“Where are you going?” she demanded loudly.
Alec moved towards his mother quickly. He would not allow family problems to be aired for the scrutiny of the world. He held out his hand to her, but she slapped it away angrily.
“Answer me, Alec. What’s this nonsense I hear from your father?”
Alec was as emotionless as always superficially, but inside he felt like a five-year-old boy again. “Father has disinherited me. You will have to ask him for clarification.”
“I did,” she snapped. “He proceeded to inform me that you went beyond subordination this night, Alec. You defied him. What in the world would possess you to do this for a woman who is of no concern to you?”
Alec did not react, but he could only imagine how Peyton was feeling. “She is my wife’s sister and, therefore, a great deal of concern to me. She and Ali have found affection and I could not stand by and watch my father ruin two lives.”
Celine’s eyes widened outrageously. “Ruin two lives? How dare you accuse your father of such injustice! As it is, you have ruined your sister’s life as a result of your chivalrous loyalty to those who are of inconsequential concern. Ali and Ivy are nothing compared to blood ties.”
Aboard her palfrey, Peyton turned away with tears in her eyes. But Alec faced his mother without emotion.
“Peyton is my wife, mother, and closer to me than all of the blood relations I have ever known. Her genuine unhappiness would have resulted from a marriage between her sister and the Warrington heir, and I will not stand for it. As Lady Ivy’s legal guardian, it was my prerogative to do with her as I saw rightly over the desires of her liege. I was perfectly correct in my actions, only father is too stubborn to admit it. He is merely upset with the fact that I went against his wishes. Had he been honest with me at the first regarding the Warrington proposal, it is quite possible that we could have avoided all of this.”
“’Tis not your place to demand explanations from your liege!”
“I did not demand an explanation, merely the truth. Father has himself to blame for Thia’s predicament.”
Celine’s lip twitched menacingly. “How dare you turn the blame on your father. No one forced you to take matters intoyour own hands,” her gaze drifted to Peyton’s red head. “Or I am incorrect in that assumption? Did someone, in fact, demand you into action?”
“What I did, I did for the serenity of my own family purely by my own choosing.”
Celine closed her eyes as if to ward off the thunderous headache that was sure to consume her. The circumstances of the day had sorely drained her strength and she simply could not believe the twist events had further taken. When she opened her eyes again to refocus on her son, her face was a darker shade of red.
“Then you are telling me, in essence, that you provoked your father’s wrath for the happiness of your new wife, whom you have known for less than a week?”
Alec’s only reaction to her scathing tone was to blink. “Aye.”
Celine returned her gaze to Peyton, who was facing away from her. Alec could see that his mother was shaking terribly with anger and fatigue. “Did she ask this of you?”
“She did not.”
Celine refocused on her son, her manner calming in spite of her increasing fury and disbelief. When she spoke, her voice was as menacing as Alec had ever heard it. “God help me, Alec, had I known that woman would turn you into such an idiot, I would have married her to Colin Warrington myself. Have you completely lost your sense of loyalty?”
Alec tensed ever so slightly. “Not at all. My wife comes first.”
Celine’s jaw twitched furiously and her eyes found Peyton once more. Before Alec could stop her, she voiced her outrage to his new wife. “What have you done to him?”
Peyton’s head snapped to Lady Celine, tears coating her lovely face. Alec put his hand on his mother firmly and turned her toward the castle. “Not here, mother. Go inside and leave us alone.”
Furious, Celine slapped her son harshly across the cheek. The resounding noise could be heard by all present and the entire bailey went abruptly silent. Peyton actually started at the sound, her tears forgotten for the moment as she waited for her husband’s reaction.
But Alec did not react. In spite of his stinging cheek, he merely gave his mother a long look and turned back to his business. He resumed bellowing orders as Lady Celine stood in the center of the bailey, shaken and despondent to her very soul.
Even if Alec was ignoring her, Peyton wasn’t. She liked Lady Celine a great deal and was crushed to realize that hard feelings had established themselves. As Alec’s back was turned, she slid from her horse and timidly made her way toward Alec’s mother. She simply couldn’t leave with such terrible animosity filling the air.
“My lady,” she whispered. “I….”
Celine whirled to her, startled to see that Peyton was nearly upon her. Her attention had been focused on her errant son, all but ignoring his wife. But before Peyton could continue, she held out a defiant hand.
“I will not hear you,” she said angrily. “You who have turned my son against his family. I have not only lost a grandson this day, but my very own Alec. This is your fault! Go away from me!”
Peyton couldn’t help herself; she started to cry again. Lady Celine had been so kind to her that she had almost come to think of her as a mother. To face her rejection was devastating. But far more than her own feelings, she was concerned with Alec; she couldn’t fathom the possibility that his own mother would spurn him.
“Please, my lady,” she said softly. “Be angry with me if you must, but not with Alec. There is no man more generous and kind in all of England, and he sincerely believed he was doing right for Ali and Ivy’s sake. If you….”
