“Nay, thank you,” Gar said. “I am definitely smelling the sea. I’d forgotten how much I love that smell. We do not get it where we live.”
He was changing the subject from his stench to the fortress before them, but Andreas wasn’t going to let him. “Speaking of smell,” Andreas said, reining his horse alongside his brother’s. “You stink.”
“That is only your opinion.”
Andreas rolled his eyes. “Christ, Gar,” he said. “It is everyone’s opinion. Our grandparents, our father, your mother, the farmers in the fields and the priests in the churches.Everyonethinks you smell because you do. Lad, you cannot meet your bride like this. The woman will be horrified.”
Gar grunted, refusing to look at his brother. “That is her misfortune,” he said. “I am what I am.”
“That is all you have to say about this?”
“What more would you have me say?”
Andreas cast him a long look. “Gar, I know you are not this stupid,” he said. “Are you deliberately doing this? So she will take one look at you and beg her father to break the betrothal?”
Gar still refused to look at him. “Think what you will.”
“I can and I do,” Andreas said as if a revelation had just occurred to him. “Now this is starting to make sense. You are trying to break the betrothal yourself by presenting a picture of the worst husband a woman could have.”
Gar shrugged. “I am a knight,” he said. “I serve at a border castle. It is the most brutal life imaginable. It is no place for a woman, so if she cannot accept me for who I am, then it would be best that we not marry.”
He meant it, every word. Andreas felt foolish for not figuring this all out at the start. “It will not work,” he said. “Papa is not going to break this betrothal and if you keep this up, he will not break it simply to teach you a lesson. You cannot bend him to your will, Gar. Youknowthis.”
Gar still didn’t respond. He simply spurred Taches forward, carving a path through the center of the escort until he reached his father. As he drew near, he heard Troy grunt.
“God,” he muttered. “I can smell you coming.”
Gar reined his horse alongside his father. “I do not understand why everyone is making my personal choices out to be such a monumental issue,” he said. “You sent Dray to speak to me about it again? And he accuses me of deliberately avoiding washing myself so the de Reyne daughter will take one look at me and demand her father break the betrothal? I find that incredibly insulting.”
Troy looked at him. His big, handsome son with Rhoswyn, their firstborn. He’d been so proud of Gar and, truth be told, still was. Nothing could change that. But he was being pushed to his limit by a stubborn man and, quite frankly, he was at the end of his patience.
It was time for this game to end.
“Do you know what I find incredibly insulting?” he said. “That you would think so little of the de Wolfe name that you would deliberately shame your family with your actions.”
Gar looked at his father, frowning. “How am I shaming the de Wolfe name?”
Troy sighed heavily. “I am not going to explain this to you yet one more time,” he said. “You know the issue, yet you refuse to amend your actions or your appearance. You know that the moment we go through the gates of Hensingham, I will be embarrassed. Dray will be embarrassed. Poppy, the greatest knight of his generation, will be shamed by your actions, a man who has done nothing to deserve it. All because you do not want to do as you are told.”
“But, Papa, I—”
Troy cut him off. “Shut your lips,” he growled. “I do not want to hear your excuses or your reasons, because they mean nothingto me. You have always been my most obedient son, Gar, the man I could depend the most on. But when it truly comes to something important, like a marriage to create a strong alliance, you would rather ruin this for all of us than do your duty. If you truly feel like our relationship will be the same after this event, then you must continue. But know that I, for one, will never look at you the same way again.”
With that, he spurred his horse forward, away from the escort and over the rise as the great fortress of Hensingham Castle came into view. He left behind him a son who was genuinely hurt by his words, mostly because nothing he’d said was untrue. That was the truth of it. Gar had resisted, even pitched a tantrum, but he’d been unsuccessful at getting his way. Hewasunsuccessful. An entire de Wolfe family harassing him hadn’t done what a few short sentences from his father had done. Troy finally put it in terms he could understand.
Shame.
Nay, he didn’t wish to shame his family. No matter how much he didn’t want this marriage, he didn’t want to ruin his relationship with his father more. It had come to that. Perhaps it was time to finally put aside his monumental pride and do his duty. As much as he hated to admit it.
The escort continued the rest of the way to Hensingham’s gatehouse in silence.
When the party drew close, Gar could see his father in the gatehouse speaking to a tall, gray-haired man. His father was off his horse, standing alongside the man who seemed genuinely glad to see him. They were having a rather animated conversation from what Gar could see, but he rode straight up to the men, dismounted his horse, and focused on the man who was speaking to his father.
He didn’t even wait to be introduced.
“My lord,” he said, interrupting their conversation. “I am Gar de Wolfe. Are you Lord Hensingham?”
The man appeared both pleased and slightly taken aback by Gar’s seemingly forceful manner. “I am,” he said. “I am Reece de Reyne. Do you not remember me, Gar?”
