A motion in the thicket caused Thunder to dance and nicker. Aiden looked up and narrowed his eyes, but he saw nothing. Still Thunder was uneasy and backed away from the creek. Aiden rose swiftly to his feet and caught the horse’s bridle.
“Easy, boy,” he said, stroking the animal’s forehead. “It’s probably a deer, or something, come down to get an early morning drink.”
Thunder was not comforted however and pulled against the reins.
“Easy, boy!” commanded Aiden in a firmer voice. “There’s nothing in the brush to hurt you...” Aiden caught himself as he heard the rustling once more.
Thunder nickered and tossed his head again, backing up. Aiden clung to the bridle, but his eyes strained across the creek, searching for the intruder. Strangely the hair on the back of the King’s neck rose and Aiden glanced up at his saddle bags. Fool, he thought, you should never leave the castle without a weapon. Reasoning that it could be a bear or wolf, Aiden swung up into Thunder’s saddle and turned him toward the open downs. The animal was more than happy to respond and broke into a canter despite the earlier run.
Still Aiden was forced to hold the beast in check. Thunder’s senses told him danger lay in the thicket of trees and instinct told him to run for cover, but Aiden didn’t want to wear his favorite horse out with another full run so soon.
As the castle loomed in sight, Aiden glanced over his shoulder. Movement among the trees sent a shiver of anxiety down his spine. Then he caught his breath as three men emerged from the cover of the trees, all mounted on horses. Beards hid their faces and hats were pulled down over their eyes.
Reflexively Aiden tapped Thunder in the side with his heels. The horse needed no more prompting, bunching his muscles beneath him and shooting off over the downs. Aiden glanced back again and saw the three men also break into a dead run after him. Heart pounding in his breast, Aiden wondered if he’d make the castle walls before they overtook him, and he leaned forward in the stirrups.
Thunder rose to the challenge, lengthening out, his hooves fairly flying over the uneven ground. Aiden suppressed a momentary wave of fear for the horse’s safety, then flattened himself out over the animal’s neck as the riders behind him gained ground.
It was a race that would leave Aiden shivering for days, but finally the gates of the castle rose up before him and Thunder shot beneath them, his hooves clattering on the cobblestones of the courtyard. Aiden reined him in severely and looked over his shoulders only to find the three men were gone, like spirits in the night.
Both the horse and the King were breathing hard, their chests rising. Aiden held check on Thunder’s reins and the horse danced beneath him, but the King wanted to be sure the three riders were gone. The noise of his return had alerted people in the castle and they poured out into the courtyard.
Aiden ignored them, tearing his eyes away from the downs and turning Thunder toward the stable. The horse was finally beginning to calm himself, but Aiden was still anxious. It was the first time anyone had ever had the gall to follow him, let alone chase him over his own land. The idea made him furious.
“What happened?” demanded Lyell Vito, appearing suddenly before his King.
Aiden stared down at his advisor. “Nothing I can’t handle myself,” he answered, steering the horse around him.
“You weren’t out riding by yourself, Aiden, were you?” asked the advisor, following the King toward the stable.
“Yes I was, as I’ve been doing for many months now. And before you say anything, I intend to continue, so find something else to punish me with.”
Lyell stopped walking and stared at Aiden’s broad back. “At least you could tell me what happened. The entire castle’s in an uproar. Most of the servants heard you and that black beast ride in here as if Eldon himself was riding on your heels.”
Aiden dropped out of the saddle and grabbed Thunder’s reins, leading him toward the stable. A stable hand came out to meet him and offered to take the horse. Aiden waved him away. He wanted to tend to Thunder himself – the horse had most likely saved his life.
“Some men followed me from the thicket on horseback. No one’s ever had the audacity to do so before.”
Lyell’s eyes widened in shock and concern. “Followed you? What do you mean?”
Aiden glared at his advisor. “Followed me, rode after me. What else, Lyell?”
“To apprehend you?”
Aiden drew a deep breath, his hand running over Thunder’s lathered body, searching for any injuries. “I didn’t stop to ask them.”
Lyell stared at the King over the horse’s back, his mouth agape. “I can’t believe you’d be so foolish as to...”
“Please don’t lecture me, Lyell. I’ve had a bad morning, I don’t need anything added to it.”
Lyell shut his mouth, his jaw squaring. “Then tell me you won’t risk it again.”
Aiden met his gaze over Thunder’s back. “Send a detachment out to see if they can pick up the riders’ trail and follow it. Maybe they’ll be apprehended.”
“Aiden,” persisted the Advisor.
“Do as I ask, Lyell,” responded Aiden without looking up.
Lyell spun on his heel and stormed from the stable. Aiden glanced up and watched him go, feeling guilty for frightening Lyell like that. Lyell had been more of a father to him than his own father had ever been, but sometimes the burdens of being King overruled Aiden’s usual good judgment.
He curried Thunder and then gave him an extra measure of grain before returning to the castle. He had a bath drawn and refused an assistant. By the time Lyell returned, Aiden had dressed himself and was heading down to the hearings without being summoned. He didn’t want to anger anyone else today.
The hearings seemed to stretch on and on forever. Aiden forced himself to appear every bit the King he ought to be, but even so, his mind still wandered. He was more grateful than ever for Lyell. The advisor pulled him back whenever he threatened to drift away, and for once Aiden didn’t look like a mock King before his people.
The day went more smoothly than Aiden could ever remember. The only mar was the return of the scouts. They’d lost the trail of Aiden’s assailants over the downs. Aiden chewed this information over carefully. It seemed logical enough and the scouts had related the story with little hesitation, yet Aiden was still bothered. Something just wasn’t right. However, he dismissed it as a lingering sensation from his fright of the morning.
When the last hearing had been given for the day, Aiden excused all of his advisors, including Lyell, and gave them the remaining daylight hours for their own enjoyment. He rose off his throne and stretched away the tedious duty of King.
His step quickened as he crossed the hearing chamber for the enormous double doors, but his good mood evaporated when he found Adison waiting for him just outside.
“What is it now, brother? Was I too lenient on the poacher? Should I have had his hands removed? Or perhaps his tongue so he’d no longer have a taste for our pheasants?”
“Ah, your wit is like your kingship, a sorry spectacle indeed,” replied Adison. “Actually, I was concerned about your frightening experience this morning.”
Aiden faltered in mid-step, coming to a complete halt, his eyes searching his brother’s face. Like always, Adison refused to meet his stare.
“You were concerned about me?”
Adison’s light brown eyes flitted upward momentarily, then fixed on his boot toe. “Of course, why it could have been myself out there this morning.”
Aiden’s smile was wry. “Of course,” he said, then resumed walking.
Adison quickened his pace to come abreast of his brother. “So tell me what happened.”
“I was followed from the thicket by some strange men.”
“What do you mean followed?”
Aiden turned down the next corridor, quickening his pace so his shorter legged brother was forced to trot to keep up. “Just that – followed.”
“Did they ride as if they would appre
hend you?”
“They rode after me. I don’t know their intention, but it didn’t seem friendly.”
Adison caught Aiden’s arm, forcing him to stop. “Did you recognize them? Someone from our kingdom?”
Aiden’s eyes narrowed in memory. “No, I didn’t recognize them.”
Adison drew a deep breath and shook his head. “I wonder why three men would dare to chase the King of Dorland.”
Aiden’s head snapped up and his eyes flashed intently. “What did you say?”
Adison met his gaze. “I wondered why three men would dare to chase you.”
Aiden took a step back, his eyes narrowing even further. He’d told no one how many men there were this morning, not even Lyell.
“How did you know how many men there were?”
Adison glanced at Aiden in surprise and held his stare. “What?”
“Are you deaf, Adison?” said Aiden angrily. “How did you know how many men there were?”
“You said...”
“...nothing. I deliberately failed to state how many men there were.”
“Why ever for?”
Aiden took another step back, regarded his brother intently. He didn’t trust Adison even as much as he trusted a scorpion, yet he couldn’t believe his brother would really wish him any harm. They were related by blood, had the same father and mother.
“I thought maybe if I kept that information to myself it might come in handy in exposing the responsible party. Has it?”
Now Adison took a step back and his look was aghast. “Has it what?” he demanded, then his face became thunderous. “What are you suggesting, brother?
Aiden’s eyes were shrewd. Adison was more than indignant regarding Aiden’s accusation. Still Aiden just couldn’t believe Adison would intend him any real harm. If he was involved, maybe they’d only been hired to scare some sense into the recalcitrant King.
“I’m suggesting nothing,” replied Aiden smoothly, although his eyes said otherwise.
“Well,” said Adison, looking at his boot toe again. “I suggest you take no more foolish rides by yourself if you know what’s good for you.”
“I won’t do so again, brother, I promise.”
Adison glanced at him, then down at the floor again. “Good.” He turned and moved back the way he’d come, his head bowed, his shoulders slumped. Adison had a guilty cast to him, but then he was usually guilty of some misdeed or another. Anything to make Aiden’s life so much more difficult.
Aiden hurried down the corridor toward his wife’s quarters. A half-hour in her company, then off to see Alasdair. Finally the rest of the day would be his to while away as he chose.
He nodded at the guards as he passed and paused outside her door, listening intently, trying to gauge her mood by what he heard or didn’t hear. Today he heard only the soft mumbling of feminine voices. Carona wasn’t yelling or whining, perhaps it was a good sign, but he didn’t dare to hope too much.
He knocked once at the door, glancing at the guards. They gave him a pitying stare and he bristled in humiliation. What other husbands had to knock at their wives’ doors? Grasping the handle, he thrust the door open and glared at his wife where she lay reclining in her bed.
She blinked at him in astonishment and reflexively pulled her dressing gown closed at the throat. Maren looked up from brushing her mistress’s hair and like usual gave him a thankful smile.
Aiden wanted to return the warm gesture, but he knew it would only spark jealousy and accusations from Carona. Why Carona cared, he’d yet to figure out, but she did and it was enough to make his life miserable.
“Good afternoon, my Queen,” he said, moving into the room.
Maren retreated around the bed, laying the brush on the dressing stand and heading as quickly as she could for the door. Carona’s eyes followed her, then passed over Aiden.
“Good afternoon, my King,” she said, laying her head back on the pillows and sighing.
Aiden crossed to her side and took a seat at the window, looking out over the gardens. As usual the pair of black swans were swimming gracefully around the lake. He glanced at Carona and noted the sallow color of her cheeks. Instantly he was angry.
“You ought to get out and breathe some fresh air, get some sun,” he said.
She sighed again and looked down at her pale hands where they rested on her bed clothes. “So he starts,” she mumbled.
This only fueled Aiden’s rage, that and the memory of the guards’ pitying looks when he’d knocked at her door. “What?” He moved swiftly and sat directly on the edge of the bed within touching distance.
Carona recoiled, her hands fluttering up to her throat, her body arching away from him. She refused to meet his stare. “I said you’re starting already.”
“No, you didn’t,” he said furiously. “I don’t damn well know what you said, but it wasn’t that.”
She gasped at his profanity, her eyes fluttering in panic over his face. She tried to move further away from him, but any more motion would require her to actually move her entire body. Aiden took a sadistic pleasure from her discomfort. He knew it was wrong, but he’d spent eight years suffering all her petty little rules and regulations which only acted to make him seem less a man, less a Human in the eyes of his subjects.
He penned her in then, leaning over her, placing a hand on either side of her body. She tried to scramble back, but the mass of pillows at her back prevented any escape.
“Aiden,” she cried out in panic.
“Eldon’s bloody star, woman, you’d think I were an outlaw come to violate your body.”
She was gasping, her chest heaving. “I suppose you expect to rut on me now, don’t you?”
His eyes widened in rage. He rose swiftly and paced to the window, his fist clenching. He tried to take a deep breath to quell his temper, because he was beginning to fear he might strangle her and enjoy it, but it didn’t work.
Moving back to the bed, he grasped her shoulders and threw her down, dropping over her, holding her with his greater weight and size. Immediately she turned her face away from him, her hands braced against his chest. She was actually trembling beneath him.
“Oh my, Aiden,” she breathed and then she did an astonishing thing. She dropped her arms to her sides and shut her eyes. “I surrender,” she said in a husky voice.
He gapped at her, unable to comprehend what had just happened. He’d expected her to be rigid, uncompromising as she’d always been before when he’d tried so desperately to seduce her, but now she was limp and compliant. Revulsion rose within him.
Whenever he’d bedded her before, performing his kingly and husbandly duty, he’d spent hours priming her with food, drink, music, his touch, but nothing had worked. She’d lay beneath him, but was always as unresponsive as a rock. Perhaps this docility was a new tactic to throw him off. If so, it worked.
He rose up, moving off her, but she clasped his arms and held him. “Where are you going?”
He could only stare at her in amazement. “What?”
“I told you I surrender.”
He swallowed at the disbelief and repugnance rising within him. “You surrender? What does that mean?”
She bristled at his question, but her hands had begun to knead his arms. “You threw me down like a brute and prepared to mount me. I’m giving you permission to complete the task.”
He rolled off her, sitting on the edge of the bed, placing his head in his hands. She sat up beside him.
“What’s wrong, Aiden?”
He glanced at her. “You just gave me verbal permission to lay with my wife.” He lifted his hands in a futile gesture and let them drop against his thighs. “Somehow that takes all the fun out of it, Carona.”
“All right,” she said, “I take it back. You may take me by force.”
He stared at her, realizing that they might have been married for eight years, but he didn’t know her at all. She actually wanted him to be violent and brutal with her – well, to a certa
in point, he was sure. Could it be that his anger and frustration actually aroused her? Something about that knowledge sickened him and he was suddenly weary of his life, of everything to do with it.
“We’re just not good for each other, Carona.”
She didn’t respond for a moment, then in a rare gesture of companionship, she leaned her shoulder against his and swung her legs back and forth over the side of the bed. “I know that, Aiden,” she said softly. “We don’t have much choice though, we never did.”
He nodded, chewing on his lower lip. His eyes drifted out over the gardens. “What are we going to do about it?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. Somehow we’ve got to beget an heir in the next three years or they’ll oust you as King.”
Aiden glanced at her from the corner of his eyes. “You won’t ever have to do without though, Carona. Even if I’m not King, they’ll give me land and an estate to run, more money than I’ll know how to spend.”
“Yes,” she said with a tired sigh, “but then Adison will likely be King and I don’t think I can live in a kingdom where he rules.”
Aiden looked at her and she met his gaze steadily.
“You don’t really think I’m that simple, do you, Aiden? Adison will destroy Dorland.” She looked away, her eyes drifting out the window. “This land has seen enough strife. The people deserve more.”
He felt a strange swelling of warmth toward her. They so seldom spoke to each other civilly anymore, he’d truthfully forgotten she had a brain at all.
“I’m sorry, Carona. I’m sorry for the way I’ve been treating you lately, but...”
“I know,” she said, “you hate being King.”
He nodded.
“And you aren’t particularly happy being married to me either,” she said wryly.
He smiled despite himself. “At least the feeling’s mutual there, eh, my Queen?”
She laughed, a strange sound. He realized he hadn’t heard her laugh in years. “Anyway, like we said, we’re stuck with each other, so we’d best make do.” She reached out and laid her hand on his arm. “Perhaps we ought to try for that heir after all.”
The World of Samar Box Set 3 Page 98