AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“It’s not as simple as all that.” Governess Agnes took the doublet from Blanchette’s hands and set it aside. She squeezed her fingertips lovingly, reassuringly. Blanchette gripped her hands like they were lifelines. Yes… I need to feel anchored. “Listen to me, my dear. Listen closely. Your father committed horrible atrocities, but he did good too. People are not purely good or purely bad. There are light and shadows in all of us. And sometimes bad things must happen to bring about lasting good. Sometimes winter comes, and it’s dark and painful, but it clears the earth for spring.”
Blanchette broke off her gaze from her governess’s and jerked toward the window. “Look! Riders.”
From the clearing—the same clearing Rowan’s army had once torn open—emerged a band of seven horsemen and an ornate wheelhouse.
And the Black Wolf was emblazoned on its door.
* * *
“Much better,” Rowan said to Jonas as the squire wiped the sweat from his brow. Rowan took a sideways stance and maneuvered backward with graceful footing. “But you need to move more,” he instructed in a low voice. “You need to stalk?—”
“Like a wolf,” the boy finished, raising his sparring sword and mimicking Rowan’s stance.
“Aye, my lad. Like a wolf.”
Three guardsmen burst into the training yard. “Riders just arrived, sir, asking for your audience. A Sir Jeremy was among them.”
Rowan nodded, a nervous smile coming to his face. He sheathed his longsword. “Keep training, and we shall speak later,” he said to the redheaded boy with a pat on his arm. “Raise the gate,” he commanded his men as he crossed the bailey. He traveled past the watchtower and toward the imposing guardhouse.
The riders were mounted and armored in boiled leather and chain mail, and the two men flanking the wagon flew the Black Wolf’s standard. Rowan watched with pride as it whipped and prowled in the crisp breeze.
“Sir Jeremy,” he greeted as a knight dismounted with a broad smile and the Black Wolf sewn onto his tabard. “I wasn’t sure I’d see you again, my friend.” Jeremy’s black beard had grown patches of white since their last meeting years ago. Yet he still wore the same lopsided smile that came easily to his weathered face.
“Aye,” the man said. “You look worse for wear.” They extended their arms in a forearm shake before Sir Jeremy yanked Rowan into a hug. Rowan placed his hand on the knight’s shoulder and said, “Thank you for coming and bringing her to me. I want you to stay and sit on my council. I need you.”
“It’d be an honor, sir.”
The carriage door burst open. Rowan’s heart pounded as a lovely seven-year-old girl hopped out. She clasped a doll tightly under her arm. A wary, tight-lipped smile was on her lips.
“Father?” she asked, and Rowan exhaled a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.
“Yes… it’s me.”
Shock stunned him into silence. In his daughter’s place stood Blanchette when she was just a girl, her blond curls glittering in the afternoon sun, her blue eyes flashing.
The child tentatively glanced at him. Rowan closed the distance between them and came to one knee. “Mary… my, look how old you’ve gotten. You’re a lady now. No longer a child.”
She smiled at him hesitantly, and for a passing second, Rowan feared she didn’t recognize him at all. She hadn’t seen him for over five years. He’d barred that thought from his mind during his campaigns. And now it stared him straight in the face. “You’re a proper little lady now. Your mother would be proud.”
She smiled at that—a sweet, hesitant smile that set her blue eyes sparkling. Then a sadness surfaced in that gaze. One he knew all too well. One he saw often when he gazed into his looking glass. Rowan cleared his throat and came to his feet.
Mary glanced up at the jutting towers, buttresses, and the commanding curtain wall that held everything in. Awe swept over her sweet features and brought a lively glint to her eyes.
He tracked her gaze with his own and pointed toward the highest keep. “She’s a beautiful castle, to be certain. And as old as Norland herself. This shall be your home now, Mary.”
* * *
Excited voices and overlapping commands drifted in from the window. Blanchette glanced out again, where the sight of that wheelhouse and several guardsmen she’d never seen before greeted her. She straightened out her skirt, then left her chamber, forgetting to bid Governess Agnes farewell.
She crossed the kitchens, where a little boy she’d known since he was born slipped her a lemon cake, then made her way into the great hall.
Rowan stood at the entryway surrounded by the guardsmen she’d spotted from her window. And before him was a charming little girl who appeared entirely lost.
My God… she looks just like me.
Rowan met her gaze from across the hall. Blanchette felt something in her heart tighten, and her breath audibly caught. Exhaling, she held her head up and crossed the chamber with quick strides. She stopped in front of the little girl and stood beside Rowan, a million questions flying through her mind with only a handful of words on her lips.
“Why, that’s a lovely cloak, my lady,” Blanchette said with a smile.
