Corisande stood there and trembled.
Standing behind Cole, several feet back, were Julian and al-Kort brothers. All three of them appeared extremely grieved by what had happened and when Cole pushed through them, Julian and Addax turned to follow.
But Essien just stood there with tears in his eyes.
Corisande saw him but she kept her chin up, defiantly. She wasn’t going to let them know how badly she was crumbling. If they wanted to believe she had let a Scotsman take advantage of her, then so be it. She didn’t care.
Better they think it of her than of Gaia.
“Cori?”
She heard a soft voice off to her right and she turned to see Gaia standing there, weeping. She had heard the entire conversation and she had seen what her sister had done to protect her, once again. She wasn’t going to let men know what Gaia had done and she’d let the love of her life walk away because of it.
It was Cole or Gaia.
She’d chosen Gaia.
“Cori, go after him,” she sobbed. “Do not let him leave.”
Corisande held up a hand to her sister to silence her. “Not a word,” she said, her voice tight with emotion. “You will not say another word about this, ever.”
Fearful of her sister’s reaction if she did not obey, Gaia did as she was told. She returned to stirring the soiled linen as Corisande went to the smaller tent that she and Gaia shared and collapsed.
She could hear her sister’s sobs all across the encampment.
When she saw Ares moving for the tent, hearing the sobs also, Gaia left the linen boiling and ran to him. If the truth was to be known, then it needed to come from her and she needed to tell someone who had a reputation for being fair and just.
Big brother had just become Father Confessor.
Gaia didn’t want her sacrifice with Alexander MacDuff to be in vain.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
“What happened to him?”
It was Jax asking the question. It was nearing sunset on the seventh day and the fog was beginning to form along the coast, preparing to roll in, but from the battlements of Berwick, he could see Cole down by the river’s edge where the burned shells of longships were still lingering in the shallows.
Cole was standing in the water to his knees. Simply standing there as the frigid water rushed over his lower legs as Julian and Addax stood about a dozen feet behind him on the shore, simply watching. They were all just standing there, looking out onto the river.
Atreus was on the battlements with Jax, as was Essien. In fact, it was Essien who had found Jax on the parapet to tell him that Cole was in distress.
Now, Jax wanted to know what that distress was.
Essien had the unhappy duty of telling him.
“My lord, I was running missives for William Marshal this morning and I began to hear some disturbing rumors,” he said. “I told Cole about them because they had to do with Lady Corisande.”
Jax turned to look at him. “What rumors?”
Essien hesitated before continuing. “There are rumors amongst the armies, my lord,” he said. “The men who were captured with Lady Corisande and Lady Gaia say that Lady Corisande went to the tent of a Scots commander, unchaperoned, and the next morning, all of the captives were released. The rumors are that she traded favors for the release of the captives. Cole has only just heard the rumors and when he confronted the lady with them, it was… ugly. Very ugly. Julian and my brother are standing there in case Cole tries to drown himself in the river.”
Jax stared at Essien in shock before returning his attention to his son, standing amongst the ravages of battle on the edge of the river.
“God,” Jax finally muttered. “I’d not heard those rumors. But, then again, we’ve all been locked up in this castle. I haven’t heard anything. The men are really saying that?”
“Aye, my lord.”
“Which men?”
“I heard it from Teviot’s men, but I’m sure it’s all over. You know how men talk.”
Jax just shook his head, appalled to hear such a thing. But not surprised. “They gossip like fishwives,” he muttered, looking at Atreus. “Did you hear any of this?”
Atreus shook his head. “Nay,” he said. “But I have been with you the entire time. We’ve lived isolated, like hermits for the past week.”
Jax sighed heavily and looked out at his son again. “And you say he asked Lady Corisande about the rumors?”
He was addressing Essien. “Aye, my lord.”
“What did she say?”
Essien was willing to tell Jax about the rumors, but revealing a conversation between Cole and Corisande felt invasive. Like he was gossiping himself. But if Jax knew what was said, perhaps he’d understand the seriousness of the situation.
“Cole was… upset, my lord,” he said. “He asked her if the rumors were true and she told him that by the way he had asked her, he must have believed them already. They argued and she finally told him to go to hell and not return.”
Jax closed his eyes, shaking his head regretfully. “He could not have taken that well,” he said. “I will go and speak to him.”
That was what Essien wanted to hear. He looked to Atreus, hoping that meant everything would be well again, but Atreus’ expression didn’t seem too encouraging.
As Essien waited on the battlements, Jax made his way down to the riverside where Cole was still standing in the water. He walked up beside Julian and Addax, standing there a moment and looking at Cole, before quietly asking Julian and Addax to step away and give them some privacy. They complied, backing off, as Jax walked to the edge of the river.
“Cole,” he said. “I was told what happened. Come out of the water and let us discuss this calmly. Surely it is not as bad as it seems.”
Cole didn’t move. He remained in the same position, looking out over the dark blue waters of the River Tweed.
“Go away, Papa,” he said. “I do not want to discuss it.”
Jax folded his big arms across his chest. “You know I will not go anywhere and you cannot make me, so you may as well accept my presence,” he said. “Tell me what happened with you and Lady Corisande. I want to hear it from you.”
He heard Cole sigh heavily, a pent-up sigh that seemed to come from his toes. “I do not wish to discuss it.”
“Then we are going to stand here a very long time. Do you not trust me with such matters?”
Even in his state of turmoil, Cole was not going to insult his father. Of course he trusted him. But it was more that he didn’t trust himself to speak, afraid he would lose control and never get it back.
He was hanging by a thread.
And that thread was unraveling.
“I… I feel like I did when Mary and Lucy died,” he finally said. “Grief… loss… but this is different. When they died, it was the will of God. That’s what everyone told me, anyway. It was something I could not control. But this… this cuts deeper, but in a different way.”
“What way?”
“Because I let myself be happy again. I was not prepared for the fall from grace.”
Jax hated to hear that come out of his son’s mouth. “Tell me what happened so that I may understand.”