Chapter 15 Jess #2
For the next several hours, I grappled with rebuilding the Kingdom’s military, dealing with the poor educational system in towns outside the capital, the plight of farmers whose crops had been confiscated for the war effort, the endless stream of orphans and widows created by the war,
and dozens of other problems I had no idea how to solve.
When I set my quill down and leaned back, my mind felt numb.
As I rubbed weary eyes, a horse whinnied beyond the cavern’s entrance.
Then hooves clomped against the rocky shore.
I shot out of my chair and froze, my unwavering glare fixed on the cave’s far wall that I knew was a hidden entrance.
In the space of a breath, the most beautiful creature I had ever seen poked his head through the magical stone.
“Dittler!” A giddy young girl’s squeal flew from my lips as I raced forward. Dittler met me halfway and buried his head into my shoulder. The cheerful clatter of the stallion’s hooves made me giggle as he danced with the thrill of our reunion.
“I missed you so much, my baby boy,” I said.
Dittler whinnied again and licked my face with a slobbery tongue.
“Your Majesty looks good in drool,” a deep, amused voice said from the entrance.
My head snapped up, and Keelan’s eyes met mine for the first time in weeks.
I saw only kindness and warmth, no trace of the malevolent evil that had stalked me before. Keelan’s face broke into laughter as drool fell from my forehead into my eye, forcing me to swat it away with the back of my hand.
“You realize it is a crime to laugh at the monarch? I could have your head . . . or something . . . I am sure it would be very bad for you,” I stammered, trying to walk the line between stern and witty. Dittler startled me with another lick.
Keelan snorted. “A nation of laws. I like it here.”
I tossed an empty silver cup in his direction and grinned when he ducked.
He looked up, sarcasm dripping from his tongue as he said, “Regal as ever, Your Majesty.”
I chuckled and offered a mock curtsey. “I am so glad you approve, Lieutenant.”
The ice now thoroughly shattered by Dittler’s slobber, Keelan stepped forward and gripped the horse’s reins.
His confident face betrayed something I hadn’t seen a moment before.
He looked down and stroked Dittler’s side.
“It’s good to see you again, Your Majesty . . . I mean, Jess. I . . . I don’t even know how to apologize for . . . well . . .”
I was tempted to let him struggle with his apology, simply for the amusement of watching the huge man writhe, but finally saved him.
My voice was firm, yet also gentle. “Keelan, stop. It was not you who attacked me, but it was you who saved me in the end. I know that. It may take some time to get used to everything, but you bear no blame for what happened. Besides, you forced me to face my destiny, and I am grateful for that.”
He cocked his head like a confused pup.
I grinned. “Come and sit. I remember how much you loved this wine, and my cook insists I take cheese, bread, and meat with me everywhere. We can catch up with a small meal.”
Keelan ran a hand over his stubble and smiled. “That sounds good. I am hungry, and that wine might calm my nerves a bit.”
“I make you nervous?” I asked playfully.
“Uh, well, maybe. I don’t know,” he stammered.
My laughter bounced off the walls of the cave. “I am teasing you. Just sit and tell me, how is Atikus? I miss that funny old man.”
The comfort of the cave made it easy to lose track of time, and we talked long past the afternoon and into the night.
Keelan omitted few details of his trip back to Saltstone and the weeks he experienced following the Kingdom’s failed siege of Saltstone.
He hadn’t been there when my mother fell but described the events as Declan and Atikus had explained them to him.
When he told me about Isabel’s order to hunt down the mass of fleeing civilians, tears began to trickle down my cheeks.
“She was horrible,” was all I could say.
“Jess, it was Irina, not your mother.”
My voice hardened. “My mother chose to bring Irina back. She chose to sacrifice her husband, son, and daughter on the altar of Irina’s ambitions. In the end, it might have backfired when Irina consumed her soul, but it was my mother’s choices that led to all of this.
As much as I may want to forgive her, to love and mourn her as a daughter, as Queen, I cannot forget or forgive the treachery and death that woman thrust upon our two nations.”
I peppered him with questions, and he patiently answered each. At the end of his tale, Keelan’s stomach rumbled.
I chuckled. “I take it you are hungry again?”
“I’m a big boy. I like to eat.” He grinned back. “And I happen to have purchased some salted fish and vegetables from the ferry that brought me across the bay. Would you like some?”
I wrinkled my nose. “Sure. I will try your salted fish, but do not hate me if I go back to my bread and cheese after the first bite. It sounds suspicious, especially coming from a ferry’s stores.”
While Keelan retrieved the fish from his saddlebags, I walked to the shelving and found plates and cutlery. When I turned, he was standing by the table staring at me. I looked down to see what was out of place.
“I’m sorry,” he said as his face colored.
“It’s just that . . . well . . . the last time I saw you, we were in filthy, dusty riding clothes with tangled hair and dirty faces. I don’t think we bathed the whole time we were on the run. And now . . . well, you’re . . . beautiful.”
He looked down as he muttered the last word.
I blushed then grinned at his discomfort.
That’s when I took my first long look at the Guardsman in his crisp navy uniform. He had removed his coat and laid it on one of the cots when we first sat to talk, and I hadn’t given it much thought.
But now my mind was spinning.
When had he changed into a clean uniform following his journey here? Surely his clothes should stink of the road and the bay, but they didn’t.
Why would he change his uniform before entering the cave?
I was puzzling through those questions when Keelan found his courage and took the plates from my hand. I startled and took a step back.
“Sorry,” he said with a sheepish grin, then turned and began setting the plates on the table.
As if seeing him for the first time, my eyes traced the outline of his strong jaw. I watched the muscles in his back shift in his tight white shirt. I chided myself for staring and turned back to the shelves, pretending to retrieve something else for our meal before joining him once more.