He laughed softly, pulling her into a warm embrace. “I am very well.”
Allaston collapsed against him, savoring the feel of his body against hers. As she held him, she began to weep.
“My father is here,” she sobbed. “Bretton, please… I have begged you so many times not to kill him. What more can I saythat will make a difference to you? I will never stop asking you. I cannot. I cannot watch the two men I love best fight each other until the death.”
He shushed her softly. “Did you not hear what I told Teague?”
She sniffled and wept. “I… I am not sure,” she said. “I suppose I really was not listening. I was too afraid he was going to break my neck.”
Bretton squeezed her and released her, holding her back at arm’s length so he could look her in the eye.
“My father isalive, Allaston,” he said softly. “It is as I told Teague. The moment I saw him, alive and well, it was as if all of the pain and hatred I’d ever held in my life was sucked right out of me. I felt the vengeance that has driven me diminish because I no longer needed it, for my father is not dead. I no longer need that hatred to keep me alive. I cannot describe what I feel better than that. It is as if… as if I feel whole. That black hole inside of me, the one you once described, is gone.”
Allaston’s hysterics had faded as she gazed up at him, listening to his words.Was it possible?She could only shake her head, amazed at what she was hearing, amazed at the words that were coming forth. She could have never hoped for, or imagined, such a thing from Bretton.
“But… how is this possible?” she asked softly. “That hatred drove you. It made you who you are. You told me I could not take it away from you, no one could. You told me once that you were not sure if you could let go of what you have become.”
Bretton sighed. “I know,” he nodded. “I will never be perfect but all I can tell you is that, at this moment, I feel like the most fortunate man on the face of the earth. You told me once that God gave you to me for a life gone wrong. Look around you. My father is here and you are here… this is the most perfect life I can imagine. Nothing else matters, not vengeance or your father orthe horrors of my past. Those things will always be a part of me, but they will not rule me as I have let them. I have you now and I’ve come to see that is the most important thing of all. You were right when you said I loved my vengeance more than you, but that is no longer the case. That vengeance has been swept away. I am not sure I can explain it better than that.”
Gazing into his face, Allaston was coming to believe him. She didn’t know why or how it was truly possible for the man to suddenly forget and forgive twenty-five years of hatred, but she wasn’t going to argue with him. If he felt whole, and if he felt like the most fortunate man on the face of the earth, then that was all she could ask for. A smile spread across her lips, one of joy and hope, and Bretton smiled in return. It was time to believe in something other than vengeance. It was time to believe in each other. As Allaston threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly, she heard a familiar voice behind them.
“Allie,” Jax was standing a few feet away, his visor lifted and his dual-eyed gaze moving between her and Bretton. “I cannot help but notice that this is not the behavior of a prisoner.”
Allaston laughed softly, rushing to her father and giving the man the biggest hug she possibly could. Jax squeezed his child, tears stinging his eyes with utter joy and relief. When she let him go, he grabbed her face with his two big hands and looked her right in the eye.
“Areyouwell, sweetheart?” he whispered hoarsely. “Your mother and I have been worried sick for you.”
Allaston nodded, kissing her father on the cheek. “I have been fine, Papa, I swear it,” she said, turning to look at Bretton, who was standing where she had left him. His expression was rather uncertain but Allaston smiled at him. “Bretton… well, he is much like you. I think you two have more in common than you can imagine.”
Jax’s gaze found Bretton and he groaned loudly. “You sent a missive to me to come to you at Cloryn,” he said quietly. “Here I am. I am offering myself in exchange for my daughter.”
Bretton held the man’s gaze steadily. “There was a time when those words would have meant everything to me,” he said. Then, he shook his head, reflecting on bitter memories of the past. This was a defining moment for Bretton, one that would see him move beyond the hatred and accept what life had dealt him, as a true man would. “I had a speech planned for you when we finally met, de Velt. I was going to tell you what you did to my life, how you took my family from me, how I had to fight to survive, and how I spent my life being fueled by thoughts of vengeance against you. I took your castles and I took your daughter and, when you came to me, I was going to take your life, too. You ruined my life and I was going to punish you for it. But… a very strange thing happened.”
Jax stood there with his arm around Allaston’s shoulders, listening to a man who had thoughts that were very much like his own had been many years ago. Anger, greed, vengeance… aye, he had experienced those things, too, so he understood them well.
“What happened?” he asked softly.
Bretton’s gaze moved to Allaston. “A woman happened,” he said quietly. “I abducted her but she turned the tables on me and captured everything about me; my heart, my soul, my mind. But that still wasn’t enough to quench my vengeance against you. I was still going to go through with it which, I am coming to realize, would have cost me the most valuable thing I have ever had– Allaston’s love. Yet, when you and de Lohr showed up with my father, it was as if everything suddenly started to make sense. I have based my entire life on a lie– the lie of my father’s death. I believed you killed him and I hated you for it. I tried to hate your daughter, too, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. And with my father returned… my sense of vengeance is gone. It is true thatyou set about a chain of events that saw me lead a terrible life for quite some time, but in hindsight, mayhap it all happened for a reason. Ultimately, it brought me to your daughter.”
Jax considered the man before looking to Allaston, who was gazing at Bretton with that same dreamy expression that Jax had seen on his wife, Kellington. It was the look of love, and Allaston had it. Jax lifted his eyebrows in resignation.
“I cannot condemn my daughter for falling in love with a mercenary because my wife did the same thing,” he said with some irony. “I am living proof that the right woman can change a man for good. I cannot say that I am entirely in favor of this union, but I am the last person to condemn this relationship when my wife and I started out much the same way. Therefore, we will speak on it. I am willing to listen.”
Bretton grinned at Allaston before looking over his shoulder at the state of Cloryn’s bailey. De Lohr and de Velt’s men had moved in and were corralling his soldiers. It was clear that Cloryn was returning to the custody of de Velt, but Bretton hardly cared. He had the greatest prize of all in Allaston.
“We do indeed have a great deal to discuss,” he said. “I have a few properties of yours that I am sure you wish returned.”
Jax lifted an eyebrow before kissing his daughter on the head and releasing her. “That is quite possibly true,” he said. “For now, I am going to see what you have done to Cloryn. Mayhap I do not want it back. Mayhap I shall give it to you and Allaston as a wedding gift. I’ve not yet decided.”
He moved past Bretton, heading out into the bailey to see what was happening with his men and with the situation in general. Moreover, he suspected his daughter and Bretton had a few things to say to each other. Well did he remember the newness of his relationship with Kellington and the moments, in the early days, that they had spent alone. Those were precious times. Besides… he had a feeling he would be seeing a good dealof Bretton in the future. There would be plenty of time to get to know the man with a mercenary heart to mirror his own. Aye, they would understand each other well.
As Jax headed out to the bailey, de Lohr brushed past him, heading towards the kitchens. As Bretton and Allaston watched, there was a brief conversation between Christopher and Jax, ending with Jax pointing towards the kitchen and mentioning something that set Christopher to grinning.
The great Christopher de Lohr, perhaps one of the greatest knights to have ever lived, looked off towards the kitchen, seeing a man who looked like Rod standing along with a woman who had her father’s dark hair, and knew he was gazing upon Bretton and Allaston. No one had to be obvious and point it out, he just knew. And he also knew that all was well. Whatever the trouble, whatever had caused them to come to Cloryn, no longer existed. Jax de Velt said so.
Allaston and Bretton watched Christopher turn and walk away with Jax, two legends heading towards the bailey, two men who were now allies as well as friends. As they headed towards Keller de Poyer, who now had control of the gatehouse along with a few hundred of his men, Allaston turned to Bretton.
“Thank you,” she murmured, “for giving me my father back.”
