Therefore, he thought hard.Reallyhard on the subject of commanding The Marshal’s army into destroying the last vestiges of Emelisse’s life. Everything she held dear. Could he take The Marshal’s army and destroy Hawkstone’s keep? He had told Emelisse that he would not let her die in the keep, and he wouldn’t. She felt so strongly about taking up arms in her brother’s stead, and he respected her passion on the matter, but the truth was that he would not be able to destroy the keep, even if he was ordered to.
It washerkeep now.
All of this belonged to her, the entire crumbling wreckage of a life she’d once known.
“Christ,” he finally groaned. “If that order comes down from The Marshal, I cannot follow it. I will have to get her out of the keep somehow while you lead the army to destroy it. I cannot do it, Max, and I feel as if I have just lost my ability to follow an order without question. Iwouldquestion this one. Not only that, I would do what I felt necessary to save Emelisse. When did I turn into a knight that questions an order?”
Maxton could see how distressed he was and he put his hand on Caius’ shoulder. “You are a man who sees something more in the situation than the rest of us do,” he said. “You see a woman in distress and you want to help her. I was in the same position myself, once. And I married her.”
Caius hung his head. “I told you that I do not want to marry her.”
“Then you would rather have Marius marry her?”
Caius’ head snapped up, the dark eyes narrowing. “He’ll not have her.”
Maxton snorted bitterly. “You will have little say in the matter,” he said. “You are nothing to Lady Emelisse; not her brother, father, cousin, family member. You have no say in what happens to her, but the fact that she is de Wrenville’s prisoner– he haseverysay. And he will marry her to his son and when he does, Hawkstone becomes his property. There will be nothing you could do about it.”
He was being rather harsh about it, but nothing he said was untrue. Maybe Caius didn’t want to marry a woman after only knowing her for a day, but he knew one thing for certain– he couldn’t stand by while Marius de Wrenville married her.
“If I married her, Hawkstone would become mine,” he said. “All of this glorious ruin would belong to me and I would most definitely bring my army here and beat Winterhold into the ground if he thinks to challenge me. I would destroy him.”
Maxton nodded at the mere thought. “De Wrenville would be running for his life, to be sure.”
That thought gave Caius great pleasure. “In fact, I might lay siege to Winterhold just for the fun of it,” he said, growing more arrogant about it. “I would remove Hallam and Lady de Wrenville, of course, but then I would bombard Winterhold day and night until her walls crumbled and her floors burned, and then I would toss Covington and Marius into that horrific moat and call it justice. Although I did not know Rupert de Thorington or his son personally, Edward did. He said they were good men. They did not deserve what de Wrenville did to them.”
“They did not,” Maxton agreed quietly. “But the reality is this; you have no time to make any decisions, Cai. Mayhap you truly feel something for the lady, or mayhap you are only sympathetic to her plight. But there is no time at all for you to decide if you are going to involve yourself in this situation more deeply than you should on the lady’s behalf, for we can only feed de Wrenville false information for so long. He does not knowCaspian is dead, so we can delay the inevitable only so long. Sooner or later, de Wrenville will know the truth.”
“I was saying that exact thing to Emelisse,” Caius said. “Mayhap we can delay it enough to receive a decision from The Marshal.”
“That decision may be to side with de Wrenville and destroy Hawkstone once and for all.”
Caius grunted softly, closing his eyes to that very possibility. “I know,” he said. “I know he is afraid for Alice and he should be. I do not like seeing her in danger and Chadlington is a good man. De Wrenville does not deserve either of them.”
Maxton watched him as he wrestled with the situation. “What will you do?”
Before Caius could answer, Hallam entered the hall. The knight entered from the corner of the hall that had been torn up and burned, through a gap in the wall that had been knocked out. He picked his way through the debris, heading for Caius and Maxton.
“Your young squire said that he saw you two come in here,” he said, tripping over a piece of charred wood. “I just received a missive from Lady de Wrenville. It seems that Marius arrived home this afternoon.”
Maxton looked straight at Caius, who visibly stiffened in surprise. “I see,” he said slowly. “I must say, it is not a surprise. We knew he would arrive home at some point. But his arrival ought to throw this situation into more chaos. He’s probably demanding to use Pembroke troops right now.”
Hallam shrugged. “My guess is that he more than likely is,” he said. “But Lady de Wrenville was more concerned about Lady Emelisse.”
“What about her?”
“Marius plans to ride to Hawkstone tomorrow with a priest,” he said. “He is going to marry her without delay.”
Caius stared at him. Maxton’s words came tumbling down on him.There is no time at all for you to decide if you are going to involve yourself in this situation.Truer words were never spoken. With the shocking news that Marius was due on the morrow, there was no time left. Caius had to make a decision.
He wasn’t sure he wanted to marry her.
But he knew he didn’t want to see her go to another, and especially not Marius de Wrenville.
Without another word, he ran for the keep.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
It was Emelissewho prepared her brother’s body for burial.
