“Always,” he assured her, his voice soft. “But I want you to rest. I can satisfy my cravings for you later.”
That made her smile.
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
“Your promises don’t mean much at the moment,” she murmured.
The accusation stung, but she had every right to feel that way.
“This one means something,” he assured her as he pressed a gentling kiss on the spot right before her ear.
She sighed.
After a few minutes of silence, she fell asleep.
Dendri did not. But he lay there with his wife for quite some time, his mind turning over political ramifications again and again.
The world of Saren politics was about to be set on its ear…and he was going to be trapped in the middle of it. And if he was caught, then his wife would be caught. There was no way around it for him. He would have to work very hard to protect her, but he didn’t see how he could do that at a distance as great as the one between there and Kilt.
He would simply have to find safe hands to leave her in.
As his wife slept, he began to consider who that might be.
Chapter Eleven
Sin looked up from his work when a commotion was raised up outside of his study’s door.
“He’s going to see me!” he heard his brother’s strident voice say. “Out of my way or you will find yourself eating your meals through a straw for the rest of your days!”
Then there was a slam as the outer office door was shoved open. His brother’s large hand was the only thing that kept it from recoiling and striking him in the face as he stepped inside Sin’s sanctum.
Raj Vich stormed across the room to the desk his brother was sitting at, pressed both fists down on the surface of it and leaned into his brother’s face.
“You have Ariana Colla held prisoner?!” It was hard to tell if it was a statement or a question. Odds were he wasn’t asking; he was demanding confirmation.
“Ariana Colla is a guest in this house,” Sin said mildly. He had figured the information would filter down to his brother eventually, but he had hoped to have more time than just a couple of days.
“A guest under guard?”
Again, it was hardly a question. His brother clearly knew the answer already.
“She is being carefully guarded for her safety.”
“You stole her from her home city and dragged her here against her will!”
Now that disturbed him. Those sorts of details could only have come from one of the men who had been there for the kidnapping event. The idea that one of his men betrayed him did not sit well on him. Still, he did not let that disturbance show on his face. He kept his expression calm and placid.
“What is your point?” he asked his brother.
“The point is you are risking a war! Thousands of lives could be lost because you…you…you have a hard-on you cannot control!”
“There will be no war,” Sin said softly, his hand absently brushing over the sheet of figures he had been studying before his brother’s interjection into his day.
“You are damn right there won’t be because you are going to take her back! Right now!”
Raja Sin suddenly and sharply got to his feet, the action knocking his chair back.
“What did you just say to me?” he asked, his tone low and dangerous. “For…I believe I have heard you wrongly. You cannot possibly have given your Raja a command.”
This made his brother hesitate. He straightened and cleared his throat.
“I only meant that…the only way to avoid war is to bring her back to her people. If I can find out she is here, then they will find out and then we will be plunged into war!”
“There will be no war,” Sin repeated softly. “The Sarens cannot afford a war. And, as I understand it, without Colla they will be missing a third of their armed forces.”
“Someone will take her place.”
“Perhaps. But that will take time. It will take time for them to learn where she is. It will take time for them to demand I give her back. It will take time before this deteriorates into war…if indeed war is where it ends up. I am gambling on the fact that they do not want war.”
“That’s a hell of a gamble Brother! And what does it matter that it takes time? It will still come out the same whether it is now or four weeks from now.”
“Because. I am hoping that before that time comes, Ariana Colla will agree to become my wife.”
His brother’s jaw literally dropped open.
“You’re mad. How on earth do you expect her to want to do that when you have kidnapped her and caused her so much pain? You’ve no doubt frightened her half to death.”
Sin chuckled with little mirth. “You haven’t met her. She is not the type to be afraid of anything.”
“Then I will meet her. If for no other reason than for her to feel as though she has a friend highly placed in this court.”
Sin leaned forward across his desk, placing both fists down on the surface as he resisted the urge he had to throttle his brother.
“You will meet Ariana when and if I decide you should meet her. You will not be her friend. You and I both know what it would mean for you if I take a wife and begin to breed sons. Don’t think for a moment I don’t know you would do anything to make that not happen.”
“Brother, I don’t know what you mean,” he dissembled. “I would of course be glad if you were to take a wife and have heirs!”
“Then you will do everything in your power to help me in my wooing of her…not be a hindrance to it.” Sin straightened and came around the desk, stalking as if he were a great cat on the hunt for its next meal. “Then, and only then, if I am satisfied will I allow you, Mother and the rest of the family to meet her.”
“Mother will feel the same as I do. She will see this madness for what it is.”
“Call me mad again and see where it takes you,” Sin said ominously.
Vich cleared his throat. “I can see you are not in the frame of mind to discuss this reasonably,” his brother said—a couched way of saying he was mad without actually saying it—and he backed up out of the room. He made a short bow to his brother and swept out of the room.
“Close the door,” he said to the guard who stood just outside of it, no doubt worrying if he would be taken to task for letting the raj into his chambers. It only took an inclination of his head to tell the guard he should be on the outside of the door once it shut.
Once the door was closed Sin released a long, cool sigh. His brother was going to be trouble. Hells, his brother was always trouble. He wouldn’t know what to do with himself if he should happen to agree with Sin on something.
But Ariana could not be rushed. He had known it was only a matter of time before this happened…he had only hoped it would be longer than just four days.
He had eaten dinner with Ariana again last night and he could see a glimmer of indication that she was beginning to relax. That, in spite of herself, she was beginning to enjoy his company.
That would not last long if she was kept cooped up in that room much longer. Ariana was a woman of action and activity…be it of her body or her mind. She was not meant to be tucked away and protected like a pretty bauble. She was meant for power and command. He was not afraid to admit that she was on par with him in that way.
If their roles had been reversed, he would have been going mad…and he would have hated whoever had put him there. He had to reach her before she reached the tipping point from beginning to relax around him to learning to hate him in all new ways due to inactivity of her mind and body.
However he had great plans on how to keep her body and her mind agile.
Thinking about her made him long to see her, so he left his study, his head steeped in thoughts. He reached her rooms to find Mordol was taking his shift as guard. He wondered if Mordol had been the one to betray his confidence. Of all of the men, Mordol was the one whose character he least trusted.
But Mordol had fought loyally and valiantly by his side in the wars. He had no reason not to trust him.
Since Sin had been absent every time the women had alighted from the carriage, he had never had the opportunity to hear Mordol’s treatment of them. So, in ignorance, he scooped up the cloak hanging on a peg outside of the room and nodded to Mordol to unlock the door.
Ariana had been sitting in front of the fireplace and she jumped to her feet at his arrival. He saw a brief flash of relief in her eyes before she schooled her features. Relief? Was she glad to see him?
Damn it of course she was! He had left her with nothing to occupy her mind. No books or stitchery or whatever it was she liked to do to occupy her mind and hands. Hadn’t he just been telling himself that she was a woman who would become easily bored with too much time on her hands? Cursing himself for a fool, he held out the cloak to her.
“I thought you might like to come outside.”
Again that wild flash of relief. Every time he saw it he wanted to kick himself in the head.
“I suppose,” she dissembled, taking the cloak from him. “If I must.”
He smothered a smile, though he could not say much as to whether or not she could see the expression in his eyes.
She swept the cloak about her shoulders and clasped it at her throat. She bent to slide her feet into the fur boots and this time, when he held his hand out to her, she did not blow him off as she usually did. She placed her hand gingerly within his.
He led her out of doors and instead of leading her to a saddled horse, he walked out of the courtyard with her and down the worn dirt road that led into the temple and away through the town. The ground was frozen solid, ruts and puddles having been frozen into place. He helped her step over each and every rough spot, sometimes just by holding her hands, others by lifting her by her slim waist and hopping her over the spot in question. This was the way they walked into town.
The town was a thick grouping of new and half-raised buildings. Over the two autumns since he had moved the temple, these businesses had cropped up, remaining convenient to the needs of the temple and the farms that surrounded it. The temple itself sat on acres of prime farmland, and had agreements with several farmers that they would work the fields for the temple and in exchange would be given a place to live the full annum, all of the fuel and food they would need, and a portion of any profit made by the crops. Add to that the protection of the temple guards and it was a very attractive offer to any farmer who was not willing to risk what a bad crop would mean for his family. A bad crop for one of the homesteaders could mean the difference between survival and starving to death. A bad crop for the temple farmers…well, the temple was still promised to feed them and see to their winter fuel.
It made for a good bargain all around.
So it had meant there was a need for close by businesses and the business owners were profiting nicely. Of course it was nothing compared to Capitol City, but it one day might rival that great city. It was his fondest dream that the Temple City, as it was being called, would one day be the hub of commerce and trade that Capitol City was.
One day.
That day was a long way off.
“So you have set aside land for town and cities?” she asked him. “Land that is not to be farmed?”
“Yes. For every twenty parcels there is a parcel of land set aside should they want to build a town and develop businesses there. There is also a parcel, usually a forested section, set aside strictly for hunting lands…so that we do not chase all of the game away in our efforts to farm the land.”
“That is very wise. Can anyone hunt on these lands?”
“Anyone on the surrounding parcels.”
“So it is like a hub and the farms are like the spokes of a wheel.”
“Exactly.”
She seemed impressed. “You have thought this through very carefully.”
“I have dreamed of what I would do if given lands to farm for many autumns. But finally, it reached a point where I could no longer afford to dream. Action was necessary.”
“And so you attacked us.”
“I tried to reason with you first.”
She was surprised at that. “You did?”
“With your predecessor and Hittite and Felone. They refused me.”
“My predecessor was my father. It does not surprise me that he would refuse you. He was very much against all things Kiltian. He would not even let me keep a Kiltianan horse, though I wanted one terribly.” She was quiet a moment. “Going to war with the Kiltians was one of the first things I did after I ascended to the triumvirate. I was so green…I had to act based on what Mason and Jutsin told me would be best.”
“Did you ever regret the choice?”
“Every day of the war I regretted it. I was…I was very angry with you for putting me in that position.”
“And are you angry now?” he asked.
A surprised expression flitted over her face. Then she admitted, “No. Now I understand you better. I no longer have the comfort of blind anger and hate.”
“You find hate and anger comforting?”
“I find them easier. It is easier to blame you than it is to blame ourselves for our own failings. We should never have been so selfish. I see that now. I am disappointed in Mason and Jutsin. They are usually so much more giving.”
“As you said, your father was the loudest voice. He was also the most senior member of the triumvirate. I’m certain Felone and Hittite were only bowing to his greater wisdom.”
“Which is what I did when I helped declare war. It all seems like it was such a waste. All those lives. And we ended up giving the land away anyway.”
“To be fair, I did ask for the whole of the Triagle Territory.”
She laughed. “Yes. You did. Perhaps we were selfish…and you were greedy?”
“Perhaps,” he allowed with a nod of his head. “Such a gift would have doubled the size of Kilt. But I was determined that my legacy for Kilt would be that we would never want for land ever again. That we would be able to support ourselves independent of trade if it should ever come to that.”
“You’ve done that.”
“It would have been better had we gotten the entire territory.”
“Oh! You are never satisfied!” she declared.
“No. I am not. I will never be satisfied when it comes to the betterment of my country.”
She stopped to look in the window of a tailor’s shop. There was a beautiful head wrap made of watered silk. The colors were extraordinary.
“Your people use so much color. Such bright, bold hues. We use pastels and whites…so different.”
“We should celebrate our differences, not war over them. If we were all the same it would be quite boring.”
“You are anything but boring,” she said. Then she seemed to realize what she had said and she colored prettily over her nose and cheeks.
“Does that mean you find me exciting?” he couldn’t help but tease her.
“I wouldn’t go that far,” she said primly. “But…you are different.”
“Would you like that?” he asked, nodding to the scarf.
“Oh! No. I couldn’t.”
“Why not?”
“I haven’t any money.”
He tsked. “I would get it for you.”
“No. Thank you just the same. The less I owe you the better.”
He frowned at that.
“You would not owe me,” he said. It bothered him to think she had some kind of tally going on in her head. “It would be a gift.”
“No. Thank you but…no.”
He wanted to press her on it, but decided it would perhaps be better if he didn’t.
“Are we going somewhere in specific?” she asked him. “Or are you simply showing me the makings of what will one day be a fine city?”
“I do have somewhere specific in mind, but I will show you the town as well.”
He did just that. He showed her the shops and the bed
sit houses, he showed her how now one family could have an entire house to themselves. She noticed there were many stray cats running about in the roads and alleyways.
“They simply seemed to multiply,” he said. “They keep the vermin in check, so we do not worry much about them. Many of the shop owners will feed them or take them in as pets. They are surprisingly friendly. I would have thought they would be half wild, but they are not.”
One proved his point by coming up to her and winding around her ankles beneath the long fall of the cloak. She giggled then stooped to pick him up. He let her and purred as she scratched his ears and rubbed her face against his fur.
“I’ve never had a pet outside of horses,” she said.
“Horses make fine pets. But they cannot curl up in your lap.”
“Have you any cats in the temple?”
“I have a cat, yes. But I believe I will have more soon.”
“Why?”
“I believe she is pregnant.”
“Oh! Well then yes. You will have more soon.”
“I can feel them. Inside of her. While I’m petting her. They move about and I can feel them.”
He felt foolish for saying it the minute it was out of his mouth. Why would she care about his ability to feel the kittens?
“I should like to feel that,” she said eagerly, reaching out to catch his wrist in her hands. “Can I?”
“Of course,” he said a little dumbly. She had touched him. He had not asked it of her, and she had touched him. How ridiculously good that made him feel. He wanted to run back to the temple with her right that very minute and find the cat for her.
Ariana realized what she had done only moments after she had done it. She dropped his hand as quickly as she had picked it up and turned away from him. Confusion ratcheted through her.
This was no good! She was letting down her guard. If she did that then he would win this contest of wills and she would not have that. She would not have him thinking it was okay for him to have done what he had done.
Yet she couldn’t help but see him for the man he was becoming to her. She had begun to realize that they were not so different from one another as she had once thought. They were both passionate about their people. They both wanted what was best for them. He had not entered war any more lightly than she had done.
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