Midnight Eyes by Brophy, Sarah (well read books .TXT) 📕

had first suggested this excursion, Matthew had grumbled loud and long at the earliness of the hour, then at the cold, then at the riding required.

Robert had shrugged his shoulders and ignored him just as he usually did when Matthew got into one of these moods, but he had also known that Matthew would manage to extract his revenge at some point, both for being dragged from his warm bed and for being ignored.

Matthew didn’t like being ignored.

Robert sighed loudly and cast a puzzled eye over the tower. Matthew’s revenge had been too easy, really. No matter from which angle you looked at it, this derelict stone tower in the middle of nowhere was an absurdity, and Matthew was relishing pointing out that fact as the two of them walked slowly round it ostensibly to see if there was any logic to be found on the other side.

“…and I really think it is a marvel for a tower to have no entrance, but to have windows near the top. Had you noticed that, Boy? Extremely clever, I think,” Matthew yelled, by now almost jogging to keep up with Robert’s lengthening stride.

“I can’t say that it had entirely escaped my notice,” Robert muttered in reply, hoping against hope that that would be the end of it.

“Clever lad!” Matthew beamed with expansive pride. “We will make a builder out of you yet, what with that eye for detail and all. The next observation that I really think you should take note of is the fact that it seems to be falling down,” he said as he daintily sidestepped one of the larger boulders.

Robert stopped and turned on the old man, his gauntleted hands crossed over his chest.

“Come on, Old Man, spit out all the rest of your spleen and have done with it. Just what are you getting at?”

Matthew raised an innocent twice-gloved hand to his narrow chest. “Oh, great master, what do you accuse me of?”

“You mean accuse you of besides being a meddlesome pain in the rear?”

“Yes, besides that.”

“You’ve been laughing at me ever since we got here, yet, for the life of me, I can’t see what you find so funny.”

“Don’t suppose you do,” Matthew murmured. He looked up at the stone tower, his face suddenly serious. “I just find it strange that you rose at the goddamn crack of dawn from a perfectly warm bed, a bed containing, I hasten to add, a beautiful woman, and found yourself with an overwhelming desire to cover miles of snow-covered ground to see a tower that we already knew was falling down before we got here. A falling-down tower that doesn’t even seem to have a door, on closer inspection. Call me crazy, but I find that extremely funny. It’s either that or tragically sad.”

“It’s not as odd as all that,” Robert said defensively.

A raised brow was all the answer he got.

“Well, you didn’t have to come,” Robert said, irritatingly aware that he was beginning to sound like a petulant child, but he seemed unable to be anything else.

“My boy, I wouldn’t have missed this for the world. There is nothing I love more than freezing my balls off at sunrise and blistering my arse on a horse’s back. It’s very good for your soul, I’m sure, if of dubious worth for your manhood.”

That drew a reluctant smile from Robert. “Well, if we hurry in our inspection of this tower, then the men will have got the fire started by now.”

“That’s another thing I find odd,” Matthew continued as if Robert hadn’t even spoken. “Why the hell do we need to light a fire when there is a perfectly warm Keep just over the way? A Keep that you can quite confidently call your own.”

Robert shrugged his shoulders, a red flush rising up his neck, “Just seemed like a good idea if we were going to spend the whole day here we will use it to cook at least one meal.”

He braced himself for the explosion, and Matthew delivered on cue.

“All day!” he spluttered. “What the hell would we want to spend all day out here for?”

“I thought we could see if anything can be done with the tower, and then perhaps we could do some hunting for the Keep’s stores.”

“For God’s sake, Boy, I’ve never heard such a load of nonsense. And it’s a lie. Can’t you at least tell me the truth when you’re so determined to freeze me to death?”

“That was the truth.” Robert couldn’t quite meet Matthew’s eyes and was embarrassed to find himself shuffling his feet like a naughty schoolboy.

Matthew’s snort was almost elegant in expressing his patent disbelief. “Robert, you’ve been like a bee in a bottle for two weeks. Running from sunup to sundown, longer some days, I expect, though I’m not entirely sure. I can’t watch you all the time, as at my age you actually need sleep.” His eyes narrowed knowingly. “It’s clear as day to me that you’re running from something. Today you have just managed to get a little farther than normal.” Matthew stepped up and placed a hand on Robert’s shoulder. “Can’t you at least tell me what the hell is going on here?”

The gentleness in Matthew’s usually brisk tone burnt away the last of Robert’s defenses. He turned and walked a few steps away from the old man, staring unseeingly at a chunk of stone.

“The truth is, Old Man, that I don’t know any longer what is going on.” He threw his hands into the air and turned around. “I’m being tied in knots. Everything is so…complex. It used to be simple. So damn simple. I wanted land and title, so I slaughtered my way across the country to get them.” His mouth twisted into a bitter smile. “And I was very good at it. No one could have been a better murderer than me.”

“I always knew that you weren’t a warrior, not at heart,” Matthew said quietly. “A true warrior never looks on such things as murder.