The coach rocked as the horses began to tug it, and I sat up to not slip off the seat. In doing so, I caught a glimpse out of my window. There, silhouetted against the light from the palace doors, stood a figure of such bulk that it could only have been Jarik. My guess was confirmed as he leaned back against the open door and the light spilled over his face. His eyes were closed, and he looked upset.
“Kurit,” I said quickly, “Jarik is there, and he looks upset. Should we stop?” I turned in the seat as the coach changed its angle to head for the gate.
Kurit looked out behind us to see Jarik. “No,” he decided. “He’d be running after us if he wanted us to stop.”
“He’s been like that all evening,” I said, worried. “Do you think he was hurt in the tournament and didn’t want us to know?”
“I doubt that,” he said. “Well, if he was, he’d certainly hide it, especially from you, but I watched him most of the afternoon and never saw him take a sound strike. Perhaps he’s just tired.”
We were out of the gate by then, and I could no longer see him. I sighed and sat back, wondering if perhaps he was one of those men who outwardly seemed uninterested in marriage but secretly wished for it, and was thus depressed at witnessing his younger cousin wed.
“Aenna, he’s fine. Please don’t brood over him. It’s bad enough that he frets over your every frown.” Kurit took my hand and pointed out the window with his other. “Look, the people are waving to us. Many of them have probably waited in the street for at least an hour now for us to pass.”
Sure enough, on either side of the streets there were lined all manner of folk, many waving coloured lanterns of celebration as we passed.
“They all wish to welcome their beautiful new Princess,” he said, kissing my hand. His voice took on a deeper, softer tone as he said, “You are so radiant today, my Aenna. The colour of that beautiful dress brings out the best in that marvellous hair of yours. And your sweet eyes, oh Aenna, your eyes dance and sparkle happily, and that fills me with indescribable joy.” He caressed my cheeks as he raved for me. Though I felt silly being described so poetically, I admit I loved hearing it. “My greatest desire is for your life to be a happy one, and a close second to that is my desire to be a part of it.” He leaned to me and nuzzled his forehead softly against mine, then kissed me with sweet tenderness.
As usual, the kisses became increasingly erotic, and since we had just been wed there was nothing to hold him back. But to my complete amazement, he stopped himself and said, “I can’t go on doing this. I promised myself I would behave until we reach the cottage.”
“Really?” I asked, unable to hide my bafflement. “Why the sudden change?”
“Because I know you, my pretty wife,” he said teasingly, tapping the end of my nose lightly with his index finger. “You’ll want your bath after our busy day, and it’s very important to me that everything be right and comfortable and pleasant for you tonight. So I shall behave until you’ve had your bath.”
“And then?” I asked, knowing full well that I was prompting him to salacious speech.
He leaned close to me and spoke in a low voice, “And then I’m going to give you such pleasures that you won’t know your own name when I am done.” He kissed me softly, a promise for later, and said coyly, “If that’s what Your Highness desires.”
I was so aroused and enchanted that I thought I might melt away in his arms. I nodded, unable to speak. He embraced me, and his warmth and scent made me want him all the more. But he was right; I also dearly wanted a hot bath.
“I hope you’re not disappointed,” he whispered.
“No,” I said. “As much as I want you, I am indeed tired and in need of a bath. And it’s a long ride, four hours you said, without even any scenery to view in this darkness.”
“Why don’t you sleep, then?” I could that tell he wanted to add that I’d be better rested for later, but he was trying so hard to be a gentleman.
“I’d love to, but I’ll end up with a sore neck from my head lolling about.”
“Let me fix that, my dear,” he said. He took his cloak from me and rolled one corner loosely into a ball. Then he wrapped what remained around my upper body and balanced the roll on his shoulder. “There,” he said proudly. “Now you can lean comfortably against me and sleep.”
He lifted his arm and put it gently around me as I snuggled into the pillow on his shoulder. “You care so kindly for me,” I said in gratitude.
“That, Aenna, is my duty above all others. And don’t you dare argue me on it.” He kissed my forehead sweetly.
“You cared well for me from the start.” I laughed softly and said, “Do you remember those makeshift boots on our way to Endren?”
He laughed as well. “Mm-hmm. I was already falling in love with you, though it was still all too new and unexpected for me to know it by those words. Regardless, I wasn’t about to let you catch your death of cold.”
“Kurit, may I confess something to you?”
“Of course.”
“When we shared the blankets on those cold nights, I desperately wanted to lean against you, to put my head on your shoulder.”
He tightened his embrace momentarily. “You should have. I wanted to put my arm around you, but I had promised to be a gentleman, and I was so afraid that I would do so in my sleep that I kept it firm to my chest and the other under my head. I thought for sure you would despise me if I dared to touch you so boldly.”
“I longed for it, to be truthful. But to also be fair, I might have been offended.”
“You were when you found out who I was. I can’t believe I behaved so well only to be accused of trying to seduce you.”
“I’m sorry, Kurit, I—”
“Hush, now, don’t start that,” he said with a smile. “I know, you were embarrassed and shocked, and understandably so. But think back on it now. You know what a beast I am. Can you imagine how I was withholding myself then? Having been attracted to you that first night and falling in love with you by the third?”
“It must have nearly killed you,” I teased.
“Indeed!” he exclaimed. We laughed, after which I covered my mouth in a great yawn. “Sleep now, Aenna. It will make the distance fly past without notice.”
“Are you going to sleep as well?”
“No. I have you in my arms. I’m too delighted to sleep. I have a thousand poetic words racing around in my mind for you.”
Dreamily and drifting, I suggested, “Why don’t you write me a love poem, then?”
“Because it would sound silly when I was done, and the words would never be right. Now I shall stop speaking, for I see that your eyes are closing.”
* * *
My next recollection is of being thrown against the wall of the coach with Kurit almost landing upon me. My head crashed against the door, and only the great mass of ringlets gathered up in back saved me from a sound bump. I screamed as the coach was dragged to a stop, tilting to one side, with Kurit bracing himself between the seats to avoid crushing me.
The door behind me rattled as someone tried to open it. I called out to Kurit in panic, thinking that we were being robbed.
“It’s the guard, Aenna,” he said quickly, able to see out the window from his awkward position. He stumbled forward to release the door’s bolt. The guard opened it, allowing me to fall out. The guard caught me and helped me slide out of the tipped coach, asking if I was hurt.
“No,” I managed to say, though I was fully panicked and unsure what was going on, my head still thick with the fog of sleep. As the guard helped me to stand, Kurit jumped out behind me and embraced me.
“Are you sure you’re not hurt? You hit your head, twice at least.” He looked me over, touching my head, face, arms, and waist in great worry.
“I think my hair cushioned my head,” I stammered. My arms were bare, as I had fallen out of Kurit’s cloak in the chaos. I shivered, cold with half-sleep and the night air on my skin. My gaze darted about as I wondered what
had happened.
Kurit saw me shivering and reached inside the coach to fetch his cloak. He bundled it around me and held me to him protectively. Then he shouted over my head, “What in the Temple’s sight is going on?” He rubbed his hands up and down my arms to warm me up.
“It’s the front wheel, Your Highness,” said the coachman. I couldn’t see him, since my face was buried in Kurit’s shoulder, but I heard great anxiety in his voice. “I can’t understand it. The axle has broken! I inspected everything carefully just this afternoon, and there was no weak spot, I swear, Your Highness!”
All but one of the guards had dismounted and were hurriedly lighting lanterns. They stood them on the ground near where the axle had broken.
Kurit stood back from me and said, “Are you sure you’re not hurt?”
“I’m sure. I was just startled to be woken so. Go and see what has gone wrong. I shall be fine, really.”
He nodded, kissed my cheek, and went to join the other men who were squatting to peer under the carriage. The guard on horseback rode a short distance, dismounted, and returned with the wheel that had broken off. I stepped out of his way as he passed.
The men inspected the wheel as I wandered just out of the light. The half-moon cast an eerie glow to the meadow landscape, and I shivered again.
“Your Highness, there is scoring here,” said one of the men, perhaps the coachman.
Scoring? How would an axle be scored such that it could break, if it was inspected for weak spots just this afternoon? I wondered.
Then an awful thought crept into my mind: perhaps someone had meant to have the axle break along our way.
No, don’t be silly, I told myself. What would that gain? The marriage is official and complete. Delaying the wedding night accomplishes nothing.
Of course, awful thoughts are inevitably accompanied by worse ones, all in an avalanche of increased paranoia.
But what if they also planned to have us followed? I thought. What if someone wants me out of Kurit’s life badly enough to have me killed in his presence? What if they’re on their way behind us now? Or what if it’s a renewed plot against Kurit? Or both of us?
The more my mind pondered these notions, the more frightened I became, and the more elaborate the scheme became in my mind. A vicious circle of fear had begun, and before I knew it, I was shuddering in terror, tears streaking my face.
Kurit came back to my side, whether to tell me something or because he heard my soft sobbing, I did not know. But he saw my tears and shaking and grew instantly concerned.
“You are hurt,” he said with worry, touching my face and arm gently.
“No, no I’m not,” I stammered, feeling very foolish. “It’s just, have you ever had an unpleasant thought pop into your mind, and then as you think about it, it gets worse, and the worse it gets the harder it is to push from you mind?”
“What is it? Tell me, Aenna.”
I shook my head. “I can’t. You’ll think I’m a fool.”
“I would never think such a thing of you, my love. Clearly, you’re very upset. Please, what is it?”
“I overheard the coachman say the axle looks scored, and it made me wonder if …” I sighed at my stupidity. “It made me think that perhaps, if there was someone who truly disapproved of our marriage, or just wanted one or both of us out of the way, that maybe they would damage the axle so it would break along our journey and then have assassins or some such thing coming along behind us to catch us like this, trapped in the dark in the middle of nowhere.”
Kurit’s face bore an odd, blank expression as he fell silent for a moment. I suspected that he was trying to think of a kind way to tell me not to be so very ridiculous. But then he looked over my shoulder to the group of guards and shouted, “We’re going. Now.”
“But, Your Highness,” one guard protested, “the coach is not yet fixed. The coachman has just started to bind it together. It will take some time still.”
“We’re not waiting for it,” Kurit declared. He put his arm around me and guided me to where a guard stood holding the reins of the horses. “It isn’t safe to have the Princess out here like this. We shall take a horse, Aenna shall ride with me, and four of you shall escort us in all haste to the cottage. Two of you may remain with the coachman, and together you shall fix the axle and come behind us when you are able. The scoring could be sabotage, and I have no intention of standing around to find out if that’s the case.”
The men reacted in alarm at the suggestion of sabotage. They quickly surveyed the scene and checked the saddles of the horses for similar scoring. None was found. The coachman said he couldn’t be sure if it was deliberate scoring or not because of how the wood had broken.
“Well we shall not wait to find out,” said Kurit in an authoritative tone. “Come, Aenna, let’s be off.”
Kurit helped me up to one of the horses and mounted beside me as he had in Mikilrun, though obviously with less enthusiasm. Within moments, we were galloping along the dark landscape surrounded by the guards on each side.
“Kurit, you don’t honestly imagine that my silly notion could be true?” I asked over the noise of the horses.
“I can’t imagine that Mother would go so far, no. But I wasn’t about to stand around to see if I was right.”
“I didn’t suggest her,” I said.
“You don’t have to, which is the depressing part of it. I’m just glad she didn’t do anything nasty to ruin the wedding.”
It was my misfortune that he chose that moment to glance at my face. Though it was only the light of the half-moon overhead that showed it, he saw by my expression that he had misspoken. Under his breath, such that I could barely hear it with the noise of the wind and horses, he muttered several unrepeatable phrases.
“What did she do?” he demanded to know. I summarized the unpleasant encounter for him. He clenched his jaw, saying nothing.
“But, Kurit, it didn’t spoil the wedding for me. Your father visited me shortly thereafter and said the kindest, most inspirational things.” I recounted that for him as well, and finally his face relaxed, though he was still clearly perturbed.
Neither of us spoke for the next half hour. I kept my arms wrapped about him, feeling how tense he was, regretting very much having told him anything about his mother. In time, we crested a hill and saw lights peeking out amongst the trees that surrounded a building in the distance.
“There it is, Aenna,” Kurit said. I felt him breathe a sigh of relief and relax somewhat.
We stopped just short of the front porch of the beautiful royal summer home. They called it a cottage, but it was larger and sturdier than most farmhouses. I longed for daylight that I might better see it.
The guards quickly dismounted and helped me to do so as well. As Kurit did the same after me, a middle-aged woman came out of the cottage with Leiset and Gilrin close behind.
“Where’s the coach?” Leiset asked in alarm when she saw us standing beside the horse. She rushed to me in concern.
“We’ll explain later, Leiset,” Kurit insisted. “Come, the guards shall take care of the horses. Let’s go inside quickly.” He put a protective arm around my shoulders and hurried me into the warmth and light of the cottage.
Everything inside was constructed with a rich, warm wood that gave off a homey scent. I could also detect the lingering odour of what smelled like a roast chicken dinner from a few hours before. Several lamps were lit to make the rooms bright, especially the parlour, where Kurit guided me to sit and rest.
Leiset and the others followed us in. Leiset was in a terrible fret, so I said, “The axle of the coach broke.” She rushed to me and asked if we were hurt, and she calmed herself only after repeated assurances that we were not.
“Could it not be repaired?” asked the other woman.
“The coachman felt that he could fix it well enough to continue,” Kurit said, “but it was not safe for Aenna to be kept out in the night. I expect the coach will arrive very late, possibly cl
ose to dawn. Oh, Aenna, this is Pirine. She and her husband Mikel are the caretakers.”
Pirine curtsied politely, and I mustered a tired smile for her.
“Shall I fetch you some tea?” she offered. Kurit and I both nodded.
“I shall draw your bath if you wish it,” Leiset said quietly to me.
“Soon,” I replied. “I need the tea first.”
“Could you all leave Aenna and me alone for a moment, please?” Kurit asked, and everyone complied. He sat with me on a great, soft couch and took my hand. “Aenna, I’m sorry if this has ruined your evening. If you are tired and wish to postpone things until tomorrow night, I shall certainly understand.”
“I’ll be fine once I have some tea and a bath,” I said, smiling at him.
He nodded and kissed my forehead. “But if you should decide at any point that tonight’s events have tired you or made you feel at all uncomfortable, it’s very important to me that you feel that you can be honest and tell me you just wish to sleep.”
We had some wonderfully warm and soothing tea in the parlour, after which I went up with Leiset to the bedchamber attached to the master room. She had my bath ready, and I was delighted to sink slowly into it. It was soothing, and on any other night I would have gone straight to sleep afterwards, but thoughts of Kurit tantalized my mind. I became greatly aroused in the hot water and quickly finished. Knowing that he would not expect anything of me made me more desirous of him, for it put me in a position of decision and control that I discovered I rather enjoyed.
Having carefully hung my wedding gown away, Leiset brought out a nightdress that was clearly not designed for sleeping. Instead of sleeves, it had only a thin cord to go over each shoulder. It was a sheer, thin material of white with tiny blue flowers embroidered down the sides. I dried myself quickly, braided my hair, and slipped the garment on.
“Aenna, you’ll corrupt that man,” Leiset said in bawdy praise.
“Oh, it’s far too late for that,” I mused quietly, looking at myself in the mirror. Kurit would indeed go mad for it. The neckline was so low that most of the upper portions of my breasts showed. I felt deliciously naughty.
Sorrows of Adoration Page 19