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Garron could only marvel. His bright, very smart girl, and yet she believed these obvious lies? How had the bitch convinced her? He eyed her, then decided to let it go for the moment. He’d believed only a short time before that she was gone forever from him, yet she was here now, standing in front of him. That was enough. He lightly touched his fingertips to her cheek. “When Gilpin shouted to me, I looked up to see you running to me.”
She gave him a huge smile that made him forget her mother, Arthur’s silver, his own name. Garron leaned forward, cupped her face in his hands, and lightly kissed her. He gave her no time to respond to him, merely pulled her tightly against him and buried his face in her hair. She wrapped her arms around his back and held on. After a moment, he raised his head. “Your hair smells different.”
“Different?”
He gathered handfuls of her hair in his hands, and breathed in the scent. “Aye, I do not know the names of different scents, but the smell is different.”
“You believe my mother washed my hair?”
“You have no memory of such a thing?”
“No. I was asleep and then I was awake, lying on a narrow bed in this workroom. I remember the room was warm. Did she really bathe me? Wash my hair? I don’t know, Garron, but if my hair smells different to you then mayhap she did, or someone did. How did my hair smell before?”
“Like wild sweet smells that lurk deep in the forest. I wanted to bury my face in your hair—in the thick plaits, with the small braids hidden amongst them. I always enjoyed looking for them. You no longer have them either.”
She chewed on her lower lip, something he’d never seen her do before. She came up onto her tiptoes, kissed him.
“I never realized how very beautiful my mother is, how she looks like an older sister. Always, I—”
“Always you what?”
She shook her head.
“But you saw her only a month ago, Merry, when she arrived at Valcourt after the death of your father. She came with Jason of Brennan in tow, did she not? For him to wed you? Did you not notice then how beautiful she was, how young she looked?”
She looked confused, rubbed her temples with her fingertips. “Aye, I remember now.”
“Do you know, I thought her beautiful until I saw to the rot beneath, until I was faced with the evil in her.”
He saw her face redden, knew she wanted to argue, and quickly raised his hand. “She asked me if I did not see the resemblance between you. I said no. I still do not.” He paused a moment. “Somehow, I know to my gut she isn’t young and beautiful. I must believe she simply made me see what she wished me to see. You as well, Merry.
“I’m beginning to think so much of what I have always believed to be real, is not. Her tower was lived in, there was even a fire burning in the grate despite there being no air holes. Then, when my men and I came back, the tower was abandoned, the inside as devastated as Wareham. Which is the truth? Is there anything about your mother that is real? Or is all of it a lie? An illusion, a dream she is able to induce?” He frowned into the distance. “I wonder what she is planning now. I wonder if you were ever really there at her tower.”
To his surprise, she did not gainsay him. She tipped up her chin, smiled. “Perhaps like my mother, I will not age either, my lord. Mayhap when you are a bent old man, I will still look as I do today.”
But he did not smile back at her, his fear, his confusion too fresh, too painfully clear in his mind. “You have blinded yourself to what she truly is. Surely you realize I cannot let her live. She must pay for what she has done.”
“I was blind, Garron, but now I see things very clearly. She wants me to be with you. Can you not simply forget her? What has she done?”
“She sent Jason of Brennan to Wareham to find Arthur’s silver to give her in exchange for your hand in marriage. He did it with her direction, I am convinced of that. If you wish to forgive her for that unpardonable act, I cannot stop you.”
She said, her voice firm, and he heard anger simmering beneath the surface, “Unlike you, my lord, I do not believe she gave Jason such orders. I do not believe she knew anything about it. She knew only he was going to give her a dowry for me, in silver coins. Where is your proof of her guilt? There is none for she did nothing. Kill him, not her.”
“Aye, I plan to. I will kill him because he poisoned my brother. I wonder if your mother provided him the poison to murder Arthur. If Arthur were still alive, why then I would still kill Jason of Brennan for what he did to Wareham. She and Jason must have believed the silver would be easy to find, easy to torture one of Arthur’s men to tell them where it was hidden, but she was wrong.
“She must pay, Merry. Surely you realize the king will demand it.”
“Do you wish to kill her?”
Only the truth, he thought. “Aye, I do. She is very dangerous, Merry.” He searched for the right words. “She has blackness in her. I simply do not know as yet how I will destroy her and her blackness, for she has power I do not understand. Your mother will not stop until she has Arthur’s silver. I wonder what she is planning now.”
“I believe my mother has given up her hopes of acquiring more wealth. I believe she even accepts that there never was any silver at Wareham.”
“Why would she accept that? Who would tell her that?”
“I don’t know. I know I told her—”
“You spoke to her of Arthur’s silver?”
