My Broken Knight

Chapter 6: An Offer

-William-

I didn’t know a heart could break like this. I had felt pain before. I had lost people … seen too many die, but my heart had never been like this. Felt so … broken. So hurt. Vanessa’s words echoed in my head.

No, you don’t, and I don’t love you. I never did, and now you need to leave. Goodbye Will …

I had always seen Vanessa as sweet … gentle … caring. Not a … not a … b*tch! How could she speak to me like that?! How could she say she did not love me, when I remembered her telling me she would wait for me … she lied. She lied to me and then broke my heart after seven years of waiting for her. Fighting for her. Staring death in the eyes and then surviving, only to be turned away by that evil witch.

… I got a better offer.

An offer, I thought. So that was all I was. Just another offer to be turned away when something better came around. My hands tightened around the cup in my hands, and it complained under my harsh treatment. I just could not understand this. Any of it.

For three days, I had been in this tavern. Drinking my mind out. I refused to feel anything because if I let myself feel, then I would just break. I had been fighting for so long, thinking about Vanessa and what waited for me, when I came home. I had fought for so long. And now the only reason I had for wielding my sword was taken from me, by the very person I had promised myself to. I could not believe it … but even though it was hard to comprehend, I made myself a promise.

I would never love again!

Never again! I would not let another woman steal my heart only to crush it under her sharp heel. No love … that did not exist. Only a good offer that could be turned away did something better show up.

“Pathetic,” I mumbled to myself.

It was what I had been. Such a lovesick fool, as Greg had called me. I truly had believed she loved me and would wait for me, but now I saw how stupid I had been. Yes, love was a lie …

“Sir William?”

I looked up to see a man I found familiar but could not place. Or maybe it was because the world was spinning slightly.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“You do not remember me? I was the commander you spoke to before you returned home. My name is Edward. You knew my son … Greg.”

If I squinted my eyes, I could better focus on him, and that’s when I finally saw it. The man was older, but he resembled my friend. They both had dark hair, his just a little grey on the side. Sharp faces and an upturned nose and the same light green eyes.

“I knew Greg,” I said, my voice a bit slurred.

“Yes, I know you did. He spoke highly of you in our letters.”

The man sat down in front of me. He carried a lord’s clothes, that was clear. High quality.

“And I am a good friend of the king.”

“Yes, you mentioned that, but I do not see what that has to do with why you are here,” I said and drank a little bit more.

Edward just smiled kindly, as he watched me.

“Something is bothering you, William?” he asked.

I laughed, as I placed the cup down.

“Something is bothering me?” I laughed. “Yes, something bothers me. I fought for seven years to go home to a woman I believed loved me. Only the memory of her making me keep going, making me defy death over and over, and when I finally returned, I did not only find my father dead a week before my arrival, but I learned the woman I loved wasn’t who I thought she was, and that she had married another. So yes, lord Edward, you could say something is bothering me!”

“I understand. I spoke to the physician, Tom from your hometown … He said I would most likely not find you in the best condition.”

“Why were you even looking for me?” I asked, irritated.

I just wanted to be left in peace, so I could drink.

“I have an offer for you.”

“Sorry, I am waiting for a better one.”

“What?” he asked, confused.

I rolled my eyes. Of course, he did not understand. He had not heard my conversation with Vanessa. I ignored him as I drank some more.

“William,” he finally said. “It is an offer from the king.”

“The king?” I asked.

He nodded.

“What does the king want with me?”

“He was told of your bravery,” he said.

I narrowed my eyes at the man and pointed at him, even though he was a lord. I no longer had anything to lose anyway.

“I am not going to another war for the man,” I growled. “I am done.”

“Not war,” he told me. “Protecting.”

“What?”

“My son … Greg,” he said in a painful voice. “After the war in Seeka, he was supposed to return home and be the princess's personal guard, watching over her, but we had not expected that the reason why she needed to be watched over, is because she is a danger to herself.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Princess Grace was very upset about learning of her engagement to King Hector and … behaved in a dangerous way. Her father finds it even more important that we find the right man to watch over her.”

“So, you want me to babysit her?”

“No. Protect her. Even from herself.”

“What exactly did she do?” I asked and leaned closer, intrigued.

But the man just smiled at me.

“William, we believe you are the right man,” he said.

I laughed again. How did they come to that conclusion?

“My son believed you to be special too, and you only have to be her personal guard until she is married. After that, the king will even give you land and a title, so you can retire and live a quiet life. You will be rewarded beyond expectations.”

It was a bit too good to be true and I pointed it out to him as well, but he just shook his head, saying it was very important to the king that she stayed safe until the engagement.

“You are marrying her to an old man?” I asked.

I knew King Hector’s sons died in the war. I had fought with two of them and seen them both killed and one of them eaten right there on the battlefield. It was disgusting and something I would never forget. Their father had to be at least in his fifties, and they were marrying a young twenty-one-year-old princess to him. I almost felt bad for her … almost. If I wasn’t dead inside, I might have felt something.

“She is marrying a king,” he told me calmly. “She can do no better than that.”

“Funny,” I mumbled.

Vanessa had said something similar, just another proof love did not exist.

“William, this is an offer of a lifetime. You protect the princess, and will be well rewarded, and then you can retire as a lord yourself.”

“The king will make me a lord?”

“Yes. You deserve it. You deserve it all.”

I leaned back, crossing my broad arms in front of me, feeling my own muscles flex, as I thought it over. A lord, he said … It made me smile almost cruelly. With that title and the land, I could return to see Vanessa. Show her what she had missed out on. I felt almost happy at the thought. I wanted to teach her a lesson, but protecting a spoiled little princess … No, it was not what I wanted to use my time on. I wanted to return to become a carpenter like my father. I wanted a quiet life now, not later.

“William, do you not see all that you will gain?”

“My father warned me about going,” I finally said.

He looked at me confused.

“Told me the horrors that waited. About the men that would be screaming and dying for a glory that did not exist. I learned that quickly as I stared into the Flesh Eaters’ eyes. I saw it. The horror, and that the glory does not exist. When I learned that, I knew if I returned, I would learn to be a carpenter, so I could live a quiet life like my father. I wanted nothing else. I want nothing else.”

“You are lying to yourself, son,” he said. “I see it in your eyes. You are still seeking it.”

I shook my head, but he did not let me say anything.

“Look around you, William. Your father isn’t here. Your woman has married another. You are home, but you feel like a stranger in it all. The king is making you a generous offer. I advise you to accept it, because you are a man that will never be fulfilled by the life of a carpenter, even if you truly believe so. Something drove you to sign your name and serve the king and it was not because you wanted to cut wood. Take the offer, son, you won’t get a better one.”

Edward stood and then said,

“Come to Catalla in three days, or the offer will go to someone else. Make the right decision.”

He then turned around and walked away, leaving me to my thoughts. He was wrong, I told myself, as I reached for my drink. It would be enough. The life of a carpenter would be enough …