WolfeLord by Kathryn Le Veque

CHAPTER NINE

It was too much.

All of it was too much. Adria had been sucked up by the overwhelming nature of the morning’s events and, even now, she sat in the great hall of Carlisle by herself as servants worked in the shadows, because she knew it was the last place Hermes or Ronan or even her father would come looking for her.

She didn’t want to see anyone at the moment.

Lily was dying.

Adria still couldn’t believe it, but given that she’d heard Lily and Marcellus speak of it when they thought no one was listening, it must be true. She knew Lily wouldn’t lie about that and given the signs that they’d been through all week, with Tarraby’s visits and Lily’s physical symptoms, she couldn’t deny that it all made sense. Lily’s fall had injured her and the child she carried to the point where the only option was to cut the baby from her belly and let Lily sacrifice herself to save the child.

Marcellus’ child.

The entire situation had Adria muddled and distraught.

So, she sat in the great hall and wept. She wept for Lily, for the baby, for the fact that Lily had been lying to Will for so many years, and for Will himself. He was a noble and true man and he certainly didn’t deserve what Lily and Marcellus had been doing behind his back. There was so much going on that she didn’t know where she should be upset the most.

All of it was terrible.

Adria was sitting in one of the several alcoves in the great hall, bench seats built into the lancet windows that went from the floor almost to the ceiling. The seats faced each other and, in more genteel times, would have been for men and women to have a private place to converse with the cool breeze from the window making the ambiance pleasant. However, Carlisle was such a military installation that the alcoves were mostly used for men to sleep in or drink in. No genteel ladies, no great feasts with beautiful women and loud entertainment.

In truth, Adria missed that a little.

Lioncross Abbey was where she had fostered her last year. It was a massive, gracious castle that had feasts aplenty. Kaedia de Lohr, Countess of Hereford and Worcester, managed the castle with a velvet fist and Adria had always appreciated Lady de Lohr’s kind but firm manner. She missed how Lady de Lohr would have her charges dress beautifully and present them to a hall of men who looked at the women as a feast for the eyes.

Will de Wolfe had been among those men. In fact, Adria had come to Lioncross well after Will had arrived, but he’d been kind to her from the start. That was about the time he married Lily. Adria really had no memory of Will before their marriage, for it seemed to her as though they’d always been married. But, as she’d so often observed, it had not been an affectionate marriage. Lily and Will had always been friendly with each other, like siblings more than husband and wife, because there had been no hint of love between them ever.

Now, she knew why.

At least, she knew why Lily had treated Will the way she had. Perhaps Will only treated her the same way because Lily had set that precedence. It was difficult to know. But never in all of her years with them had she suspected there was anything between Lily and Marcellus. She was still having great difficulty with that. And now, Lily wanted to throw her into that very odd situation by forcing her to marry Will once she had departed this earth.

Adria didn’t know what to think.

As she sat there and brooded, looking out of the window towards the kitchen yard and watching the servants move about, she caught movement in the corners of her eyes and turned to see Will entering the great hall. Swiftly wiping her cheeks, she climbed out of the window seat and began to make her way towards him, quickly.

“I am sorry, my lord,” she said. “I did not mean to shirk my duties.”

“What do you mean?”

“I thought Atticus was with you. Clearly, he is not. I will find him immediately.”

Will put up a hand to stop her from moving around him. “He is with Hermes right now,” he said. “My cousin is teaching him how to yell at men, so it should prove both hilarious and concerning.”

Adria smiled weakly. “Then mayhap I should relieve Hermes from child tending duties.”

Will shook his head. “Not yet,” he said. “I’ve coming looking for you. It seems that we must speak.”

Something in his tone put her on her guard. Adria looked up at him warily. “About what, my lord?”

Will’s gaze lingered on her for a moment. “Lily told me.”

Adria blinked. She wasn’t prepared to speak on that yet and the longer she looked at Will, the more she remembered about Lily and Marcellus. The more it made her blood boil to know they’d duped such an honorable man.

She took a step back.

“What about, my lord?” she asked, lowering her gaze.

Will reached out and politely grasped her arm, turning her back towards the alcove. “Come,” he said quietly. “Let us sit.”

Adria let him turn her around but she didn’t let him hold on to her. She pulled her arm away, gently but firmly, heading back to the alcove. Stiffly, she sat on one benches as he sat on the other, facing her. She kept her eyes averted, waiting for him to say something.

She wasn’t sure she wanted to hear it.

“Lily told me that she informed you of Tarraby’s diagnosis,” he said softly.

Adria was still looking at her hands. “She did, my lord.”

“She also told me what she has asked of you.”

Adria couldn’t help it; she started to tear up. “Then you know.”

“I do.”

The tears trickled down her face as she struggled for her composure. “May… may I ask you a question, my lord?”

“Of course.”

“Is Lady de Wolfe truly dying?”

Will sighed faintly. “Tarraby believes so.”

“And the child is dying, too?”

“So Tarraby says.”

“Do you believe him?”

“I do. He is a man of uncanny skill. I have no reason to disbelieve him.”

Adria’s head lifted and she fixed on him. “But what if he is wrong?”

Will’s brow flickered. “What do you mean?”

Adria quickly wiped at the tears on her face with a shaking hand. “If he is wrong, Lady de Wolfe will live and the child will live,” she said. “Why must we make such decisions now? Why can we not wait to see? He is not God. He does not know what will happen in the end. He could be mistaken.”

Will looked at her, sorrow in his eyes. “I wish he was,” he said. “I hope he is. But I fear we have no choice but to believe him. He has knowledge that the rest of us do not.”

Adria’s features tightened. “Then I am to marry you the moment Lily passes on?” she asked. “I must go into the marriage bed with the husband of a woman whose body will still be warm? I do not like any of this, my lord. It feels… wrong. It feels opportunistic and wrong, as if I am stealing something from Lady de Wolfe even though she has made it clear that her marriage to you is…”

She stopped herself before she could go on, appalled that she’d run off at the mouth as much as she had. She dropped her head again, looking at her lap.

“Forgive me,” she whispered. “Please forgive me. We are speaking of a woman I love as a sister and I find this whole thing… shocking and disorienting.”

Will was watching her carefully. “I understand,” he said. “I told her so. But she is determined to select a woman that I should marry who is worthy of the de Wolfe name. She feels that it is you.”

Adria shook her head as if fighting off the very idea. “But I am no one,” she said, emotion in her tone. “My lord, you know who my father is. What he is. He’s a penniless lord who is looking for an opportunity for his daughter to marry well. I will not give it to him.”

Will’s brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”

Her head came up again, looking at him with great sorrow. “Alcester used to stand for something,” she said flatly. “There was money and a lovely home, but my father took all of the money, and my mother’s money as well, and gambled it all into the ground. He only had a daughter – me – so he knew he had to make sure I was positioned well for an advantageous marriage so he would have access to more money that he could squander. It would be his greatest wish for me to marry the heir to the House of de Wolfe because it would give him an endless supply of coin. He would bleed me dry and have me begging money from you constantly.”

“Would you?”

“Nay!” she nearly shouted. “I would not, but he is like vermin that you cannot get rid of. He picks and picks until it drives you mad.”

Will sat back in the seat, his focus never leaving her. “And that is why you will not consider Lily’s request?”

She lost some of her anger. “Mostly,” she said honestly. “May… may I be honest?”

“You are doing an excellent job so far. Continue.”

“You have already had one unhappy marriage. I could not bring you another.”

He cocked his head curiously. “You think my marriage to Lily is unhappy?”

“Isn’t it?”

He shrugged. “It is a marriage by definition of the name,” he said. “We do not hate one another. In fact, we are good friends. She wants for nothing. It is not a bad marriage.”

“But are you happy?”

He sighed faintly. “I am not miserable if that is what you mean.”

It was a surprisingly honest conversation between two people who had never really had a conversation at all, much less one like this. Even though they’d been acquainted for years, they really didn’t know one another.

Perhaps it was time.

“What do you think of Lady de Wolfe’s request?” Adria asked after a moment. “After everything I have told you, surely you must tell her that a marriage between us is quite impossible.”

“Why?”

Adria was surprised by his question. “I told you why,” she said. “My father would look at such a union as his own personal fortune. I cannot allow him to do that to you.”

Will shook his head. “And you do not think I can handle your father?” he said. “I do not care what he thinks. But if we were to marry and you ask me for money to give to him, I would do it. Would you ask?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Then we have nothing to worry about.”

Adria wasn’t so sure. She shook her head. “It is not so easy,” she said. “I told you that he picks. It would not be… pleasant.”

“And I would not be pleasant if he annoyed you or, worse, annoyed me. He would be very, very sorry.”

Adria looked at him curiously. Or, perhaps she was looking at him through new eyes. She wasn’t quite sure, but his declaration somehow gave her hope.

Hope that Gar de Geld wouldn’t get what he wanted, after all.

But that wasn’t the only problem in her eyes.

“Even so, I am not a suitable match for you,” she said, calmer and more quietly. “You are the heir to a great empire. I am the daughter of a very minor noble family. When you marry, it should be for wealth or position. I can’t give you either.”

“I do not want wealth or position, for I have both already,” he said. “Wealth and position do not a happy marriage make.”

She was quite curious about that comment. “Then it is not something you desire?”

He shook his head. “Strangely enough, I would like to marry a woman who isn’t ambitious, who is unfailingly honest, and who would make an excellent companion,” he said. “I’ve been around you for a few years now, my lady, and I have seen how you have been with Lady de Wolfe. You are faithful, true, honest, loyal, and unselfish. I know this for myself because Lily cannot live without you. Plus, you can run fast and chase Atticus down, so that makes you entirely suitable in my opinion. Lily did not have a terrible idea when she suggested a marriage between us. Mayhap she is right. Will you at least think about it?”

Adria stared at him, realizing that he was agreeable to his wife’s mad scheme. Or perhaps it wasn’t such a mad scheme, after all. Adria pondered his question a moment before answering.

“Are you sure this is what you want?” she asked.

His eyes took on a glimmer of warmth. “Knowing you as long as I have and seeing you through Lady de Wolfe’s eyes, I think I could not find a more suitable lady were I to search far and wide,” he said. “This is what Lily wants. I am agreeable if you are.”

Adria didn’t know what to say. She sat there for a moment, bewildered but not entirely hopeless. There was something in the way he looked at her that gave her confidence that, perhaps, this wasn’t so insane, after all.

There was only one answer she could give him.

“I will think about it,” she finally said. “I promise.”

“Good,” Will said, standing up. “We will speak again tomorrow. Is that acceptable?”

Adria nodded hesitantly. “It is,” she said. “I… I do not think I have much time to think it over. I do not want to distress Lady de Lohr, so I promise I will think very hard.”

Will nodded, stepping out of the alcove. “It is a big decision,” he said. “You must make certain you are comfortable with it.”

Adria stood up, too, following him. “Let us be honest, my lord,” she said. “It is the request from a dying woman. I am not entirely sure there is any other option but the obvious. But I will most definitely think on it, very hard.”

Will forced a smile. “That is all I can ask,” he said. “Now, I intend to save Hermes from Atticus the Tyrant. I think he has spent enough time with his young cousin and is surely ready to beg for mercy.”

“Nay,” Adria said, pushing past him. “I will save Hermes. Atticus is my charge, after all.”

“You are a brave, brave woman.”

Adria couldn’t help it; she grinned at him, flashing a big dimple in her right cheek, before quickly lowering her gaze and heading to the hall entry. Will followed at a distance, but as he did, he found himself taking a second look at the noble Lady Adria. He’d never really given her a second look in all of the years he’d known her, but now… now, perhaps he should.

His wife certainly thought so.

An odd situation, indeed.