by Lisa Heaton
“I will never part with it.” She looked down at it once more.
He grinned at her and traced his thumb along her chin. “I’m telling you in advance, I have another gift for you. So just in case I have made you angry by the time you receive it, I assure you it will be a coincidence.”
“I’ll remember that.”
Before he turned to go, he asked, “Since your purpose is to be queen, would you like to attend my meeting with Thomas tomorrow?”
“I would.”
“After breakfast, then. I will see you in the morning.”
Chapter 14
With great intention, Isabel listened as several men argued. Each had an opinion and was set on telling it. Those who had arrived with Thomas were currently taking turns, in theory, sharing their thoughts. In practice they were talking all over each other, often shouting and confusing the subject altogether. When considering their position, she found she understood their resentment. The men on the Artilan border behind the attacks on Kidian residents were justified in their anger.
On the opposing side, the family from Kidian, wealthy landowners who were the target of the attacks, were not responding to the rape of the young woman in a satisfactory manner. Since their youngest son was involved and since they refused to allow him to marry the pregnant girl, the townspeople from Artilan wanted justice. To them, if the young man continued to refuse marriage, then they expected justice to be served otherwise.
“The boy must pay,” one man said with a scowl.
A Kidian advisor began again arguing that it wasn’t right to force a citizen into marriage.
When the man currently speaking stopped long enough to take a drink of water, Isabel took advantage of the brief silence to whisper to Colin. “Can we send someone to investigate? Have we done that already? To be fair, we have only heard their side. As much as I want to punish the young man in question, I believe he has a right to be heard.”
“Only the representative of the boy’s family has given us his account.”
Colin held his hand up to prevent the man from beginning again.
“The queen has requested that we send someone to investigate. Since we have yet to hear from the boy directly, I think that is wise before deciding his fate.”
The moment Colin had suggested a further investigation, Isabel could see the enraged faces of the men who were prepared to argue again.
She looked intentionally at Thomas. “Since the border is only a two day’s ride away, I would like to invite you to remain here and enjoy our hospitality until our man returns.” She batted her eyelashes. “And our hunting as well. We have the best hunting in Kidian here on the palace grounds.”
Thomas returned Isabel’s steady gaze. “We would be delighted to remain while your man travels. Your hospitality is too generous to refuse.”
When the meeting was over, Isabel followed Colin into his study where they could talk in private.
Colin said, “Were you flirting with Thomas with your invitation?”
“I was merely trying to help him see the benefit of staying on at the palace. None of those men were about to react well to a delay.”
“You knew he would jump at the chance to remain and dance with you each night.”
“I did know that.”
“Is that why you told him you have a one-time rule, to toy with him?”
“For one, I do have a one-time rule, something I have adhered to since the evening I arrived. I had no idea last night that I would need the advantage. I’m not that brilliant of a strategist.”
“Oh, I disagree.” He smiled at her. “I’m proud of you. That was a good idea, to send someone we trust to investigate the Kidian side of things.”
“And the girl’s.”
“Absolutely.”
Without being asked her opinion, Isabel offered it. “I think we should send Elias.”
Colin sat for a moment and allowed the name to linger. “So, you are now on a first name basis with the commander?”
With regret that she had used Elias’s given name, Isabel answered truthfully. “He and I have endured much together.”
“I suppose you have.” He sat and stared at her for another long moment. “So you trust him to be a fair judge?”
“I do. He is fair yet fiercely loyal to the kingdom.” She paused a moment. “And to his king.”
Colin’s eyes narrowed and he stared at her for longer than was comfortable.
“I’ve never had any reason to doubt that.”
His expression concerned her. Clearly, her mistake had given him reason to wonder. She nodded. “You can discuss the details with him tomorrow.”
“Agreed. I will make the arrangements.” Colin stood. “As for what to do with the remainder of the day, I think we should take a ride.”
“Together?”
He chuckled. “Of course, together.”
“It’s rare for you to take a day away.”
“Today is a special day. I want to see your face.”
“What is special about today?”
“I can’t tell you now. Let’s pack a picnic for our ride. I promise you will know soon enough.”
***
The secret Colin carried had him excited all morning. He had been as eager to tell as she was to know.
When they approached the stables, Isabel asked again, “What is special about today?”
Colin held Isabel’s hand to prevent her from going into the stables. It was her custom to ready her horse to ride, but today, he had that taken care of for her.
“You are about to find out.”
Even as he finished speaking, a stableman led a magnificent thoroughbred through the massive doors, but not just any thoroughbred – it was hers.
“Mighty!” she shrieked and ran to him, wrapping her arms around the horse’s neck.
It was with great pleasure that Colin watched Isabel with her horse. She had told him countless stories of her horse and the bond they shared, and Colin didn’t doubt her sincerity, but he wasn’t anticipating the reaction of each once reunited. To his absolute amazement, the horse was actually nuzzling her neck and making an unusual noise, almost whining like a dog. The moment moved him, especially when he saw tears pooled in Isabel’s eyes.
Next thing he knew, she flung herself into his arms and wrapped her arms around his neck.
Since her arrival, Colin had done little right by her. This, this decision to have her horse brought to her, was accidentally the best decision he had made where she was concerned. He had never anticipated this reaction.
They rode out past the lake and to a secluded place where he had taken her the first day they toured the palace grounds.
“I was thinking we could eat there.” Colin pointed to a spot located beneath a large shade tree. “This is my favorite place of all the palace grounds.”
“I see why it’s your favorite.”
Colin spread out the blanket and together they removed the food from a basket. Isabel smiled up at him. “I haven’t been on a true picnic in years. I used to do this with my parents.”
“I hope it’s a fond memory, then.”
“Very fond,” she said.
“I used to picnic with my mother when I was a boy.”
Colin handed her an apple tart. “Here, your favorite.”
Both had been quiet as they ate, unusual for them. Colin was lost in the memories of what it felt like to sit beneath the sunshine with a caring mother and share an ordinary day. By her expression, Isabel seemed to be lost in the same sort of memory.
Colin thought of his mother more often since Isabel had arrived. She reminded him of her in some ways, especially how wise and shrewd she was. His mother was often involved with decisions his father made. With Isabel, he was pleased to find her interested in kingdom affairs. Melody was not only disinterested, she refused to talk about most anything related to kingdom business. Her love was for entertaining and shining for others. That mattered most to her, how others saw her.
<
br /> Other than that they were both of the feminine persuasion, Colin could find almost no similarities between Melody and Isabel.
“Are you daydreaming?” Isabel said.
He smiled at her. “Not daydreaming, exactly. Just thinking how much you remind me of my mother. She was said to be an exceptional queen.” He looked up from his empty plate. “That will be said of you, as well, Isabel.”
“I hope you’re right.”
“Today assures me you will be.”
“I think of the young woman often.”
“I know. I do, too.”
Isabel began to gather their utensils and plates when Colin reached for her arm. “There’s time for that.” Then he pulled her closer and his eyes grew narrow. “I missed you last night.”
She smiled at him knowingly. “You could have stayed.”
“I wanted to make absolute certain that your gift was in no way tied to my making love to you.”
“And now you regret that?”
“Not at all. But now,” he said with a mischievous grin, “I want to assure you that I don’t mind being paid back for my wonderful surprise today.”
“I don’t mind paying you back.” She leaned in and kissed him. When he rolled her onto her back and began kissing her neck, she giggled. “Here?”
“Yes, here.”
Colin lifted his head to look at her. “Would you?”
“Absolutely.”
Doubting her seriousness, he chuckled. “You would not.”
“I certainly will.”
Colin was resting on his back, watching clouds float lazily along. That’s what he felt, lazy and a bit sleepy. “What if we take a nap here?” He could think of nothing better than drifting off to sleep with Isabel in his arms.
Isabel sighed as she traced tiny circles on his chest with her fingertips. “We could do that.”
For a moment he was quiet, thinking the same thoughts that had been troubling him for some time. Finally, he told her, “Melody would have never done this, allowed me to love her outdoors.”
“I’m not sure if that’s an insult to me or compliment.”
“A compliment without question.”
She propped herself on her elbow. “I think it’s time you tell me about her.”
He continued watching the clouds as he spoke. “She was nearly four years older than me. Even when I was much younger I was smitten by her with her waves of golden hair and bright blue eyes. Every young man wanted her.”
Colin could easily imagine her that first night they danced. She wore a yellow dress with mounds and mounds of silky fabric. Even the sound of it swishing as she moved was still trapped in his head.
“I had recently turned seventeen the first time I ever dared to ask her to dance. I was surprised that she said yes. I had known her all of my life but most often, she treated me as a child. She had gotten engaged just the day before we danced that first time.” He turned to look at Isabel. “To Lon.”
“Lon who is married to Elsa?”
“Yes, that Lon. I was so afraid she would marry him before I could win her heart.” He grinned at the memory. “As we danced that night, I warned her that I was going to take her from Lon.”
“What did she say to that?”
“That she would like to see that. Honestly, I thought it was a challenge, but later I realized that she literally meant that she would like to see me take her from Lon. Her father had made the match against her wishes.”
Colin thought of how the night had ended, with Melody coming to his room and giving herself to him, at least in part. Of all the memories he had with her, that one in particular remained the most vivid. At the time Colin had been much too in love to understand her motives in doing so. Soon enough, he figured out that she was intent on becoming a princess. But in those early months, new to love and intimacy, he was so caught up that he could see neither heads nor tails. He became so completely hers that nothing mattered to him more than her.
“The following day she told her father that she refused to marry Lon. For a time there was a tremendous controversy between our fathers. For obvious reasons her father was in favor of our union. My father, however, never thought too much of her. He was so opposed that he sent me to serve in the army. I would be gone for months at a time, but when I returned she was always waiting for me.”
Colin glanced at Isabel. “Before me, she had no hope of becoming royalty. In those early months, that was what drove her more than true affection for me, the idea that I would make her a princess and maybe someday a queen. I knew it by then but hardly cared. Early on, I think she still saw me as a boy, but that eventually changed. I remember the one time I arrived home, soon after I turned nineteen, and she flung herself into my arms. I saw it in her eyes; she was just as completely mine. Days before I was to return to the camp, she barged in on my father, weeping and pleading with him not to send me back.”
“And did he?”
“No, not full-time. I did travel on occasion but not as before. Even he saw the change in Melody and no longer believed her to be an opportunist. That’s what he had often called her.”
Colin sat up and rested his elbows on his knees. “From the moment we began to be intimate together.” He left out the part that it was before marriage. “She was terrified of getting pregnant. Her mother had died in childbirth, so she feared the same.”
Colin could hardly go on for a second.
“So I was careful. Still, no matter how careful I promised to be, she very rarely wanted to be intimate. It was a terrible strain on our marriage.”
Isabel sat up next to him. “May I ask you a question?”
“Of course.”
“What do you mean by being careful?”
He couldn’t help but grin at her innocence. “I wouldn’t finish.”
“Oh.” She said, her face contorting into a scowl. “That must have been dreadful.”
Colin laughed at her expression. “I promise to never be careful with you.”
She grinned at that. “So tell me more.”
“Those early years, I never suspected I would take the throne so soon. Once I did, right away the advisors began to hound me about producing an heir.” Colin paused a moment remembering that first time.
“Eventually, I wasn’t careful. She wept in my arms that night. And the next time and the next.”
“You feel responsible for her death.”
“I am responsible. She always blamed me. When she was ill during her pregnancy, she blamed me and was very vocal about it. When she began gaining weight, she blamed me.” Colin looked away and shook his head. “When she knew she was dying, she blamed me.”
“Don’t say that. She couldn’t have blamed you.”
“She did. She said so.” He turned to look at her. “She was nothing like you, Isabel.” He moved a lock of hair behind her ear. “You are a bright and shining light. With her it was mostly darkness. Of course I couldn’t see it then. I was too wrapped up in the emotion of it. Our love became a sickness that eventually killed us both.”
“Why, then, do you keep hanging on to what’s destroyed you?”
“I suppose now it’s less about love and more about the promise.” He exhaled, surprised at his own admission. “I’m just now understanding that.”
“That was an unfair and undue promise. It wasn’t your fault, and for her to bind you...” She stopped and looked away.
“I know you will never understand, but that was my final promise to her. When I consider what I took from her, I feel I owe her that much.”
“She would never expect you to keep it. If she loved you as you say she did, she would want you to find love and happiness again someday.”
“Her final words were, ‘Promise me.’ So I did, and I’ll keep that promise.”
Isabel wrapped her arm around Colin’s neck and rested her head on his shoulder. “Then I will help you keep it.”
Moved by what he understood was her sacrifice, Colin said, “If only I had
the freedom to love, you would be the love of a lifetime.”
Isabel shook her head. “You’re right. I will never fully understand. To know we have the potential for love but not the possibility is tragic to me.” She glanced away and then back with a faint smile. “At least I’ve known love. That can be enough.”
“And you had to give him up to come to me?”
“Yes.”
For a moment he could find no words. How was it that he never considered it? “And you love him still?”
“Yes.”
“I’m sorry to have taken you away from him. And for what?”
“A thousand blessings. This life of mine is blessed beyond what I deserve.”
Colin recalled the commander’s words. “But with it comes sacrifice? I don’t want you to regret becoming mine.”
“I can’t imagine that I ever will.”
“I know I’ve done more wrong than right.”
“That’s not true at all.”
He smiled at her, wondering if she had any idea what their relationship meant to him. “May I be honest?”
“I hope you always are.”
“What we have, how close we are and…” he looked down when he said, “our intimate moments and the passion we share, it is the very best part of my life. I mean that. I lived without it for so many years that I didn’t even know the beauty I was missing.”
She nodded. “What we have is beautiful.”
When Colin pulled her down with him on the blanket, she snuggled against his chest. He felt himself drifting off, mind filled with memories of loving Isabel.
***
The following day, the couple met with Elias. Colin told the story to Elias while Isabel sat and listened. From the moment he had entered the room, Isabel found herself hardly able to look him in the eye. After her time with Colin the day before, making love to him in the meadow as she had, she felt it a betrayal to Elias. She wasn’t exactly sure why. Maybe it was Colin’s words how, if he was free to love, she would be the love of a lifetime. Since then, she had done little but pray for his freedom. If Elias only knew how fickle was her heart, he would be devastated.
