“God’s Blood, man,we’ve not seen you since yesterday,” Adonis said. “What has been going on? Where did you take the duchess?”
Kevin was in one of Salisbury’s smaller tents, one they were using to store weapons for the tournament. He had found Thomas the moment he’d entered Salisbury’s encampment and Thomas had taken him directly to the armory where Adonis was preparing weaponry for the coming mass competition. Now, it was just the three of them again, old and dear friends together once more. Kevin looked at Adonis when the man issued his question, blowing out his cheeks in a heavy, heart-felt sigh.
“I took her to the town of Staines,” he replied, the simple answer at the moment. “Did Thomas not tell you? He was with me when the duchess and I departed.”
Adonis nodded. “He told me,” he said. “But what in the world are you doing with the woman? The duke has not spent any time with her at all because she is spending all of her time with you. The men are starting to talk. What is going on?”
Kevin rubbed at his chin thoughtfully. “The men are talking, are they?”
Adonis nodded. “It is no wonder.”
Kevin couldn’t disagree. “Indeed,” he finally said. After a moment’s pause, he shook his head as if exasperated. “I do not even know where to start. I have not had a moment’s privacy with either of you since we arrived in London.”
Thomas grabbed him by the arm, without force. “That is true,” he said. “So tell us now before someone comes to interrupt us; what is going on? Why are you spending so much time with the new duchess?”
Kevin grunted wearily as he found the nearest stool, planting his bulk on top of it. “This is all so very complicated,” he finally said. “What I tell you must not leave your lips. Is that clear?”
Both Thomas and Adonis nodded. Thomas crouched beside Kevin, seeing that he was quite distressed. Kevin didn’t often show his emotion so the feelings that were radiating off of him were concerning.
“It would seem that the duke did not want this marriage at all,” Kevin said quietly, looking between his two best friends. “Surely you saw that at the feast the other night. Dorset was rude and disinterested towards his betrothed.”
Adonis nodded. “Everyone saw that,” he said. “So what has he done?”
Kevin lifted his eyebrows with some irony. “Done?” he repeated. “He had done nothing; that is the problem. He has orderedmeto do it all for him. He told me that he had no intention of consummating his marriage to the duchess so he ordered me to do it. When I refused, he threatened me. I was therefore given no choice in the matter and neither was the duchess. Dorset has ordered me to bed the woman until she conceives, thereby giving Edward the Dorset heir he so badly seems to want. As I said, it is all very complicated. Even as I say it, I can hardly believe it.”
Thomas, crouched down next to him, looked at him with big eyes. “Great Bloody Christ on his Throne,” he swore softly. “He ordered you to dothat?”
Kevin nodded. “He did.”
“I am not surprised,” Adonis said. He, too, knelt down beside the stool and kept his voice low. What he was about to say was not for public consumption. “Thomas and I have been getting to know Dorset’s men and it is the general belief that the duke does not like women as a rule. According to some of the soldiers, the duke has had a string of male lovers over the years. They will not speak much on the subject, of course, fearful for their livelihoods, but that is the gist of what we could discover. The introduction of a wife has upset the duke greatly.”
Kevin looked at Adonis, his expression one of astonishment. “God’s Bones,” he finally muttered. “That makes much more sense now. No wonder he ordered me to consummate the marriage. He has no interest in a woman at all.”
Adonis nodded, a confirming gesture. “The duke did not confide this in you?” he asked.
Kevin shook his head firmly. “He hasnot,” he said. “Nor do I expect him to. He wants me to impregnate the duchess and then he intends to send her away for her confinement. He has absolutely no interest in a wife or child.”
“But he has great interest in his military empire,” Thomas said quietly. “Look around you, Kevin; the best trained men, a stable of powerful knights and the best equipment money can buy. All he cares about are men and the power of men.”
Kevin was coming to see the truth behind that statement. It was well known that Dorset had one of the best armies in all of England. “He was very excited to have my fealty,” he said. “Dorset has other knights. Do we even know where they are? He did not bring any with him to London.”
Adonis sat down on the mashed, cool grass floor of the tent. “From what we have discovered, they are all back at Ilchester Castle,” he said. “I am not entirely sure why the duke traveled to London without a knight or two, but he did. From what we were told, the knights remained behind. Dorset has five hundred new recruits that have been gleaned from the duke’s properties. The knights may have remained behind to train the men.”
Kevin pondered that. “It is possible,” he said. “All that aside, however, I find myself in a very complicated situation. I am now forced to bed my liege’s wife and the child she must bear,mychild, will be claimed by Dorset. I cannot tell you how unhappy this makes me.”
It was indeed a distressing and shocking situation, one that disgusted both Thomas and Adonis. Kevin had been through so much in his life already, now to return to England to serve an immoral liege who was determined for the man to carry out both immoral and improper orders.
“What can you do?” Thomas wanted to know. “You said he threatened you when you refused to carry out his orders?”
Kevin nodded, feeling quite weary all of a sudden. His thoughts kept drifting back to Annavieve and the shame of the situation for her, as the new duchess. The situation was shameful from many different angles.
“He told me he would tell the king that I refused a direct order,” he said. “Of course, Edward would believe his cousin over me, so it would mean my ruin.”
Adonis, still seated on the floor, grunted sadly and hung his head. “Then you did what you had to do,” he said. His head came up, looking at Kevin. “But what about the duchess? Surely she must be devastated by all of this.”
Kevin knew this was the time to tell them everything. He would need their assistance in the days and weeks and monthsto come, he was sure. He trusted them with his life. He needed their support and advice. He sighed in distress.
“There is… a problem,” he confided. “The duchess is a sweet and beautiful woman. She is kind and she is pure in her views of the world. In spite of everything, I have enjoyed coming to know her a great deal. I fear… I fear that my feelings for her are something more than purely professional.”
