48. Forty-Eight - Distasteful Demands
Forty-Eight - Distasteful Demands
Edric
I did not expect to wake up and contemplate patricide, but... here we are.
Blicks stands in the corner of the room, waiting—hoping—for me to ask him to physically remove him.
At some point, he donned his sword and I am not inclined to ask him to put it away.
Squaring his shoulders, my father looks at me with all of the imperiousness I remember from my childhood. “I will be inspecting the forest so that I can be certain you are not shirking your duties.”
“And what, pray tell, do you think my duties are?”
Normally, this exchange would simply be exhausting, but Blicks joined Loric in waking me and so I fully understand the extent of my father’s interaction with Ana while we slept.
For the first time in the weeks we’ve shared our bed with her, I am disappointed in myself.
I have no doubt that she crept away to eat breakfast because she assumed—and rightly so—that we would distract her before she could escape. And because of that, she was alone in meeting him.
And he was on his worst behavior.
Blustering at my question, he puffs himself up—an intimidation tactic I remember well from my youth.
“I will accompany you for the next several days to evaluate you.”
“Fine. Be my guest. When I go about my duties, you may join me. Otherwise, you are not a guest in this house. You will not act as though you have the same rights as one.”
“What?” He looks at me like I’ve told him I’m loyal to the long-dead basilisk king. “I am your father.”
“You have invaded our home without invitation or announcement. You declared your plan to evaluate my ability to do the job our Queen has asked me to do, a job you do not know the first thing about. All of that, I have come to expect. But you have insulted someone I care about. Someone who, unlike you, has a place in this home. I expect you to apologize to her, but even after that, I will not allow her to feel uncomfortable here. Your presence will undoubtedly cause that.”
He gawps at me and then regathers himself. “You have too much of your damned mother in you.”
“And thank the Goddess for that.” I take a little pleasure in the scowl that gets me. “Your options are to go home, or find lodging at the inn if you choose to stay. I will start my rounds in the forest in approximately two hours. That should give you enough time to make your decision.”
“You cannot possibly be serious.” He blinks at me. “What will the village think?”
“I don’t care.”
I almost tell him Blicks will be happy to see him out, but he interrupts me before I can.
“You’re throwing me out of your house because of some little human wench? You put your pet before your family.”
I don’t offer to have Blicks escort him out after that. I turn to the man—who’s normally pale blue face is nearly purple, his jaw clenched tight—and I nod.
However he chooses to remove my father from this house, I won’t interfere.
Turning on my heel, I leave him to it and once the door is closed behind me, the release of the tension that held me upright makes me sag.
Viggo catches me in a hug, even though I wasn’t going to fall.
“Have I mentioned how much I hate that I resemble him?”
“You have.” He tucks a piece of hair behind my ear. “Luckily, you’re wrong. Because if you looked like that man, I’d have left after the first time I met him.”
He smiles, so I know he doesn’t mean the last bit.
“Hopefully Ana agrees with you.” I take a deep breath and glance toward the kitchen. “Is she still here?”
“She went up to dress.”
“To flee?”
”I don’t think so.” His hand drops to mine and squeezes. “Our Ana isn’t likely to get scared away by your father’s bluster. She’s made of sterner stuff.”
I hope he’s right.
Climbing the stairs, I hold my breath as I slip into the room that will be hers, eventually. Yenna is with her, helping her dress…
I wonder if that’s because my father is here, as well.
It would not surprise me if the others were conveniently close by throughout his visit.
I won’t discourage it.
Yenna gives me a reproachful glance before she leaves, and I know that I’m right.
“I don’t think I like your father,” Ana says as she fixes the chain of her necklace, hiding the pendant away again.
”I cannot begin to apologize.”
”You don’t need to.” She bats at her skirts, knocking them straight and then looks up at me. “He is awful, though.”
”I hope you won’t hold his odiousness against me.”
“If you don’t hold my mother’s actions and words against me, I won’t hold your father’s against you.”
She brushes the back of her fingers along my cheek and presses up on her toes to kiss me. “I have to go to the shop and start processing those berries before they start to rot.”
“Will you be back tonight?”
“I have plans with friends, but I’d like to sleep here, if that’s allowed?” She glances toward the doorway. “Perhaps tonight would be a good night to have dinner with him and hopefully satisfy whatever he is here for?”
“He’s not staying in this house. I’ve suggested the inn. He’s less likely to start yelling if others can bear witness.”
She laughs and takes a deep breath. “Murdoch told me to tell Leaf not to serve him. But that feels almost cruel.”
She smooths the front of my shirt and a little smile peeks at the corner of her lips. “I’ll tell her to overcharge him instead. Get her people more money and be quietly awful to him as well.”
“Maybe that’s how we’ll get him to leave. Empty his pockets so he has to scurry home.”
Lifting up on her toes, she kisses me softly. “I’ll tell her to take him for all he’s worth.”