"Come." Erec stood and offered his chair.

"I will not stay long. I only need to tell you that when Hugh's caravan was first spotted, I was summoned to Lord Brecken. When I left there to come to these rooms, I heard voices upon the stair and stepped into a room to listen without being seen. They called themselves Bram, Beck and Remy. It was the one called Bram who's voice I recognized."

"And from where did you recognize this voice?" Berk asked.

"It is a voice that haunted me on many a sleepless night. But... it was the one called Remy that I once speared through the leg with a pitchfork."

Erec clenched the back of the chair and cursed. Gil stood so quickly his chair nearly toppled, but he caught it up and set it hard to rights.

"Am I to understand from your reactions that these men are to be watched?"

"I know not why they are here, but it can only be trouble. I shall let Erec tell you the tale, as I shall leave you now. But first I must depart this also. I deferred that they were hired by a Lord, as they referred to displeasing his lordship. Also, they said that his plan was near its completion and there would be more gold than could be spent in a lifetime."

"They are going to try to kill the king." Cameron said with certainty.

"Or both of them." Erec added grimly.

---

"I am sorry, my lord Bishop." The gate guard said to the old man, withered and dying as he lay upon a bed of first in the back of the covered wagon that was stopped at the gates for inspection prior to entry to the inner courtyard and the festivities within. "But the healer has gone from Brecken. We have a woman who can tend you, but it is not the healer you seek."

"I do not seek a healer, my son." The bishop's voice was surprisingly strong, given the obvious state of his poor health. "I was given these eighty years as a gift and I have spent them in HIS service. I have nothing to regret and no wish to linger. I do, however, wish to speak with his lordship."

"I can send an escort with you to the castle entrance. I shall send a man ahead so that Lord Brecken will meet you there."

"It is not Lord Brecken to whom I refer. I need the Baron of Greenwood. Lord Erec is returned, is he not?"

The guard was impressed. While his body was fragile as the finest blown glass, his mind was still sharp and strong as ever it was in his youth.

"He has returned, my lord Bishop." The guard answered, "That is he WAS returned. Lord Erec has gone away again. No one knows when he left or where he went, only that he has gone from his rooms and his family with him."

"His family?" the bishop inquired, "You mean his wife, the Lady Gwyndolyn?"

"Aye, my lord Bishop." The guard answered, "And the two children. The Lady has a son, Robin, and she has taken an orphaned girl into her heart and home as well."

"It is good to bestow the generous gift of a mother's love upon the motherless child. And his lordship shall be blessed, for it is written that we are to care for the fatherless boys..."

"There is much that his lordship has done that will secure his place in the heavens, my lord bishop. By negotiating this lasting peace betwixt our people and the people of the Far North, he has spared hundreds of souls and preserved our kingdom for generations to come. Surely the Lord will look kindly upon such a one."

"To sue for peace, and to secure it is indeed a great act of goodwill. But only HE can say if his lordship's place is secured, for HE alone can judge a man worthy."

"I humbly beg your pardon, my lord Bishop. I did not mean to speak out of turn. I only meant that—"

"It is alright, my son." The bishop said, "I take your meaning well. Lord Erec has lived his entire life in the service of others, risking his own life again and again in order to secure the lives and livelihood of strangers. He has suffered the peril of life and limb to secure the freedom of those he shall never know. It is written that no man hath greater love than this. It is well done."

"As you say, my lord Bishop. Would you like to meet with Lord Brecken since Lord Erec has gone? Mayhap he can give you the assistance you seek."

"Mayhap." The bishop said, and the guard thought he sounded a little tired.

"I shall instruct your driver and I shall send two men to escort you. His lordship shall meet you at the door. God go with you, my Lord Bishop."

"God go with you, my son."

"You two!" the guard shouted at some of the men gathered near the gatehouse for just such a purpose. "Take the bishop all the way to the front door."

With a nod, they jogged over to their horses tied nearby and did as they were commanded.

"You there!" the guard stopped a young boy running past.

"Yes, sir?" The boy stopped, cautiously inquiring as if he feared some retribution.

"This coin for you if you run to the castle and tell his lordship that Bishop Anouk has arrived but he is ill and cannot rise from his bed. The bishop asks that his lordship meet him at the steps so that he may speak with him on an urgent matter."

The boy grinned and the guard saw that the boy was missing his two front teeth. With a smile the guard dropped the promised coin into the open palm and sent the boy running off.

"I wonder what that was all about." A second guard commented as he stood on the little platform watching for signs of trouble among the crowds.

"I know not, but the bishop has come many times afore. It must be most urgent though, for I fear the bishop will draw his last breath at any moment."

---

That night, after the rest of the castle had gone to rest, Erec changed into his peasant clothing and waited for the Baron's knock. Softly it came, once, twice, thrice. Erec gave Gwyn a quick kiss and squeezed her hand as he left her to close the door behind him.

Silently he took a second tray from the servant with the Baron. It was only as they moved down the stairs and passed near to a lit sconce that he saw the servant was none other than Alexandi. Her tray carried a roll of bandages and an assortment of jars and pouches. Curiosity roused, he finally looked at the tray in his own hands...a light repast for an ailing patient.

They made their way quietly through the castle and arrived at the rooms prepared for King Axel. Since King Axel had wisely chosen to stay safely within his own encampment, the rooms were available for the bishop. It was fitting, as they were most comfortably arranged and one look at the man told Erec that the bishop was not long for this earth.

"My Lord Bishop." Brecken knelt close and spoke softly. "He is come."

Rising, he took the tray from Erec and gestured toward the bed. Erec still did not know what this could be about, but it was obviously important to the man, as it was most probably his last act. It was this knowledge that moved him to answer the summons to the bedside of a traitor to the crown. That and his love for Brecken, who begged him to attend the Bishop this night.

"My Lord Bishop?" Erec spoke softly, reverently for the Bishop, not for the grandfather who's exitance he would never have known, but for Alexandi's kindness. "Lord Brecken said that it was most urgent that you speak with me. How may I help you? Tell me and it shall be done."

"Live, my son. Be happy. That will be enough for me."

"I beg your pardon?"

"Let me tell you a story:

Many many years ago, there was a young man. He was from a long and noble line. They were very wealthy and well respected in their own lands. But the young man was restless. He wished to see more of the world and to do more. So, the young man convinced his father to let him travel abroad and manage the family business affairs.

It was done just so and for three years the young man travelled. He saw lands and peoples he never imagined. He tasted foods and drinks that made the pallet come alive. He used this new knowledge to grow his own wealth so that even should his father disinherit him, he would be a wealthy man all of his days. Yet he was unhappy still. There was an empty place in his heart.

He decided to return home and ask the advice of his father. It was on that trip that he came upon an elegant coach that was overturned in the ditch at the side of the road. Stopping his own coach, he beckoned all of his servants and they assisted. The coach was ruined beyond repair, and the servants were run off or dead. But the lady within was yet alive, and mostly unharmed.

The young man was at once smitten and once she was freed from the wreckage, the young man carried her to his coach and from there to the nearest inn where he secured rooms and paid a woman to nurse the lady. When the lady recovered, the young man escorted her to her father. There he accepted the gratitude and hospitality of the family.

His admiration for the lady grew as he came to know her kindness and her gentle heart. She was beautiful inside as she was in appearance. He spoke to the lady's father and they were wed three weeks later. She was sad to leave her family, but so enamored of her new husband that she did n9ot protest.

The young man was happy, and decided to pursue a business venture he was told of. They could use the time together as a wedding trip and tour the land when the business was done. It was a beautiful land and the business was done in six months. But as is the way of things, a child was expected. The young man was elated and bought a large manor.

He would not hear of traveling home to his father's house until his wife was safely delivered of the child and both were fit to travel. He used his wealth to build up the manor into a fine castle, for he so loved the new land that he decided they should return after he made an accounting to his father.

But his happiness was not to last. His lady wife died only moments after the child was born.

The bishop's voice caught and Erec saw that tears fell from the old man's eyes. Touched by the knowledge he held, that this man was his grandfather and this story was the bishop's own, Erec felt his anger dissolving as thoughts of Gwyn filled his mind. If she were to die...Something shifted in his chest and Erec reached out and took the withered hand gently in his own.

"I know how this tale ends. The child lived. It was given to the church to be raised and the young man cloaked himself in his grief and disappeared, never to be heard from again."

The bishop's eyes opened wide but his voice failed him. Erec read the word upon his lips: ?

"Lady Alexandi is in possession of a letter from Bishop Morchat who placed the child with the sisters at the Abbey that lies in ruins to the south and east of here. In it, this story is written. Cleve Joseph Duplechain was the young man's name and the baby, a girl named Breenda by her mother's dying breath, grew to be a beautiful lady of good and gentle nature, like her mother."

"It is so." The bishop said softly, and as his tears fell more freely, Erec felt the old fingers curl against his own in a weak embrace of sorts.

"I also know what became of Lord Duplechain."

The bishop only blinked.

"He severed all ties to his former life and gave himself to the church. But he did not give his wealth and fortunes to the church. These he continued to manage for his daughter as he set them in trust for her to live upon when she was old enough. She married a soldier and I eventually learned that she was with child. She died before I transferred the fortunes held for her."

"The child lived." The bishop smiled and Erec felt the fingers curl once more. "And so, the fortunes are held for him."

This time, Erec gave a gentle squeeze in return.

"Yes, my lord Bishop. The child lived. He lived with his father until he was killed in the boy's eighth year. For reasons unknown, his majesty, Hugh the Great, took an interest in the child and so the boy was educated as a gentleman and raised to knighthood."

"My time grows short so let us speak plainly, Lord Erec." The bishop smiled. Lord Duplechain, is your grandfather...and I am he. Forgive me, my silence. I have ever watched over you. It was I that spoke to the king and arranged that you be given to Lord Brecken. I knew Brecken to be a good man with a father's love to give, but no children on which to bestow it."

"For that I must thank you, Lord Bishop." Erec raised the hand and kissed the slender fingers. "I was happy there and I was well loved."

"When I learned that my daughter died, but that she had a child, I wanted to come to you and reveal all. It could not be, for it was then that the church needed a Bishop. I must answer to HIS will before I answer to mine own. And so, I kept silent...but I never stopped loving you."

"I wish that I had known." Erec felt tears stinging his own eyes. Somehow this story and this moment did not settle with his prior thoughts that the Bishop was a traitor. There must be more to the story. "I—"

"There was nothing that either of us could do, my...precious child."

The bishop closed his eyes a moment and Erec saw him sink further away.

"I..." the bishop smiled weakly, "I grow very tired, but I must tell you all of the tale before I can take my eternal rest."

"Then speak and I shall listen well."