“I see the fear is back in your eyes, and I like it not,” he said, shaking his head. “I am a simple knight in service to my king,” he explained. Something in his words did not ring true to her. He held a secret or secrets back, from her and from the world, she suspected. But then, so did she.
“Here in Yester? What brings you here?” She watched for signs of a lie in his answer or his voice.
“Aye, I must meet with your lord on a private matter.”
The truth. Every fiber within her said he spoke truly. “He has been gone for a fortnight.” She offered him that bit of truth in return, sensing that he did not wish to reveal a single detail to her.
“Do you know when he will return?” he asked. The softness of his tone did not fool her for a moment, but it did surprise her.
A man such as this was used to getting what he wanted and did not have to be nice to get it. Still, he needed to know, for whatever this matter was. The one that had him staring up at the hillside when she’d arrived. From the intensity of his expression at the time, it had appeared as though he was making a plan or worrying about an attack from above.
Even knowing all that and suspecting more, Brienne felt as though she wanted to tell him. She wanted to help him. This man who was so far above her and could have no place in her life, who would do his duty and leave her life forever, made her want to tell him whatever he needed or wanted to know.
She nearly laughed aloud as she realized it. For it went against everything her parents and experience had taught her about the consequences of speaking about Lord Hugh to outsiders. And yet . . .
“Soon, I think. It is not his custom to leave the castle for much longer than that.” The words tumbled out, in spite of her doubts about sharing them. He smiled at her, and it eased her fears a bit. She let out the breath she did not know she held inside and nodded.
“Is the lady and her daughter within?”
A terrible thought struck her at this question. Was he to marry her half-sister, Adelaide? Had the king sent him to propose the match with their father? No! She wanted to scream out and stop him, if that was his intent. But the sight of Gavin standing a few paces away stopped her from uttering another word.
“Father,” she said, nodding to him. Sir William faced him as well.
“Brienne, come with me. Yer mother needs ye,” he said. He crossed his massive arms over his chest and waited for her to move.
Sir William did not seem surprised or bothered by the order given her. He stepped aside without a word and without looking away from her father and allowed her to walk from his side. When she reached him, she turned back and met the knight’s gaze. Once more, he smiled at her, and Brienne knew her fear of him was gone. She nodded her reply to the question he last asked and waited for him to indicate he’d understood before looking at Gavin.
“Go, child,” her father said softly, nodding in the direction of their cottage. “I will follow ye.”
What was he going to do? Try to protect her from this knight? This man of power? This knight sent here on the king’s orders? Such a man could take anything or anyone he wanted and answer to almost no one—certainly not the blacksmith. A few coins paid to the lord would address any loss of honor, if it came to that, and it had before to other women here. Her lord, her true sire, used his people ruthlessly and cared little if others did as well.
Gavin moved so that he once again stood between her and Sir William, and she was forced to begin walking away. She would have to have faith that Gavin would not insult this warrior over any threat he thought the man held for her. Sir William had, other than one kiss, done nothing untoward, and Gavin should have no argument with him.
Only as she walked away did she realize how far from the truth that thought was.
This man had already changed her life, and he would change it more. She knew it in her bones. The fire in her blood knew it and teased her with it. Brienne simply had no sense of how it would happen or when, but it would be soon.
Very soon, the fire whispered.
William watched as Brienne left,and that strange feeling in his blood began anew. This man was her father and offered no threat to her, and yet something inside him knew that the man stood in William’s path to claiming her. He fought against releasing whatever pushed from within, repeating to himself that this man protected her as well. And he would protect her until she belonged to him. The heat racing in his veins eased and the redness in his gaze faded then.
“I would ask ye to keep away from my daughter, my lord.”
Though there was no disrespect in this man’s tone, there was a hint of guilt there. Or another emotion that William could not identify.
“What is your name?”
“Gavin, my lord. Gavin the blacksmith.”
“Gavin, I have done nothing to harm her. I would not dishonor or hurt her.” The man’s brow rose on one side, challenging him without a word. Others had tried; he knew that now. This man had kept her from harm. “I will not seek her out,” he offered, knowing the words to be a lie as soon as he uttered them.
“Thank ye, my lord,” the man said, bowing to him, at what William could tell was great cost. “She is our only child, and I would not see her abused or hurt.”
This man would do what he needed to in order to protect his daughter, whether that meant challenging a nobleman or humbling himself. He loved his daughter. A tightness fisted around his heart, squeezing it and reminding him that no one had done that for him. As a bastard raised by a man who knew him to be the son of the king, no soft words were spared for him. A nuisance and an inconvenience to his mother, he’d interfered with her time with the king, shortened more so then by the king’s need for a legitimate heir. He’d learned early to depend only on himself and to expect nothing from even those he called parents. With only a small gesture, this man showed him all that was lacking in his life.
William could not force words past the tightness in his throat, so he nodded to Gavin and watched the man leave the clearing, following his daughter as he said he would. He wondered if she would be punished for being caught alone with a man, but then he remembered the glimmer in Gavin’s eyes as he spoke of her. She was safe in her father’s care.
As he made his way to return to his camp, waiting until he was certain no one could follow him, the pit of his stomach began to churn. William reached the camp and found that more of his men had arrived, so he spent the rest of the day organizing their weapons and supplies. Throughout the day, he thought about the cause of the pain he felt. Lying on his blankets that night, awaiting the rest of the troop, the truth of it struck him.
