Even the night must have a day.
“I did,” Christopher replied after a moment. “And I see that you did as well, although it seems to have taken you a very long time to come home. I was told of your troubles, Max, and I suppose I should say that I am glad to see you made it back to England at all.”
Maxton shook his head. “Do not say that,” he said. “It would make me feel all warm and giddy, and I could not stomach it, not from you. Remember how much I detest the sight of you.”
“And I, you.”
Maxton held the man’s gaze a moment longer but couldn’t keep a straight face. With a smirk, he turned to the man standing next to Christopher, with somewhat similar features, but shorter and smaller. Given the size of Christopher, and he was a very big man, that wasn’t saying much. Maxton’s eyes narrowed at David de Lohr, Christopher’s younger brother and, perhaps, an even bigger nemesis to Maxton than Christopher was.
“And you,” he said. “Those men I paid to make sure you did not make it home alive took my money and failed to do their job. I am displeased.”
David was the more hot-headed brother, quick to temper, but a hell of a fighter. Still, he knew Maxton was joking for the most part, but was quick to dish out as much as he was given. He wasn’t about to let Maxton get the upper hand with him, not even this early into the conversation.
“Be careful,” he said, holding up a finger. “You should not say such things. You are in the presence of powerful men now.”
Maxton snorted. “Who?” he said. “You? Chris?”
David’s blue eyes glimmered with mirth. He was relishing the expression on Maxton’s face when he told him the truth. “Both of us,” he said. “When you address Chris, you are now addressing the Earl of Hereford and Worcester. Show due respect.”
Maxton looked sharply at Christopher in an expression that satisfied David a great deal. It was one of surprise and, perhaps, even disbelief. Maxton hadn’t heard about Christopher’s titles since his return, something Gart hadn’t bothered to tell him. Gart was deeply entrenched with the de Lohrs, as he served David, but Maxton knew why he hadn’t mentioned it– it was best that he hear it directly from Christopher and David, given his contentious relationship with them. Still, Maxton couldn’t help but feel a stab of jealously at the news, his contemporary who had been given a glorious title.
“My congratulations,” he said to Christopher, wondering if he sounded as if he meant it. “When did this happen?”
“Shortly after my return to England,” Christopher replied. “Remember that I came home several years ago, so it has been about seven years ago. And David was made Earl of Canterbury very recently, after the death of his wife’s father.”
Another de Lohr with a title. The knowledge compounded the resentment Maxton was trying to fight down and he struggled with his reaction.
“Congratulations to you, also, my lord,” he said to David as neutrally as he could manage. “It seems that while I was off fighting other men’s wars, you and your brother were making good for yourselves here at home.”
David simply shook his head. “It hasn’t been that simple, Max,” he said as he turned away. “We’ve had a mess on our hands for the most part.”
Maxton could have questioned him, but he didn’t have the will to. Whatever David meant, he would find out soon enough. Instead, Maxton turned to the other men in the chamber, men who were waiting to greet him, and he found himself shaking the hand of Cullen de Nerra, a mountain of a man who was the son of the High Sheriff of Hampshire, probably the highest law position in all of southern England.
Cullen was a knight’s knight, a powerful young man with great talent, so great, in fact, that he’d been knighted before he’d seen his twentieth year. Maxton had fought beside the skilled young knight many times, but he hadn’t seen him in ten years, since before he went to The Levant. As he shook the man’s hand, he looked him over carefully.
“Bloody Christ, Cullen,” he said. “You’ve grown into a behemoth since the last I saw you. What happened to that giddy young knight with the big dimples?”
Cullen grinned, displaying the dimples that Maxton had referenced. With his sandy-blond hair and dark eyes, the man didn’t want for female attention. If there were women around, they would gravitate to Cullen before anyone else, making him something of a hindrance to his friends at times. Maxton remembered being rather envious of that particular trait.
“He is still here,” Cullen said. “I had to gain muscle and size to compete with the likes of you. You always were my idol, Max.”
“Shut your silly mouth or you’ll have me weeping like a woman.”
Cullen’s grin widened. “’Tis good to see you home, but I am sorry to hear you’ve had such troubles.”
Maxton waved him off. “It was nothing,” he lied. “Thanks to The Marshal and Eleanor, Kress and Achilles and I have made it home in one piece. That is all that matters.”
“Indeed, it is.”
Cullen slapped him on the shoulder in an affectionate gesture, but further conversation was cleaved as William pulled Maxton away from Cullen and towards the rest of the men in the chamber. They didn’t have all the time in the world for pleasantries with old friends and it was time to finish up the introductions so they could get down to the business at hand.
“Of course, you already know Forbes,” William said, flicking a wrist at Gart, who was standing over by the open windows overlooking London. “But I do not think you know the others. Allow me to introduce you to the fine young knights who have come into service since you have been away from England. Remember the names of these men, Loxbeare; these will be knights with great legacies.”
Maxton came face to face with four big and well-armed knights, as deadly as he had ever seen. The first two looked similar in features, while the third one had pale blond hair and the bluest eyes he’d ever seen. He thought he recognized the fourth knight, as a cousin to the de Lohr brothers, a rather muscular man with auburn hair and an auburn mustache. William began introducing them, from left to right.
“This enormous fellow is Sir Sean de Lara,” he said. “Sean is young, but he has been in my service for four years and there is no finer knight in the land. Since we have total trust in thischamber, and what is said here will not be spoken of outside of these walls, know that Sean has recently entered the service of the king as part of the man’s personal guard. You will come to know de Lara, Maxton. He will be close to the king at all times and you will have to work closely with him.”
Maxton nodded as he eyed the young knight; he was handsome, square-jawed, and powerfully built. But the eyes… they were a shade of dark blue, but the intensity radiating from them was palpable. He nodded his head briefly.
