the conversation that she was about to have with him. As the Lady of Lioncross, her responsibilities were many, including the health and happiness of her vassals.
She’d been dreading this moment for three long weeks but she knew she couldn’t delay.
Reaching out, she took one of Tor’s hands.
“I wanted to speak to you alone, Tor,” she said softly. “It’s about Jane.”
He looked at her for a moment before realizing she wasn’t congratulating him. No well-wishes for a new child or a joyful wife. Realizing that, his features started to tense up.
“What about my wife?” he said. “Is she well?”
Lady de Lohr continued to hold his hand. “She knew you were in battle and she did not wish to trouble you,” she said gently. “Although you told her not to send word because it would distract you, I urged her to do it and she would not. She did not wish to disobey you.”
Tor was starting to feel something in the pit of his belly. He wasn’t a man prone to fear but, at the moment, he could feel the distinct pangs of it begin. He’d returned to Lioncross with joy and anticipation, the first time in three months he’d let himself feel those emotions. They were spilling out all over the place and he had already been planning to become wildly drunk tonight to celebrate the birth of his child.
But now…
He could just tell by looking at her that something awful had happened.
“My lady,” he said, struggling to be calm. “I would appreciate it if you would simply come out and tell me what has happened.”
Lady de Lohr had angst written all over her face. Tor was astute and very sharp, and perhaps she wasn’t doing a very good job of delivering the news she very much wished she didn’t have to tell him.
She took a deep breath.
“After you left with the army to go to Goodrich, Jane started feeling poorly,” she said. “She was pale and weary, and slept constantly, so the physic put her on a diet of beef broth and meat. He wanted her to eat a good deal of meat because he said her blood was weak. That was when I wanted to send you word, but she refused. We all watched her become progressively weaker until, three weeks ago, she began to labor to bring forth your child. Tor, sometimes it is God’s will that these things happen. There is often no reason or cause. It simply happens. Jane struggled for three days to bear your child but, in the end, it was too much for her. The angels called her home and the child along with her. I’m so very sorry.”
Tor stared at her as if didn’t understand what she was telling him. But as the words sank in, his pallor became ashen. The pale green eyes flickered.
He swallowed hard.
“She is dead?” he asked. “Janie is dead?”
“She is,” Lady de Lohr said sadly, squeezing his hand. “I wish I could say something that would bring you comfort, but you must find that in your own time, with God’s help. I can tell you that she was very brave. She told me to tell you that she loved you dearly and asked that you take care of her sisters. The younger girls are all alone now, with their parents and oldest sister gone. Will you do this? Will you take care of Barbara and Lenore? It was what Jane wanted.”
Tor had to sit down. There was a stone bench behind him and he sank onto it, with Lady de Lohr still holding his hand. He simply sat there, dumbfounded, hardly able to process what he’d been told.
“Jane,” he murmured, dazed. Then he started to blink rapidly, as if blinking away tears. “Of course she was brave. Jane was nothing else, ever since the day I met her.”
“She was very brave, dear Tor. Take comfort in that, if you will.”
He simply sat there, staring off into space, thinking of the wife he’d lost.
And the child.
In an instant, his entire family was gone.
“The child?” he managed to ask hoarsely. “Was it male?”
Lady de Lohr cleared her throat softly. “I do not know,” she said. “She died with the child still inside of her and we made the decision not to cut her open to retrieve the babe.”
He looked at her, then. “But the child could have still been alive. Jane would have wanted you to save our son.”
But Lady de Lohr shook her head. “The physic determined