Eyeing Trenton hostilely, he shoved a piece of hay in his mouth and worked it thoughtfully. “We are a lot alike, you know. We both have parents who hate each other and fight a lot.”
Trenton lay down, too, feeling very tired from the day’s events. “I am not going to fight with my wife. I am going to marry someone I like, mayhap the prettiest girl in the realm. I’d never fight with her.”
Dane lifted his eyebrow critically. “I am never going to get married.”
“Why not? Do not you want sons to carry on your name?” Trenton demanded.
Dane shook his head stubbornly. “Wenches are no good.”
Trenton looked at him a moment, crossing his arms behind his head and chewing on hay in an exact imitation of his younger, wiser friend. Dane seemed to know it all, whereas Trenton was more apt to follow than lead.
“All right, mayhap I won’t get married,” Trenton said begrudgingly. “But I shall keep a pretty woman just the same.”
Dane shrugged carelessly, staring at the ceiling. “Me, too. But no wife.”
“No wife,” Trenton agreed.
Exhausted and left to their own thoughts, Dane fell asleep first. Trenton followed shortly.
Safe from the hell of the castle in the bosom of the stable, they slept dreamlessly.
Arik met upwith Gaston in the middle of the outer bailey. “Mari-Elle is nowhere to be found, Gaston. We have combed nearly the entire keep.”
“She’s around here somewhere and you will find her,” Gaston said shortly. “Take every man I have if you have to and find her. She’s off running loose and I cannot find Dane.”
“God, you do not think she might have done something to the boy?” Arik asked, horrified.
“I do not know, which is why we must find them both,” Gaston was already veering away from him, toward the stables, and Arik went on his way.
Charles walked beside Antonius, feeling as important as any knight. Additionally, he was fairly confident he knew his young cousin well and had little doubt they would find him in the stables. Even with the terrible things Gaston was saying about his wife, Dane was smart and quick and knew how to avoid danger, thanks to his inbred response to his father. If Mari-Elle was in search to kill him, Dane could hide and never be found. That is, if he knew the danger existed at all.
A bit of foreboding filled the young man as they entered into the stable area. What if he was wrong?
“Where would he be?” Gaston turned his attention to Charles.
Snapped out of his depressing thoughts, Charles pointed to the nearest hayloft. “Up there, somewhere. If he is here at all.”
Gaston hoisted himself up to the first loft; he did not even use the ladder. He merely gripped the edge of the platform and pulled himself up to look. Charles swallowed hard at the display of pure strength; for as huge as Gaston was, to have pulled himself up without any effort was testimony to the man’s raw power.
Antonius took alook at the second loft, descending empty-handed. Gaston then moved to a smaller loft and hoisted himself up, peering at the contents. He held himself in place for several long moments before releasing his massive body to the ground.
“Both he and Trenton are up there fast asleep,” he said with obvious relief. “Antonius, return to the castle and bring them some blankets, and then stand guard. Until we are able to locate Mari-Elle, I do not want either boy unprotected.”
“You do not think she would hurt her own son?” Antonius asked with disbelief.
Gaston shook his head. “Until I meet up with the woman and determine her mental state myself, I will take no chances,” he waved Antonius on. “Go now. They are safe for the moment.”
