Chapter Sixteen
Pembridge Castle
These were days of sunshine and bliss.
That was the way Roi felt about them. After years of gloom, to wake up to Diara’s beautiful face every morning was something out of a dream.
Every morning since their marriage, he’d woken up before dawn and simply watched her sleep.
It gave him comfort and joy beyond imagining.
He’d never been so happy, or so in love, with anyone or anything in his life, and if that made him a foolish man, then he was content being foolish.
Every single day, he thanked God for being utterly, ridiculously foolish.
It had been almost two weeks since their return to Pembridge, and life was settling into a delirium of wonderful normalcy.
Diara was finding her place as chatelaine, Adalia was her shadow and enjoying every minute of it, and Dorian was still playing with her horses, but giving more attention to cleaning up the fishpond and restoring the garden that had languished for so long.
She loved animals and plants and flowers. She even loved the biting fish.
Dorian, too, was growing up.
The latest with the youngest de Lohr daughter, however, was her desire for a new horse.
Roi had taken Diara and the girls into the village of Pembridge, which was just to the east of the castle.
It was a small village but a busy one, and it had a license for a market every Saturday.
Roi wanted to introduce Diara to the villagers and for the villagers to realize there was a new Lady of Pembridge, but Dorian caught sight of a blond horse in one of the animal pens near the end of town and refused to leave it.
It belonged to a merchant who wasn’t too keen on parting with it for less than an exorbitant price, something Roi refused to pay.
That had left Dorian in a flood of tears and Roi feeling like an ogre.
As Roi lay next to Diara, watching her sleep as the sun rose, he smiled when he thought of his dramatic younger daughter, who was positive she was going to die from the pain of not having the horse she wanted.
Diara and Adalia had gone to visit the spice merchant as Roi remained with Dorian and tried to convince her that she would indeed survive.
That only made things worse. Not even offering to buy her sweets from the only baker in town eased her wounded soul, and once Diara and Adalia had made their purchases, Dorian wept all the way home.
What she didn’t know was that the next day, Roi’s guilt had sent him back to the village for a round of intense negotiations for the mare, whose name was Brillante.
He and the merchant finally settled on a price, and Roi had arranged to have the horse delivered today.
When he heard the faint sounds of the sentries at the gatehouse, announcing an arrival as the sun rose, he quietly climbed out of bed and pulled his clothing on.
Thinking that the golden horse had arrived, he peered out of the chamber window to the bailey—only to see that an unfamiliar horse and rider had arrived.
Pulling his boots on quickly, he went downstairs.
Kyne was waiting for him.
The man had just come up the stairs of the keep and entered the cool, dim foyer as Roi came down. The two of them came together somewhere in the middle of the entry.
“Who comes?” Roi asked. “I saw a rider.”
Kyne’s response was to extend a missive to him, and Roi took it, noting the seal. He lifted his eyebrows in realization.
“Cheltenham,” he said as he broke the seal and unfolded the vellum. “I wonder what he wants?”
Kyne didn’t say anything. He waited until Roi had read the missive twice before speaking.
“The messenger says that Cheltenham is mobilizing his army,” he said. “It seems that Cirencester has launched some sort of raid, and he’s already burned two villages. What does the missive say?”
“It is a request for aid and says that I’m to proceed to the village of Colesborne to intercept Cirencester’s army.
” But then Roi shook his head as if greatly confused.
“Mathis de Geld told us that Cirencester visited Robin last week. Although he did not know the contents of the meeting, he said that Robin was not troubled when Cirencester departed. In fact, the man seemed rather happy. I cannot imagine that Cirencester arrived to threaten him and Robin was joyful about it. That makes no sense.”
Kyne shook his head. “Nay, it does not,” he said. “But why would Cirencester visit him and then attack him only days later?”
Roi pondered that dilemma. “Unless Cirencester gave him an ultimatum,” he said. “But that would not explain Robin’s jovial mood when Cirencester left. Unless…”
“Unless what?”
“Unless Cirencester somehow lied to the man,” Roi said. “For example—what if Cirencester promised Robin something and then went back on his word?”
Kyne nodded. “That would explain the attacks,” he said. “Now your wife’s father is sending you a panicked missive for help. Mayhap his friend did indeed go back on his word.”
Roi wasn’t sure about any of it. “Robin certainly came to Lioncross without a care in the world,” he said.
“I never got any sense that he was concerned about anything, but then again, I did not spend any length of time with him. But Diara did. She said her father was behaving oddly. She found him going through the things in my father’s study. ”
Kyne’s brow furrowed. “Why?”
Roi shrugged. “I could not tell you,” he said. “I forgot about it, in fact. I did not even tell my father what she told me.”
“Then mayhap it was nothing more than a curious old man.”
“True,” Roi said. “That is what I thought.”
Kyne gestured to the missive. “What are you going to do about that?”
“There is nothing else I can do but answer the summons,” Roi said. “Tell Adrius. The two of you can muster about half of my army, and we’ll ride to the southern border of Cheltenham’s land and see what is happening between him and Cirencester. We’ll head to Colesborne.”
“Right away, Roi.”
“And we should send word to my father and tell him what has happened,” Roi said. “Send a messenger to him immediately and relay what was in Robin’s missive. Tell my father that I am already moving out.”
“It shall be done.”
With that, the two of them parted ways. Roi was just heading up the steps of the keep when he heard his name being shouted, and he turned to see that the blond horse was being delivered.
The merchant he’d haggled with was bringing the animal in through the gatehouse, leading it proudly.
Finnick appeared on the steps of the keep, and Roi sent the man out to settle the horse while he continued inside to inform Diara of the situation and pack his belongings.
At this time of the morning, the keep was cold and smelling of smoke from the fires that had burned out overnight.
Roi was nearly to the top of the stairs when Dorian suddenly bolted past him, nearly knocking him backward.
When she realized the body in the stairwell was her father, she leapt on him, her arms around his neck as he held his balance and tried not to fall back down the stairs and take her with him.
“Papa!” Dorian shrieked in his ear. “I saw the horse in the bailey! You bought her!”
Roi patted her on the back. “Aye, I bought her,” he said. “I was going to surprise you, but clearly, you have already seen her.”
“The sentries woke me and I looked outside!”
“Then the sentries spoiled the surprise.”
Dorian didn’t care about any of that. She kissed him loudly and firmly on the cheek. “I love you, Papa!” she cried. “Thank you, thank you!”
She kissed him again, twice more, smacking him on the nose the second time in her haste.
But she was giggling, gleeful, and frantic to see her new horse.
She released her father and ran down the rest of the stairs far too quickly as Roi stood there and rubbed his nose where she’d hit him.
But he felt good that he’d made her so happy.
He hadn’t done much of that during her young life.
With a grin, he continued up the stairs and into the chamber he shared with Diara.
As he opened the door, he wasn’t surprised to find her up and dressing already.
“Good morn, angel,” he said as he shut the door behind him. “Did you sleep well?”
Diara looked at him, smiling as she ran a comb through her hair. “You should know,” she said. “You spend all of your time watching me. How did I sleep?”
He chuckled as he went over to her, taking her in his arms and kissing her sweetly. “It looked to me as if you slept very well,” he said. “And I will not stop watching you even if you tell me to, so save your breath.”
She giggled, pulling from his embrace and heading over to her dressing table. “I would never tell you what you can or cannot do,” she said. “But watching me sleep is going to become quite boring after a time.”
“Never.”
She sat down in front of her table, setting her comb down as she opened up one of the several boxes on the table. “Have it your way, then,” she said. “What do you have in your hand?”
Roi looked down to see that he was still holding the missive from Cheltenham. He’d been so caught up in the joy of seeing her that he’d nearly forgotten he still had it. He lifted it up.
“This is from your father,” he said. “The messenger arrived early this morning. It seems that Cirencester is making trouble for him and he is asking for help.”
Diara stopped what she was doing and turned to him. “Cirencester?”
“That’s what he says.”
She stood up from her chair and went to him, taking the missive and reading through it carefully. When she came to the end of it, she began shaking her head.
“That makes no sense to me,” she said. “Cirencester has never given my father trouble in all of the years we have known him. They are friends.”