Page 52 of Promises Made at Midnight
“—and I can mend the hurt I caused you but I wassleeping, Ulrick,” she shouted back at him, her hands placed on her hips in defiance. “You can’t hold me accountable for something I unknowing did when I wasn’t myself and asleep.”
“Aye! I can. ’Tis clear that subconsciously you wish to return to your own time,” he assumed, crossing his arms over his chest.
“You’re being unreasonable,” she stated, tears beginning to rush down her cheeks. She turned away from him to go to a table, resting her hands on the edges whilst he watched her shoulders heave in her grief. “I would never intentionally cause you pain, Ulrick, nor do I wish to leave you to go back to modern times and the empty life that would await me there at my return.”
He took a step forward before he halted in indecision. Aye, perchance she was right when she told him he could not hold her accountable for something she had no control over and yet… something in the pit of his belly said he needed time to sort out his thoughts. He shook his head and for the first time since she all but fell into his arms, did not offer to comfort her, even though every part of him warred within him to go to her.
Nay. He was upset and need to clear his head. “Dawn approaches. I will send someone to assist you with dressing and meet you in the Great Hall to break our fast with the children. Must I needs warn you to stay away fromthatparticular turret?” he snapped heading toward the door.
“No.” Her quiet response satisfied him, and he left her to her own thoughts. He had the notion that, by not going to his wife, he had just made a horrible mistake even whilst he ignored Lady Myra’s reminder to beware of happenings that may tear his wife and him apart.
CHAPTER36
Bridgette stood silently at the rail of the ship lost in thought. Leaving Dristan and his men at Bamburgh had been bittersweet, although she had been glad to be a part of the short ceremony when Godfrey had received Dristan’s colors. Although there had been plenty of ships bobbing in the waves of the sea, they were bound for France and none were available for Ulrick’s party to take them down and around the coast of England to Dunster. It was a journey of roughly four hundred miles by land.
After a final farewell to Dristan and everyone who had been a constant in her life since arriving in the twelfth century, Ulrick’s party rode south for several miles before her husband hired a ship in North Sunderland. The brothers Turquine and Taegan had joined their party, along with several other of Berwyck’s knights she was unfamiliar with, since Dristan had more knights in his service than Bridgette could count.
With her excited children now at her side, Bridgette stared off into the distance while the ship began to unload in the fishing village of Dunster near the river’s inlet and not far from where they were now anchored. The castle rose some two hundred feet up from the motte and bailey hill where the sea provided a natural defense. Her new home. This should have been a happy time in her life, but unfortunately her mood was anything but happy.
Ulrick had been irritable the entire trip and had given her nothing but the bare minimum response to any question she asked of him. She finally gave up for the time being, since living on board a ship, no matter how brief, tended to not give them a whole lot of privacy. Their cabin was small and even more so with the children nestled in their own cots and, although they shared a bed, there certainly wasn’t an opportunity to either discuss the problem that had caused a rift between them or to have sex… not that she was about to have Ulrick make love to her when he had barely spoken a word to her in days.
A heavy sigh escaped her with the realization that she had no clue what to expect upon her arrival at the castle. She knew Ulrick’s mother lived there, taking care of his younger brother and sister. She didn’t even know their names for heaven’s sake! The eldest son had passed away, leaving Ulrick with the title. Bridgette had been surprised that her husband hadn’t returned to his lands sooner. She didn’t have the answer as to why he hadn’t, nor any information about the place she would now call home.
The brothers joined her at the rail before Taegan took the children to disembark the ship. Turquine leaned his elbows upon the railing, clasping his fingers together before casting her a quick glance.
“You have fallen out of accord with Ulrick,” he said, his tone flat, as though his words were as distasteful to him as they were to Bridgette.
“Aye,” Bridgette answered, unsure she would be able to say more… not that it was anyone’s business.
“Why?” he asked giving her his full attention.
Bridgette turned toward the knight who was so similar to Ulrick that it was almost painful to gaze upon him. Her brow lifted in annoyance. “Why do you not ask him yourself?” Her sarcastic tone surprised him.
“I tried. He told me to mind my own business,” Turquine replied, with a frown.
“Sound advice,” she replied, before returning her gaze back to the castle. She pointed to the structure off in the distance. “Have you been here before?”
“Once, many a year ago. I met Ulrick’s father before his passing, but we were young then and I cared not for learning the history of the place,” Turquine said with a slight smile.
“I am certain ’tis a place of importance if King Henry is asking Ulrick to see to its keeping,” Bridgette said, trying to think of something she might remember of the history of this time.
“I do know the castle survived a siege in the war for the throne between King Stephen and the Empress Matilda,” he explained off handedly.
Something sparked a memory inside her head. “Are you talking about the Anarchy?” she asked, now far more curious about the history of the keep than she was before.
He nodded his head, possibly in approval. “Aye and depending on whose side you were on, either one could have very well been considered the ruling monarch of England.”
“And is not King Henry the son of the Empress?”
Turquine’s mouth lifted into a small grin. “You know our history well. I am surprised Ulrick has not mentioned all of this to you. After all, ’tis a part of your own history now that you are married and shall call Dunster your home.”
“There is much my husband has yet to inform me about the place,” she replied, still frustrated about not knowing what awaited her. “Did you know his older brother?”
“Aye. Briefly. ’Twas an unfortunate accident that took his life.”
“I was not aware he had died from an accident,” Bridgette exclaimed, feeling sorry for Ulrick at the loss of his brother.
“We were at Berwyck at that time. A riding accident, or so Ulrick was told,” Turquine said before continuing. “’Twas very tragic, for he was in the prime of his life.”
