Page 7 of Lion of Thunder (De Lohr Dynasty: Sons of de Lohr #5)

CHAPTER SIX

Seat of the Earl of Daventry

“I ’ll not capitulate to your threats!”

Dustin was facing off with a surprisingly strong young woman. Cedrica de Steffan was a beautiful girl, fragile looking, with skin the color of cream and long red hair. She had been quite pleasant when Dustin and her daughters arrived, knowing they’d come on behalf of Westley and hoping this meant what she thought it meant—that Westley took her threats of a pregnancy seriously and they’d come to discuss a betrothal.

Given the situation and the time-sensitive nature of it, Dustin forwent the pleasantries and dived straight into the subject of Cedrica’s alleged pregnancy. Her father, too, had hoped that the appearance of Lady Hereford meant a marriage proposal on behalf of her son, and when the pregnancy was brought up, he was certain that was why the woman had come.

He couldn’t have been more wrong.

Dustin hadn’t come to discuss a marriage. She had come to question the pregnancy and the very character of Cedrica. It only took a few moments of conversation for Cedrica to realize that Dustin didn’t believe her. Even if the girl was pregnant, Dustin intimated that there could be other fathers than her son. Cedrica had tried to be pleasant, but it was clear that Lady Hereford had no intention of making this a polite conversation where her son’s future was concerned, so the moment Dustin suggested that she would ask around to see who else Cedrica had slept with, the proverbial gloves came off.

Now, Dustin was facing off against an angry little devil.

“Why should you consider my suggestion a threat?” Dustin asked calmly. “If you have nothing to hide, then it should not be an issue. That is why I brought my daughters, so they can make inquiries about other partners you may have had. They will get to the bottom of this situation.”

“My lady,” Lord Daventry spoke up, red in the face and struggling with his manners. “You cannot possibly suggest that my daughter is unchaste? Surely you do not mean that.”

“I intend to find out, my lord.”

Daventry looked at his daughter in astonishment before returning his attention to Dustin. “But… but she was seduced by your son,” he said. “He practically forced himself on her. Look at her—she is small and weak. Your son is more than twice her size. He could have easily overpowered her.”

Dustin’s eyes narrowed. “Are you suggesting what I think you are suggesting?”

Daventry cleared his throat loudly. “I am simply saying that he is a seducer.”

“Your daughter could have refused.”

Daventry was quickly losing his mannerly behavior. “In the face of an enormous de Lohr son? She would risk her life to do so.”

Dustin didn’t like the fact that they were trying to paint Westley as a predator, or worse. “My son was raised to be respectful and mannerly with women,” she said. “He would never do what you are suggesting—and, in fact, you are suggesting it to cover the tracks of a daughter who finds herself in men’s beds. Often, I’m told. Do not think I’ve not heard of her reputation and how you cannot find a decent husband for her because of it. Now you seek to trap Westley into raising a child that is not his own. If there even is a child.”

Daventry had all he could take. “You forget yourself, madam.”

Brielle put herself between her mother and Lord Daventry. “ You forget yourself, my lord,” she said, jabbing a finger in his face. “My brother was seduced by your daughter, who has probably bedded half of your army, and now you try to foist other men’s leaving upon my brother. You are in the wrong, my lord, and not my mother. You will not speak so to her again.”

Dustin had Brielle by the arm, pulling her back. “Brie,” she said softly, “get back, sweetheart. I am certain Lord Daventry did not mean to be disrespectful. I am certain he would not want such behavior to get back to your father, who would take it as a personal insult. Unless that is what Lord Daventry wishes?”

Daventry was cornered and growing increasingly furious. He eyed Brielle, who was as tall as he was, and the other daughter, Lady de Sherrington, whom he’d heard about. An assassin, some said, in her past. She was certainly married to the most fearsome assassin England had ever seen in Alexander de Sherrington. God’s Bones, he didn’t want that man down around his ears. He’d never survive such a thing. It was bad enough facing the de Lohr women.

He certainly didn’t want to face the men.

“The fact remains that Westley bedded my daughter,” he said, eyeing Brielle and Dustin as he backed away. “She carries his child.”

“How do you know?” Dustin asked.

“Because she told me.”

“And that is your only proof?” Dustin shook her head. “I am not so trusting when it comes to conniving young women. I require more than her word.”

Daventry was outraged. “What do you want, then?” he demanded. “That it comes out looking just like your son? Will that be proof enough?”

Dustin turned to Christin, standing a few feet away. “Lady de Sherrington,” she said, once again reminding Daventry whom her daughter was married to, “you will go to the commander of the army. Invoke your father’s name and ask him to tell you which men have bedded Lady Cedrica. Do what you must to get your answers. Go, now.”

Christin, her gaze lingering on Daventry in a way that suggested she was happy to prove him a liar, quit the chamber as Daventry tried to call her back. But she didn’t return and, exasperated, he turned to Dustin.

“Lady Hereford, you are threatening a long-held alliance between Hereford and Daventry with your behavior,” he said. “I will not tolerate your disrespect any longer.”

Dustin moved toward the man, her manner swift and determined. She wasn’t tall in the least, but her expression made her ten feet above Daventry at that moment. She got in the man’s face, her gray eyes flashing.

“Listen to me and listen well,” she hissed. “I will get to the bottom of this claim and you will not refuse me. Any refusal on your part will see my husband withdraw his alliance with you and, in fact, you will have made an enemy of the great de Lohr empire. You will not have Westley as a husband, either, because I will summon the Bishop of Hereford and tell him the story of your daughter’s reputation. I will dispute Westley’s involvement with her and I will summon every man she has ever bedded. I will put them all in front of a tribunal so that your daughter’s secrets can be spoken aloud, for all the world to hear. If that is how you want the daughter of Daventry to be known, then continue your obstinance and your lies. Continue them and I will fight back by any means necessary. Is this, in any way, unclear?”

By the time she was finished, Daventry was glaring at her with a good deal of loathing. But he also knew he was beaten. If he continued pressing his daughter’s suit, and her lies, then the tide would turn against him and he wouldn’t be able to survive it.

“You are a nasty woman,” he finally growled. “You have daughters yourself. What if this was one of your daughters? Would you still treat her so poorly?”

Dustin smiled thinly. “It would not be one of my daughters,” she said. “I raised mine better than you have raised yours. Now, I must ask your daughter some questions. You may not wish to be present when I do, so it is your choice. Leave or go; it is all the same to me.”

Daventry gave her a long look. “I’ll not leave you alone with her,” he said. Then he gestured at his daughter. “Ask her what you will. But be civil.”

“I told you not to speak to my mother that way,” Brielle growled, stepping up for her mother once again. “Behave yourself, Daventry.”

Daventry didn’t like being bullied by anyone, much less women. He glared at Brielle. “Or what?” he said. “This is my home and I can do as I please.”

Brielle smiled faintly. “As powerful and frightening as you think my father and brothers are, or even my sister’s husband, you should be aware that I married a de Velt,” she said. “Were you not aware of that? My husband and his brothers are the sons of Ajax de Velt. You know that name.”

That brought Daventry pause as the news sank in. “Everyone in England knows that name.”

“Then you do not want the de Velt war machine to come down around you, do you?”

Daventry wasn’t stupid. No one wanted to tangle with the House of de Velt, an empire built on blood and terror. As powerful and intimidating as de Lohr was, a de Velt was even worse. He knew of Ajax de Velt and he knew that the man plowed through the Welsh marches many years ago, confiscating six castles and putting entire armies on pikes for all to see. Roads were lined with crucified soldiers. It was one of the more horrible legacies of warfare in England, but the House of de Velt was mostly in the north now and far more civilized these days.

But he didn’t want to tempt fate.

Waving off the de Lohr women, he went to find a chair to sit in, weary and frustrated, as Dustin faced Cedrica.

“How far along is this pregnancy?” she asked.

Cedrica looked like a cornered cat, edgy and wide-eyed. “Far enough.”

“Do you not know precisely?”

“I’m not sure.”

She was being deliberately evasive, disrespectful in tone. Dustin could see the charade from a mile away. “Answer my question or I will summon a midwife and hold you down while she examines you,” she said. “Now… how advanced is this pregnancy? And tell me the truth.”

That terrified Cedrica because she had no doubt the woman would do what she said she would do.

“I… I do not know for certain,” she said, a little less disrespectfully. “Months, at least.”

“How many months?”

“I do not know, for certain. I—”

“I do.”

The words came from the entry to the chamber where they were all gathered. Everyone turned to see Lady Daventry standing in the opening, her gaze on her daughter. Now, another player had entered the mix. Shaking her head in disgust at her daughter, the short and round Lady Daventry stepped into the chamber.

“This is why you sent me on a mission to the storage vault,” she said to her child. “A mission that was impossible to complete because you requested pickled onions. Those are not in the storage vault, but in the kitchen, or so I have discovered because I was told you moved them.”

Cedrica looked like a cornered cat. “Mama, I—”

“Quiet,” Lady Daventry whispered loudly. “You sent me to the vault knowing fully that I would not find your requested item there. You did this so I would not know that Lady Hereford had come. You do not want me to speak with her and, I suspect, neither did your father. This was probably his idea more than yours, because you’ve never come up with an original idea in your entire life.”

Cedrica stared at her mother, unable or unwilling to respond. That brought Daventry up from his chair.

“You needn’t be here, my dear,” Daventry said. “This conversation does not concern you.”

It was clear that he was trying to chase the woman away, but Dustin stopped him. “Wait,” she said, putting up a hand as she put herself between Daventry and his wife. “ I wish to speak with her. Mayhap I can get a straight answer.”

Lady Daventry focused on Dustin. “Of course I will tell you what you wish to know,” she said, throwing a baleful glance at her husband. “I know I should support my husband and daughter in this matter, but I find that I cannot. Unfortunately, they know it, and that is why they deliberately did not tell me that you had arrived. They know that I cannot support their dishonesty in any fashion.”

Dustin was very interested. “What dishonesty, my lady?”

Lady Daventry sighed heavily as if the weight of the situation was crushing her, body and spirit. “She is not pregnant, my lady,” she said, her voice weaker. “What you see before you is a conspiracy. I am certain Westley bedded my daughter because she lets anyone with interest bed her, but she is not pregnant. My husband hoped to force a marriage based on a lie because once your son and my daughter were married and she became pregnant, she could simply say that the baby was born early. If she did not become pregnant, she could simply say that she lost the child. That is an old scheme, my lady, but I refuse to be part of it.”

Dustin could see the entire story playing out before her as realization dawned. “And knowing you were against this plot, they tried to occupy you elsewhere when I came so you would not tell me the truth,” she said.

“Exactly,” Lady Daventry said, unable to look at her husband, who was standing a few feet away with his eyes closed as his plot was revealed.

But Cedrica was more vocal about it.

“Mama!” she said, bursting into tears. “How could you do this to me?”

“Because you are a stain upon this family’s good name,” Lady Daventry said with contempt. “You are an immoral child, Cedrica. I have tried to teach you well, but you take after your father too much. He has no sense of what is right or wrong and neither do you. Therefore, I have done something about it.”

Cedrica looked at the woman in fear. “What have you done?”

Lady Daventry fixed on her only child. “I have spoken to the nuns at St. Augustine’s Priory,” she said. “I have made arrangements for you to become a postulate.”

Cedrica’s weeping grew louder as her future was revealed. “Nay, Mama! Please!”

“That is the only way to redeem our name, Cedrica,” Lady Daventry said firmly. “You’ll spend your life serving a God you’ve so richly sinned against.”

Cedrica buried her face in her hands and wept. Lady Daventry dared to look at her husband then, but he had his back turned to her, moving away and perhaps contemplating a scheme gone wrong. Lady Daventry knew that he was panicked to get his daughter wed, but she also knew that Cedrica would make a terrible wife. She was vain and disloyal, a bad combination, especially if she married into a family that prided honor. With her husband and daughter in tatters, Lady Daventry finally turned her attention back to Dustin.

“I would offer you our hospitality, but I am certain you do not wish to stay,” she said. “I do not blame you. I hope you do not think too badly of us, my lady. Every family has flaws, some more obvious than others.”

Dustin understood. “You have redeemed your family in my eyes, my lady,” she said. “And we shall be going now.”

Lady Daventry moved aside to make the path to the door clear. “Please tell Westley that I am sorry for the trouble that has been brought to his doorstep,” she said. “Assure him that it will not happen again.”

Dustin forced a smile at the woman, who was genuinely contrite about her husband and daughter. It was too bad that the woman had to deal with vipers in her home, but as she said, every family had flaws. Some were just more obvious than others.

But thank God the woman had spoken up when she did.

And it had been exactly what Dustin had suspected.

Grateful, and anticipating a marriage with Westley and Lord Ledbury’s daughter now without interference, Dustin and her daughters were on the road before the hour was up, heading back to Hereford and Massington Castle.