“Papa,” she said. “Wait.”
McCloud paused, turning to look at her. “What is it?”
Vesper wasn’t sure what to say at that point. Did she forgive him? Or did she not? She grasped at the first thing that came to mind.
“You said you had news,” she said. “What news?”
McCloud shook his head. “I did not have any, really,” he said. “I only said that so Sir Desmond would not suspect the reasons for my visit.”
“So he would not suspect that you’d come to apologize to me?”
McCloud averted his gaze. “Aye,” he said. “I was not sure if you had told anyone what happened with your brother.”
Vesper frowned, closing the gap between them. “Why would I do that? Why would I bring such horrible shame to myself? Nay, Papa, I have kept my lips closed and you will as well. No one here knows what happened with Mat and no one ever will. Do you understand me?”
McCloud nodded. “I am pleased you did not tell anyone.”
Vesper eyed the man; he looked quite exhausted, which he should have been considering he’d been traveling on foot for days on end. He had no money; she knew that. He probably hadn’t eaten much, if at all. Now she was starting to feel the least bit sorry for him. He was still her father even if he was a stranger who had been complicit to terrible crimes and had a conniving way of thinking. But men had a right to be forgiven if they weretruly repentant, she supposed. With a sigh, feeling frustrated and weak, she reached out and took him by the arm.
“Come with me,” she said, resignation in her tone. “Come have something to eat and then I will find you a place to sleep. When you have rested, we will speak again.”
McCloud looked at her, knowing she was only doing this out of duty. He doubted there was instant forgiveness in her heart for him and he understood that. But he was sincere in his words and it was something only time would tell. He hoped she would at least give him the chance to reclaim that man he’d lost.
“I would be grateful,” he said. “And I am quite hungry.”
“I thought you would be.”
“Not much is growing this time of year that is edible, so I have had to beg scraps for the past few days. The coinage Val gave me is long since gone.”
Val.There was that name. Vesper had been doing a good job of putting thoughts of the man aside until that moment and, now, he was in her head again. Her thoughts began to turn from her father to Val, of the doubts she had in insisting upon their separation. It had been many days since she’d last heard from him and he hadn’t sent her the necklace yet, the sign that he still wanted to court her. Now, that was all she could think of.
Her father knew Val, didn’t he? Perhaps he would have some answers.
“A man like Val…,” she said, pausing a moment before continuing. “He has a great many duties, does he not? What I mean is that he would be very busy, all of the time… would he not?”
McCloud trudged through the mud beside her, feeling the icy dampness against his frozen feet. “He is a man with great responsibility,” he said. He eyed her. “I do not know what was said between you two after I left to bury your brother. Did he speak further to you about your future together?”
Vesper shrugged. She wasn’t sure she wanted to tell her father everything. Although she wanted his insight, she didn’t want to give the man a confession in order to get it. She glanced up at him.
“You do not blame him for Mat’s death, do you?” she asked. “You know that he had no choice. He told you that.”
McCloud’s features seemed to tighten as memories of that day returned. He paused thoughtfully before replying. “Had the situation been reversed and it was his son I had stood in judgement over, I would have done all I could to spare his life. I thought Val was my friend. He should have… he should have spared him.”
Vesper frowned. “Papa, he was surrounded by a mob and by men of the law who were looking to him to dispense justice,” she said. “I do not know much about the law but I know that if Mat had been anyone else, Val would have been compelled to do the same thing. Just because he was your son did not give him any special protection for what he had done because the man was guilty. Surely you understand that.”
“Mayhap I do, but I am still reconciling myself to the fact that my old friend would execute my son.Myson.”
“And I am sure Val is having a difficult time reconciling how you lied to him and tried to woo his mother. Therefore, you have no right to be angry with a man you tried to dupe.”
She was correct. God help him, McCloud knew she was. But he couldn’t bring himself to say it. Val had done his duty when it came to Mat and McCloud was trying not to hate the man for it.
“But I have realized my folly,” he said quietly. “Will he realize his?”
Vesper shook her head at her father’s sense of justice. It made her realize that, perhaps, he truly hadn’t understood the depth of his betrayal or how, as he put it, he became a manhe did not like. She was starting to think that her father had a twisted sense of right and wrong in general.
“You have come to me asking for my forgiveness,” she said, pausing before they could enter the great hall. “If you truly want it, then forgive Val for doing his duty and ending the terror of a murderer. I do not care if he was my brother or not. Val did the right thing when you would not. If you do not see that, then I do not believe you are sincere in wanting my forgiveness. I think you are being selective in this soul purging you seem to be doing.”
McCloud wouldn’t look at her, wiping at his frozen nose with the back of his hand. After a moment, he lifted his gaze. There was something warm twinkling in the depths. “Is that what growing up has done for you?” he asked. “Has it truly made you wiser than your father?”
