Page 98 of The Forsaken
FIFTY-NINE
AUGUST 2014
London, England
Gabe held the sword reverently before stowing it in its lockable case. He could see the faraway look in Quinn’s eyes and envied her ability to see into the past. He would have liked to see what she’d seen with her previous cases, but this one was special. The people whose lives Quinn could step into at will were his ancestors, his family.
She had been keeping him up-to-date on what she saw, from the point of view of both Kate and Guy, but if Gabe were to be honest, it was Guy he was most interested in, as well as Adam. He wished Quinn had something of Adam’s, especially something that might have belonged to him once he reached adulthood. She hadn’t asked to see Gabe’s family tree, preferring to witness events as they played out, and he respected her wishes but drove her to distraction with questions, desperate to be a part of this foray into the past.
“Tell me about Guy,” Gabe pleaded as he settled in next to Quinn on the bed. “Did his return from London upset the household?”
“Not greatly, no. Hugh was very happy to see his brother, and Nurse practically swooned with joy. Guy had changed though,” Quinn mused, her mind still in the fifteenth century and her gaze fixed on some distant point beyond the window.
“In what way?”
“When I first saw him, he was more innocent, more trusting. He followed the lead of his brothers, taking it as gospel that they knew best. William was something of a hero to him, but he also looked up to and trusted Hugh. Being away from Hugh,and from home, had matured him, and opened his eyes to the hidden motives of powerful men. He’d become disillusioned with Warwick, and with the whole struggle to win and keep the throne. He saw these men for who they were: selfish, power-hungry, and unapologetic. They’d sacrifice anything and everyone to attain their heart’s desires, and Guy was beginning to understand that Warwick would not rest until one of his daughters attained the throne,” Quinn explained.
“And Kate? How was he toward Kate?” Gabe asked. “Was he still in love with her, or had his youthful passion burned out?”
“I think Guy was a one-woman man,” Quinn replied. “He loved Kate, and whereas before he’d never entertained the thought of pursuing her, that resolve crumbled as his loyalty to Hugh waned. Guy was angry with his brother and wished to punish him for being unkind to Kate. I believe a confrontation is in the making, and it might turn ugly.”
“You think Hugh murdered Kate?” Gabe asked. “Colin said he discovered no signs of violence.”
“It’s quite possible that Kate died of natural causes. Many people did. She might have fallen ill, but I can’t imagine the relationship between Hugh and Guy didn’t undergo some kind of major transformation around the time of her death.”
“How I wish I could see them for myself,” Gabe said wistfully. “Tell me about Adam.”
“Adam was a clever boy, and more ambitious than anyone gave him credit for. He was tired of being coddled by his mother and ordered about by Nurse and was anxious to join the earl’s household and be treated as a person in his own right.”
“It must have been quite an education to go from such a claustrophobic environment to living in a castle that housed dozens of people.”
“Hundreds,” Quinn corrected him. “The Earl of Stanwyck was a powerful man and retained dozens of servants and grooms along with pages, squires, and hangers-on.”
“Hangers-on?”
“Distant kin who hoped to benefit by their association with the earl. There were several teenage girls who’d been sent to the earl’s household by their parents in the hopes of contracting beneficial marriages. A few of them were married off to Stanwyck’s knights. Do you know anything about Adam as an adult?”
“He was a shrewd man, by all accounts, and only political when it suited his interests.”
“Adam would have been a young man at the time of the Battle of Bosworth. Whom did he support?” Quinn asked.
“He was Richard’s man, through and through. The de Rosels switched allegiances only once, when they believed the Lancastrian cause was lost. They remained loyal to the House of York until the bitter end.”
“Can’t say I blame them. I never did care much for the way Henry Tudor seized the crown, or the way he treated Richard’s body after the battle. Richard was an anointed king, after all, and deserved some measure of respect. Tossing him naked over a horse and hacking at him as if he were a side of beef was unbecoming of a man who wished to be king,” Quinn said scornfully.
Gabe laughed at her expression of displeasure. “You said it yourself; they were all selfish, power-hungry, and unapologetic. Henry Tudor wanted to humiliate Richard and discredit the House of York, and he’d accomplished that, although I don’t think he ever felt safe on his throne. He was keenly aware of how fragile his reign was, at least in its infancy.”
“I never did like that period in history, or the Civil War,” Quinn said. “I always wanted to believe the British are morecivilized than that, but in the end, they just slaughtered each other en masse to satisfy the ambitions of a few bloodthirsty men.”
“Isn’t that the basic definition of history?” Gabe asked.
“No, it’s the basic definition of military history. That’s why I prefer to focus on the women. They were the true backbone of civilization, and the ones who picked up the pieces when it all went tragically wrong.”
“Spoken like a true feminist,” Gabe replied with a chuckle. “And I love you for it.” He planted a kiss on Quinn’s nose, and then his lips moved downward, capturing her mouth in a tender kiss. She returned his kiss with unabashed ardor and slid lower on the bed, pulling Gabe down with her.
“Ooh,” she said, her hand going to her belly.
“What is it?”
