Lord of War: Black Angel (43 page)

But that wasn’t all that changed; Evan St. Hèver  now served the Duke of Exeter, a very young and enormous knight that was easily as skilled and powerful as his brother.  He and Stefan had become very good friends and they had shared many single-man adventures together, much to the amusement of the others, and Margarethe had joined a convent shortly after her father returned from Poitiers.  With Brandt’s connections and money, Margarethe had found a lucrative position at Westminster in London.  Never fully comfortable with her father or with the path her sister had chosen, she had decided to join the cloister and Brandt had been happy to finance it.

Lives that had happily moved on, existing in peace, even though the Prince of Wales continued his warring campaign.  Because of the severity of Brandt’s injuries at Poitiers and because he was getting on in years, Edward had permitted him retirement. After all, the man had spent over ten years of his life fighting in France.  He had put his time in. Now, it was his turn to enjoy his life and his family as he had never before had the opportunity.  Aramis, Trenton, Edward, Isabeau, and Ellowyn were his very reasons for living and he thanked God daily that he’d been given the opportunity.

And he planned to keep playing with his boys no matter what his wife said.  The best things in his life seemed to happen when she was angry with him.