In the end the confrontation was anti-climactic. His uncle William was resigned. It was as if he waited for this moment and was relived it arrived. His son, Jack's cousin William, was less prepared, but unlike his mother and father he was never a fighter. Jack ordered all the arrested people into the great hall and it was satisfying to see his Aunt's face pale at the sight of the hired bandits bruised and bloodied faces and bodies. Uncle William was equally shocked to see Turner and the Joneses and Smollett present and shackled.
Aunt Leona protested, oh she did, but the winds have changed and she had little influence now. The elders eyed him nervously and his men stood like a monolith wall. Jack hadn't wanted to force them like this, but sometimes the choice was already made. In this case, the choice has been made the moment Kimberly was attacked.
Jack calmly gave them their options: leave for Uncle William's small estate in the East Anglia and never come back here. He knew what this meant" a significantly reduced circumstances and consequence. His Uncle looked like he wanted to argue, but Jack pointed to Turner, who whimpered every time Jack so much as looked at him, and subsided. His cousin William looked relived: he must have expected severe beating or worse, so he nodded and asked if his family - Katherine, Claire and Donna - would be spared. Jack felt magnanimous: he had no ill will towards the young women. They were as free as he was when it came to parents. He had paid handsomely for who his parents were, he had no desire to make others suffer.
The other option was to stand accused of plotting the murder and deception. Aunt Leona wailed about his ungrateful nature and he calmly offered her an alternative: she could join her favorite abbot in pursuing higher calling. She liked to visit the monastery, she could relocate there permanently. She spewed so much vitriol, it was a wonder anyone thought her to be a lady. The woman was rude and vulgar like any fishwife and Jack wondered why he hadn't bothered to cut them off before. His life certainly would have been easier. Leona raised her hand as to slap him and Uncle William sprang with surprising agility to stop her.
"My lady! Cease this behavior! Think of the girls!" he was pleading with her and she turned to him with a snarl.
"You spineless worm! How I hated my father for marrying me off to you. You are coward and I always had to prod you. If it weren't for me, you would have still been in that dirty village of yours." She spun towards Jack and bared her teeth, "You bastard child! I knew you were a curse on this family and I was right. All of the Ushers are dying or lost because of you. Your useless mother, your uncle and my brother, his wife, myself... But it's your cursed Bruer blood, so you just wait. Time will come and your own flesh and blood will turn on you."
He was silent for a moment looking at this insane woman.
"They already have. There is no one who I can call my own... Except for my wife. And you tried to get rid of her... I thought I might let you go with your husband, but now I think he wouldn't be able to control you. You will be placed in the monastery to live out your life in prayers."
"I hate you! I hate you! You and your wife! You showed up here and ruined everything! And she is a wily one. Didn't even touch anything cooked in this place. I hate you both!"
His men dragged the woman away and she was joined by the elders, who still stood accused of plotting to deceive him. Jack sighed and turned to both Williams.
"I give you two days to ready yourselves and leave. This time you will remain under lock and key. I never see any of you, it would be too soon."
He then turned to the remaining elders, "I intend to strip Turner and Jones Senior of their positions. Their families would be allowed a small allowance, but the rest of their fortunes forfeit to me. Let it be a lesson to all of you: I shall not tolerate any dissension in the ranks. Later, we shall publicly punish the bandits that attached my wife."
And then he was marching out. Fast. As fast as he could without appearing to be running.
He needed to see Kimberly: dealing with all this today made him feel dirty and empty.
He found her in the large anteroom to their quarter, dicing some herbs and listening to Rose attempting to sing the song that he heard Kimberly sing in York: the one about roses and gardens and sweet dreams. She looked so carefree, his heart melted immediately at the sight of her smile and the sound of her voice as she tried to provide a melody for Rose.
Jack watched as she laughed - melodiously and carefree - and he was both happy and afraid. She was the island of peace in this world that always tied to hurt her. He could protect her - after all, wasn't the safest place in England behind him? But wasn't the most dangerous place to be near him?
He sighed and she must have felt it, because for sure she couldn't have heard it. She turned to him with a wide smile.
"Are you going to dine with me, my lord? Maybe we can ask Anne - and Sanders would watch to make sure - to cook something simple for us?"
"I cannot, milady," he said formally and saw how Rose bowed quickly and left the room.
"Oh, but I thought you'd be done by now... Well, maybe, we can hold the dinner till you're free?"
"I shall be busy all evening."
Laughter was leaving her face in stages. First, it was gone from her eyes, and then it was gone from her lips.
"Has- Has something happened?" she asked tentatively.
Jack paused and thought it over. He never knew how much he could tell her. even before, when she was a young woman from the continent, who lost her memories. Now that he knew that she was from another time and world, he wondered if he should burden her with such knowledge as killings and public executions. And she was at the heart of these recent events: people plotted against her and people were paying for that now. She, with her different ideas of people's value and free will, she might not see things the way they were here. Should he protect her by not telling her or should he protect her by informing her?
"Kimberly," Jack took her hands and sat her before him. He lowered his head, gathering thoughts and words and...
Cold sweat broke out all over him at once.
There, on Kimberly's delicate wrist, was a mottling of red dots and raised skin. It wasn't there before. It was red and angry and it could only be- His Aunt's words about food and -
Not realizing that he was hurting her, he squeezed her wrist so hard, she exclaimed in pain.
"What... is... this?" he words pushed past his nerveless lips, feeling like he was falling into abyss.
Kimberly didn't understand right away what he was asking about and what got him so upset. And when she did understand - she exclaimed in surprise and spoke quickly, hurrying to pacify Jack, who was half dead from fear.
"This? It's nothing. It's nettle! I was dicing nettle and it burned me. See?" she was speaking with conviction, widening her eyes. "I promise you."
"Nettle?" Jack didn't quite believe her and then she jumped from where she sitting and brought the small board, spilling the green shavings of the herb.
Jack, stunned and not quite seeing right, didn't understand what she was talking about. Then he took a handful of cut herb and rubbed it with his fingers. Reality was slowly coming back to him.
"Good god, Jack. You look so pale," she whispered to him with endless tenderness.
He pressed her to him, so tight that the uneven beat of her heart was echoing like thunder in his own chest. He sat like this, slowly recovering. Concentrating on her breathing - warm exhale on his neck, cool air of inhale - he listened to her heartbeat.
All his fears that he conquered when he left her alone to go to Salcombe - they rushed at him as one great wave, threatening to drown him under. A terrible thought that Kimberly would have been better off never appearing in this world passed through the edge of his consciousness and disappeared in the heat of his horror of never knowing her.
She might not have had the choice in being here and now, but she chose him. She chose him and he tried not to disappoint her every day of his life now.
He could protect her. Always. No matter what awaited for them in the future. Even if his fears made him appear cowardly and silly. Like right now.
Kimberly wrapped her arms around his neck, raised herself on the tip toes until she was even with his face: eyes to eyes, lips to lips.
"Christmas will be soon," she said, placing kisses after every word. "And you would have to give me a present. And not just me. Everyone in the household. And we will put stockings over the great hearth and we will put little..."
He didn't understand a word of what she was saying.
"A present?" he asked, upset that she was saying so many words, leaving him without kisses.
"Think what it could be," she said firmly and smiled again. Her eyes were lit with that particular fire, which - he already knew - appeared only in those special moment. It meant that she was thinking of something entirely different from presents and conversations.
As for him, he usually stopped thinking altogether.
But right now was middle of the day and he still had matters to attend to, but what he wanted was for it to be a dark night and to hold warm feminine body and tangle hands in soft hair, and to kiss slightly damp skin, and hear the rustle of sheets on bed, and talk in quiet whispers, and many other things that now comprised majority of his thoughts and dreams and desires.
"Wait," Jack shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts. It was difficult not to touch her when she was so close, but he moved away a little, suffering g from this separation like he was bitten by a pack of wolves. How could he exist without everything that she was?
How could a person feel all these emotions and not die from some sort of avalanche of feelings? How was it that his heart hasn't burst open yet?
He breathed in and out, reminding himself that he was a fearsome warrior, "We need to talk about your reputation." He decided not to mention the executions just yet.
"What? Why?"
"Your were fighting in the market. People didn't understand how you evaded bandits and now they think the Providence was helping you. This... This attracts a lot of attention. Not all of it is good."
"What? Oh, like, I'm a heretic or a witch? But what I was supposed to do? They were coming at me and Rose with sticks! I defended myself and if your society can't believe that women can defend themselves, then it's on them, not me."
He smiled at her indignant face. "Of course, it's completely understandable that you would defend yourself. And I am not worried about your being accused of witchcraft. I meant that with you being so popular with the commoners, makes others take notice. Others might find it an obstacle to their plans."
"Ahh... So you think you that someone attacked me because I was becoming an asset to you, instead of a burden. And you need to know who it was?"
"I know who was it this time. I'm worried that there would be more."
"Well... Ushers and Cai come to mind. But what you need to know is if your father is aware of it too..." She sounded sad and he knew it was on his behalf. "What can I do to help you?"
Her determined face and bright eyes broke his resolve and he quickly hugged her and kissed anywhere he could reach: eyes, lips, nose, freckles, chin...
"Ushers will leave Torquay in two days time. They are under arrest now. We... you would be safe for now, although don't leave your rooms without Sanders. And then I expect visitors from Devon."
She subsided and nodded. "Your father... Would he approve of what you have done?"
"He approves of strenthening the influence of our family. But he also is worried about Cai and his claim to barony. There could be no challenges and I am a challenge. Whether I want it or not."
She nodded again, "I'll be fine. Don't worry about me. I have my people and Sanders and the Providence on my side."
He answered be faint smile and left to go back to dealing with the prisoners and elders and Ushers.
That evening he came back to their rooms having just witness the execution of four captured bandits. He didn't suffer unnecessary guilt over it: these men chose their path in life and this was a logical end of it. But in this display he saw what this world must have looked like to Kimberly. It was violent and merciless and hostile to her. People trade her as a bride. People tried to hurt her, poison her, kill her...
He laid down in bed with no desire to talk or move at all. They day was not just long: it was endlessly gruelling.
"Could you just hold me?" he asked in toneless voice.
She readily wrapped her arms and legs around him and pressed close without saying a word. They lay like this in darkness, until all the noises outside died down.
Soon he would face his father. With Kimberly by his side.
