These thoughts meant she added a visit to the royal auditor to have a look over the treasury accounts onto her list of things to do that evening.
She had already sent birds to True, suggesting matters were such that he should come home as soon as possible, as well as to Bram, ordering him to take pains to bring her son home.
However, they were not near. It would take ages for them to get to the Thicket.
But Silence and her beast of a husband were only a day’s ride away.
And King Mars might be a savage, but he was not difficult to look at, and even Mercy thought he had an engaging manner.
He was wealthy.
He was now their ally.
And he was besotted with his Dellish countess-now-queen.
If paraded about the city, that tall, dark, dynamic king with his petite, pretty, pale Dellish queen on his arm would at least set the women’s thoughts to swooning.
That was, until their own handsome Prince True returned with his (Mercy had to admit), exotically beautiful future princess at his side
And Mercy knew, if played correctly, a woman could control the sentiments of an entire family, certainly her husband.
Romance was in the air, and there was something Mercy also knew, and she knew it very well.
Romance equaled hope.
And hope was worth a million gold coins.
68
The Honesty
King Mars
The Study, Cord Cottage, The Arbor
WODELL
Sitting behind the desk, Mars studied the dispatch that had just arrived from Lorenz in Fire City.
The Go’Doan were being circumspect. But even so, Lorenz was not convinced that all the conspirators had fled from the city.
Further, the city-state of Go’Doan had officially denied any knowledge of and definitely any collaboration in regards to the attack on Catrame Palace. They went so far as to denounce it, and anyone behind it, with “all due potency.”
Mars wondered what potency they thought was due this denouncement.
They went on to request to continue their “vital” work in that “region” and shared they had already sent new priests to take up the posts of the “wayward” ones that had “gone missing.”
In his last years, his father had kept Mars close to his side in order that Mars could witness the king at work, and they could discuss communications received, decisions made, and strategy taken.
Therefore, Mars did not have to consider long what his father would think of the Go’Doan official statement.
What Ares would think was…
It was bloody rubbish.
He turned his attention to studying the second missive received that morning, this given to Silence and bearing the royal seal of Wodell.
It was from Queen Mercy.
Silence had read it, then handed it to him, saying, “I’d love to show you around our capital. It’s really very pretty. And it’d be nice to spend time with your mother.”
To which he’d replied, “We shall leave in two days.”
And then he’d received her smile.
However, looking at it now, he found some of the language interesting.
It would be most beneficial if you and King Mars could arrive early. The wedding planning is taking up much of my time, and I’m afraid Queen Elpis is at odds for things to do.
Most beneficial was unusual wording.
And if his mother didn’t have enough to do—something she’d never suffered from in her life—then she would either find something to do or ride back to the Arbor and be with them.
They did not need to leave the Arbor to be with her.
Something was amiss, and Mars did not have a good feeling about it.
His head came up before she appeared in the doorway.
When the maid saw she had his attention, she blathered, “Sir, Your Grace, uh, sir, you have a visitor.”
Mars fought back a sigh when she offered no further information, before he prompted, “And that visitor would be?”
“Lady Vanka.”
Silence’s mother?
Why was the maid announcing a visit from Silence’s mother to him?
Mars felt his brows draw together. “My wife is reading in the drawing room.”
“Lady Vanka is here for you, um…sir, and she’s asked that, well, erm…uh, her, uh, your wife, that is—”
For fuck’s sake.
“Her Grace,” Mars bit. “She is queen, even if she is not your queen. As I am king. We are ‘Your Grace’ if you’re speaking to us, and she is ‘Her Grace’ if you are referring to her. Or ‘the queen,’ ‘Her Highness,’ or ‘Her Majesty.’ You know this, therefore your hesitancy in speaking is inexplicable. And I’ll take this opportunity to note that from this point on, anything else will not be considered impertinence. It’ll be considered insubordination and your time in our service will be terminated. Is this understood?”
“Yes, Your Grace,” she whispered.
“Now finish what Lady Vanka wished you to say.”
“She wants to speak to you without Her Grace knowing she’s here until after she speaks with you.”
Mars tipped his head to the side and demanded, “Was that that difficult?”
“No, Your Grace,” she murmured.
“Bring the lady to me,” he ordered.
“Yes, Your Grace.” She dipped a curtsy and disappeared out the door.
It was the second time in five minutes he did not have good feelings, this about Vanka seeking him, and only him.
Fortunately, his wife was now his wife.
She, as had he, had much enjoyed making up for lost time in their bed.
Therefore, he was in a very good mood.
Further lighting his mood, over the past days, Silence had grown open and honest and curious, and if not consistently talkative (which was not her way), the bonds they’d been forming since nearly the moment they met (in his consideration) were fortifying.
Rapidly.
He was falling in love with her.
And she him.
For his part, this was a surprise. He would not have foreseen falling in love with a wee, quiet, pale, reflective Dellish woman, no matter she was a great beauty.
She was still wee, quiet, pale, reflective.
And Dellish.
But now, he could not consider a future without the daily opportunity to look in those silver eyes, to listen to her thoughtful words, to experience the profoundness of her passion, to gaze upon her pale skin beside him in bed or be buried in her wet cunt.
But oddly, of all that, her contradictory demeanor was what he found most attractive.
She was independent, but due to her upbringing, she brought out a protective instinct in him the likes he had not known existed. He was prone to protect the ones he loved, but the maltreatment she endured and the machinations they both were now having to put up with he found intolerable.
She did not need him.
And yet she did.
She gave every impression that she could live her life with her books, her other pursuits, her maid Tril, and that was all, and she would be perfectly content.
But that was not what life gave her.
Life gave her Mars.
As well as a rearing that was abusive in its neglect.
So in the end, she did have need of him.
And one of the reasons why appeared right in that moment at his study door.
He looked at Vanka then past her to the maid.
“Close the door behind the lady,” he ordered.
The maid nodded, curtsied and did as asked.
Vanka had taken two steps in and stopped.
She began it with, “Mars, I cannot say how relieved I am that you agreed to speak to me.”
“You’re my wife’s mother,” he pointed out, coming up from his seat behind the desk. “Though, I will note, I’m not much comfortable with having a conversation without Silence knowing you’re here, so I would suggest you get o
n with it before what minimal comfort I have vanishes.”
She took his words to heart, two more steps into the room, and stated, “It’s my understanding harsh words were spoken with my husband.”
“Only to the extent such words were returned,” he replied. “It is clear Johan made no effort to know his daughter while he raised her, and thus it is no surprise that he underestimates her.”
Vanka winced at this statement, but she did not deny it.
Mars continued, “He was attempting to drive a wedge between husband and wife, for reasons I do not understand, though in the end, I do not care. Such won’t be abided, no matter the reason. Silence read his intent and made it clear she won’t abide it either.”
“This is…it is…somewhat what I wish to discuss with you.”
He was not following.
“What is? My desire to further strengthen my marriage to a woman who is my queen and will be the mother of my children, a woman I’ve come to care for deeply, rather than having it undermined when it’s barely over a month old? Or your husband’s conniving to make certain that does not happen?”
“You care deeply for her?” she asked quietly, staring at him intently.
His brows shot together in annoyance. “I must warn you that minimal comfort I had with our conversation is swiftly vanishing.”
She shook her head, started to lift a hand, dropped it and said quickly, “I wish to discuss, that is…it’s been reported…” She drew in a deep breath. “What I mean to say is, you are in Wodell. We are a certain way here. And…and…”
Her cheeks pinked, much like her daughter’s, which was a fortunate reminder or his reaction to what she said next would have been far more explosive.
“I understand how it is between a new husband and wife. But the forcing upon servants of the, erm, that is to say, a certain…decadence is considered unacceptable in this realm. I know it is much different in your land, but it is not the same way here. Obviously spending the day in each other’s presence is suitable, especially at this point in your marriage and most especially since you did not have a proper courtship. But, erm…in a bedchamber.” She said no more on that and finished, “It reflects badly on Silence and—”
She spoke no further as Mars strode around the desk, across the room, past his mother-in-law, out the door and down the hall.
The first maid he saw, which happened to be in the corridor outside the drawing room, he stopped.
“Pack your things,” he commanded, ignoring her eyes growing huge and her face turning ashen. “You’re relieved of your duties. As are the other two. Tell them immediately and I want all of you gone from this manor in an hour.”
Her eyes flitted beyond Mars, where he knew Vanka, who had followed him, stood, then back to Mars.
And thus, he read on her face she knew that he was now aware that she was running to the lord of Bower Manor and sharing intimacies she had no business sharing.
“But, sir—” she began.
She was the one he’d very recently finished giving a lecture, though she was not referring to him how he’d told her to do so.
Which was irritating, but it was a moot point at this juncture.
“An hour,” he declared.
“We were only doing what we were told,” she whispered.
Mars had his temper in check.
But at this pronouncement, that was slipping.
“Mars, what on earth—?” Silence asked from the doorway.
She’d joined them, which he thought was good, even if, for his wife, it was bad.
He glanced at his queen briefly, saw her juggling her monkey, surprise stamped on her beautiful face.
He’d explain to her later.
He had to deal with this now.
He turned toward Vanka and again lifted his brows.
“They were doing what they were told?” he asked.
Vanka’s cheeks flamed.
“Mother, what are you—?”
Mars turned and interrupted his wife again to say to the maid, “Leave us, gather the others, go to your quarters and await my decision on this matter.” When she hesitated, he finished on a lean, “Now.”
The girl nodded, bobbed a curtsy and rushed away.
“Mars—” Silence murmured.
Mars did not respond to his wife.
He turned to her mother.
“Johan hired servants that would spy and report on his daughter and her husband?” he asked.
“Oh, my goodness,” Silence whispered in horror.
“It is—” Vanka began.
“You do know, this being discovered, it could be construed as a conspiracy of Wodell against the Firenz king and his queen,” Mars remarked.
“Dear gods,” Vanka breathed, her hand coming up to her throat.
“Mars,” Silence said soothingly, and he felt her come close and wrap her fingers around his upper arm.
“It was meant nothing like that,” Vanka stated quickly.
“No, I find it no surprise it was not,” Mars retorted. “Tell me, Vanka, has a maid or valet ever entered your bedchamber when you were abed with your husband?”
Vanka’s face remained flushed.
“Mars,” Silence whispered, her fingers tightening on his arm.
Now understanding this situation to its fullness, especially the fact Silence’s own parents were behind it, his control snapped when Vanka made no reply.
“Tell me!” he barked.
Silence pressed close to his side.
Piccola, her monkey, took that opportunity to transfer herself from her mama to her papa but Mars completely ignored the monkey crawling up his chest and positioning on his shoulder with its little hands clutching Mars’s neck.
“There has been occasion—” Vanka started.
“Of course there has,” he clipped. “You are wed, and you are gentry and your servants have the running of the household, but they do not dictate what happens within its walls. Your husband installed spies in his daughter’s home to report on what happens here so he could have any information he could acquire to utilize in order to undermine her marriage. And when Silence made it clear she would not fall prey to his personal attempts to do this, he sent you here to do the same. That is, after realizing his efforts had come to naught to get them to whore themselves in hopes of gaining my attention and causing a rift in my marriage I would not have been able to repair should I have been of the character to do such a revolting thing to my wife.”
Silence pressed closer.
“A revolting thing?” Vanka asked, appearing stunned he would find it revolting to cheat on his gods-damned wife.
The bloody, fucking Dellish.
“You clearly have utterly no understanding of a Firenz husband, just wed or wed for forty years,” he shared with strained patience. “That is a prejudice of ignorance that does not matter at this juncture. What matters at this juncture is that I do not have to say my marriage is not your concern. What I will make very clear is that your daughter’s marriage is not your concern.”
“I…it would seem there’s been a misunderstanding,” Vanka tried.
“There’s been no misunderstanding,” Mars retorted. “Another prejudice is that you think my people are savage. Uneducated. Dimwitted. We eat, sleep, fuck and war. This is not true. You and your husband have underestimated your daughter her entire life. You underestimating me comes as no surprise. Though, to bring matters in hand, it’s important you know that you have. And last, before you leave, you must know that Silence and I will be having a long conversation about what part you play in her future. Once we come to an understanding, you and your husband will be informed of our decision. Until then, neither of us will see you, and if Silence does not convince me to allow her to keep you a part of her life, you will never see her again, is that understood?”
“But—” Vanka started, no color in her face, none at all.
However, as far as he was concerned, for the moment, this matter was concluded.
> “You may now leave, and if you don’t, I’ll have my men remove you.”
With that, he took hold of his wife and moved her into the drawing room.
Once there, he shut the door.
It took a moment before Silence spoke, and when she did, it was in a careful tone.
“Perhaps you could have allowed her to have her say?”
“And what do you think she would say, piccolina?” he demanded, crossing his arms on his chest.
Silence, her head tipped far back to keep hold on his eyes, pressed her lips tight.
She knew what her mother would have to say and that was nothing good, for it might be a surprise the maids were spying on them and reporting back to her father, but it was not a surprise why they’d been chosen and what they’d preliminarily been asked to achieve.
In fact, those three were such bloody awful maids, it would further not surprise Mars to learn they were not maids at all, and maybe they were even prostitutes, before they came to Cord Cottage.
“I wish you to be done with them and never see them again,” Mars shared his thoughts on the matter of her parents. “However, they are not my mother and father, so I will now listen to your feelings on the subject.”
She tipped her head to the side. “Is now a good time for us to discuss this?”
“It isn’t, for I am livid, and it is, for I am livid, and as such, I feel quite strongly about arguing to get my way.”
They had not stopped far from each other.
But she came closer, pressing the front of her body to his, and she lifted a hand to take Piccola from his shoulder.
Her eyes were dancing through these movements, and although he enjoyed that dance, he found nothing amusing about this situation in the slightest.
And in order to communicate this to his wife, although he very much wished to wrap his arms around her, he kept them crossed.
Piccola dashed under his hair and around the back of Mars’s neck to perch on his other shoulder, stating quite clearly she did not want to be taken from her papa.
Silence let their pet have her way and rested both hands on his chest above his arms in a way, Mars did not fail to miss, she seemed not to care he was set on communicating his irritation.
The Plan Commences Page 49
