He looked down at her. “Why?”
She shook her head, trying to put her feelings into words. “I don’t know, exactly,” she said. “I just feel like this is a dream. I’m living a dream I wasn’t sure I’d ever have.”
He smiled, kissing her on the top of the head. “Youarethe dream,” he murmured. “The best and richest dream a man could ever have, my queen.”
She met his smile, gazing up at the man she adored with her entire being. Cole de Velt had proven himself a wonderful husband, and exceptional father, and a fine and noble human being. He was everything she could have hoped for and more.
Their life at Berwick was magical. They were raising their family among the very fields and beaches that had seen turmoil from time to time, and would see again for centuries to come. Cole no longer went on missions for William Marshal, but The Marshal knew he could call upon him and his particular set of skills should he ever need him.
Once an Executioner Knight, always an Executioner Knight.
He would always be part of the brotherhood.
Even now, at this very tournament, he was surrounded by his Executioner Knight brethren– Maxton had come up from Gloucester with Christopher and David de Lohr, Achilles had come up from Hampshire, and Dashiell and Bric had arrived together. As the crowd in the lists roared, Addax and Essien beat down the competition, a fiery return of The Black Dragon and the God of Vengeance from their days of tournaments past. It was a joyful thing to watch, but there was change on the horizon. After this tournament, the Princes of Kitara would be heading to Lioncross Abbey to serve the man who had made it all possible for them, Christopher de Lohr.
Cole was sorry to see them go, but he understood.
Life was a constantly evolving thing.
At this moment, all that mattered to him was his family and the vast and compelling love story between him and his wife that continued to grow. Two people who had once been unlucky in relationships and had suffered through their own private heartbreak finally found a love for the ages in each other.
It had been a journey, though. Cole had learned that women were often far braver than men were, in ways he could have never imagined. Corisande never knew that he was aware of Gaia’s sacrifice because that was the way Gaia wanted it, and it gave Cole such a deep and abiding respect for his wife’s sister even though she never did learnnotto pinch. She lived with them at Berwick these days, but he didn’t mind.
Anything she wanted to do was fine by him.
For her part, Corisande had learned that not all men broke their word. Faith was something that she had in Cole, something that would never waver. It was faith and love that only multiplied when their beautiful son, Ajax, was born healthy two months later.
The circle of life continued and from time to time, Cole thought on Mary and Lucy. He knew that wherever they were,they were smiling down upon him because they’d been his first lesson in unconditional love.
It was a lesson he’d learned well.
I did not understand that true love is absolute. It knows no limitations, no boundaries. And this is true love.
For Cole and Corisande, it was.
*THE END*
