Gabrielle didn’t say anything for a moment. “And your Lady Derica,” she murmured. “Does she feel the same for you?”
“I see it in her eyes every time she looks at me.”
Gabrielle nodded silently. Garren prayed that she was thinking through the situation far more logically than he could at the moment. “Then I suppose the question is, what do you want?” she said. “To marry her? Have you thought on the consequences of that action, my dear?”
“I want to marry her, yes,” Garren said quietly. “I want to get her out of Framlingham and take her some place safe.”
“Where would that be?”
“I do not know. I cannot go to Chateroy, as it is the first place they would look. Father must not know anything of my actions.”
“For his own safety, I agree,” Gabrielle said. “But what will happen to her if you take her from her family and marry her? Do you intend to continue in the Marshal’s service? You know as well as I that your service takes you all over England and beyond. Do you expect your bride to stay alone, hiding from her family the rest of her life, while you go about your duty?”
Garren removed his helm and ran his fingers through his short hair. “I will resign my service to the Marshal,” he muttered. “I would rather be with Derica, hiding from her family until the end of our days, than be away from her for one more minute. I serve a king who has not spent a day of his reign in England. I fight and fight for a man who is not even here to know that we are all fighting for him. He battles the infidels in the Holy Land while we battle for his very life as a monarch at home. Am I tired of it? No. But I have seen something, felt something, I never thought I would see or feel, and although I love my king, I want to love Derica more.”
“Truly now, Garren?”
“Truly.”
Gabrielle was thoughtful. “I have never known you to speak of any woman, much less one you wish to marry. Are you sure this is not an infatuation, quick to flame, quick to pass? The thoughts you voice would surely end your illustrious career.”
“Well I know it,” he said. “And, no, I am sure this is not an infatuation. I felt something different for Derica from nearly the moment I met her, something I have not felt before.”
“Feelings enough to incur the Marshal’s wrath?”
Garren sighed heavily, gazing up at the dark ceiling. Outside, the sun was beginning to rise, soft gray light coming through the lancet window.
“I begged him not to send me on this mission,” he murmured. “God, I begged and pleaded until I could say nomore and, still, he sent me. I would love to blame William for this mess, but I cannot. The fault is my own.”
Gabrielle smiled. “Do you believe in the Will of God, Garren?”
“I do.”
“Then you surely must know that this was planned for you a long time ago. You begged and pleaded with the Marshal not to send you on this mission, but still he sent you. You knew from the moment you met the lady that there was something different about her and in the matter of a week, you have found yourself hopelessly entangled in something that men only dream of. Perhaps this was meant to happen, all of it. Perhaps you were indeed sent on a mission, simply not the one you had planned for.”
Garren was interested in what she was saying. “What do you mean?”
“Precisely that. You stated that your mission was to infiltrate the de Rosas in the hope of discovering the movements of Prince John’s rebellion. What if… what if your true mission was to simply marry Derica de Rosa and, as a result, perhaps affect Richard’s opposition in a way you never dreamed possible.”
“I do not understand.”
“Nor do I at the moment. Sometimes we cannot see God’s Wisdom until well after the fact.”
She had a point. Garren mulled her words, watching the room turn shades of gray and white as the sun continued to rise. There was fog outside, shrouding the countryside, dampening his mood. Finally, he pushed himself from the wall and rose wearily. Gabrielle’s sightless eyes tracked him.
“What are you going to do?” she asked.
He lifted his arms in a helpless gesture. “The only plan I can come up with is storming the castle and spiriting her away,which is not particularly wise. I am too tired to think right now.” He looked at his sister. “Tell me; what would you do?”
“Do you truly wish to know?”
“I would not have asked otherwise.”
She smiled faintly, a gesture shaped somewhat like her brother’s. “I would suggest you plan carefully for this, Garren. You must not make any rash decisions.”
“What plans do you suggest?”
Gabrielle folded her hands. “You cannot return to Framlingham for her. They would kill you. You cannot storm the castle, as you cannot amass enough men in a short amount of time. So it is logical that perhaps you know of someone, a trusted friend or knight, who could infiltrate Framlingham and whisk her from the castle. Do you know of someone?”
