“And how are people going to come to that conclusion? Have you two figured that out?”
“Well, Rhianna’s going to have to spend a bit of time around the castle, and the two of you are going to have to be seen out and about together, sort of like you’re dating.”
“Dating? Are you crazy? We’ve already had this discussion, Chris. It won’t work. Do you know how many people are going to get really upset if we do this? She could end up with assassins after her. She could get killed! I can’t see Hayden going along with this. What are you planning to tell him? Or Gwynn?”
“Considering Hayden’s the one who told her to do it...” Chris said.
“Are you serious? Hayden agreed to this? He approves of this farce? Does he realize the danger she’ll be in?”
“I can’t answer that, but I do know he and Xantha came up with the idea and convinced Rhianna it’s the only way to get this mess stopped.”
Kevin’s shoulders slumped. “Xantha. That explains it. That meddling little...”
“Hey, don’t get mad at him. He didn’t start those rumors. He didn’t send men all over North Amden. If you want to blame someone, blame Rolan. He’s the one behind this mess. It’s not Xantha’s fault. And it’s not Rhianna’s either. She’s not any happier with this solution than you are, but unless you’ve got a better plan, it’s what you’re both going to have to do.”
Kevin looked hard at Chris and then got up and walked out onto the balcony.
Nikki had sensed something was wrong almost as soon as the conversation started and had slipped away to lie down beside the bed. But when Kevin went outside, she got up and walked outside to stand beside him. When he didn’t pay any attention to her, she nudged his leg with her nose.
“It’s not your fault, girl.” Kevin leaned down and rubbed her ears. “I’m not angry with you. Come on, let’s go back inside.”
Kevin sat back down and picked up Nikki’s brush. “Before I agree to this, I’m going to see Hayden. I want to be sure he understands the risks involved.”
“That’s fine, but you better plan to go soon. She’ll be here Sunday.”
~ ~ ~ ~
The next morning, after he and Glendymere finished sparring, Kevin spent half an hour trying to get Glendymere to back him up in saying Rhianna’s plan wouldn’t work. Unfortunately, not only did Glendymere think it had a good chance of working, he said the simplest plan was always the best option, and he couldn’t think of a simpler one. In the end, he wished Kevin luck and turned his key for home.
When Kevin left the canyon lands, he went to Crinsor Run to try to get Rhianna’s family to help him. He felt sure once Hayden understood the risks, he’d insist Rhianna call the whole thing off.
Ten minutes later, he, Gwynn, Hayden, Duane, and Shelandra were seated around Gwynn’s kitchen table. Before Kevin could say a word, both Hayden and Duane told him how pleased they were with the plan. The more Kevin protested its dangers, the more they downplayed his fears and insisted everything would be fine.
“I went to South Port yesterday and told Weldon what you and Rhianna are going to do,” Hayden said. “He thinks it’s a great idea and he’s looking forward to telling the council there’s a plan underway to get the humans out of North Amden, hopefully before summer.”
“Before summer?” Kevin asked. “I have no idea whether or not this is going to work at all, but if it does, it probably won’t be that quick.”
“You’d be surprised how fast that kind of gossip spreads,” Hayden said with a grin. “If he’s in touch with his spies, and I feel sure he is, he should hear about it before the end of next month if you two do this right.”
“Even if he does, I doubt he’ll pull his men out of North Amden until he has some other place to send them,” Kevin argued.
“Then give him another place,” Duane said. “Let word get out that she’s in Nandelia, or Jardin, or anywhere but here.”
Kevin frowned but he didn’t say anything.
“This isn’t the first time this type of thing has been done,” Hayden said with a nod in Duane’s direction.
“That’s true,” Duane said. “I needed to be at the castle when you were born. Fortunately, Shelandra was staying there at that time, so I pretended to fall in love with her. I used courting her as an excuse to hang around, but she had no idea I was pretending.” Duane laughed. “The plan backfired on me though and I ended up with a wife.” At the look on Shelandra’s face, he quickly added, “And what a lucky break that was for me.”
After the laughter died down, Hayden put his arm around Kevin’s shoulder. “I wouldn’t let Rhianna do this with anyone else, but we have complete faith in your ability to keep her safe. Don’t worry about it. It’ll work, and before long, Rolan will call off his men, and life can get back to normal, for all of us.”
Gwynn was Kevin’s last hope. He could tell she had some misgivings, but he couldn’t get her to say one word against the plan. Finally he gave up, and since he had nothing better to offer, he wished them a good day and left for home.
~ ~ ~ ~
By the time Doreen got up Thursday morning, she knew what she wanted to do.
Tuesday night, she’d spent the first few hours after she got back from Bushwell fuming at the top of her lungs about Jared, the contract, the slavers, and everything else that had gone wrong in her life.
When Jana couldn’t take it anymore, she said, “Things always look their darkest at night and you’re too tired to figure out anything now. You need some rest, and so do I. It’s time to go to bed. Things will look better in the morning, and I’m sure you’ll come up with something after you get some sleep.”
Doreen hadn’t believed her, but she’d gone to bed anyway. Unfortunately, her mind wouldn’t settle enough to let her sleep. She thought back to the meeting in Joan’s parlor Sunday night. After she got past the embarrassment of having the marriage she’d bragged about fall through, she thought about what the other women had said. They’d all been willing to work and find new homes for themselves, and in theory, she had no problem doing the same for herself. But she had no idea how to cook, clean, sew, tend gardens, or do any of the other things women normally did to earn money. And she couldn’t see anyone hiring her to manage a fleet of fishing boats in Milhaven.
As she tossed and turned, she came to the conclusion she needed to find someone else to marry, but it needed to be someone who could afford servants. Where was she going to find someone like that? And if she did, how would she convince him to marry her? If she had her boats, she could use those to get a husband, but then she’d have to live at the coast, and she didn’t want to do that anymore. She didn’t want to take the chance of being captured again. But without the fishing business as an incentive, how could she convince the right type of man to marry her?
While she mulled that over, she realized what she really needed was a way to provide herself with food, clothes, and a place to live, things most women expected their husbands to take care of. Maybe she could start a business, one that would provide enough income for her to be able to take care of her needs as well as hire servants to do the housework. But building a business like that would take time, and she needed a place to live right now, and she had to find some way to support herself until she could get a business up and running. She needed a plan, like the ones the other women had come up with. But they all had an advantage over her. Once they found a place to live, at least they’d know how to cook, clean, and manage things. She didn’t. Too bad she couldn’t get them to manage hers.
That thought brought Doreen straight up out of bed. Let them run a house for her. If she could find a place large enough for all of them to live together, maybe the others would chip in with the cooking and cleaning. And if she couldn’t find one big enough, she could build it. That she did know how to do, but how was she going to get the wood? It would take a lot of lumber if she was going to build a house with enough rooms for several women, women who would be willing to trade chores for a pla
ce to sleep. Women who could do all the things women did, things she had no idea how to do.
Once the house was taken care of, she’d figure out some type of business to start, something that would bring in food, clothes, and anything else they might need. Doreen shook her head. She didn’t have to figure it all out at once. The house came first. She’d tackle the rest later. Then, with the basis of a plan in place, Doreen settled down in her bed and slept.
Doreen spent Wednesday drawing house plans. After trying several designs, she settled on two floors with four large common rooms downstairs and eight smaller rooms upstairs, seven to be used as bedrooms and one as an office. That would give her room for six other women. Six would be enough to get the work done without any one person having to do so much she’d look for other arrangements.
After she was satisfied with the house, she sketched a stable in case any of them had horses. She figured it might be a good idea to have a couple of cows for milk and chickens for eggs, provided she could find someone who knew how to take care of them, so she sketched a good-sized barn. By the time evening came, everything was nicely laid out in Doreen’s head. The only thing she needed before she could get started was building materials. And the only way to get them was to sell her father’s boats.
Thursday morning Doreen told Jana she needed to talk to Myron. Jana persuaded her to start with Joan, so shortly after breakfast, Jana took her to the castle and handed her over to Joan.
Once Doreen was settled in Joan’s office with a cup of tea, she said she wanted Myron to help her get her father’s boats back from Jared so she could sell them. “I’d like to take care of this today if possible. Do you know where he is?”
“He may be in his office, but there’s no telling what’s on his schedule today,” Joan answered. “When I need to see him, I leave word with his assistant. You might want to try that.”
Doreen frowned. “And what am I supposed to do in the meantime?”
Joan shrugged. “You could wait in there until he has time to talk to you, but he may not have time to see you until this afternoon, or even tomorrow. He does have a pretty busy schedule, Doreen.”
Doreen stood up. “Then I guess I need to see his assistant. I need to get this settled as quickly as possible, especially now that Jared knows I’m not interested in marrying him.”
Joan bit back a smile. She’d heard the whole story from Chris. What Doreen wasn’t interested in was being a built-in maid, not that Joan could blame her.
When Doreen opened the door to Kevin’s reception area, Ariel stood up and asked if he could help her.
“You can direct me to Myron’s assistant. I need to speak with him.”
Ariel glanced at Chris, who had looked up from the stack of papers he was working on when the door opened. Chris asked, “May I help you?”
“I need to speak with Myron as soon as possible. I understand you’re the one who can arrange it,” Doreen said as she walked towards Chris’s desk. “It’s rather urgent.”
“Could you tell me what it’s in reference to?”
“I need his help.”
“May I ask with what?”
“With retrieving property that was stolen from me.”
“Would you by any chance be referring to your father’s boats?”
“They were my boats, too,” Doreen said. “I helped build them. I’ve worked on those boats since I was a child. They’re as much mine as my father’s, and I want them back.”
“How many boats are we talking about?” Chris asked as he pulled out a sheet of paper. “And how big are they?”
Doreen let out a long sigh. “If I go through this with you am I going to have to go through it again with Myron? If so, why not wait until he’s here and just go through it once?”
“I’ll write down the details and give them to him before he meets with you. That should speed up the process. I was under the impression you wanted this done as quickly as possible.”
“All right,” Doreen sighed again. “My father and I had four fishing boats. They’re big boats, not little river boats like you have around here. All four of them are seaworthy. Anyway, when my father was arranging for me to marry Jared, he put up two of the boats as my share of the marriage. He didn’t want me to walk into it empty-handed. He felt like if I went into the marriage with property, Jared and I would be on equal footing, and we’d both benefit from having the boats to go along with the market. His intentions were good, but I think Jared’s were greedy. But that’s neither here nor there. After my father died, Jared decided he was entitled to all of the boats. I have no idea why he thought that, but as my father was dead and I was gone, there was no one to stop him, so he took all four boats. And I want them back.”
Chris leaned back in his chair. “I agree with what Rigel told you Tuesday night. There’s a possibility we can convince Jared to return two of the boats, provided we can find a copy of that contract and it clearly states two, but the two your father promised him in exchange for marrying you are his. You’re the one who called off the wedding, not him. He’s not in breach of the contract, so he wouldn’t forfeit those boats. But it all hinges on your being able to prove your father only promised him two and that all four did belong to you and your father. Do they have any unique markings on them? Anything that would prove they’re yours?”
Doreen thought for a moment and grinned. “On the inside of the bow, under the deck, my father and I carved our initials in the wood.” She laughed. “Although on the first two, my initials leave a little to be desired. I hadn’t learned how to carve at that point, so mine are box letters, and not very neat ones at that, but my father’s are beautiful. So yes, if you pull up a bit of the deck, you’ll find our initials on all four of our boats. Wouldn’t that prove they’re ours?”
“It would to me,” Chris said. “Now, how about the contract? Any idea where we might get our hands on a copy?”
“I know my father wouldn’t have signed a copy for Jared’s business manager without having a signed copy of his own. I don’t know where it could be though,” Doreen said slowly. “Probably somewhere in our house at Parson’s Branch, but I haven’t been there since the raid, so I don’t know what shape it’s in. It may not be standing.”
Chris nodded. “I think the first thing we need to do is go to your house and see what we can find.”
“When can we go?”
Chris thought for a moment. “Myron won’t be back until around lunch. Let me talk to him and see what he thinks. Can you come back this afternoon, say around two? I might have some answers for you then.”
Doreen nodded as she stood up. “Do you think it would be all right if I ate lunch here? I hate to go all the way back out to Jana’s just to turn around and come back.”
“I’m sure that’ll be fine. See you later.”
~ ~ ~ ~
When Kevin got back to the castle, he sat down, folded his arms on his desk, and rested his head on his arms. How in the world was he going to get through the next few weeks? The only way he’d been able to relax around Rhianna was to concentrate on magic. What was he going to do without that as a crutch?
Before he could dive into despair, Chris walked in and shut the door.
“So? How’d it go?” Chris asked as he sat down.
Kevin picked his head up and looked at Chris.
“That bad, huh?”
Kevin leaned back in his chair. “I’ve got a question. Why you?”
“What?”
“Why did Rhianna talk to you about this? Why not me?”
“Well, for one thing, she was afraid if she asked you to do it, you’d refuse.”
“And I wouldn’t if you asked?”
Chris shrugged. “She probably figured I wouldn’t ask, and if you’ll remember, I didn’t.”
“That’s true. You didn’t give me a chance to say no,” Kevin said slowly. “Guess that’s why she went to you instead of me. Good thinking on her part.”
“And she feels bad because she
thinks this whole thing is going to put you in a bad spot.”
“No worse than the one the elves are putting her in.”
“It’s not quite the same. Everyone who matters to Rhianna, people like Landis, her family, Glendymere, all know what’s going on, know it’s fake. But if this is going to work, everyone around you has to believe it’s true, so you’re in a worse spot than she is. And when you add in all the flak you’re going to get from the other sorcerers when the news gets out...”
“There is that,” Kevin acknowledged.
“And, to top it off, she feels like it’s all her fault, like none of this would have happened if it hadn’t been for her, if she hadn’t asked you to set it up to start with.”
“No more her fault than mine.”
“I know, but she feels like it is. She feels responsible for all the aggravation Rolan’s men are causing in North Amden, and for the fact that Landis and Taelor can’t go back to Crinsor Run until those men give up and go home. She also feels guilty for the mess this is going to cause in your life. And on top of that, she’s worried the Council of Elders will believe the rumors that she killed a man, and she’s afraid it will come up at the federation meeting, too.”
Kevin shook his head. “I can’t do anything about the council, but if it comes up at the federation meeting, I’ll take care of it. I’ll tell them she stopped an assassin from killing Rolan’s younger sister, but all she did was wound him in the shoulder. If they press the issue, I’ll tell them the other assassins killed him in his jail cell.”
“You don’t know that.”
“All right. I’ll say someone broke into the jail that night and killed him, but Rhianna was hundreds of miles away by then, and I know that because I was the one who took her out of Camden.”
“That’ll work,” Chris said with a nod. “But if no one brings it up, don’t say anything.”
“I wasn’t planning to, but why not?”
“The only legitimate reason for you to bring it up is if she did kill a man and you’re asking for a formal investigation. Otherwise, it’ll look like you’re trying to cover it up, especially if word’s gotten around that the two of you are seeing each other. And that little tidbit will come to the attention of the other races pretty fast. They’ll all be interested in that.”
The Warrior Elf Page 8
