“Quiet,” Rod hissed at him. “Be quiet before you say something you will regret.”
Berwyn struggled against his grandson. So much, in fact, that Edward came up behind them and helped Rod take his grandfather from the hall. But not before Berwyn fired off his last terrible curse.
“I hope your daughter dies the same way my son died!” he yelled, his voice muffled as Rod slapped a hand over his mouth. “I hope you feel my pain, do you hear?I hope you feel it!”
He was finally gone, carried away by Rod and Edward. Christopher sat still as stone, his eyes trained on de Velt, who was watching the old man as he was dragged from the room. When he was gone, Jax turned to look at Christopher. They simply looked at each other for a moment, both men unsure what to say. Finally, Jax looked around the table at the other men, at Keller and his knights, at Christopher’s men standing behind him.
“Please,” he said, lifting his hand in an ironic gesture. “If there is anyone else at this table I have wronged, please speak your peace. We have all done things in our lifetime that we are not proud of but I suppose I was the worst of it. I have no excuse except to say I was young and full of ambition, and saw what I did as a means to achieve an end. It was not until later in life that I realized the gravity of what I had done. Therefore, if anyone else has anything to say to me, I will accept it.”
Next to Christopher, Keller spoke softly. “You killed a cousin of mine at Ithon Castle those years ago,” he said. “He was a rotten excuse for a human being, lying to my mother, beating hisown mother, and once he even stabbed his father in an argument over a horse. I have always wanted to thank you personally for doing away with him. You saved me the trouble.”
Jax looked at Keller, surprised, until William Wellesbourne, standing behind Keller, broke out in soft laughter. The giggles were infectious because George Ashby-Kidd started giggling, followed by Max. Hearing Max and his high-pitched laugher set Christopher off and, soon, the entire table was roaring with laughter. It was a welcome bit of respite after Berwyn’s outbreak, easing the tension. Keller, with little sense of humor, looked around at those laughing as if they had lost their minds.
“I am serious,” he insisted. “My cousin was a boil on the buttocks of our family; sore, ugly, and difficult to pop. Had de Velt not done away with him, I would have had to. He saved me the trouble!”
Everyone screamed with laughter and even though Keller was serious, he, too, started to snort just because everyone else was. He supposed it was rather humorous, a light touch in the midst of such seriousness. Wellesbourne slapped him on the shoulder in his revelry, causing Keller to lose his humor immediately. But William didn’t. He clapped him again.
“God help you, Keller,” he said. “Sometimes, your honesty is the best part about you.”
Keller wriggled his eyebrows. “I sincerely hope that is not what my wife thinks,” he quipped, returning his attention to Christopher. “If everyone will stop laughing at me, I would like to return to business. It sounds as if we have a blood feud on our hands. De Llion is seeking vengeance for what de Velt did to his father. There is nothing worse than one relative seeking justice for another.”
Christopher still had a smile on his face as he replied. “That is true,” he agreed. “But my fear is that de Llion will not be content with capturing de Velt’s holdings. He is painfully closeto Lioncross right now with his latest conquest at Comen Castle. Who is to say he will not set his cap for my castle or Shropshire’s castle? He may even move into Wales and move for Nether. Nay, we cannot know his mind and that is what concerns me. It is best to stop this mercenary before he does too much damage. I fear that if we wait, we will have a massive problem that will be difficult to control.”
Keller wasn’t hard pressed to agree. “Wales has been, as of late, relatively peaceful,” he said. “This mercenary along the Marches is the first serious threat I have encountered in several months. In fact, knowing his scope in Powys, I took the long way around him from Nether Castle, mostly because I did not want to engage him. I know he is moving his army around in the mid-Marches and did not want to chance running into him, so we moved straight across Wales into Shropshire and then down to Lioncross.”
Christopher nodded. “I can understand your caution,” he said. “I am inclined to move on Cloryn Castle, the mercenary’s seat, before the week is out if we can agree on a strategy. But before we convene a war council, you should know something else. Now that Berwyn has left, I can speak freely about it. It may be a gift from heaven or it may be a great disappointment. In any case, in speaking with de Velt I learned that he did not kill everyone at Four Crosses. He retained some men for slave labor, including one knight with a serious head injury who calls himself John Morgan. You must understand that Bretton de Llion’s father’s name was Morgan, and it is quite possible that John Morgan is really Bretton’s father. John Morgan currently serves Yves de Vesci as his personal bodyguard and I have sent word to de Vesci asking him to send John Morgan to us so that we may see if he is, indeed, the mercenary’s father. If he is, then it is quite possible the battle will be over before it begins. But ifit is not his father, then we must be prepared to strike and strike hard.”
Keller digested what he was told. After a moment, he shook his head with some amazement. “That is an incredible story,” he said. “Let us hope the man is indeed de Llion’s father.”
“Agreed.”
“How long ago did you send word to de Vesci?”
“About a month. I expect to see John Morgan any day now.”
Keller reached for a wine cup in the middle of the table, pouring himself a measure of rich, red wine. “That is a reasonable time frame, even traveling from the north,” he said. “And you say Berwyn does not know that his son may indeed be alive?”
Christopher shook his head. “Nay,” he replied quietly. “You saw how he reacted to de Velt. One more shock and we may lose him altogether.”
Keller took a long drink of wine. “But you are going to have to tell him, eventually.”
Christopher glanced at Jax, who shrugged. “I thought it would better if we did not tell him anything,” he said. “Let John Morgan show himself and then we shall see if Berwyn recognizes him. If he does, then it will be a wonderful reunion. If not, then we did not get an old man’s hopes up.”
Keller sat there, toying with his wine cup, thinking on Christopher’s strategy. Although the story of John Morgan was an incredible one, something didn’t make sense to him. After several pensive moments, he spoke softly.
“Do you not think that if John Morgan was really Bretton de Llion’s father, he would have contacted Berwyn long ago?” he asked softly. “I would think that he would have contacted his own father simply to let him know that he was alive.”
Jax interjected himself into the conversation. “John Morgan suffered a head injury during the siege of Four Crosses,” he said.“He could only tell us his name was Morgan and not much more. It was my men who gave him the name John Morgan. He was as strong as a bull but his head injury was severe enough that he could not think well for himself. I gave him over to de Vesci as a personal guard because the man didn’t have much of a mind of his own and de Vesci wanted someone close to him who could be easily ordered about. John Morgan fit that role well. I had no more use for the man so de Vesci took him.”
Keller listened intently, reasoning through the situation. “If John Morgan really is Bretton de Llion’s father,” he said, “then will he even know it? What if he is the father and we present him to de Llion, but Morgan has no knowledge that the man is his son? Worse yet, what if he shuns him? That could go very badly in our favor, worse than if we hadn’t presented the father at all.”
Christopher could see his logic. “That is a good point, but I am willing to take the chance,” he said. “In any case, we must unbalance de Llion and take advantage of that chaos. We must stop the man once and for all, and regain de Velt’s daughter in the process.”
Keller poured himself more wine. “Then what do you have in mind?”
Christopher, too, poured himself some wine from another pitcher. He found he needed it. “We have two options, in my opinion,” he said. “We present John Morgan to de Llion and pray the man is his father. If he is, then we do an exchange– Morgan for Lady Allaston.”
“But Berwyn will know his own son,” Jax interjected. “If Morgan arrives at Lioncross first, and Berwyn is still here, then surely the father will recognize his own son, therefore, we will knowbeforeengaging de Llion if John Morgan is really his father. If he is not, then we must make a secondary plan.”
