Epilogue

Epilogue

Autumn 924 MC

R

ichard looked down upon the courtyard as the knights entered, bearing the broken and battered body of Lord Douglas. The mood was sombre. Though Lord Douglas was not a well-loved man, he had still been the Baron of Bodden.

The body would be interred in the crypt once it was prepared, for it was still covered in blood and mud from the battle. Footsteps from behind him drew Richard’s attention, and he turned to watch Edward approach. The elder Fitzwilliam son came to stand beside his brother, looking down at the activity below.

“You’re the baron now,” said Richard.

“So I am,” said Edward, “though it feels strange to acknowledge it.”

They stood there in silence as their father's body was carried out of sight into the Keep.

“I shall miss him,” said Edward.

“I shan’t,” said Richard. “He was a cruel man who never showed me any kindness.”

“He never forgave you for the loss of Mother,” Edward tried to explain. “He grieved for her.”

“That’s no reason to take it out on others. Even with his dying breath, he called me a curse."

“What else could he do,” said Edward, “consumed as he was by grief? I’m sure you would look at it differently had it been your wife that died.”

“No,” said Richard, “I would never blame my child for the death of my wife. Rather, I would love them all the more as a reminder of her.”

Edward turned to face his brother, seeing him, perhaps for the first time, as the man he had become. “You have grown so much, Brother. I envy you.”

“You do?” asked Richard.

“I am but a shadow of our father, but you… you have trod your own path to become a man. Mother would have been proud of you.”

Richard turned his gaze once more to the courtyard below, a tear rolling down his cheek for the mother he never knew.

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