CHAPTER SEVEN
T OMAS RODE INTO Aergoveny trailing two horses, three hawks and an empty pigeon cage. His arrival in the small mountain village did not go unnoticed. He’d been expecting a glance or two—the falcons always created interest and any newcomer to a place as isolated as this one was always greeted with some measure of suspicion. The silence as he dismounted in front of the only tavern didn’t worry him as much as the smell of himself after spending so much time living rough. Hasty washes in almost frozen streams had barely taken the edge off the odour and he knew it. He had two days to get clean-shaven before Claudia arrived and he didn’t know whether to take a room at the tavern or take his chances and keep going until he reached the property he now owned. Instinct suggested that, either way, it would be good manners to introduce himself, seeing as these villagers were soon going to be his neighbours.
The groom that rushed out to take his horses—shedding a serving apron along the way—was small, wiry and female. ‘You’re him,’ she declared without preamble. ‘The King’s Falconer. We’ve been wondering when you’d turn up. The Princess Royal’s people called two days ago and reserved a room for you, and the bathhouse and a barber. They said you’d scowl like that too. Da’s inside and I can see to your horses. We’ve stables out back, with lowland hay and grain.’ She looked longingly towards the falcons. ‘I can take care of your birds too.’
‘They don’t leave my care.’ Preferably his sight. ‘They room with me.’
‘Probably for the best. I saved a falcon once. The cats had it trapped and were going in for the kill and the stable doors were closed and it couldn’t get out. It was exhausted, poor thing. I could pick it up and everything.’
Being showered with falcon stories was part and parcel of being the King’s Falconer. It was his duty to listen and offer words of encouragement and advice. ‘What happened to it?’
‘I brought it inside and checked for wounds. It didn’t have any I could see, but it wouldn’t eat. Da said it was probably full of mice.’
Tomas and his animal entourage followed her to the stables, relieved when they were clean and warm, with wide stalls and several ponies already in residence. The girl slanted him a glance, took one of his packhorses, clipped it to a lead rope attached to a post and began to relieve the horse of its load. ‘Use these three stalls here. They’re ready for you.’
She knew her way around horses, and he joined her in the offloading.
‘What happened to the bird?’
‘We kept her overnight so she could recover her strength and then let her go.’
‘Did you ever think about keeping her?’
‘Dreamed of, more like,’ the girl said with a snort.
‘Why didn’t you?’
‘She was wild and grown and used to being free. Wouldn’t have been fair. I’m Caitlin, by the way. Daughter of Bain, and hopefully wife of Balo one day—but don’t tell him. He doesn’t know yet.’
Tomas snorted. So did his horse. Poor Balo. ‘Tomas.’
Such enthusiasm in her nod. ‘I knew it! Who else would you be? The woman on the phone described you perfectly.’
‘Did she now?’ Surely Claudia wouldn’t have been the one to make the call? She had aides for that. Didn’t she?
‘Big. Scowling. Shaggy dark hair and eyes you wouldn’t dare disobey. And when he asks you to do something, you’re moving before your brain even catches up.’
‘Did she give you her name?’
‘No.’
Could have been Lor having a laugh at his expense. ‘You did the right thing with the wild falcon. You might have been able to train it to get used to you but you’d have never been able to trust it to return if you flew it.’
‘I know.’ She sounded wistful. ‘That’s what Da said.’
‘I’ll be interviewing for apprentices tomorrow.’ Just like that, his mind was made up. ‘I’ll need at least half a dozen, maybe more.’
‘Oh, man! The guys are going to go ape. Balo, okay? Remember the name!’
‘Why not you?’
Her eyes widened with shock and excitement before she slowly, ruthlessly snuffed that light out. ‘I work for Da. He needs me more than you do.’ She set his packsaddle on a nearby table and returned her attention to the horse. ‘Don’t worry. You’ll get plenty of interest. Is there an age range?’
‘Not children—although I’ll take falconry classes for children once the manor is up and running.’ Go him. Being his own man and winging it and feeling good about it. And all because Claudia had challenged him to let go a little and loosen up on his emotions. He was doing it. ‘Apart from that, anyone of any age can apply.’
‘Do you need household workers too?’
‘I’m thinking about it.’ He’d make better decisions about that after he saw the place. He had ideas about open days to bring in income for running costs. Even the prize money he’d been given would run out eventually if he didn’t figure out how not to bleed money when it came to running all the programmes he’d dreamed into existence while up in the mountains.
‘I’ll get the word out,’ she offered.
‘I’ll do it myself.’
She wrinkled her nose and probably bit her tongue in an effort to keep her many opinions to herself.
‘What now?’ he grumbled.
‘I mean, first impressions and all. You need a bath.’
The next day Tomas took interviews, got to know the people of Aergoveny. He’d sent word of his arrival to Claudia by text once his phone had recharged, and received a thumbs-up in reply.
He’d sent another short message about interviewing for apprentices and got a laughing smiley face in reply and nothing else. For a woman who had a lot to say in person and via drone, she was surprisingly circumspect by phone.
At six thirty-five on the morning of Claudia’s arrival, he got a text from her.
Tomas, I have to cancel. I have a dreadful stomach bug and travel just isn’t going to happen. You’ve got this!
He told her to get well soon in reply.
Maybe she really was sick with a rapid onset stomach complaint. Bad seafood at the royal banquet luncheon. A bad chicken wing during her afternoon snack.
He had to give her the benefit of the doubt.
He bundled up his disappointment into a tight ball and swallowed it whole, along with the breakfast on his plate. Claudia, the Princess Royal, had responsibilities to more than just him. She didn’t owe him a longer explanation or for him to hear her voice while she explained away her absence. They were still at the start of a very long journey that could lead anywhere.
She didn’t owe him anything.
The Aergoveny manor did nothing to curb Tomas’s burgeoning dream of setting up a specialty raptor sanctuary. Situated in the middle of a hidden valley, surrounded by mountains, it stood harsh and plain, a grey fortress surrounded by high stone walls. A barren nest long since abandoned, but there was so much promise here, and the stonemasons and carpenters had made a good start on repairs. The stables were to the east, along with entrance gates and bunkhouses. The aviaries were to the west. The kitchen garden and orchard lay to the south and consisted mainly of weedy garden beds and ragged fruit trees that had once been espaliered against protective stone walls. What a place to train birds to the glove!
He could see it already. This tiny jewel in the Byzenmaach crown could one day become a raptor breeding and rehabilitation centre that could easily earn its way by putting on open days and re-enactment fairs and providing education opportunities for children in the summer months. If he wanted company in the main house, it could potentially accommodate a handful of environmental researchers and ornithologists all year round.
He claimed a room on the ground floor near the kitchens for his meagre belongings, and maybe one day he’d graduate to feeling comfortable inhabiting the master bedroom but that day had yet to come. He spent another week organising aviary repairs and ordering materials and trying not to read anything into the fact that Claudia hadn’t contacted him.
He invited Silas and Lor and stablemaster Ivan from the winter fortress to visit and give their opinions on staffing and maintenance, ever grateful for their cheerful support and practical experience. He moved back and forth between the fortress and his new home for another two weeks, running himself ragged trying to do his job and oversee the work happening in Aergoveny.
For a man who’d objected so strongly to becoming a baron, he wasn’t lost to the fact that he was wholeheartedly embracing the reality of it.
Claudia was right. Having the freedom to build something for himself was addictive.
He wasn’t actively trying to avoiding Claudia but she was never in residence when he returned home, and on the one occasion he’d asked Lor where she was, Lor had got the strangest look on her face and muttered something about her being tied up at the palace while multinational water negotiations took place.
It sounded perfectly reasonable. There was no earthly reason for him to suspect something was off.
Claudia was an important woman.
Lor had never steered him wrong.
And yet, if a falcon in his care had prompted this kind of uneasy feeling he’d be keeping it under close observation.
When the royal helicopter landed at the fortress that afternoon, he thought he might get his chance to catch up with Claudia that evening, but the helicopter spat out Ana and young Sophia and no one else.
To say he hid his resulting foul mood from his apprentices would be a lie. He tried to limit the damage done by giving them all an impromptu half day respite from general chores. Instead, he asked them to go home and write a two-page response to the idea of rotating them in and out of the Aergoveny manor one or two at a time for one or two months at a time while he continued to travel between the two sites. He needed people he could trust at both places, needed them to provide continuity of care for the birds and alert him to any problems. Two of his apprentices had young families to consider, two didn’t. No one would be penalised for speaking out against such a move. No one would lose their apprenticeship. They should consider their two-page spiels to be expressions of interest, or disinterest. He simply wanted to know what their circumstances would allow.
The silence that followed his announcement wasn’t encouraging.
Finally, his fourth-year apprentice spoke up. ‘What are your long-term intentions? As the King’s Falconer and now lord of your own lands?’
‘I intend to expand the King’s falcon breeding programmes and open up the Aergoveny manor to the public. I’m looking into housing other endangered birds and eventually reintroducing them into areas where researchers think they will survive. There will be monitoring programmes. Research opportunities. Learning and exchange of ideas because I sure as the sky don’t know everything. I know you’re all encouraged to leave at the end of your four years here. I know you can count on finding key positions worldwide. And if your goals and dreams have always lain elsewhere, I say go for them. I’m setting you up for success anywhere .’ He meant every word. ‘But I’m opening up two permanent positions immediately as part of my goals for the future. One here, one in Aergoveny. Maybe even four permanent Master Falconer positions in the years to come, and four apprenticeships offered each year. I’ve been given a sackful of money and the most beautiful raptor sanctuary location in the world and I’m going for it.’
Silence greeted his words. Silence, sideways glances and finally grins.
‘Whatever you want done, I’ll do it,’ his fourth-year apprentice replied firmly. ‘I want in on the ground floor.’
‘Mad not to,’ said his third-year apprentice. ‘Count me in too.’
‘And me,’ said Bran, the youngest, hurriedly. ‘I have family in Aergoveny. My father grew up there. I’ll go there any time and be happy about it.’
‘And I’ll go with him.’ His remaining apprentice smiled broadly. ‘Have you seen his cousin? She’s the prettiest woman in the world and sweet along with it.’
‘She lives in the capital, Romeo,’ countered Bran.
‘And when she returns to visit her family, I will be standing there flying falcons and looking majestic by association. King’s Falconer’s apprentice. Never fails to impress.’
Bran puffed up like a little barnyard rooster. ‘That’s an unfair advantage!’
Bran had been using that unfair advantage to devastating effect ever since he’d got here. Tomas didn’t bother to disguise his smirk.
‘Are you sure you’re all with me?’ He hadn’t expected such instant support. Was leadership always this easy with a vision in mind and the resources to make it happen? ‘Thank you, I’m humbled.’ He was also hungry to see what could be achieved and how fast they could begin to make it happen when working as a team and taking on extra responsibilities. ‘I’ll have new employment contracts for you to look over by the end of the week. I still want your thoughts on rotation planning. Add a paragraph on what you’re most looking forward to being part of. I’ll take looking majestic by association as a given.’
He was still smiling at that one later that afternoon when his apprentices were long gone and he was finishing the last of the weigh-ins and deciding that the time had come to properly embrace computer records in addition to the trusty notebooks that had served his father and grandfather so well. Especially now that birds and people would be travelling back and forth between sites.
He saw Sophia pause in the doorway to the weighing room, her trusty wolfhounds Jelly and Belly at her side. He saw her raise her tiny fist to knock on the doorframe and then pause, her gaze shifting from him to the eyas on the tray in front of him. Best not to knock right now and startle them. He liked the way she’d paused to think about that. Another falconer in the making, he decided with no little satisfaction.
‘You can come closer if you’re quiet,’ he murmured. ‘Make the hounds sit by the door.’
The King’s daughter did exactly that as he recorded the weight. ‘Do you want to feed her?’ he asked of the bird in his hand.
‘Yes, please.’
He pointed towards the bucket of meat and nodded. He liked this little girl with her affinity for animals and Claudia’s eyes, even if it had taken some getting used to her. It had been like seeing a ghost at first, and he hadn’t been the only one to think so. Cas had been blindsided by his daughter’s resemblance to Claudia too.
Claudia’s presence had gone a long way to making Tomas regard young Sophia as a person in her own right. It wasn’t Sophia’s fault that her looks and mannerisms sometimes left him spinning with memories of his childhood and Claudia’s.
He would do better by this child. They all would.
For starters, young Sophia knew her parents loved her and cared for her as they should.
‘Does she weigh enough?’ the little girl asked.
‘Yes. See how the numbers on the chart keep going up slowly but surely? That’s what we want to see.’
‘How old is she?’
‘Four weeks.’
He answered more questions while she helped him weigh the next set of hatchlings. He watched her eyes grow round when he told her he was thinking about placing one with a young woman in Aergoveny whose main job was to help her father run a tavern. He thought the young woman had a way with animals and people too, and he wanted to teach her and many others the art of falconry and experience the practical partnerships between people and birds.
‘I want to experience the practical partnerships too,’ Sophia assured him earnestly.
‘It takes a lot of time. And right now you’re learning other big skills. Don’t you have a new pony to ride and a wolfhound puppy coming soon?’
Sophia nodded.
‘Show me how well you care for them, over and over for years, and we can talk again about getting you your own hatchling.’
‘Aunt Claudia had a falcon of her own when she was seven.’
‘Did she now?’
‘And so did you. Aunt Claudia told me.’
‘ Did she now?’
‘She says you were her best teacher ever.’
Ha. ‘I was eleven at the time and my father was teaching us both. It’s good to learn things alongside a friend.’ He hoped his new apprentices proved his words true.
‘So you and Aunt Claudia are friends. Is that why she doesn’t want to trap you?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘With a baby.’
She wasn’t making sense. ‘A— what ?’
‘Aunt Claudia’s baby. In her belly.’
Still not computing. He lifted the last of the eyas off the scales and back into the bucket, and wrote the weight down in the record book. Miracle of miracles, his hands stayed steady throughout.
‘Aunt Claudia has a baby in her belly?’
The little girl nodded.
‘Did she say that?’ He should be ashamed, pumping a child for information, but here they were.
Another nod. ‘And then my father said, “He needs to know” and Aunt Claudia said, “Why would I trap him when he’s just been set free?” and my father said, “It’s your duty to tell him” and that’s when they really started yelling.’
‘So you overheard this conversation but you weren’t part of it.’ Sophia was beginning to look scared. He hadn’t raised his voice but if he could track the tight tension in his words, doubtless so could she.
‘Am I in trouble?’
‘Not with me.’ He tried to make his voice sound less harsh as he crouched in front of her. ‘No, but princesses have rules they need to live by. And one of the first rules of princessing is that you don’t repeat conversations you’re not part of in the first place. You might be giving secrets away to the wrong people.’
‘Indeed,’ said a voice from the doorway, and there stood Ana, her pretty face grave as she stared down at them. He straightened, crossed his arms for good measure and held his Queen’s gaze with a flinty one of his own.
‘Thank you, Tomas. I can take it from here. Come on, Soph.’ Ana held out her hand for her daughter to take. ‘Let’s get you cleaned up for dinner. Your father will be joining us.’
He hadn’t started this conversation but, one way or another, he would hear the end of it. ‘Will the Princess Royal be joining you too?’
‘Do you have business with her?’
‘You tell me.’
Ana was the first to look away. ‘With the water rights negotiations completed, she was heading north with Lord Ildris for a time. To celebrate.’
‘Ildris’s horses are here.’
‘I believe they flew. Lord Ildris will be returning at the beginning of next week. He’s accepted a permanent consultancy position within the palace.’
More fool Cas.
‘Did you just... growl ?’ asked Sophia with no little fascination.
‘I’m sure the Lord Falcon Master was just clearing his throat,’ Ana murmured. ‘As for the Princess Royal, I believe she’s staying up north for a week or two longer, maybe more. The mountains were calling.’
He had mountains. He had mountains on his doorstep . This very fortress had been carved into the side of one, should anyone want to get pedantic about their proximity to shouty big blocks of stone.
‘Come on, Soph. Time to go.’ Ana ushered her daughter to the door but spared him a glance at the very last moment. ‘You speak mountain man, don’t you?’