Juliandra looked at him in surprise before breaking down into a modest grin. “That is flattering, my lord.”
“It is the truth. And in private, you may address me as Kevin.”
Her smile faded. “If you wish,” she said. “May I ask you a question, Kevin?”
“You may.”
“May I visit my father?”
Kevin hadn’t expected that question and he shook his head. “I could not chance it,” he said, scrambling for an answer that wasn’t directly lying to her face. “The Marches are a dangerous place, at any time. It is safer if you don’t.”
She was disappointed with his answer, but not surprised. “If you let me return home, I promise I shall not go anywhere,” she said. “I will be free to answer your questions whenever you wish so, you see, there really is no reason to keep me here. There is nowhere else I could possibly go.”
She sounded as if she were starting to beg, which Kevin didn’t like. He was already coming to realize that he didn’t like denying her and if she begged hard enough, he just might grant her request and that was something he didn’t want to do.
He wanted to keep her near.
“Is it so terrible here?” he asked, then realized he was looking at a big, stark, empty room. “I will make this chamber more comfortable for you, but I prefer that, for now, you remain here. I may have questions that need swift answers and I cannot ride to your home every time that happens. Surely you understand that.”
It was a polite way of denying her and Juliandra averted her gaze, looking down at her new dress, picking absently at imaginary strings on the sleeves.
“I had to ask,” she said, trying to sound brave, as if his denial didn’t really matter. “There are only servants to manage the house as well as the business. My family has worked very hard for both, and I fear what will happen if the absence of my father is too long.”
He frowned. “Will your servants steal from you?”
She shook her head, quickly. “Nay,” she said. “But they are only servants. They look for direction from me, as the lady of the house, and from my father, as their lord. All servants and soldiers need direction, do they not?”
Kevin nodded slowly. “They do,” he said. “Knights, too. I have certainly needed direction in the past. In fact, Wybren is part of my first command.”
She looked at him as if surprised by the confession. “It is?”
He continued to nod. “I have always taken orders from my liege, my father, even my brother,” he said. “The truth is that Hyssington, Trelystan, and Caradoc Castles belong to me, as does Wybren, but that was not always so. The Trilaterals castles belonged to my brother before he gave them to me two years ago. He gifted me with my family’s hereditary title, Lord of the Trilaterals.”
She cocked her head thoughtfully. “I have heard that title,” she said. “You own three castles?”
“Four.”
“Four,” she corrected herself. “But why should your brother give them to you if they belonged to him?”
“Because he married well,” he said. “He married the heiress to the Bath and Glastonbury earldom and is now the earl. I was his commander at the Trilaterals and he gave them to me. They have been in my family, or at least the lands have, since the time of the Duke of Normandy. I had an ancestor who came with the duke, part of a collection of great knights known as the Anges de Guerre.”
“Angels of War,” she translated softly. “Your ancestors were Norman, then.”
He held up a hand to make a point. “Not entirely,” he said. “My ancestor married into the local population, here along the Welsh border,” he said. “Family legend says his wife was part of a lost Roman tribe, descendants of the Romans who ruled these shores a thousand years ago.”
“Fascinating,” she said. “And the sapphire dragon? Where did that come from?”
He shrugged, leaning against the wall as he warmed to the conversation. “The dragon is Welsh,” he said. “The House of de Lara has always been a Marcher lordship, so it symbolizes that relationship. We have always had an excellent relationship with the Welsh, even when the Welsh princes were bent on rebellion. My father was particularly good at keeping the peace.”
“He is gone now?”
Kevin nodded. “He has been gone for a few years,” he said. He hesitated before continuing, but she was so easy to talk to, he couldn’t seem to stop himself. “It is one of my great regrets that I did not spend more time with him. He was a lonely old man for many years, with my brother and me off saving England. He even died alone and that is something both my brother and I deeply regret.”
That human part of him was coming through again, the man with feeling. Juliandra could see it.
“Surely he knew that you were doing your duty,” she said. “He must have been proud of you both.”
“I would like to think so,” Kevin said. “At least, he was proud of me. My brother, on the other hand, had involved himself in… well, it does not matter. Sean is still the greatest knight I have ever known. Fortunately, my father realized that before he died.”
Juliandra smiled faintly as she heard the admiration in his tone. “What kept you away from home for so long? Were you off fighting wars?”
Kevin nodded, faintly. “Something like that,” he said quietly. “I served the Earl of Pembroke for many years. I also served Christopher de Lohr, the Earl of Hereford and Worcester. He is a great Marcher lord, too.”
“Pembroke,” she repeated. “I have heard that name. Who is the earl?”
“William Marshal.”
She pondered that for a moment, recognizing the name. “He is an important man, is he not?”
“He is. He is now the man who rules England.”
“But England has a king.”
Kevin nodded. “A king who is a child,” he said. “William Marshal is the lad’s protector and advisor.”
“Do you serve him still?”
He smiled weakly. “One is never truly out of the service of William Marshal,” he said. “But I have resigned my position if that is what you are asking. However, if he calls, I must answer.”
“Your brother, too?”
“My brother most of all.”
Juliandra thought on what he’d told her. It seemed to her that Kevin was no simple knight if he had ties to William Marshal, who was inarguably the greatest knight England had ever seen. He controlled much of the country, as well, meaning Kevin was much more prestigious than she had originally thought.
He was no simple Marcher lord.
“Then you are a warlord, the kind my father dislikes so intensely,” she said with a smile.
Kevin chuckled. “I am a warlord, indeed,” he said. “Unfortunately, warlords are necessary. We are the only thing that stands between civility and chaos. Your father should appreciate us more.”
Juliandra shrugged, mostly in agreement. “My father dislikes everything these days, so do not take it personally.”
Given what he’d been told about the man, Kevin understood. “He hates warlords and the church,” he said. “There isn’t much left. I would assume that he at least loves his only child.”