28. Zarek
Zarek
MAYBE HE MADE A DEAL
“Ichecked out the stables,” Gerard says.
We’re all sitting around a table in the room Prince Laurance gave Elrick and Anura.
This room is substantially nicer than the room Laurance gave Lilias and me, although whether that discrepancy reflects his attitude toward Vsenrog or his attitude toward the woman he was supposed to marry is impossible for me to know.
“That was a good idea,” Lilias says. “Looking in the stables.”
“Indeed,” I add, raising an eyebrow at Gerard.
Gerard scowls at me. I wait for the bastard to mention that it was my idea. Of course, he doesn’t.
“I tried to go last night,” he says, “but those fucking guards were watching us like hawks. This morning, though, I could slip right down.”
Elrick nods. “Tell them what you found.”
Gerard stares at us with a dark expression. “Horses,” he says.
“In the stables?” I reply. “You don’t say.”
“Fuck you,” Gerard says, almost amicably, as he waves his hand at me. “I found horses that weren’t supposed to be there.”
“How could you tell?” Lilias asks.
Gerard looks almost smug. “Most of the stalls have nameplates, the same as ours. But the ones closest to the doors don’t have anything. I assume that’s where they keep visiting horses, like ours, right?”
Lilias nods, and I think of Vsenrog’s massive stables. They operate in much the same way.
“Well, the visiting stalls were full,” Gerard finishes. “With our horses, yes, but also with a half dozen other horses. Ones I didn’t recognize.”
“Oh,” Lilias gasps.
“That’s very interesting,” I say. “I also discovered something.”
“If you’d let me finish,” Gerard snaps, scowling at me.
I cross my arms over my chest and wait.
I thought about trying to find Elrick’s room last night and telling the prince of Marion what I’d seen and heard in the kitchens. But I wasn’t sure he’d believe me. Or, worse, I wasn’t sure he’d be surprised.
Because whose idea was it to have Lilias marry Prince Laurance? Laurance and Elrick left the room together last night, hours before the guards gossiped about their idiot prince marrying my godsdamned wife. Maybe Elrick made a deal last night.
Maybe he traded away his own sister.
“Could they be merchants?” Lilias asks. “Traders?”
Gerard shakes his head. “I checked their gear,” he adds, in a lower voice. “Saddles, blankets, bags. All of it is top quality, but no insignia.”
He leans back in his chair, grinning, and I know he found something.
“The bridles,” Elrick says. This is clearly the second time he’s heard the story.
“The bridles,” Gerard agrees with a nod. “Scarlet and blue.”
Vsenrog’s colors.
“Gods above,” Lilias whispers. She glances at me with her eyes wide. “But if Vsenrog is here, who are they talking to—”
“The king,” I say.
Elrick nods. “It has to be,” he says. “The king must be well enough to meet a delegation from Vsenrog while his son distracts us.”
I wonder who Vsenrog sent to negotiate with the king. Lilias leans forward. She looks pale.
“What did Laurance tell you last night?” she asks her brother.
My gut shifts around the remnants of the bad wine I drank with the guards.
“Last night?” Elrick looks like he’s just licked something bitter. “He challenged me to a drinking game, then vomited all over the table.” He sighs. “If this idiot prince role is an act to keep us distracted, then it’s a damned good one.”
“I don’t think it’s an act,” I mutter as I stare at Elrick.
Laurance as an actor? No. But Elrick?
“I’ll stay behind today,” Gerard announces. “While you go on that tour of the cliffs, or whatever. I’ll search the castle, see if I can find out who in the hells is here with us.”
Elrick nods, but his wife shakes her head.
“That’s too obvious,” Anura says in a soft voice. “I’m sorry, Gerard, but they won’t let a soldier from another kingdom wander the halls of their castle. Especially not if they have something to hide.”
“I’ll stay behind,” Lilias says.
My gut twists, and that whisper of intuition screams inside my skull. Leaving my wife behind is a terrible, terrible idea. I reach for her, then stop myself and press my hand against the table instead.
We fucked like gods last night, all the tension between us exploding into incendiary pleasure, but that doesn’t mean my wife wants me to touch her in public.
I swallow hard, then clear my throat.
“That’s too risky,” I say.
Lilias looks at me with fire in her eyes.
“It makes more sense for me to stay behind than anyone else,” she retorts. “I can ask for a tour of their stables and no one will think twice about it. And I know more about the horses who are supposed to be in Ethiria than any of you.”
I open my mouth, ready to beg her not to stay. But she’s right. Hells, she knows the horses of Vsenrog too, much better than I do. She might even be able to recognize the ones in the visitors’ stalls.
I close my mouth, swallow, and turn back to her.
Gods, she’s beautiful. The early morning light softens her features, making her look incredibly kissable.
This is not the time, damn it, but I can’t help the flood of memories that rush through my body when I stare at her soft lips.
The noises she made when I filled her. The way her whole body pulled tight with her climax, how she screamed my name when she fell apart.
Fuck. I held her against my chest last night and watched her shoulders rise and fall as she caught her breath, and all the things I need to tell her battered the inside of my skull like angry hornets.
I can’t stay married to this woman. She deserves better. Hells, her entire kingdom deserves better. And maybe she would be happier here, with Laurance, that idiot of a prince. She’ll have an entire stable full of horses in Ethiria.
And with me, the son of the gardener for a ruined kingdom?
She’d have absolutely nothing.
I swallow hard, fighting the bitterness in the back of my throat. Divorcing this woman, setting her free, it’s going to break me. Malrik could not have crafted a better weapon, my mind whispers. Not if he had all the time in the world.
I glance down at the table, then back to my wife.
“Be careful,” I say.
Gerard looks at me like I’ve just said something hilarious. I have to stifle the urge to punch that son of a bitch right in the mouth.
“I will,” Lilias replies. “Honestly, I’ll probably be safer here in the castle than you’ll be with Laurance’s guards.”
“Great,” I mutter under my breath.
And I glare at Elrick.