Gar looked at his grandfather, so wise and so adored. They were quite fortunate to still have his counsel at his age and Gar knew it. He had a living legend at his disposal.
“Their last defeat was complete,” Gar said. “Or so I thought. But no matter—we will be ready for whatever they intend.”
Scott and Blayth looked to William because they’d discussed this very subject earlier, just the three of them. They were the senior battle commanders and while men like Gar and Andreas and Tor were very skilled, they didn’t have the years that the older men had. Older men who had seen, time and time again, how badly these battles could go. Sensing the probing gazes of his sons, William looked at Gar.
“Move the women out,” he said quietly. “Your new wife—let me take her back to Castle Questing. Or, better still, send her back to Hensingham. You do not want her here if a battle comes, Gar. It would be no place for a lady.”
Gar wasn’t stupid. He knew that. But he was struck by the revelation that he didn’t want to be separated from Mattie, not now when they were just coming to know one another. That was a stupid reason, of course, but he couldn’t help it. He also didn’t want to appear as if he were panicking over this, which fed his reluctance.
His uncle could be wrong.
His grandfather could be wrong.
He doubted it, of course, but stranger things had happened.
“I appreciate your counsel, Poppy,” he said. “I will consider it, truly I will. Atreus has just only brought his wife and son here, so he and I will speak and decide what is to be done with our families. But I am very grateful for your suggestion.”
Frankly, William was surprised that Gar, the man who didn’t want to be married, hadn’t immediately taken the excuse of sending his new wife home. If there was still any doubt that Gar wasn’t so resistant to his marriage anymore, this seemed to quash it. Young, infatuated men could be unstable creatures, indeed, so William didn’t push his advice.
He simply called for more wine.
“You make the decision that is best for you and your wife,” he said. “But we will be here for a few days to help you form a plan of defense for the place. Scott and Blayth have already sent out more scouts to see if they can glean any additional information.”
“Thank you, Poppy,” Gar said. “You have been very thorough in my absence and I appreciate it.”
William smiled faintly before accepting more wine from a servant. “Now,” he said. “Let us speak on more pleasant things. Am I to understand that this marriage is agreeable?”
Gar fought off a smile as the subject shifted to a much more pleasant one. “Aye,” he said simply. “It is.”
That answer might have been good enough for William, but it wasn’t for Atreus. As Troy returned to the hall and joined the men, Atreus all but wrestled the truth about Gar’s feelings on the not-so-small matter of his marriage, something that began to concern William the more he listened. Gar wasn’t just agreeable to the marriage. He was enamored with it. That meant Lady de Wolfe, in spite of the danger, probably wasn’t going anywhere.
Something told William that this might be an issue in the end. A new husband who did not want to be separated from his new wife.
And death on the approach.
It was a situation that bore watching.
*
While Gar wasgathering with the male folk, Mattie was off on a tour of the castle with Lady Warenton and the other women. Gar had promised her that he would show her around, but given that he was sequestered with a group of men, that duty fell to Lady Warenton and a few others. Not that Mattie minded, to be truthful. The majordomo who tended to things in the hall had been sent back to the army by Lady Warenton because, as she said, the man did a terrible job tending to the keep. Therefore, it was Mattie and her new relatives on a grand tour of the imposing, filthy castle.
Even so, Mattie was enjoying their company immensely.
A young lady who hadn’t left her side was Caria de Wolfe, Lady Warenton’s youngest daughter. She had seen about fourteen years, a gorgeous young woman with dark hair and dark eyes, and she was giggly and sweet and followed Mattie closely as the women walked around the interior of Gleann na Fola, showing Mattie her new domain. At one point, Caria slipped her hand into Mattie’s, smiling brightly when Mattie looked at her in surprise. That brought a grin from Mattie, who squeezed the girl’s hand and kept holding it.
To Caria, Mattie was her new best friend even though Lady Warenton had tried to pry her youngest away more than once. But Caria wouldn’t budge and Mattie truly didn’t mind, so Lady Warenton finally backed off. She kept on with a tour of Mattie’s new home, showing her all of the stairwells, the chambers,the storage chambers, the hall, alcoves, vaults, and finally the kitchens, which were in the sublevel of the keep.
As Mattie had quickly discovered, Gleann na Fola was a vast maze of stairs and chambers. Some chambers even had their own stairwell, like the master’s chambers, which were on the southwest corner of the structure and included three big rooms and one smaller one. Only two ways in and out, which was designed for safety. Lady Warenton even showed Mattie a security feature that was ingenious—there was a lever at the top of the stairwell leading into the chamber that, when thrown, dropped an iron grate onto the stairwell that prevented anyone from getting to the door at the top. Evidently, other stairwells had the same feature, making Gleann na Fola one of the safer castles on the border.
Through it all, Mattie realized one thing—there wasn’t one corner of the castle that wasn’t absolutely filthy with dirt, mold, moss, water leakage, animal droppings, or sometimes all five. Every stairwell was slimy with growth or slippery with water, or some other kind of organic matter, which made going up and down the stairs rather treacherous at times. That was evidently acknowledged by the occupants of the castle because most of the stairwells had a rope banister that went from the top to the bottom, something to hang on to in case one slipped. No one wanted to roll to the bottom of those stairs and break their necks.
Truthfully, the place was horrific.
Lady Warenton surely knew that, but to her credit, she didn’t comment on it. To do so would be to disparage her grandson, and she wasn’t going to do that. Caria, however, didn’t have such restraint. She thought every surface of castle was disgusting and made sure they all knew it. Lady Warenton shushed her more than once, and Caria would obey until the next dirty situation came up and then she would comment on it all over again.
By the time they reached the kitchens, Mattie was praying that they wouldn’t find the place where the food was stored and prepared in as bad a shape as the rest of the castle. The kitchens were in the sublevel below ground level, with a dedicated staircase that went straight up to another stairwell that went to the hall—long, narrow stairs where the food was brought up and down—but alongside that was a type of elevator, an enormous box tied to a rope, that could be hauled up through a space in the wall, bringing food and drink to the hall more easily than via the stairs.
Lady Warenton explained the stairs to the hall, the lever and lift system, and pointed out that that there were not one, but two wells in the kitchen. It was all very interesting to Mattie, but she still noticed that there were signs of rats all throughout the kitchen. That didn’t give her great confidence in the cleanliness of their food, more so when she actually entered the kitchen proper and saw the cook.
