“Aye?” he was looking off towards the stables.
“Look at me.”
He did, the green eyes wrought with turmoil. She smiled at him. “Do not worry,” she whispered. “All will be well.”
His expression loosened. “Can you swear it?”
“I can,” she murmured. “I love you, Gart. I have always loved you. But it surely would have made things considerably easier had you not been afraid of my brother eight years ago and married me before you went to The Levant.”
He fought off a grin. “I was not afraid of him. Well, not much.”
She laughed softly, sobering. “You mentioned that you would take us away,” she said. “Where would you take us so that we would be safe from Julian’s wrath?”
Gart took her question seriously. “I have many friends in England and Wales but they are knights, fighting men, and not well-propertied. I do know one man, however, who has the means to accommodate us. He lives far to the north at Prudhoe Castle.”
“Will we go there?”
“Prudhoe is a well-fortified castle and very far north,” he said. “Julian would never find us there and it would allow me time to do what I must, knowing you were safe.”
She thought on that a moment. “But what of your liege?” she wanted to know. “You have a great deal of respect for de Lohr. Will you abandon your oath to him?”
For the first time, Gart seemed to show some distress. “David has been extremely good to me,” he said quietly. “I will not abandon my oath to him but I will ask to be released from it.”
Emberley was thinking seriously on their future. “And then what? You must serve someone, Gart, or do you intend we should live in the wilds, isolated from all contact, simply so that Julian will not find us?” she shook her head. “Julian is the queen’s lover. He is very prominent in political circles. If we stay in England, we cannot escape the man no manner how hard we try.”
He was coming to see her logic with sickening realization. Even if he was to take them far away and provide them with his inheritance, the fact remained that Julian would always be a threat. He was Emberley’s husband and the father of her children. As long as he lived, Gart and Emberley would never be safe.
Gart was a knight. He had better fighting instincts than most men and had built an astounding reputation. But the truth was that he wasn’t a great intellect or scholar. He tended to act on emotion or instinct more than he actually reasoned a situation through in his mind. He was coming to think that there might not be a solution to the situation that wouldn’t somehow be detrimental to them all. But he gave it one last try.
“Is Julian a greedy man?” he asked quietly.
Emberley looked strangely at him. “No more than most, I suppose,” she replied. “Why do you ask?”
Gart drew in a long, thoughtful breath, “As much as I do not want to admit that running may not be the answer to our problems, I am beginning to suspect it would not be the perfect solution,” he looked at her. “I will still go to my uncle and my mother’s family and demand all that is due to me. It would be a great deal. Do… do you suppose that if I offer it all to Julian in exchange for you and the children, he might accept my offer?”
Emberley couldn’t help it, her jaw dropped. Hysterical tears began to bubble up and she put her hands over her mouth, trying to block out the noise.
“You cannot do that,” she gasped. “Gart, you cannot give him everything you have. I will not let you do it.”
He put his hands on her shoulders to calm her down. “No need to become upset, kitten,” he said soothingly. “I simply asked a question. Do you think he would take it?”
She was struggling against the tears, resisting his question but finding it oddly intriguing. “I will not hear you. I cannot.”
He made sure no one was watching before kissing her hands swiftly, sweetly, before letting them go. “Easy, lady,” he murmured. “No need to upset yourself. It was simply a question.”
Emberley wiped at her eyes, taking a few deep breaths to calm herself. She simply couldn’t believe that Gart would give up everything just for her. “If you gave him all that you had, then what would be left to live on?” she asked softly, urgently. “We would be destitute. Do you think that would make us happy? You would come to resent us.”
Gart shook his head. “Nay, I would not,” he insisted softly, interrupted her gently when she opened her mouth to argue. “Kitten, you swore to me that all would be well. I will hold you to that. But it is apparent that this is a situation with no simple answer. I need time to think of a resolution that is best for all of us.”
Emberley took another deep breath, calming further. She nodded in agreement. “As you say,” she said softly, turning when she heard her daughter scream in the yard. “I will trust that you will do what is right.”
He very much wanted to take her in his arms. He was fairly aching to hold her. But he took a step back instead, fearful that his control would snap if she was too close to him. As he stepped back, Lacy suddenly came toddling their way as fast as her baby legs would carry her. Brendt was hot on her heels, telling her that he was going to capture her, and the little girl was screaming in delight. Gerta brought up the rear several feet back, the old nurse huffing to keep up with the pair.
Gart reached down and scooped the little girl up as she passed by, growling like a bear against the side of her head and nibbling at her ear. Lacy giggled uncontrollably as Gart snarled and tickled. Brendt, standing at the man’s feet, whacked him with his wooden sword to get his attention. When Gart looked down at the boy, he heard Romney’s battle cry.
“He has captured her!” the child shouted. “Get him!”
Emberley tried to stop the out and out assault, but she ended up stepping out of the way and letting Gart handle it. He didn’t seem to mind. As she stood there and watched, she began to think that perhaps they could live without anything to their name as long as they were all together. Already, her children showed Gart more attention and affection than they had ever shown Julian. But Gart had opened that door the moment they had met him. They had tried to rob the man and he hadn’t truly punished them. He had been kind and understanding of their games, for the most part. He loved them.
