Chapter 53 - His Son

Chapter 53: 53 - His Son

- Gaspard’s POV -

Several hours had passed since they knew Léon had disappeared, and Gaspard’s patience had gone with them.

He sat behind the desk in his private office, staring at papers he had already read enough times to know by memory. Neither of his wives had left. His youngest daughter sat beside the second, quietly playing with the ribbon tied around her sleeve while Léon’s mother paced near the window.

She finally stopped. "Darling, are you really telling me you still have no idea where our son is?"

Gaspard looked up. "I have no idea. And please stop asking me every five minutes. I don’t have the patience for it right now."

"Then perhaps you should find some. Léon has been gone for hours, nobody knows where he went, and half the servants are already whispering about it."

His second wife shifted in her chair. "She’s right about one thing. Sitting here isn’t bringing him back. Have you at least sent people to look for him?"

"I’ve sent men everywhere he usually goes. His friends know nothing, his horse is gone, and several soldiers disappeared with him." Gaspard dropped the paper in his hand. "What else would you like me to do? Search every road in Arquenay myself?"

"You don’t need to speak to us like we’re the problem," Léon’s mother said. "We’re worried about him."

"And I’m trying to think."

"That’s all you’ve done since you came back from Greymoor. Think."

Gaspard slammed one hand against the desk. "Enough."

His daughter flinched at the sound and immediately started crying. Gaspard closed his eyes for a moment, already irritated with himself and everyone else in the room.

"Please make her stop crying."

His second wife gave him a cold look. "She’s six, Gaspard. You frightened her."

"Then take her somewhere quieter." Gaspard pushed himself away from the desk before either woman could answer and walked toward the window, forcing his attention outside rather than allowing the argument to continue.

’Please tell me that fool hasn’t done something I’ll regret.’

Movement near the main gates caught his attention. A lone soldier had entered the estate, riding slowly enough that several servants were already gathering around him.

Gaspard didn’t recognize the man’s face at first, but he recognized the clothes. More importantly, he recognized the man strapped across the back of the second horse beside him.

His stomach dropped.

"Léon."

Gaspard was out of the office before either woman could ask what was wrong. He took the stairs two at a time and reached the courtyard as servants began surrounding the exhausted soldier.

"Get him down and bring a Healer here immediately." Gaspard pushed through the gathering crowd. "Take my son inside. I want both of them in one of the lower rooms."

Nobody hesitated. The soldier nearly collapsed when his feet touched the ground, and two servants caught him while others carefully removed Léon’s body from the horse.

Gaspard followed them inside. By the time he entered the room, Léon had been placed across a long table while the surviving soldier sat nearby with a Healer working over his wounds.

For several seconds, Gaspard forgot the soldier was even there.

He looked at his son.

Léon seemed younger dead, and Gaspard hated that thought the moment it entered his head. The anger from their last conversation was still there, buried now beneath something far heavier.

’You stupid boy. Why couldn’t you listen for once?’

He had warned him. He had made himself perfectly clear, perhaps clearer than he had been with Léon in years. Stay away from Adrien. Stay away from Greymoor. Do absolutely nothing until Gaspard found a way through this.

And Léon had gone anyway.

Gaspard reached forward and brushed a strand of hair away from his son’s forehead. "You never did know when to leave something alone."

The door opened behind him, and Léon’s mother entered first. She saw the table and stopped so suddenly that the second wife almost walked into her.

A broken sound escaped her throat before she rushed forward.

The second wife appeared behind her with their daughter holding her hand, took one look at Léon’s body and immediately turned the little girl away.

"We’ll wait outside. She shouldn’t see him like this."

Léon’s mother dropped against the table, both hands gripping her son’s clothes as she cried against his chest. Gaspard stood beside her, staring down at Léon without knowing what he was supposed to do with his hands.

Then his wife looked up at him.

"This is your fault."

Gaspard slowly turned toward her. "How exactly is this my fault?"

"You let our son die."

"I warned him." Grief turned into anger before Gaspard could stop it. "I told him clearly to stay away from the Clairmonts. I told him we couldn’t move until we knew what Adrien had done with those documents."

"Exactly!" She wiped at her face with a shaking hand. "That’s what killed him. You kept telling him there was nothing we could do. Léon wanted to prove he could solve the problem his own father was too afraid to touch."

Gaspard stared at her. "He took armed men into Clairmont territory and went to do—heaven knows what. What exactly would you like me to call that?"

"He was trying to save this family!"

"He was being a fool!"

"He was your son, Gaspard!"

That silenced him.

His wife bent over Léon again, shoulders shaking, while Gaspard looked at his son’s face.

’And maybe she isn’t entirely wrong.’

He hated the thought, but once it appeared, it refused to leave.

He had been afraid to move. Adrien had evidence, yes, but the Crown itself had executed Alaric Clairmont. There were people in Valebrand who wanted the family buried permanently, people Gaspard had dealt with before.

If Adrien sent those documents, Gaspard had contacts who could tell him where they went. He could have delayed them, buried them, perhaps arranged for them to disappear before anyone important ever read a page.

There had been options.

Instead, he’d spent days searching for one that carried no risk.

Now Léon was dead.

Gaspard turned toward the wounded soldier. "Tell me what happened. Did Adrien Clairmont kill my son?"

The man swallowed while the Healer continued working on his shoulder. "Yes... Lord Léon tried to take Lady Ariane. Adrien arrived afterward with another man. He killed Lord Léon and told me to bring his body back to you."

"He told you that specifically?"

"Yes, Your Grace. He wanted you to know exactly what happened."

Gaspard looked back at Léon, and something inside him finally settled into place.

"That fucker..."

He turned toward the door. "Send word to every commander we have. I want every soldier capable of marching assembled and supplied. Cancel leave, recall the patrols, and tell every senior officer to be in the war room before midnight."

Léon’s mother lifted her head from the table. "Gaspard... what are you going to do?"

He stopped at the doorway and looked back at his son.

Fear had bought him nothing. Patience had bought him a body carried through his own gates.

Adrien Clairmont had wanted him to see the consequence of his son’s decision.

Fine.

Gaspard had seen enough.

"I’m going to avenge my son."