He lifted a dark brow. “Will you, my lady?”
“Of course. Anything.”
Mathis’ eyes took on a gleam. “Enough to convince your husband to allow me to court his daughter?”
Diara broke out in a big smile. “Enough even for that,” she assured him confidently. “In fact, while I take Roi into the keep, I believe a certain young lady is behind the kitchens at the fishpond. I know she would be more than happy to see you.”
Mathis chuckled, but he was grateful. Perhaps he was unable to marry Diara, but in the end, they had a good understanding of one another. He appreciated the bond they had built, and that was something he never wanted to lose. He wanted to be in her life any way he could be.
Even if that meant only as a friend.
As the wagon came to a halt in the bailey and several men went to help Roi out of the wagon bed, Diara simply backed away and let the men do the work. She remembered telling Roi once that she’d never really had much of a family and, suddenly, she had a big one. Men who had risked their lives to save Roi, to pull him from the jaws of death. It was only later—much later—she was told justhowclose to death he had come.
That made her more grateful than ever for those who had come together to save him.
It was the best possible outcome of the tale of the widower who had no intention of remarrying until he agreed to fulfill the betrothal of his dead son, marrying a woman half his age, but in that marriage, Roi de Lohr was reborn.
Theirs was a love story for the ages.
EPILOGUE
Three years later
Lioncross Abbey Castle
“Icame asquickly as I could,” Roi said. “What has happened?”
He had just entered the keep of Lioncross only to be met by his brother, Myles. He was like the rest of the de Lohr men—big, blond, well built—only Myles had luscious blond hair that fell past his shoulders, something every woman he met envied. His wife particularly liked it. He had his mother’s hair because in her youth, she had a cascade of gold down her back, well past her buttocks. That wasn’t where his similarities to his mother ended, because he was her son in every way, except for one.
Myles was a trained assassin.
Roi knew that his presence at Lioncross meant something serious.
“Steel yourself, man,” Myles said, looking over Roi’s shoulder at the woman in the bailey behind him, being greeted by their mother. “Many things are afoot. But why did you bring your wife? I told you that I would need your full attention.”
Roi turned to look at Diara with a toddler in her arms and an enormously pregnant stomach. “Because she wanted to come,” he said simply. “I will not leave her at Pembridge, not when sheis due to deliver our son any day. Besides, she wants him born at Lioncross like I was and like his brother was. I could not, and would not, leave her behind, so you’ll simply have to accept it.”
Myles didn’t look pleased. “I hope she does not become upset when we take all of your time.”
“Diara is not like that, and you know it,” Roi said. “She will let me do what needs to be done and not complain about it. Now, what’s this all about?”
As if on cue, a blond toddler suddenly darted up the stairs, screaming because his grandmother was coming for him. Roi grabbed little Rex de Lohr before he could get away from him, kissing his son’s cheeks loudly as the baby cried and tried to push away. Chuckling, Roi set him on his feet, and the first thing the child did was run straight into Christopher’s solar. They could hear a faint cry go up as Christopher caught sight of his beloved grandson.
“You know Papa wants to see him,” Roi said. “He’s an old man, Myles. Let him enjoy his grandchildren while he can.”
Myles knew it was futile to resist. He shook his head in resignation. “I know,” he said. “And Rex is welcome, you know that. But I still laugh when I think of that name.”
“What name?”
“Rex.”
Roi stiffened. “And why not?” he said. “Roi means ‘king.’ Rex also means king. It is well and good that a son be named after his father, and well you know it.”
Myles held up his hands in surrender. “I know,” he said. “But I had a dog named Rex. Now I have a nephew named Rex.”
“Be very careful or I will name my next horse Myles and beat it constantly.”
Myles started laughing. “You would, too.”
