Chapter 229: The Reunion
"And who are you?" Aralyn asked.
Aldric only smiled. "I’m someone who serves them," he said simply, glancing toward the closed doors of Lorraine’s bedchambers. Truly, that was all he wished to be known for.
Yes, he was bound to serve the Dragon line. He had to serve Aralyn too. But he had found himself attached to Lorraine, his niece, and Leroy. They were closer to his heart, and he was not ashamed of it.
Just then, the door opened. Both Aralyn and Aldric turned. Leroy stood in the doorway. His gaze fell first on Aldric, then on Aralyn... then, once again, on Aldric.
"Aldric," he said at last, stepping aside to let him through.
Aldric understood. He walked in without a word, leaving Aralyn standing alone in the corridor.
Aralyn didn’t know what to do next. Leroy’s eyes lingered on her for a heartbeat. He almost closed the door behind him, but something in him shifted. Instead, he stepped out and gently shut the door to the chamber, leaving the two of them standing together in the quiet corridor.
Aralyn was bewildered. In all her years at court, she had never heard of a man allowing another man in his wife’s bedchamber while he was present. Even servants weren’t allowed to enter the lady’s chambers when she was alone.
Yet here was her son, allowing it without a word. She wanted to comment, to correct, but she held her tongue.
Her son had grown.
He was a man now, one she did not raise, whose heart and habits she did not know. She had spent thirty long years with nothing but memories of that few minutes she held him, while he had built a life entirely apart from her. The thought hollowed her.
Leroy walked toward her, and his heart pounded in his chest. He couldn’t name the tangled emotions rushing through him. But one feeling cut through the noise, warm and soft, making his chest ache...
This is my mother.
"I..." Leroy began, but his voice broke. He wanted to speak, to say so many things, but the words fled him.
Aralyn’s lips curved into a trembling smile. Her eyes shone with unshed tears. He towered over her now, broader and stronger than she ever imagined. He bore no resemblance to his father, save for that unmistakable crimson mark on his face.
He was struggling to speak, but she could see it in his eyes.
Those eyes.
Those beautiful green eyes.
She saw it clearly: he was looking at her as his mother. And just as his heart melted for her, hers broke open for him.
Her son.
Before she knew it, her feet were moving toward him. Before she could think, she was already in his arms. She barely reached his waist now, his shoulders were far beyond her grasp—but she held him with all the strength her trembling body could summon.
Her son.
The memory of the first time she saw him flashed before her eyes: a tiny, red infant, crying out his first breaths, slick with blood and birth. And now... now he smelled of cedar and leather, warm and clean. Nothing like his father, and yet... it was the scent of a man.
Her son. Her precious boy, grown into a warrior.
"Son..." Her voice cracked. "I’ve waited all my life to meet you again."
She needed him to know, needed it like air. "I had to... I must be a sinner... I had to abandon you the day you were born."
Tears spilled freely down her cheeks. "Forgive me. I don’t regret it. Not for a moment. I did what I did to keep you safe... and here you are."
She rose on tiptoe and cupped his face between her palms. His eyes were red, glassy. She was crying openly now, her voice shaking, her nose running, but dignity had no place here.
"I love you," she whispered hoarsely. "My dearest son. I love you so much."
Something inside Leroy cracked wide open. Her warmth... it was unlike any love he had ever known. Fierce. Unconditional. It struck him to the core.
"Mo—mother..." The word escaped before he could think, torn from somewhere deep and raw.
His arms closed around her. She felt so small, so fragile in his embrace. This woman, his mother, had carried a lifetime of sorrow for him. And now, at last, they were holding each other.
-----
Aldric had to clamp a hand over his mouth to keep from laughing outright.
Lorraine was pressed flat against the wall like a lizard, peering through the narrow crack in the door with the intensity of a spy.
"He’s hugging her now," she murmured, closing the door softly. She didn’t look at Aldric, but her words were clearly meant for someone... him, or perhaps just herself. "I think they’re both crying... Aww..." she added, the sound a little too forced, like she was trying to convince herself how touched she felt. "They’re beautiful, aren’t they? I’m jealous now... I miss my mother..."
Aldric couldn’t see her face, but something about the way she spoke, her tone, her posture, the restless way her fingers fidgeted, didn’t quite match. She was clearly tangled in a web of emotions.
Lorraine cracked the door open again, just a sliver. "They’re still hugging," she reported, her voice tinged with something new...
Jealousy.
Finally, Aldric found the word he’d been searching for.
Leroy had only ever had one woman at the center of his world, and now, suddenly, another had appeared, bound to him by blood and umbilical cord. There was no bond stronger than that between a mother and her child.
And Aldric wondered, why of all people would Lorraine feel threatened by that?
Leroy was Leroy. He wasn’t the kind of man to let anyone usurp her place in his heart.
Lorraine closed the door again and turned to face him at last. Aldric watched closely. She rubbed her hands together nervously before forcing a smile onto her face.
"I’m happy for him," she said. "I really am. I’m happy for my husband."
Aldric smiled softly. He could see it clearly, she was struggling, yes, but she was also trying. She wanted to be glad for him. She wanted to conquer the jealousy curling in her chest.
And that, Aldric thought, that was exactly why Leroy would never let anyone else take her place in his heart. She had earned it.