She was happy and all was well in the world.
“I am glad you think so,” she said as he lifted her hand to his lips for a sweet kiss. “Because all of those trunks we hauled from Hensingham contain garments such as this and I will be wearing them to please you.”
“Good,” he said, helping her sit. “I am glad we did not lug those heavy trunks around in vain.”
Mattie giggled. “We did not, I assure you.”
“You are worth it.”
With that, Gar commandeered a cup of wine for her and now that the lady of the castle had made an appearance, the meal could begin in earnest. Jordan, Caria, Rhoswyn, and Avrielle eventually joined those at the table, though Mariane remained with Perseus, who seemed to have caught a bit of a cough, so he was prescribed hot, watered wine by Jordan and told to stay in bed. Difficult as it was to keep a three-year-old in bed, Mariane was doing her best with it.
Life, at Gleann na Fola, was settling into something warm and wonderful. As Mattie looked around the table, she already felt a kinship with these people. They’d been through a wedding and suffered a battle together, most of them. There was a bonding experience in both of those events and for the first time since coming to Gleann na Fola, Mattie was starting to feel as if, perhaps, she actually belonged.
She sincerely hoped so.
But that sense of peace was about to change forever.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
It was anothericy night.
Maksim found himself looking up at the sky as he walked the berms of Gleann na Fola’s bailey, seeing the stars as brightly as if they were within arm’s reach. If he reached up, he could probably capture one.
Ironic how everything just seemed brighter now.
He was going to remain at this warring castle, fulfilling the hopes he’d relayed to his sister. He was quite excited about it. As he headed along the east side of the keep, gazing up at the stars, he reflected on his life at Hensingham versus the life he hoped to have at Gleann na Fola. He knew his father wouldn’t be pleased with his decision, mostly because Reece wanted his son and heir at home, with him. He wanted Maksim presiding over the peaceful castle just as generations of de Reyne heirs had done before him.
But Maksim wanted more.
As he’d told his sister, he hadn’t realized what “more” he wanted until he came to Gleann na Fola and saw a completely different life led by knights who were entrenched in struggle every day of their lives. They were doing what they’d beentrained for, and Maksim had the same training, only his life was safe and boring. He didn’t want safe and boring any longer.
He wanted purpose.
Now, he was going to get it and he was genuinely pleased at that. He was pleased to become part of a group of seasoned knights. Maybe that meant he wasn’t the prince of his domain any longer, like he was at Hensingham, but he could live with that. Maybe he’d even find a de Wolfe bride somewhere among the dozens of granddaughters of William de Wolfe, as Mattie had suggested. His sister had just married a grandchild.
Why couldn’t he?
The thought brought a smile to his face. Mattie seemed genuinely happy and he didn’t realize that he wanted that, too, until he saw how well she’d taken to this marriage. Now, he wanted what his sister had. He’d never realized what he was missing until the introduction of the House of de Wolfe into their lives. As it turned out, he’d been missing a great deal.
He intended to catch up.
Shaking himself from his train of thought, he began to focus on the world around him. Gar was willing to give him the night watch, but he at least needed to know what he was watching. Every nook, every seam, every stone. Therefore, he paid strict attention to the berms inside the walls and the slope of the hill that the keep sat upon. He paid attention to the fact that the walls were downslope from the keep and in some places, that made the top of the walls almost level with the keep itself. It was a good strategic position because if anyone ever mounted those tall walls, archers could easily pick them off from this level. Maksim digested what he could of the slopes and angles on this first pass before moving on.
The kitchen yard was to the rear of the castle, as the kitchen itself was underground, in the sublevel. There was a door leading into the kitchens from the yard and there seemed to be a gooddeal of activity in the yard itself as two enormous cauldrons bubbled away on open fires. There were people milling about, filling up bowls or small pots with whatever was steaming in those cauldrons, and Maksim observed the activity for a minute or two before something else caught his attention.
A small gate downslope.
The little gate was in the shadows of the wall, away from the torches that had been lit to stave off the night, and could have easily been missed. As Maksim’s vision adjusted to it, he could see some kind of activity at the gate. Curious, he left the kitchen yard and went down the slope, approaching the little gate just as someone pushed it open. It was so dark that he couldn’t see who it was, never imagining it wasn’t a soldier or someone else associated with the castle. By the time he reached the gate, another man came through behind the first one, both of them standing tall and seemingly startled to see him. He only saw the flash of a weapon as it was raised, reflecting the weak torchlight, but by that time, it was too late for him to react.
It wasn’t anyone associated with the castle.
It was the enemy.
A dirty, sharp ax plowed into Maksim’s chest before he even realized what had happened. Whoever landed it tried to remove it, but it was wedged deep into his sternum. They left it in the bone. But that same person pushed Maksim out of the way, so he fell down, rolling down the slope and ending up at the base of the wall as a steady stream of Scots poured in through the open postern gate.
But Maksim was still conscious, at least for the moment. That wasn’t going to last and he knew it. With his dying breath, he bellowed the only thing he could. The only alarm he could give.
Maksim de Reyne spent his final moments on earth as a true warrior.
