“Mayhap she can get the money,” he muttered. “No matter what you think of me in sending Desdra to de Long to pay off my debts, he never used her as a muse. He was good to her.”
“I know,” Benedict said without patience. “And that is the only thing that keeps me from killing you for what you did to her, the knowledge that she’s simply a scribe. Unlike you, I have visited her several times in Bristol, and she seems to be relatively content with her lot in life. But it’s not right and you know it.”
Ciaran wouldn’t look at him. “The debt was paid some time ago,” he said. “She no longer needs to remain there.”
“And she should return here so you can sell her off to King Dagda to pay off yet another debt?” Benedict said, shaking his head. “I will not allow it.”
“She is my daughter.”
“She ismysister.”
Ciaran finally lifted his gaze, looking at his son. “So you would rather see King Dagda kill me?” he said. “Is that what you want?”
Benedict wasn’t going to let his father put any guilt on him, not when they both knew he was right. “I will get the money somehow,” he said. “But I will tell you this now, Ciaran—never again will I pay a debt for you. Never again will you use Desdra as barter. The next debt you incur will be one you must deal with yourself, because I will not do it, and if King Dagda comes toextract his pound of flesh from you because you refuse to pay, I will not stand in his way. And that is a promise.”
With that, he left, leaving his father sitting alone and dejected in the cold, stale chamber. Ciaran knew that Benedict was going home, home to the wife he loved and the two small boys he had fathered. Children that he’d never allowed Ciaran to be around. He kept his little family away from Ridlaw Manor and away from the grandfather who had gambled away their legacy. Benedict was going back to that perfect world, back to the fortified stone and timber dwelling that was the only part of his father’s property that Ciaran hadn’t yet stripped or ruined.
Benedict lived in the hall house in the larger village on the Ridlaw property, basically a home with a public space, or hall, on the ground level where the law could be dispensed and other town business could be conducted, but the second floor had living quarters for Benedict and his family.
While Ciaran sat in his manor home in squalor, doing little else but gamble and drink, Benedict was the law for the area. He took care of the things his father wouldn’t. He was a well-respected and decent fellow, which was why the ambush just outside of the village came as such a horrible shock to everyone. Benedict had no enemies, but on that evening when he traveled away from his father’s home after the encounter with King Dagda, Benedict le Daire’s life was unceremoniously stolen from him by a few highwaymen on the hunt for someone to rob. Surprisingly enough, it wasn’t King Dagda or his men. It was simply a group of random outlaws.
Ciaran, however, didn’t hear about his son’s death until the following morning.
And then he drank himself into oblivion.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Aphrodite’s Feast
The river wasgreen.
Jareth had seen many rivers in his lifetime, and usually the ones closer to the sea turned shades of green because of the silt and sand that the currents brought in. It was a murky river and he was unable to see the bottom as he sat by the river’s edge, watching the water amble by.
As it turned out, he had a lot to think about.
He wasn’t as drunk as he had been earlier. That strong Spanish wine had gone straight to his head and he’d ended up saying things he wished he hadn’t. He couldn’t stop himself from thinking it, but he certainly should not have spoken of them to the woman who was trying hard to be kind by orienting him to his inheritance. Clearly, he had insulted her, her colleagues, and pretty much the entire city of Bristol with his questions.
They were a reflection of the confusion he was feeling.
He was still having a difficult time accepting the fact that these enterprises had been in his family for quite some time and his mother had never told him about it. He was going to go with the assumption that she didn’t know of the ventures, becauseanything else wasn’t something he wanted to face. He didn’t want to face the fact that his mother, the only parent he actually loved, might have been part of something seedy. Or at least had knowledge of something seedy.
In either case, it was an appalling prospect.
Like it or not, however, he found himself now at a crossroads.
He could continue to resist his inheritance or he could simply accept it. His friends already knew, and the king already knew, so it wasn’t as if he could hide this from them. Perhaps the best thing he could do was simply accept what fate had given him and move forward. He paused and turned to look at the great structure of Aphrodite’s Feast behind him. It was truly a magnificent building. The artwork, the fine furnishings, and the like made it a most remarkable place. He didn’t even need to see the ledgers because he could just tell that the place was rolling in money.
That meanthewas rolling in money.
But was that money worth his dignity?
That was where he was having problems.
With a sigh, he turned around to face the river again, watching the gentle waters and seeing people on the other side of the riverbank as they went about their business. He was thinking that, perhaps, he needed to go back in and take a look at those ledgers so he could get the complete idea of what he was facing. He could only spend so much time out here in confusion, a state that was not normal for him.
He needed to settle the situation.
“Here you are,” Hugh said as he walked up behind him. “We were wondering where you’d gone off to.”
