The Reckless Oath We Made - Bryn Greenwood Page 0,77

it with what I might need. ’Twas my habit to bathe, but I would not delay Lady Zhorzha. Little time remained, so I returned to the great room, my satchel in hand. My lady had placed her own bag upon her back and stood in the front hall with my mother and father.

“How dare you judge the choices I have made for my son,” my mother said to her.

“Mrs. Frank, I am not judging you. I’m saying I feel like I’m in the middle of an argument that has nothing to do with me. It’s not my job to tell Gentry what to do.” I knew many things more harsh had been said, that Lady Zhorzha called my mother Mrs. Frank and not Charlene.

“I think you need to leave,” my mother said.

“I understand. Thank you for everything. You all were really kind to Marcus and me.”

Lady Zhorzha turned to the door and saw me there. I would look upon her eye to eye, to show her my resolve, but ’twas she that dropped her gaze.

“Be this the hospitality ye taught me?” I said to my mother and father, for it angered me to hear them say such things.

“It’s okay,” Lady Zhorzha said. “You’ve been really great and I appreciate it, but I don’t want to cause problems. I’m gonna go. I’ll talk to you when I get back, Gentry. Okay?”

Ere I could speak, she crossed the threshold. I followed her to the porch.

“Gentry!” my mother called. She was not wroth, but she was uneaseful.

“My lady,” I said. “Wilt thou give my regards to thy mother when thou seest her?”

“Yeah. I’ll tell her you said hi. Thank you.” Lady Zhorzha crossed the street and forthwith drove away.

When I returned to the front hall, my father laughed. I knew not why, but it me angered. For in all ways I shewed him the respect he was owed, but was I to be shewn no respect? Had I not done all that he hoped for me and yet more?

“I don’t want you to pout about this,” my mother said. “You know I’m right.”

They waited, for they would hear my answer. I had come to them a child whose native tongue was a scream. I learnt to speak. I earned proof of my learning, and took up a trade. I was accountable to myself, and oftentimes for Trang and Elana.

From thence I had started, and I grew into a man. They knew all this and still they doubted. I knew only that if I was not ready then, I never would be.

A knight tethered to his father’s keep was more akin to a dog. Much as ’twas an oath I swore to be my lady’s champion, ’twas also that I desired to prove myself. I believed I was worthy, but were I not tested, I could not know. I was Yvain, ever in the shadow of Sir Kay and Sir Gawain. Were I to wait til I was granted leave to go, I should have no adventures. I should live no life but a very narrow one.

“My lady mother, I would not distress thee,” I said. “But thou hast no fair reason to keep me from this journey.”

“I absolutely forbid it. You barely know that girl. And her uncle? The whole situation is . . .”

Where my mother found not the word she sought, my father supplied it: “The situation is troubling. The fact that you don’t see it is a damn good reason to keep you from going.”

“Where’s Gentry going?” Elana said, and came forth from the dining hall, for we had made such a noise she could not keep her mind upon her studies.

“Gentry isn’t going anywhere, except to bed, and then to work tonight,” my mother said. Were her will enough, it might have been so, but ’twas not.

“Nay, my lady, I go this hour to Missouri that I might help Lady Zhorzha.”

“Absolutely not! You are not going.”

My mother clenched her hands fistwise, and I feared she would pierce them with her nails, for I knew them to be sharp. Yet I would not be made to obey like a dog or a child. I gathered my satchel and made sure of my keys in my pocket.

“Son, this has gone too far,” my father said.

“Don’t think you can disrespect me when you live under my roof,” said my mother.

“Charlene, let’s not go there.”

“Oh, we’re already there. Your son needs to know he can be out on his rear just like Carlees,