Dark Destroyer (34 page)

The stakes were high in this battle, much more than he’d ever faced. There was a prize to be had here, a prize held close to his heart, and he labored not to let his emotions get the better of him. Emotions, in battle, could be deadly, and this was a battle he fully intended to win.

God help him, there was no alternative.

“What on earth is the matter with you, Alex?” Jasper demanded as Alex practically manhandled him across the bailey towards the gatehouse. “What is so important that I must see Gates?”

Alexander was trying not to divulge too much about the purpose of the meeting with Gates. After he and Gates has gone their separate ways, Gates to the garden to find Kathalin and Alexander to the great hall to find Jasper, Alexander hadn’t particularly wanted to see his parents again, or explain why he had not brought Kathalin with him, so he waited outside of the hall hoping that Jasper would, at some point, emerge. He stood there long enough to see Gates and Kathalin leave the garden, but still, no Jasper. He considered sending a soldier inside to bring the man to him.

As Alexander contemplated how to lure Jasper out of the great hall, he watched Kathalin head into the keep while Gates had headed for the gatehouse. Once Alexander saw Gates enter the gatehouse, he knew that time was growing short and he was seriously considering summoning a soldier to extract Jasper from the great hall. Fortunately, he didn’t have to follow through on that plan because Jasper abruptly quit the great hall nearly the moment Gates disappeared into the gatehouse. He was alone, without Henry or Elreda, so Alexander immediately pounced and told him that Gates had an urgent need to speak with him.

Jasper had been somewhat reluctant, at first, to divert from his own plans because he was on his way to see Rosamund and tell her of the betrothal, but Alexander pleaded urgency in the case of Gates, who had something very important to speak with his liege about. Given that Gates was his commander, and wouldn’t send Alexander with a message of importance if, in fact, it was not critical, Jasper switched direction and headed towards the gatehouse where the knights both slept and conducted business. It wasn’t until he was near the gatehouse that he realized Alexander was holding on to him, leading him. He tried to yank his arm out of Alexander’s grip with no success.

“Let go of me,” he demanded. “Answer my question - what does Gates wish to discuss?”

Alexander didn’t want to divulge anything, not until they were in Gates’ chamber and Gates himself broached the subject, so he simply shook his head. “I am unsure of what, exactly, Gates intends to discuss first,” he said, a lie. However, he was more concerned with maintaining his grip on his squirrely liege at the moment, fearful that the man would get away. “But he sent me to find you with the utmost haste.”

Jasper grunted in frustration, giving his arm one last yank and pulling free of Alexander’s grasp just as they reached the gatehouse. The structure had two staircases, one on either side of the entry area, and Jasper headed up the narrow spiral stairs on the north side of the gatehouse.

Passing through the skinny stairwell, he entered the second floor of the gatehouse, which was the portcullis room. There was a slit in the floor where the portcullis lifted to admit those passing through the gatehouse entry below. There were four chambers on this level on either side of the portcullis room and Gates occupied one of them.

The door to Gates’ chamber was open when Jasper and Alexander appeared. Gates was standing near the thin lancet window that overlooked the main entry into Hyssington. There was a hearth that had just been kindled, kicking out bursts of smoke into the room as the flame caught on. Gates was in the process of removing his heavy woolen outer tunic when Alexander and Jasper entered.

“Gates!” Jasper boomed. “What is so important that you would have Alexander drag me across the bailey in his haste to bring me to you? Well?”

Gates pulled the tunic over his head. “Did Alex tell you anything at all?”

Alexander answered for Jasper. “I have not,” he said. “I thought it would be best coming from you.”

Jasper frowned at his knights. “
What
would be best?” he said, looking between the two. “Why are you two being so secretive?”

Gates tossed his tunic onto the bed and indicated the only chair in his chamber, a stool with a back built onto it. It wasn’t comfortable in the least but it was enough to hold Jasper’s weight.

“Sit, my lord,” he said. “There is something of great import we must speak of. Please be comfortable.”

Jasper was still frowning in exasperation. He put his beefy hands on his hips. “I will
not
sit,” he said. “I have my own business to attend to, Gates, and have no time for foolishness. What is this all about?”

Gates didn’t like that, already, Jasper was impatient. It didn’t bode well for the conversation in general. “This may take more than a few minutes, my lord,” he said. “Please sit for a moment so we may discuss the subject comfortably.”

Jasper scowled. “
What
subject?” he said. “Tell me what you wanted to speak of
now
.”

He wasn’t going to make this easy. Gates didn’t want to anger the man before the conversation even started but already it was heading in that direction. Jasper had been irked from the beginning and now it was growing worse with Gates’ attempts to turn this into a calm and civil conversation. Already, Gates was feeling apprehensive and as he quickly determined the best way to broach the subject, Alexander spoke.

“My lord, I will tell you,” he said. He could see how difficult Jasper was going to make this for Gates and he hastened to intervene. “This has to do with my betrothal to your daughter. Although I am deeply honored that you would consider me as a husband for Lady Kathalin, the truth is that I have no interest in a wife. My parents were hasty in accepting the betrothal for it is something that, after careful consideration, I must decline. I cannot, in good conscience, marry Lady Kathalin because she is in love with someone else. It would not be fair to me and it certainly would not be fair to her. My lord, if you wish for your daughter to be happy in the least, then you cannot marry her to a man she does not love. I will, therefore, not marry her.”

Jasper’s exasperation turned to surprise, suspicion, and back to surprise again. He faced Alexander with an expression of great confusion.

“What’s this you say?” he said. “She is in
love
? Damnation, who could she possibly be in love with?”

“Me,” Gates said softly, watching Jasper turn to him with wide eyes. “Your daughter and I are in love, my lord. Before you betrothed her to Alexander, I was summoning the courage to offer for her hand. My lord, I know that I do not have the most sterling reputation when it comes to women. I know that I have been reckless in the past, and even distasteful at times, and it was never in my mind or heart to marry any woman, ever. But your daughter has changed that for me. She is a kind, brave, and loyal woman and I would consider it the greatest honor in the world to be her husband. I swear to you that my wild ways would be ended. I would love her, and only her, until my death. I therefore beseech you to allow me to marry your daughter, as Alexander has relinquished his claim.”

By the time he was finished, Jasper was staring at him in utter shock. Gates stared back, his heart pounding in his ears, more anxious at this particular moment than he had ever been in his life. Before Jasper could reply, however, Alexander spoke again.

“I cannot stand in the way of their love, my lord,” he said, a hint of pleading in his tone. “Gates is a dear and close friend. I could not marry your daughter knowing that he loves her. Gates is a man of his word and if he says that he will be true to her until his death, then I believe him. He has never lied to me before. Men
can
change, my lord. I believe love can change Gates, if it has not already.”

Jasper was truly stunned. He was still looking at Gates even as Alexander spoke on Gates’ behalf, both men beseeching Jasper to consider Gates’ offer. Oddly enough, considering his impatient stance since entering the chamber, Jasper seemed to cool dramatically. He finally averted his gaze and sighed heavily, planting himself in the chair that Gates had previously offered him. He leaned against the back of the chair, hand to his forehead in both a contemplative and overwhelmed gesture.

“You
love
her?” he finally repeated, looking to Gates. “Is this really true, lad?”

Gates nodded. “I do,” he said. “And she loves me. We wish to be married.”

Jasper was staring at him again as if hardly believing what he was hearing. “God’s Blood,” he finally hissed. “This is a surprise. I would have never expected to hear this, not from you. Gates, I trusted you with escorting my daughter from St. Milburga’s and now that I hear you have feelings for her, I am extraordinarily concerned to know that you did not act on any feelings while you were in a position of power guarding my daughter. You may as well be honest with me now because, sooner or later, the truth will be known and if I do not hear it from your lips first, you will not like my reaction.”

Even as he spoke, Gates was shaking his head. “Never,” he said firmly. “Never at any time did I touch your daughter in the manner you are suggesting. My attentions towards her on the ride from St. Milburga’s to Hyssington were strictly professional. I would never violate your trust in such a way, my lord.”

“Swear this to me.”

“On my oath as a knight, I swear it.”

Being that Gates was an honorable knight, at least on the battlefield, Jasper believed him but he was still wildly off-balance with the entire situation. “It is well known that you are not one to pass over a lady you find attractive,” he said. “You are an opportunist, Gates. I have known this for many years. God’s Blood, Helene of Linley is a perfect example of that. Did you not tell me that you found her starving in the streets so you fed her? And to show her appreciation, she succumbed to her lustful desires?”

Gates cleared his throat softly. “It wasn’t exactly like that,” he said quietly. “What happened… it simply happened. I have no other explanation for it.”

Jasper eyed him critically. “What of the sister of that knight from Halford?” he asked. “Did she simply happen, too? You were forced to kill that knight when he ambushed you, which brought an entire Welsh garrison down upon us for a week.”

By this time, Gate was struggling not to become defensive. “I know, my lord.”

Jasper waited for more of an explanation or apology to come forth but Gates gave no hint of either. In fact, Gates was rather stone-faced, which raised Jasper’s ire.

“Have you nothing more to say to that?” he demanded.

Gates remained cool. “What would you have me say, my lord?”

Jasper was starting to become frustrated again. “Tell me something, de Wolfe,” he said. It was rare when he addressed Gates by his surname, an indication of his annoyance. “If you had a daughter and a knight of your reputation asked for her hand in marriage, what would
you
say?”

Gates was struggling to keep his emotions at bay because he knew that if he didn’t, this could very easily turn into a shouting match. He swallowed hard.

“I would not insult him by doubting his oath when he told me he would be true to her until his death,” he said pointedly. “If it was a man I had known as long as you have known me, I would trust him.”

Jasper snorted. “Trust him,” he muttered, shaking his head. “My daughter’s happiness is at stake and you ask me to trust you.”

Alexander, who had been watching the exchange, wasn’t happy about the way Jasper was ridiculing Gates’ oath of honor. It was inexcusable as far as he was concerned. Gates had little honor where women were concerned, that was true, but as a knight of duty, he was flawless in character. It was a genuine paradox in one man, but such was the complexity of Gates de Wolfe.

“I am not entirely sure you are concerned with your daughter’s happiness if you are willing to see her parted from the man she loves,” Alexander said, watching the outrage on Jasper’s face. “Is that not what you are attempting to do, now that you know she and Gates love one another? How happy do you think she will be if you force her to marry me?”

Jasper scowled at Alexander. “It is her future I must think of,” he said hotly. “I must ensure she is married to a man who will not embarrass her, although I must say, Alex, that you have had a woman or two in your time. Still, you are marginally better than de Wolfe.”