“I think the newest Lady de Wolfe has worked some magic on your son,” William muttered to Troy as the man wiped water from his eyes. “I must say that I am impressed.”
Troy wiped more water from his eyes and looked at his father. “He has gone from resisting the marriage to doing her bidding all quite swiftly,” he said. “I am not only impressed, I am astonished.”
“This is good for him, Troy.”
Troy nodded quickly. “I know,” he said. “I wasn’t implying otherwise. But this new behavior… I wasn’t sure he had it in him, frankly.”
William grinned, watching Gar inspect Andreas’ hands to see if they were clean enough. “When I think of the frustration that lad caused us during the buildup to this marriage, I confess that I am more than relieved,” he said. “He is trying to be a good husband. That is all I can ask for.”
Troy was watching Gar also. “Rhos told me that Mattie had never tended wounded before,” he said. “She said that it was quite difficult for her, but that she persevered. She seems to be trying very hard, also. Thank God.”
William nodded sincerely. “Thank God, indeed,” he said. “I realize it has only been a few short days, but marriage seems to agree with them both.”
“It does,” Troy agreed. “She has been a good influence on him. She’s pretty enough, of course, and I knew that would have his attention, but she seems to have a good heart, too. She reminds me a little of Helene, in fact.”
Helene was Troy’s first wife, mother of Andreas, who was killed in a tragic accident many years ago along with Troy’s two young daughters, Arista and Acacia. Helene was a daughter of Paris de Norville, grandfather to Atreus, and her death, and the death of her younger sister at the same time, devastated the de Norville and de Wolfe families. Talk of Helene was therefore minimal, though over the years, Troy had spoken of her more freely. Time had a way of healing grief to the point where theagony of it wasn’t as sharp as the good memories, so when Troy spoke of Helene, William listened.
“Helene?” he said. “Truly? Why?”
Troy shrugged. “Her size,” he said. “Helene was small like Mattie is. But I also see Helene in Mattie’s manner. She seems so determined to do good, to do the right thing. She is trying very hard. That was Helene.”
William smiled faintly at the memory of the delicate, lovely Helene. “It was,” he said. “She was always trying to please people. She seemed so fragile that to raise your voice to her was to crush her. I know that Paris had a difficult time being stern with her.”
“He was stern enough to me when I wanted to marry her.”
The marriage of Troy and Helene was legendary in the history of the de Wolfe and de Norville families. The pair had been in love since childhood, then Helene found herself pregnant and unwed and when Troy asked her father for her hand, a series of violence and hilarity ensued. It almost broke William and Paris’ friendship initially, but fortunately, their bond was stronger than an irate father and a pregnant daughter.
Still, it was a memory to look back upon with relief that it was well in the past.
“Ah,” William said as he reflected on that event. “It all turned out well in the end. You married Helene and had Andreas and Arista and Acacia.”
Troy nodded faintly, thinking of his daughters, twins, who had been lively and sweet. “The girls would have been married by now,” he said. “I think on that sometimes. I wonder about the husbands they would have had, the grandchildren I would have been given.”
“You are going to have plenty of grandchildren from Andreas and Gar,” William said, not wanting to venture too far into a sadmemory. “Because if Gar is behaving like this, my suspicion is that he is very pleased with his new wife.”
Troy chuckled. “I will have a grandchild by this time next year.”
“If not sooner.”
Troy continued to snort, thinking on Gar as a father. He was young, that was true, but Gar had been born old.An old soul, his mother had called him. Even as a young child, Gar had possessed an innate wisdom, something that saw him grow up quickly and become knighted a full three years before most men. He was dedicated and wise, even if he did live like a pig. Or, at least,hadlived like a pig.
But no more.
Gar was maturing right before Troy’s eyes.
Funny how things like that happened when one met the right person.
As Troy and William reminisced about the past and discussed Gar’s future, Gar himself was focused on the men who had graciously agreed to wash their hands and faces before Mattie arrived. Even if they didn’t have much of a choice, they’d done it anyway, simply to make Mattie happy, and Gar appreciated that. As Andreas lugged the dirty water away from the table, and Tor and Atreus went on the hunt for more wine, Gar found his attention drawn to Maksim.
His new brother.
The truth was that although he knew Maksim, he didn’t know him extremely well. They were colleagues, fellow knights, allies, and had spent some good times together, but his interest in Maksim now was in getting to know Mattie through her brother’s eyes. Maksim could tell him more about his wife and Gar thought that would be helpful.
“Is there anything else I should be doing for your sister to make her happy?” Gar said as he sat across the table from Maksim. “Anything I am missing?”
Maksim snorted. “Why not ask her?” he said. “She has never had an issue with being honest about what she wants or doesn’t want.”
Gar shrugged. “I cannot ask her everything about herself within the first few weeks of knowing her,” he said. “I thought that you could tell me something about her that I should know.”
