Page 51 of The Valiant Knight (The Ravensmire Chronicles #2)

It was when something touched his shoulder that he jumped and spun.

It was Graham.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

God.

He hadn’t heard him coming.

“Wear a bell, my dude. You almost gave me the big one.”

He was amused.

Graham had woken up from his nap, and both Tony and the skull were gone. He figured he knew where they would be.

“Sorry. I was a soldier. I don’t make noise when I walk. What are you doing?”

He had questions of his own.

“What’s behind the wall?”

Graham rarely came down here, and on top of that, it was dark in the back corner.

“I don’t know. I can ask the construction crew to take a look when they have a chance. We don’t want to open a wall if it’s structural. If you collapse this castle, Callen’s going to be angry. Chris too.”

He had a point.

It looked like curiosity could, indeed, kill the cat. In this case, the cat was an anthropologist.

As they began walking away from it, there was talking coming from somewhere. There were low murmurs like two people were having a whole-ass conversation.

Somewhere.

They both looked around.

“We done fucked up by doing construction here,” Tony said.

Graham agreed there.

There was no doubt in his mind that one single action contributed to the situation.

Then again, they dug up a body, and played with bones in a crypt. That couldn’t be helpful, now could it?

“Opening the tower where Ceit died has made it crazy, and she was calm until we dug her up.”

That was the truth.

Graham thought about it.

“When Gryphen and Ian were here, as soon as Ceit realized they would help her, she started acting out more often. These ghosts must know we’re trying to answer some questions, and they want our attention.”

That appeared to be it.

Well, they had it.

As they walked out of the room where the crypts were placed, they didn’t get five feet before they saw it.

On the stone floor, there was a piece of paper.

“Uh, that wasn’t there before,” Graham said. “I literally just walked through here.”

Tony was curious.

It was his nature.

Heading toward it, he picked it up and read over it. The paper was the same in the big, old historical archive of Ceit’s letters.

Turning it over, he began reading it.

‘My eldest child,

As your father, I am telling you that you are not to divorce your husband. You will bring great shame to our family. If he has a lover, or lies with a man, you will tolerate it, and play Lady of Ravensmire.

That is your duty.

Your mother and I have talked this over, and we will disown you if you try to leave. In fact, I am on my way there to talk to you. I’m bringing your sister to offer her to Duncan.

His unhappiness with you must be amended. You are aware of how important the alliance between us and the Granndachs are. It mustn’t be tarnished.

Your sole duty is to give him a daughter, and fill his manor with children. Your heart being broken over his needs to empty his balls is not important. You let him have his lovers, and you do what you’ve been raised to do.

Or else.

Don’t make me angry, Ceit. We will not have this family disgraced.

Lord Oisin of Darragh.’

Tony showed Graham.

Well, holy shit!

“Her father sounded pissed that she’d dare try to end her marriage with Duncan,” Tony admitted. “Do you think he would be angry enough to hurt her? He was bringing his replacement womb for Duncan.”

Graham considered it.

“I mean, back then, women were traded like cattle. So it’s possible he showed up and handled her. He did warn her ‘or else’ , and that’s very telling especially since someone clocked her in the face and shoved her out the window.”

The minute he said that, they heard crying.

Oh, boy.

Ceit was still not resting, and now, they just might have the fourth player in the game. Their suspicions about Ciarán Begbie appeared to be right. Duncan was laying with a man too.

“Well, this is a big mystery. Did the father come here and kill his daughter out of rage, or did the Lord’s lover, Ciarán Begbie, get rid of the competition?”

That was a damn good question.

“What caught my attention most was this part,” Graham said, surprised he was now helping on this wild ghost hunt.

He pointed.

It was the line about him having a lover or liking men.

“It appeared that Duncan wasn’t so good at hiding the truth about him being gay. His wife must have pieced it together, and the letter to Duncan saying she feared Ciarán was likely her way of clueing him in that she knew what he was doing—or who.”

Tony thought about it.

“I mean, if he needed his bed warmed, and he was away at battle, how convenient would it be to diddle his man-at-arms?” he asked. “He’d be there, and accessible. What did you do when you were fighting and around other men?”

Oh, he knew.

He’d been immersed in D’Artangnan. Once they both figured out they were gay, and they needed to not feel so alone, they’d had sex.

OFTEN.

He’d always been submissive in bed, and when D’Artangnan found out, he made sure he was in precarious positions all of the time.

“While at war, I satisfied my needs,” he said. “War is hell. Why not take a little joy when you could?”

That’s what Tony thought.

“So now, we don’t know if Ceit was shoved out a window by her husband’s possible lover, or if her father came here and killed her. All I know is that if I was Duncan, and I came home and found my wife dead, my child left motherless, and two men fighting over my dick, I’d be testy.”

Oh, Graham agreed.

Before he could say anything, Tony went back into the crypt. As he stared at the stone sarcophaguses that held Duncan and now Ceit, he was curious.

“What if that other crypt was for his lover?” he asked. “Duncan is in the middle, and Ceit was on his left. What if his lover was on his right? His right-hand-man?”

Well, holy shit.

“I mean, it could be. We know Duncan never remarried. Maybe he couldn’t. But that brings up the following questions that still have to be solved until we get a chance at resolution. Where are his lover’s bones, who killed Ceit, and what is behind that wall?”

It looked like they needed to find out.

Somehow.