The swordsman accepted the bills, bowed, then moved away.
Jasper fumed.
Lord Sterling turned to his son. “Don’t look so sour. You’ll still be entering the tournament but not as a representative of this house.”
Jasper furrowed his brow. “What other house would I represent?”
“It’s time you learn what sacrifices must be made in the interest of our family.” He reached into his pocket and removed an envelope, then handed it to Jasper. “Everyone should know their place.” When Jasper had accepted the envelope, Lord Sterling held a hand out to the Baroness of Manchester, and she rose from her seat. “Come along, my dear. Our work here is finished.” With one last glance at Jasper, he strode away, the baroness gliding on his arm.
Jasper tore into the envelope, his eyes scanning quickly over each line of the letter. As the contents sunk in, the corners of his mouth turned upward. He smirked at the doorway where his father had disappeared and headed the other direction.
When he reached the garage, he walked past row upon row of cars until he located the metallic-navy Phaeton speedster. Blaise Cavendish was there, leaning against the fender.
“You’ve certainly given me plenty of work today,” Blaise said. “I’ve already been fielding calls from House Sutton inquiring about the incident on the track.”
“It is what I pay you for.” Jasper stripped out of his road armor, tossing it into the back seat of the convertible. “I assume the loose ends have been dealt with?”
“No one will trace the junker to us, and our supplier said he’s happy to work for us again. He even suggested filling it with extra fuel next time for a more explosive impact.”
“I don’t need to know details,” Jasper said.
“Did it work?” Blaise asked. “Did your father appoint you house champion?”
“No. But he’s given me something else.” Jasper handed the letter to Blaise.
Blaise skimmed to the heart of the text. “The widow?”
Jasper opened the the car door and slid into the driver’s seat. “There is more than one path to the Round Table.” He turned the key in the ignition and the speedster’s engine rumbled to life.
Blaise climbed into the passenger seat and pulled a flask from his pocket. “Then here’s to love.” He took a swig before offering it to Jasper. Jasper took a long pull as well.
He shifted into gear and released the clutch. The speedster leapt from its place and launched down the angled drive, rocketing across the lowered drawbridge and onto the barrier road. In a matter of minutes they were on the Governor’s Highway heading north.
Blaise let out a whoop as the highway raced to meet them.
Jasper watched the castle shrink in the mirror behind him and smiled. He would finally show his father what he was capable of. His future was waiting on the horizon. It was time for him to claim it.
1
Drive
The light at the corner of Holley and Main glowed a stale red.
Valerie Terravecchia let her gaze settle a quarter mile down the road, but her focus was on the accelerator pedal quivering beneath her right foot. The three hundred and fifty horsepower engine sent vibrations through the floorboards of her custom Rogue fastback and the rumble from under the hood kept time with her heartbeat. The rest of the world was just noise.
“Get ready to suck tailpipe, ladies!” The shout from the car beside her was punctuated with an extra revving of its engine. The taunt didn’t faze Valerie, but it sat her passenger up in her seat.
Thea Johansen got to her knees on the seat cushion and shouted out the window over Valerie’s shoulder. “My girl’s going to dust you into last week, Remi!” Her friend then lowered her voice to whisper in her ear. “You can beat these guys, right?”
“They’re driving an off-the-shelf four-banger princess wagon, and Remi Rothschild is a jack-whacker,” Valerie replied.
“I assume that means yes,” Thea said.
“You should buckle up,” Valerie replied, not taking her eyes from the road.
The light turned green.
Valerie’s foot came off the clutch in one smooth motion and the rear tires bit asphalt with a squeal. The intake on the hood scoop yawned wide, sucking liters of air into the turbo like a junkie snorting funk. Thea was bent over the seat before she could get turned around, her hair whipping her face as she struggled to get her butt back to the cushion. Valerie kept her foot on the accelerator.
The roadster tried to keep pace for the first eighth of a mile, but each poorly-timed thrust Remi made with the shifter only left him farther behind. By a quarter mile, the boys in the passenger seats were throwing up their hands and swearing. Valerie noted the scowl on Remi’s face via her rear-view mirror, but never let off the gas.
“Whoo! That’s right!” Thea shouted. “Better luck next time, boys!” She grinned as she waved out the back window. Valerie cut the corner of the next curve and blasted along the forested valley highway, dappled sunlight flickering across the hood as it filtered through the Redwood boughs overhead.
Thea slid across the seat and thumped against the door column. “Can we slow down now?”
“What for?” Valerie asked. “Don’t you want to live a little?” She swung into the next curve and Thea slid back across the bench seat, colliding with her.
Thea laughed and scrambled for traction on the ripped leather seat, reaching for the door handle. “Where’d you say the seat belt was in this thing?”
“Check the seat crack,” Valerie said, easing off the accelerator as she made the next turn. They floated over the rise in the road, lightening in their seats as they crested the hill. Valerie took her eyes off the road just long enough to help her friend find the end of the belt. Thea was feeling for it between the cushions. “Here, you just need to—”
She glanced up just in time to see the creature in the road.
Valerie wrenched hard on the steering wheel, her feet mashing the brake and the clutch pedal simultaneously. The car’s back end came loose and the passenger-side wheels left the ground for a gut-wrenching second as she swerved. The immense black shape whipped past Valerie’s door as the car canted sideways.
There was no more pavement.
The fastback went airborne off the shoulder of the road, launching a dozen feet through a wall of branches before slamming back onto four wheels. The car careened through the underbrush, successively crushing sapling trees beneath its front bumper. It finally came to a stop with a lurch.
Valerie’s breath caught from the jolt against her harness.
“Good God,” Thea gasped. One of her palms was planted on the dashboard and the other had a death grip on the seat cushion behind Valerie’s head. Her bare legs were sprawled halfway up the windshield and she had lost a sandal.
Valerie checked the rear-view mirror and caught the shadow moving off into the woods. “Holy hell. Did you see that?” she asked.
“See you drive us off the road into the woods? Yeah, I noticed,” Thea said, attempting to extricate herself from the foot well.
“It was a bear. Right in the road.” Valerie twisted in her seat to look behind them.
Thea got her feet back on the floor and finally made it upright. She looked out the rear window at the hill they had just come down.
“Is it still there?”
Valerie craned her neck. “I think . . . I think it’s gone.”
Thea located her missing sandal. “We’re so lucky we’re not dead.”
Valerie noted the steam coming from under the crumpled hood and steeled herself for what she would find outside. She tried opening her door but it caught on something. She was forced to roll down the window and climb out, swinging her legs over the windowsill and dropping into the weeds.
Unlike Thea, who was already dressed for the pool in a slim-fitting black cover-up and bikini, Valerie was wearing jeans and boots. They gave some protection from the brambles as she made her way around the front of the car to assess the damage.
>
It wasn’t good.
While it could be argued that the saplings they had plowed through were better than having collided with a full-grown tree, there would be no driving out. A good welder might be able to salvage the body eventually, but the hood was buckled beyond repair and the cooling system was caved in all the way to the engine block. She pushed open the hood and discovered that the motor was canted severely to one side by the sheared-off sapling that had finally arrested their momentum. At least one motor mount had snapped.
Damn.
She’d spent a lot of hours on that engine. Now her hopes of having a car for the summer racing season were toast.
“Nice driving!”
The shout came from the road. Valerie looked up to find Remi’s roadster creeping along the shoulder. A couple of his friends leered from the passenger seats, pointing and laughing.
“Better luck next time, ladies!” Remi gunned the throttle and performed a burnout as he rocketed away, leaving only a lingering cloud of rubber-scented smoke.
“Wait, they’re not even stopping to help?” Thea asked. “How are we supposed to get home?”
Valerie let the hood fall and wiped her palms off on her black tank top. “Forget it. We’re better off without him. We can walk.”
“Walk?” Thea blanched. “You just said there was a bear.”
“We crossed the border of my family’s land a mile back. It’s not far to the manor house if we take the back roads. Someone will probably come along. If not, we can still make it by dark.”
“Dark? Val, you promised me that this weekend would be wine and hot-tubbing with cute boys, not hiking through the woods with bears.”
“It’s a winery, Thea. I promise we won’t run out of wine. And aren’t you the one always saying we’re supposed to be fashionably late?”
“Fashionably late, not fashionably eaten alive.”
“Wherever that bear came from, I’m sure it’s long gone. Come on.”
She gave Thea a hand as she slid out the window. While her friend reached back into the car for her bag, Valerie scanned the woods one last time for the bear. There was no sign of it. She was vaguely disappointed.
Valerie led the way downhill, making her way through the underbrush.
Thea grumbled at every bush and briar they had to push through, but Valerie was pleased to see that her mood improved when they reached the vineyards.
Bees were hard at work on the mustard and clover that dotted the forest’s edge. Valerie and Thea emerged from the woods and plunged directly into the neatly ordered rows of vines that made up the southern acreage of the Terravecchia vineyards. It was an uphill walk, but a pleasant one. They caught a few interested looks from field hands tending the irrigation canals, but Valerie kept a straight course and didn’t stop.
She fished a hair tie from her jeans pocket and pulled her dark brown hair back into a ponytail, allowing the early summer breeze to brush across the back of her neck.
They reached a planting road and followed it north, winding their way up the hill under a sunny, cloudless sky. Before long they were breathing heavily and both of them were damp with perspiration.
Valerie had just crested the hill and begun her descent on the other side when the engine noise reached her.
“Don’t tell me they’re coming back to laugh at us again,” Thea said, searching the road.
Valerie turned to watch as well, but a smile turned the corner of her mouth as she listened. “That’s not Remi’s motor. That’s my brother!”
As if on cue, a car came over the next hill. The sporty, cranberry-red coupe decelerated as it drew closer, gliding to a stop beside them. The Reliant 300’s engine settled to a steady purr under the hood. Henry Terravecchia rested an arm on the windowsill and pushed his sunglasses to the top of his head to get a better look at them. “Hey, Val, you look like you’re working up a nice sweat out here. Need a lift?”
“Yes!” Thea exclaimed before Valerie could even get her mouth open. Her friend hustled to the other side of the car and threw open the door, tossing her bag into the back seat before crawling in after it.
A playful smile parted Henry’s lips. “Good to see you, sis.”
Valerie shook her head, but walked around the other side of the car and climbed in.
“So, you still know your way home after all.” She glanced up at the sword clipped to the ceiling rack. “New toy?”
“Yeah, sorry I haven’t been around much. It was a busy tournament season this year. I assume you heard we took regionals.” Henry unclipped the shiny sword and scabbard from the ceiling rack. “This was the trophy this year. They even engraved it for me.”
Valerie buckled her seatbelt, then accepted the sword, reading the elegant script etched along the scabbard. Henry Terravecchia III, Regional Longsword Champion.
There were more deadly weapons in the world. A spear, a pike, or even a sturdy quarterstaff could thrash a swordsman in a fight. But she had to admit there was an elegant beauty to a sword that nothing else could match. She admired the way the sunlight danced off the polished hilt.
Henry shifted into gear and the Reliant continued along the planting road, the vines out the window blurring together as the car sped up.
“I heard you had the winningest season in Bembrook University history,” Thea said from the back. She leaned forward and grasped Henry’s seat. “If you need a date to the King’s Tournament Masquerade, my calendar is still open.”
Valerie shook her head. “Thea, we’ve had this conversation. Henry is off-limits to your scheming. Besides, the King’s Tournament is only for knights.”
“They opened it up to all comers this time. Didn’t you hear?” Henry said. “They’re letting anyone with a car enter, even commoners. The Westland lords are in an uproar about it.”
Valerie furrowed her brow. “I thought the winner of a King’s Tournament got a place at the Round Table? The king wants commoners competing for a place at the high court?”
“Like I said, it’s got the lords all riled up. The winner will take over the position of Knight Warden of the West. He’ll technically outrank the governor.”
“Could be a she,” Valerie said. “We have two women at the Round Table now.”
“Sure,” Henry said. “In any event, it’s big news. I bet it brings every warrior and war car driver on this side of the continent out to fight.” He studied his sister. “Speaking of drivers, what happened to your car? Where’s this hot-rod you wanted to show off?”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Valerie replied, slumping in her seat.
“We almost died,” Thea said. She gave Henry a dramatic account of the car’s demise, exaggerating nearly all of their experience.
“Sounds like you two are lucky to be alive,” Henry said, though his eyes were playful.
“Exactly,” Thea replied. “And if you hadn’t come along, we probably would’ve been murdered on the road or eaten by that bear.”
Valerie rolled her eyes but kept her mouth shut.
“Been a lot of years since we’ve seen bears on our land,” Henry mused. “I wonder what brought them back.” He patted Valerie’s knee. “Sorry about the car though.”
Henry pulled the Reliant over and let it idle on the side of the road. “Hey Thea, how would you feel about taking the car ahead for us? I want a chance to chat with Valerie and we can make it the rest of the way on foot.”
Thea looked skeptical, but when Henry got out and offered her a hand, she climbed out of the back seat. “You want to walk?”
“It’s not far. We’ll be there before you know it. Plus, I want to see how you look behind the wheel of this thing.”
Thea grinned. “Okay.” She slid into the driver’s seat and Henry closed the door for her. “Which one is which again?” she asked, staring at the pedals.
“Clutch, brake, gas,” Henry said, pointing them out.
Valerie joined her brother in the road and observed as Thea put the car in gear.
“You look like a pro,” Henry said.
Thea flashed a smile and depressed the accelerator, lurching into motion as the clutch engaged. The coupe pulled away with the engine at high RPM as Thea struggled to find second gear. “I think I got it!” she shouted out the window, and the car sped away, the engine complaining at its mistreatment.
“You realize she’ll probably have your transmission stripped by the time she makes the house, right?” Valerie asked.
“She’ll get the hang of it,” Henry said. He wrapped an arm around her shoulder. “Good to see you, Val. I missed this.” His fingers went for her side to tickle her. “Aren’t you happy to see me?”
“Stop!” Valerie tried to shrug out of his embrace, but he just squeezed her harder. She laughed despite the annoyance. “Fine, it’s good to see you too.”
Henry grinned and let her go.
Valerie straightened her tank top. “I swear, anytime we’re alone, you’re like a five-year-old.”
After a quarter mile of walking, they left the paved road, opting for the footpath that led through the heart of Briarwood Village. The quaint cottages of the village housed the majority of the growers that worked their family lands. To Valerie, it always felt like home.
The air smelled of wildflowers and the blackberry bushes were already in bloom. The scents took her back to summer days long before boarding school—before Charlotte—the days when she might still catch sight of her father touring the vineyards and checking on the season’s crop of grapes.
Anywhere in New Avalon, Terravecchia wines were still the most desirable labels to have adorning your table. While Valerie had heard the occasional grumbling that the current vintage didn’t hold up to the old standards, she put it down to the bickering of disgruntled competitors. The name Terravecchia meant something in this hamlet, and across the valley, and would as long as she had anything to say about it.
Sword Fight Page 2
