There wasn’t one man there that didn’t feel some pity for him.
“Creston, I am going to point something out for you to think on,” Ming Tang said after a moment. “While I realize you have had a great disappointment in the past when it came to marriage, sometimes things like that are simply not meant to be. If you believe in God, then you must believe that God has a plan for you in mind. Mayhap something greater than marryinga young woman who carried your child. What I am saying is that we all have a destiny, Cres. It is clear that Mary was not yours. But mayhap this earl’s granddaughter is.”
Creston was listening to him, some angst in his heart from having dredged up the incident with Mary even though it was so long ago. He’d spoken of it twice in a very short amount of time, something he’d not done in years, and it was difficult to fight off the dull ache of the familiar disappointment.
Even after all this time.
“Gerard brought me to Blackchurch at the lowest point of my life,” Creston said. “In many ways, Blackchurch was my salvation. It gave me something to focus on other than my grief of losing Mary and our child. I always thought I would simply remain here as a trainer for the rest of my life, and I was content with that. ’Tis a noble thing we do here, training the most elite warriors in the world. It is something I can be proud of, and I can honestly say that it is the first position where I can say that. I am proud to be here. I do not want to leave.”
“You do not have to leave,” Tay said. “I married, Fox married, and so did Sin and Payne. But we are still here. There is nothing that says you have to leave.”
“What about when the earl dies and I assume his title?”
Tay shrugged. “Then mayhap we’ll all join you,” he said. “We’ll make it our next big adventure at the port town of Sidmouth, fighting off pirates.”
Creston smiled weakly. “I think Denis would have something to say about that.”
Tay waggled his eyebrows in agreement. “In any case, I think you need to look at the situation this way,” he said. “If you are concerned that you do not know the woman you are betrothed to, keep in mind that I did not know my wife for very long before we married, either. Neither did Sin, nor Payne. We found ourselves involved in marriages with women we hardly knew,and I can honestly say it was the best thing I ever did. Sometimes in the unknown, we find where we are meant to be. Andwhomwe are meant to be with.”
Between Ming Tang and Tay, Creston was feeling some courage at the situation. Perhaps his life wasn’t going to change as much as he feared. He was a man who liked familiarity, so that was more than likely at the root of his resistance as well.
“I always hoped I would marry a woman I had affection for,” he said, his voice growing soft with reflection. “My parents had it, so I had hoped to. And when Mary went away… Well, it sounds foolish to say it broke my heart because I am a grown man and we do not have broken hearts, but I think it did. It hurt. Mayhap I’ve avoided marrying because I did not want to be hurt again. The heart remembers. And it protects itself.”
Those who were married understood that. And perhaps even those who weren’t married understood to a lesser degree. There wasn’t one man there, except for Ming Tang, who hadn’t experienced some kind of heartache when it came to a woman.
But that didn’t change what Creston was facing.
“No one is saying you have to fall in love with this woman,” Sinclair said as he went to Creston and put his hand on the man’s shoulder. “But you must go and meet her. She’s probably being forced into this as much as you are, so do not judge her until you discover more of this situation. It’s possible she’s as reluctant as you, so you should probably not make it worse. If you are to marry her, you do not want to start off by insulting the woman and behaving like an arse.”
Creston couldn’t disagree with him. “I suppose,” he said. Then he sighed heavily. “I should get this over with.”
“We’ll go,” Tay said. “You cannot walk into this situation alone, Cres. It is you against your brother and the woman and her family, so we will be there for support and advice should you need it.”
Creston didn’t think he needed an entourage, but the thought of his friends being there should he need encouragement was comforting.
“Very well,” he said. “But I will do the talking.”
“Of course,” Tay said, making faces behind Creston’s back when the man walked past him. “What could possibly go wrong?”
That was a very good question. What could possibly go wrong, indeed?
Creston was about to find out.
He was wishing more and more that he could just run off to Araby and never look back.
CHAPTER FIVE
“Ye’re marrying aBlackchurch trainer? God love ye, lass!”
The congratulations came from a wench who served at The Black Cock, a busty woman with frizzy hair she tried to tame by tying it up with a kerchief. She smiled a good deal with her yellowed teeth and had been kind to Ophelia after her mother settled her in a small, rented chamber and ordered her a bath. Randa wanted her daughter to wash off the dust of the road and be clean when she met her future husband, so the wench, a woman who went by the name of Greenie, had brought hot water and a copper tub with a stool in it so Ophelia could sit whilst she bathed.
So far, it had been a vigorous affair.
“Aye, I’m marrying a Blackchurch trainer,” Ophelia said as Greenie scrubbed her neck rather strongly with a rag and a bar of lumpy soap that smelled of rosemary. “Did my mother tell you that?”
Greenie took her bathing duties seriously as she scrubbed Ophelia’s shoulders. “Aye,” she said. “She told me that I’m to shine ye up like a new gold piece. She wants ye clean and smelling sweet.”
Ophelia was rather embarrassed that her mother had told the woman why she was here. A servant she didn’t even know was now aware of her private business. It was bad enough that she was being forced to bathe with an attendant, something she didn’t normally do, but now she was to be trotted out like a prized mare.
