Unending Love (41 page)

“No more,” she whispered into his dark head.
“What are you going to tell Macsen when there is none left for his morning
meal?”

Maddoc growled, returning his attentions to the
left breast and suckling even though there was nothing left.

“I will tell him that his father is greedy,” he
murmured against her flesh. “If he was any older, I would fight him for the privilege
of claiming it all for myself.”

Adalind giggled softly but her giggles turned to
groans when his thrusting gained pace and she could feel herself building to a
climax.  It was before dawn, the best time to make love before their day began
and their two little boys awoke and demanded attention.  This was their time,
warm and cozy under the covers, sometimes making love two or three times before
the sun rose.

Maddoc could feel Adalind’s tremors beginning
and he thrust hard, grinding his hips against hers, and feeling her powerful
release.  As she panted beneath him, he erupted deep within her, loving the
hot, wet feel of his seed in her body.  He held her buttocks in his hands,
holding her firmly against him as the last of his convulsions died.  With a
heavy sigh, he opened his eyes to say something to her but caught sight of a
big blue pair of eyes staring back at him from beside the bed. Startled, Maddoc
discreetly shifted so that Adalind’s naked chest was covered from view.

“Good morn, Steffen,” Maddoc greeted his eldest
son calmly. “You are up earlier than usual.”

Steffen de Aston du Bois had his father’s bright
blue eyes, dark hair, and big build.  He also had his demeanor, rather calm and
easy-going, except when he woke up in the morning. He and his younger brother
by thirteen months, Macsen, were known to be unhappy terrors in the morning and
Adalind often had her hands full with the both of them.  At nearly three years
old and nearly two years old, they were a joyful handful for their parents, and
very smart. They were learning to unlatch doors and sneak up on unsuspecting
parents.

“Dada,” Steffen rubbed his eyes and yawned. “I
am hungry. I want mush.”

Adalind, buried under Maddoc’s body, carefully pulled
herself out from underneath him and fumbled around under the coverlet for the
shift Maddoc had pulled from her body in the heat of passion.

“I am coming, Steffen,” she assured her little
boy as she found the shift and pulled it over her head. “Where is your
brother?”
Steffen didn’t say anything but he pointed under the bed.  Maddoc looked over
the side of the bed, hanging upside down and peering under the big rope and oak
framed bed to find another pair of bright blue eyes gazing back at him from the
darkness.

“Macsen?” he held out his hand to the child.
“Come out of there, lad.”

Macsen de Lohr du Bois, the same size as his
older brother even though he was more than a year younger, took his father’s
hand and let the man pull him out.  As Adalind climbed out of bed and went in
search of her robe, Maddoc reached out an enormous arm and pulled Steffen into
bed with him.  When Adalind found her heavy robe, put it on, and began hunting
for her slippers, she happened to glance at the bed and saw that Maddoc was
laying there with two dozing toddlers.  Hands on her hips, she went over to the
bed.

“What is this?” she asked, pointing to the bed.
“What did you do to them?”

Maddoc grinned at his wife. “It was evidently a
ploy to get you out of bed so they could steal your place.”

Adalind rolled her eyes but she was grinning. “I
would believe that,” she said, turning away as she continued to hunt for her
shoes.  “They have been plotting since the moment of birth to deprive me of sleep. 
They have succeeded, too, for the most part.”

Maddoc grinned, snuggling with his boys as his
wife pulled on her doeskin slippers. “Perhaps the next child will be
different,” he said softly. “Perhaps that one will be more considerate and
obedient.”

Adalind rubbed her gently swollen belly; nearly
seven months into the pregnancy, she was still round and rosy, not huge and
ungainly that would come in the end months.  Maddoc thought it was the most
beautiful time of her life.

“This child shall be a girl,” she said flatly.
“She shall be sweet and obedient, unlike these boys you allow to rule the house
and hold.”

Maddoc struggled not to laugh. “I do not allow
them anything,” he said. “Blame your grandfather if you must. He pouts like a
spoiled lad every time we discipline them.”

Adalind threw up her hands. “Papa is an old
man,” she said. “All he ever wanted was boys in the family but instead, he got eight
women.  Of course he pouts when we discipline the boys. He is afraid we are
killing their de Lohr spirit.”

“They are du Bois offspring.”

“They are descended from the House of de Lohr.”

They’d had this argument many a time.  Maddoc
put his big hand over Steffen’s head, muting his ears, when the boy stirred at
the sound of his mother’s raised voice.

“They do not look like a de Lohr,” he whispered,
taunting her. “They look like me.”

“And this child shall look like me,” Adalind
said firmly.  She waved a hand at the bed. “Get them up, Maddoc. ‘Tis time to
rise and break their fast and get on with the day.”

Maddoc kissed each boy and tossed back the
covers, climbing out of bed stark naked as he went in search of his clothing. 
The room was warm from the banked fire and rich furnishing so he felt no chill
as he found his breeches and pulled them on.  Meanwhile, Adalind went to the
bed and pulled two sleepy boys from the covers.  They clung to her, yawning, as
Macsen started to whine.  When Maddoc turned around and saw her carrying two
toddlers with her petite size and pregnant belly, he immediately went to her
and took the boys from her.

“Go downstairs,” he told her. “I will finish
dressing and bring them down.”

She waved him off.  “Willow is already down in
the hall, preparing their meal,” she said. “I do not have to lift a finger with
my sister and mother around.”

He smiled faintly. “I am surprised Willow is up
and moving considering how late she stayed up last night.”

Adalind fought off a grin. “The arrival of your
brother was cause for celebration. “

“Celebration, indeed. I was hardly able to speak
with him with Willow hanging all over him.”

“Willow is in love with Trevor,” she told him
what he already knew. “She wants to marry him.”

He grunted. “He is too young.”

“He is twenty years and three.  That is
not
too young.”

Maddoc wasn’t sure what to say, mostly because
anything he said about his brother’s age or reluctance to marry sounded like an
insult towards her sister.  But mention of her sister and Trevor’s arrival
reminded him of something else; a missive had come for Adalind yesterday via
messenger, something that was delivered to David who in turn gave it to
Adalind.  She hadn’t mentioned it to Maddoc but David had. He didn’t know what
was in it, but the rider had been from Yorkshire.  Maddoc wondered who could be
sending his wife a missive all the way from Yorkshire although he had a good
idea.

“Perhaps not,” he finally said. “He did bring a
missive from my father, however.  It would seem that my brother Evan is
betrothed to a local heiress in Navarre. Perhaps we will have a wedding to
attend next year, after all.”

Adalind lifted her eyebrows, surprised and
pleased. “That is excellent news,” she said. “I hope he does not get married
before the baby is old enough to travel. I have never been to Navarre, and I
should like your mother and father to see their grandchildren.”

“I will make sure Evan understands his life
revolves around your schedule before making his wedding plans,” he said,
winking at her.  In his arms, Steffen wanted to be set down so Maddoc lowered
the boy to the ground.  “Speaking of missives, your grandfather said you
received one yesterday. You have not made mention of it.”

Adalind’s warm expression vanished.  She lowered
her gaze, grasping Steffen by the hand when the little boy toddled close. After
a moment, she sighed.

“That is because I was not sure what to say
about it,” she said quietly. “I was going to tell you, of course, but the
subject… well, it is a sensitive one.”

“Who was it from?”

“Glennie,” she said. “It would seem that she is
getting married and has invited us to attend.”

Maddoc sobered as he made his way over to the
bed, sitting on the edge with a dozing Macsen cradled against his shoulder.

“She must not know what happened with Brighton,”
he said softly. “Otherwise, I am sure she would not have invited us.”

Adalind nodded sadly. “Brighton was buried in Maresfield,”
she said. “The priests knew who we were but they did not know where Brighton
hailed from. No one ever told them.  And Norfolk… he knew that Brighton came
after me when I escaped from Arundel. So if Brighton never returned to Arundel,
surely d’Aubigney could figure out what happened. Surely he must have suspected
Canterbury was involved in Brighton’s disappearance, and if Brighton’s family
came looking for him, would Norfolk not tell them what he knew?”

Maddoc sighed faintly, stroking her blond head.
“I have gone months or even years without any contact with my family,” he
murmured, kissing her temple because she looked so upset. “Daniel is even
worse; we have gone years without seeing him at all.  It has only been four
years since everything happened with Brighton so it is quite possible the de
Royans do not even know he is missing and presumed dead.”

Adalind looked at him. “But if Glennie is
getting married, surely they have sent word to Norfolk for Brighton, and surely
d’Aubigney will send word that Brighton has not been at Arundel for four years.
If she does not know of her brother’s disappearance, then she will soon.”

“What do you want to do, then? Do you want to
tell her the truth?”

Adalind shook her head, picking Steffen up when
the boy whined and setting him on the bed between them.

“I do not want to tell her,” she murmured. “But
she was so good to me for so long, Maddoc. She was my only friend during those
dark years at Winchester.  But she knows nothing about what happened with her
brother and I do not see the good in telling her such things. Let her remember
her brother as she wishes to, without my stories of abduction and battles.  I
would not burden her so with such things.”

“She would think different of you, I suppose.”

“It is not me I worry about. It is you.”

“Why?”

She turned to look at him, a hint of a smile on
her lips. “Because you are the most wonderful husband in all the world,” she
said softly. “You are the man I love, the man I have always loved, and we have
the most wonderful life together imaginable.  You are strong and true and
loyal, and you did what you had to do. I will not have anyone hate you for
doing your duty.  Not even Glennie. Let her remember her brother as she
chooses, for I will remember you only as my hero.”

He smiled faintly, leaning forward to kiss her
on the lips and laughing softly when Steffen didn’t take kindly to it. The
child was rather possessive of his mother and tended to get upset when his father
showed affection towards her.

“What will you tell your friend, then?” he
asked. “She will be expecting an answer.”

Adalind sighed thoughtfully, hugging Steffen
when the boy stood up and put his arms around her neck.

“I will thank her for the invitation but tell
her I cannot travel because of the impending child,” she said. “We will leave
it at that.”

“Are you sure?”

“I am. But since I am being denied Glennie’s
wedding, you had better tell your brother to offer for my sister’s hand. I have
a yearning to attend a wedding this year and since I cannot travel, the wedding
will have to be here.”

Maddoc just shook his head, grinning, as he
stood up from the bed. “I will not involve myself in that affair.”

Adalind stood up and helped Steffen off the bed,
following Maddoc to the door. “Aye, you will,” she insisted. “You will do this
for me.”

“I will not.”

“I wish it.”

They argued all the way downstairs into the
great hall.  They argued off and on for the next three months until one cold
evening, Adalind began feeling the pangs of labor and by morning had delivered
a healthy daughter.  Maddoc was so thrilled at the birth of Cathlina Elizabeau
du Bois that on the day of her christening, he cornered his brother and nearly
strong armed the man into offering for Willow’s hand.  It wasn’t much of a
feat, considering Trevor hadn’t returned home to France in over four months
because of Willow, so much to Adalind’s glee, Willow and Trevor were married
the following summer.

For the de Lohr and du Bois legacy, life went
on.  David and Emilie watched as their grandchildren married and had children
of their own.  Willow and Trevor had a son in the year following their marriage
and two years after Cathlina was born, Adalind gave birth to another girl,
Rhoslyn.

In the coming years, when David grew too old to
move effectively and would spend most of his time sitting by the hearth,
warming his old bones and reliving his glory days, Maddoc would sit with him
and listen to tales of valor, many of them involving Maddoc himself, but told
with David’s spin to the point where even Maddoc came to believe he was greater
than life.  Steffen and Macsen would hear the same tales, retelling them over
and over to their children, who passed the family legends down.