Susan Spencer Paul (8 page)

I
t hadn’t really changed. Not much, anyway. On the other hand, nothing seemed truly familiar, either. Standing in the courtyard of Castle Gyer and staring up at the massive front doors to the great hall, Hugh felt as though he were walking through some kind of dream, as though everything surrounding him might at any moment waver and dissolve.

Only one thing anchored him to reality at present, and that was Rosaleen. She seemed more nervous and tense than he, and she was holding one of his hands, squeezing and patting it by turns. Whenever he began to feel overwhelmed by where he was and what lay before him, he would glance at Rosaleen and feel, of all things to feel at such a time, rather amused at the fierce expression on her face. She looked as if she were preparing for battle, as if she would protect him from whatever evils might come spewing forth from the doors that she was fairly close to glaring at with those beautiful eyes of hers.

Of course, Hugh told himself, he neither needed nor wanted her to mother or protect him. He hated being mothered and protected by well-meaning females. Hated it. Despised it. And he was only letting her get away with it because of the strangeness of the circumstances. Later,
when Alex and Lillis had either welcomed them in or sent them on their way, he would make it clear to Rosaleen that she wasn’t to behave in such a manner with him ever again. Anyway, he couldn’t tell her to quit it now because he wasn’t able to make his voice work, a fact that worried him somewhat, along with the trembling he appeared to have no control over, and which he desperately hoped Rosaleen wasn’t feeling. That and the sweating, though how she could avoid knowing that he was sweating like fresh cheese left out in the sun when she was holding his hand the way she was seemed impossible to him.

“He’s
not
Uncle Hugo.”

Hugh’s spine straightened, and Rosaleen stopped patting his hand midair.

“He
looks
like Uncle Hugo.”

“But he’s
not
Uncle Hugo.”

Two tall, lanky boys walked from behind Rosaleen and Hugh to stand in front of them. They were dark-haired and possessed of stunning light blue eyes. They were somewhere around nine or ten years of age. They were twins.

“But he
looks
like Uncle Hugo,” one of the boys repeated, gazing into Hugh’s face without the least bit of wariness.

“But he’s
not
Uncle Hugo,” the other boy insisted. “Are you, sir?”

Hugh tried to speak, to say that, no, he was not their Uncle Hugo, he was their Uncle Hugh, but his voice still wouldn’t work.

He shook his head instead.

Alexander Baldwin, the Lord of Gyer, was hard at work in his private chamber when he heard the commotion in the great hall. He had only just lifted his head from what
he’d been reading when his youngest brother, Justin, walked into the room.

“You’d best come, Alex,” Justin advised in the terse, serious manner that had defined him for all of his nineteen years.

Without a word Alexander got up and followed Justin out of the room and into the great hall, where he was greeted by the sight of his castlefolk crowding the many long windows, peering into the courtyard as though some great spectacle were taking place there.

“Make way for your lord,” Justin demanded as he parted the crowd by the nearest window. “Make way, I said!”

Alexander pressed his way to the front and looked out.

He was silent for several long moments and he felt, somewhere behind his eyes, a strange pressure that he’d not felt in many and many a year. He blinked several times against both the feeling and what he was seeing, and then he gave way to both.

“Dearest God,” he whispered. “Oh, my great and gracious God.”

“I’ll fetch Lillis,” Justin said, but Alexander didn’t hear him. He was already on his way, running, to the front doors of Castle Gyer.

Rosaleen had finally come to his rescue.

“This is your Uncle Hugh,” she was explaining to the boys, patting Hugh’s hand again in a comforting manner. “Your Uncle Hugh,” she repeated to their astonished faces. “You know of him, do you not? He is your Uncle Hugo’s twin, just as the two of you are twins.”

The boys looked to Hugh for confirmation of this fact, but he seemed to have turned into an idiot. He stood and stared at his nephews helplessly, wondering what had
happened to him. These were his nephews, for mercy’s sake! If he couldn’t make himself speak to them, how would he manage it when Alex and Lillis came?

And then the doors to Castle Gyer were flung open, and he had his answer.

He wasn’t going to be able to manage it at all.

In all the years that he’d been away from his family, Hugh had never considered that they might age. Always, in his thoughts, they had stayed the way they had been on the day he had left them. It was something of a surprise, then, to see Alex, and to see that he had aged. His eldest brother’s face had matured; a few gray hairs were sprinkled through his thick, dark hair. And he looked.. .smaller. His great, strong, eldest brother looked so much smaller than Hugh remembered, and then he realized with even greater amazement that Alex only looked smaller because he, Hugh, had grown bigger.

“Hugh,” Alex was saying over and over, staring at him in disbelief. “Hugh. Hugh.”

And he kept saying it as he moved forward, and then he began to cry it as he crushed Hugh in his powerful arms, and finally, after wetting him with his tears, Alex laughed it, joyously, disbelievingly and with relief.

“You came home,” he whispered, pulling back from Hugh and taking hold of his shoulders. His eyes moved hungrily over his younger brother’s face. “You came home, Hugh.”

Hugh still couldn’t speak. All he could do was stand there and stare into Alex’s beloved face and nod.

Alex lifted one hand and gently touched Hugh’s cheek. His fingers came back wet, which surprised Hugh so much that he lifted his own hand to touch his face and realized that he, too, was crying.

“Why, I’m crying like a babe,” he announced with some awe, finding his voice at last. He thought to himself, belatedly, that the first words he’d said to his eldest brother after ten years’ absence had been incredibly foolish.

Alexander laughed and hugged him again, long and tight, before loosing him. “We’re both crying like babes,” he said. “You have unmanned me in front of my people, Hugh, but I swear by all that is holy that seeing you again makes it well.” He shook his head and laughed once more, victoriously this time. “You’ve come
home!
Hugh!”

Hugh laughed in return, and the brothers grinned at each other happily until Alexander finally noticed the young lady standing beside them. Hugh was holding one of her hands in a grip so tight that the poor girl looked as though she were about to go down on her knees.

“God’s mercy, Hugh! Who is this lovely creature whose fingers you’re crushing?” His face lit with a sudden thought and he said, before Hugh could answer, “Why, you’ve brought home a wife!”

“What!” Hugh released Rosaleen quickly. “No, Alex, this isn’t my wife. This is—”

A great, joyful shriek rent the air, and then a blurred vision of white and crimson went flying past Rosaleen and leapt upon Hugh, nearly knocking him down.

“Lillis!” Hugh cried, hugging the creature who had attacked him. Holding her tight, he spun her around in a circle, causing her unbound white hair to flutter like some kind of silken banner.

Rubbing at the hand he’d nearly wrung off her wrist, Rosaleen watched Hugh with an odd mixture of relief and jealousy. His family was glad to have him home, so glad that the knowledge of it nearly brought her to tears. She was happy for him, truly. At the same time, however, she couldn’t help but feel left out.

“God’s feet,” one of the twins muttered in a clearly unhappy voice, “I’ve never seen Mother or Father behave in such a way.”

His brother shook his head with equal amazement. “It’s not fitting,” he declared.

“But they’ve not seen your Uncle Hugh in many years,” Rosaleen explained in an effort to soothe them. “They’re only welcoming him home, you see. It’s perfectly fitting. Just imagine if you’d not been home in ten years’ time. Your parents would be filled with joy to see you again, too.”

“But we don’t even know him!” the one nearest her argued.

The corners of Rosaleen’s lips tilted into a smile. “From this day forward, however, you shall.”

Hugh finally set his sister down, allowing his eldest brother to get their attention.

“And look what Hugh’s brought home, my love,” he said to his wife, turning her in Rosaleen’s direction.

It was the first chance Rosaleen had to actually see the blur that had rushed by her moments before, and when her eyes finally rested upon the lady Lillis Baldwin, she drew her breath in.

The woman was stunning; white-haired and regal and beautiful as a queen. Rosaleen knew herself to be of good bearing, but this tall, lovely woman made her feel like a dwarf, and a plain one at that.

Lady Lillis’s crystal blue eyes lit with fire as they took in Rosaleen, and then an ecstatic smile bloomed on her lips.

“Hugh!” she cried, moving toward Rosaleen with outstretched arms. “You’ve brought home a wife! Oh, my dear, welcome to Gyer!” She embraced Rosaleen warmly, and when she drew back, Rosaleen gazed up into the lady’s
happy, tear-streaked face, which was gazing with great joy down at her own shocked one.

“But I’m not…”

“Lillis,” Hugh said firmly, moving between them and setting a hand lightly about Rosaleen’s waist, “this is
not
my wife!” He laughed. “By the rood! I come home after ten years and you want to fetter me at once with a wife!” He drew Rosaleen forward. “This,” he announced with what sounded amazingly to Rosaleen like pride, “is Rosaleen. And, in truth, you have her to thank for my coming home at all. Rosaleen is a damsel in need, and I have brought her to Alex for rescuing. She must needs get to London, and I thought he’d be the best one to get her there. I regret that I cannot tell you the rest of her name, for she has refused to give it to me. In spite of that, I affirm that she is an honorable lady.”

Rosaleen politely offered the Lord and Lady of Gyer a slight bow and an unsure smile, and she watched, uncomfortably, as everyone present, save Hugh, gaped at her.

“Did you say
Rosaleen?”
Lillis asked in a shocked tone. “But, Hugh…”

“Welcome to our home, my lady,” her husband said quickly. “We are more than pleased to have you with us.”

“But, Alexander!” Lillis protested. “Her name is Rosaleen, and—” The words stopped when one of Alexander’s muscular arms clamped tight about her waist.

“I beg you will pardon my wife,” Alexander said with his most charming smile. “She has a cousin named Rosaleen, and I imagine the resemblance between the two of you has stunned her.” Ignoring his wife’s indignant look, he went on. “There is no question that I shall do all in my power to see you safely to London, my lady. It’s the least I can do after you have brought my wandering brother home to Gyer. Indeed, I fear I shall never be able to fully
repay you for this good deed but shall forever be, most gratefully, in your debt.”

“I must say, Alex,” Hugh said with a grin, “I much prefer your welcome to Hugo’s.”

Alexander laughed. “I wondered who’d given you those bruises on your face. I can well imagine how Hugo greeted you when he saw you.”

“Oh, Hugh!” Lillis said unhappily. “You should have sent him some warning so that he could have prepared himself. These last few years have been very hard on him.”

“So he told me,” Hugh admitted grimly, rubbing his sore chin. “Most convincingly.”

“Let’s not speak of that,” Alexander said. “You’re home now. That’s all that matters. I don’t care what the past ten years have been like as long as you are here again, safe and whole. Come and meet my eldest sons, Hugh. You’ve yet to meet any of your nieces and nephews.”

Alexander proudly drew his sons forward.

“Jaward, Charles, this is your Uncle Hugh. Hugh, this is Jaward, the eldest by five minutes, and this is Charles. They’re as identical as you and Hugo are, so don’t feel badly if you cannot tell them apart right away.”

With his arm still about her, Rosaleen felt the fine tremor that shivered through Hugh as he faced his nephews.

“Hello,” he greeted tentatively as first one, then the other of the twins, clasped his arm.

“Are you the one who won’t be knighted?” Jaward, on the left, asked boldly.

“Jaward!” Alexander gave his son a stern look. “Mind your tongue! I’m sorry Hugh, but the boys have had their heads filled with tales of your adventures by the knights and soldiers who have sojourned here in the past many years. Every one of them seems to have heard of or known
of you, and thus we’ve been entertained with accounts of your feats.”

“We’ve not!” the twin on the right countered, crossing his arms over his thin chest. “It’s Hugh Caldwell we’ve heard tell of, not Hugh Baldwin!”

“Charles!” Lillis gasped furiously. “Your Uncle Hugh is one and the same, and I’ll not have you speak so rudely!”

Lillis’s sons looked immediately contrite, and Hugh felt just as guilty for his own unfriendly behavior, but before any of them could apologize they were interrupted.

“My dearest, you mustn’t be so hard on the boys! They’re just babies still and don’t know any better!”

Hugh knew who it was before he even set eyes on her.

“Edyth!” he said, looking past Lillis and Alexander to where his former teacher was bringing his remaining nieces and nephew out of Castle Gyer.

“Edyth!” he repeated as he strode to that small lady, picked her up off the ground and kissed her soundly. “How I have missed you!”

“Put me down, you foolish boy!” the elderly woman chided. Hugh did as she asked and Edyth looked up at him, touching his face and shoulders and chest with her hands. “Let me look at you, my dearest. Let me look at you. Why, you’ve become a man, Hugh Baldwin. A man full-grown, when I have always thought of you as a boy.” Her smile widened. “Now, tell me that this old woman’s face isn’t that of a stranger to you.”

He kissed her once on each
of
her cheeks. “You are as lovely and wonderful as when I last set eyes on you, my dearest Edyth! There is only one other lady whom I love as I love you, other than my beloved sister,” he said, gracing Lillis with an affectionate grin, “and that is my Aunt Leta, who is now a married lady far gone from Gyer,
or so I have heard tell. But, by God’s own mercy, I am glad to see you again, Edyth of Lielyn!” He hugged her against him, hard, until she laughed and pushed at him.