Unarmed (Unarmed Trilogy)

by Nina Monroe

  “She is very angry with me.”

  “Yes, but all women feel that way at some time or another. Tomorrow, I will be dragging you out of bed and all will be well. Tomorrow, we will go home and I’m sure a nice, stern letter from your father to Douglas Johansson will stop any talk of war,” Garrett laughed.

  Will couldn’t join him in his laughter. He took another deep breath before he began to walk away from his friend. He should have gone straight upstairs to find Tamzin and apologize but he needed time to cool down himself. He found himself walking towards the castle library and his eyes focused on a battle strategy board. He may not be able to make up with his wife, but he would be able to harness his anger into something productive. Will needed anything to get his mind off Tamzin right now.

  ~~~~

  They took their dinner in their chambers that night, but it was a quiet affair. Tamzin took a bite of her duck and mixed greens, while Will stared at her from across the table. He smiled to himself; Tamzin could keep a grudge much longer than him, at least when it came to her.

  “Are we ever going to speak again?” He questioned with a grin as he cleaned his plate. “The only activity I enjoy more than being in between your thighs is conversing with you.”

  “Did Garrett help you come up with that line?” Tamzin questioned tersely as she cut another piece of her meat and popped the medallion in her mouth.

  “No, I came up with that one all on my own,” he retorted as he reached across the table and grabbed a carrot from her plate. “You hate these.”

  “And what does that matter to you?” Tamzin glared from across the table before she lifted her plate and scraped the carrots onto Will’s plate. “They turned me orange once.”

  Will chuckled as he finished the food on his plate quietly.

  “I thought that was from eating too much?” Will asked as Tamzin placed her fork delicately on the side of her plate. She looked up at him, with her mischievous brown eyes.

  “I used to love them, until I was a small carrot myself. My favorite stable boy made fun of me for a month, and now I hate carrots,” Tamzin smiled as her playful stare returned to her husband. “I want you to apologize to your aunt before we leave in the morning.”

  “I know, and I will. I don’t like it when you are right,” Will said as he sipped his wine.

  “Because it usually means you are wrong,” Tamzin laughed as she reached across the table for his hand. “It will happen often in our marriage.” Her comment made him join her in laughter as he squeezed her hand gently.

  “Do you know how much I love you?” Will asked as he ran his thumb over her knuckles. “I wish I could say that things will be better when we return home, but I can’t say that with any certainty anymore.”

  “Are you keeping something from me?” Tamzin asked as her own guilt washed over her.

  “Our fathers have known for a good deal of time that the Johanssons had risen to a high level of prominence. The southern territories have banded together and named Douglas Johansson as their King.” Will’s brisk words hit her like a million icicles.

  “And what does that mean?” Tamzin asked nervously.

  “It means that when we return home, the banners will be waiting and until my father and I return, you will be Queen,” Will said solemnly as he watched Tamzin tear away from the table and knocked her chair backwards.

  “No, no,” her eyes welled up. “I am not meant to be Queen this way. I was supposed to be Queen with you by my side. We were to be King and Queen together and we were supposed to have our little princes and princesses…”

  “We will; it will still happen,” Will said as he stood and walked around the table. He clasped her round cheeks in his hands as he smiled almost bitterly. “Do you have any idea how beautiful our babies will be? Our daughters will be talked about for miles and miles, and our sons will be the best fighters and good and honorable men. We will die old and in bed and we will have so many grandchildren.”

  “You can’t know any of that,” Tamzin said as she felt tears slide down her cheeks. “Why do you need to go? Johansson would never send an army to our front gates.”

  “I put nothing past the man, and I would never risk harm coming to you or the kingdom. Your father’s men are on the reserve when I am gone. Nothing will happen, I promise,” Will said as he pulled Tamzin into a tight embrace.

  “In a few days, you will be gone and I’ve spent all day fighting with you…” Tamzin began before Will cut her off with a passionate kiss.

  “Then we will have to make tonight more special,” he breathed against her mouth as he pulled on the ties of her pink dress. “Tonight will be the night I get you with child. When I return, you will be swollen and tell me how he moves inside of you.”

  “I thought you wanted one hundred daughters,” Tamzin smiled against his lips as she nearly tore his tunic across his chest.

  “Perhaps you will give me one of each?” Will laughed as he picked her up and felt her wrap her legs around his waist. “Our baby prince and princess on our first try?”

  “The second you can give birth, be my guest,” Tamzin giggled as her back hit the bed. Will had begun to crawl on top of her, when she sat up abruptly and forced him to his back. “I forbid you from dying out there. I will be very cross with you if you die and it won’t be something you will be able to kiss better.”

  “Not even if I kiss you here?” Will asked as he nipped her lip and slid his hand in between her thighs. “I’d happily lap at your delicious cunt until I was drunk off it.”

  “You won’t be able to talk your way out this one,” Tamzin moaned as she felt his hand cup her and move her onto her back again.

  “I won’t be talking, I’ll be licking.”

  ~~~

  Lucy had been missing for hours, but no one cared enough to search for her. She dismounted her stolen horse and waited for what felt like more hours under a starry night.

  “Did anyone see you?” A gruff voice asked from behind Lucy. She turned to see a man who looked so similar to Gregory and Will Thurston. The man was of similar height and build, but his brown hair was much sleeker and went to just above his shoulders. His hair was littered with grey streaks and his extremely blue eyes glowed in the dark.

  “If anyone had, do you think I would be standing here?” Lucy said sassily as she smiled broadly. “You’re just as handsome as I remember, Duke.”

  “I hate that name,” the man said as he lifted his satchel and took out a flask. After a long swig, he turned back to Lucy. “Do you know why they call me Duke? To remind me of my place. The illegitimate brother to the great Gregory Thurston.”

  “Duke is a joke, then?” Lucy asked almost sympathetically, though she hid her giggles from his drunken ears.

  “A very cruel one, but not nearly as cruel as being a Johansson,” Duke laughed as he watched Lucy’s face fall. “I bet you’re prettier than the Roth girl.”

  “Tamzin is a very pretty girl, but her kindness will be her downfall. She had so many opportunities to send me away, but she just can’t be cruel to the orphan princess,” Lucy said bitterly as she lifted her hand to the broach in the center of her bodice. “But I ask that you don’t murder her.”

  “Feeling sentimental? It won’t get you anywhere. I heard that she’s softened the boy. How is my dear nephew?” Duke asked as he leaned against a tree. He was far too drunk to be standing, but years upon years of alcohol abuse numbed him.

  “A pain in my ass. As much as I hate him, I will give him credit that the only way we can kill him is by blitz attack,” Lucy countered as she lifted her hands to let her blonde locks fall from its clip. “They lie together nightly, and nightly I give her the tea. I think she has miscarried at least three babies.”

  “And you don’t feel an ounce of sympathy?” Duke asked. “That’s a cold feat, milady.”

  “He laughs at my family, that William Thurston does. I am more insulted that her child is his, so no I don’t feel an ounce of sympathy for the death
of a Thurston heir. The Thurstons deserve all of their misfortune,” Lucy sneered as she spat on the ground next to her. “I spit on the Thurston name.”

  “Yet you plan on marrying the bastard Thurston for the title Queen?” Duke asked with a raise eyebrow. “Tamzin will die after she bears me a son. Turner Roth wouldn’t dare attack with a Roth grandchild in the realm.”

  “At least get the girl drunk before you rape her,” Lucy said sadly. “Tamzin truly doesn’t deserve this.”

  “Do I detect weakness?” Duke asked.

  “She was kind to me when no one was. Spare her, but by the gods, kill that wretched prude Kendall, please. She’s been suspicious of me since the second I stepped off the carriage when I was eleven,” Lucy said venomously as she looked to the stars. “I don’t know whose death I pray for more: Kendall or Will Thurston?”

  “Will isn’t kind to you? He is a very intelligent man on the battlefield.”

  “If he didn’t have Tamzin as Queen and he wasn’t so deadly with a sword and that brain of his, he would have no allies. In the nearly four months she has been married to him, he only shows kindness to her. His men respect him very much, though. The Thurstons do not live lavishly at all. Their people are well fed and Tamzin developed many programs to help the children. She’s a saint to them,” Lucy said before she asked for Duke’s flask.

  “Will loves her?” Duke asked before he handed over his flask to her.

  “Deliriously,” Lucy rolled her eyes. “She has her own place on councils and he listens to her more than his right-hand man. His name is Garrett and he is dangerous. I don’t know how he will react tomorrow. He may move to protect Will, or he will grab Tamzin and run. If Tamzin makes it back to Thurston, Gregory will marry her off to a bannerman very quickly. He will call up the banners and Turner Roth will show his support. There is only one worst option for us.”

  “And what would that be?” Duke questioned with mild interest.

  “That both Will and Tamzin escape. I may have my doubts about the girl, but she is a gifted healer and the best doctor in all the regions is her personal physician. If Will lives and makes it to Thurston, Gregory will raise the largest army imaginable and the South will be obliterated. The only thing more insulting to Will Thurston than trying to murder his Queen is trying to murder him,” Lucy growled. “I’ve seen his body. He is littered with scars but he bears no injury. His scars are merely marks. He has no limp, or no pains. It’s like he can’t be killed.”

  “Don’t be naïve; anyone can be killed,” Duke doubted as he played with the knife at his waist. “I guess we will have to attack Thurston Territory while the immortal prince fights, if he survives. If we take the princess into captivity, his men will stand down. We keep her locked away and stop all word from reaching the Thurston soldiers, we will take the kingdom and the Thurstons will fall.”

  “You do know that if Will Thurston doesn’t die tomorrow, the South has already lost. If, by some miracle, we take Thurston Territory and take Tamzin hostage, he will receive word. Somehow, Will will receive word and we will pray for death finding us before he does,” Lucy said fearfully. “I hate him, but the man deserves his reputation. He will show no mercy to any of us or our soldiers.”

  “Then we can’t let him escape tomorrow.” Duke said simply, like it was that easy. Lucy kept her further reservations to herself as she looked to the stars again. She prayed that fate was on her side, but it felt like the odds were never in her favor.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  It was still dark when Tamzin felt Will arise from the bed. They slept with the curtains around their bed open, and despite how early it was, it was still sweltering hot in their chambers. Tamzin sat up in the bed and felt the sheet around her peel off as she watched Will walk, naked, towards her vanity and threw his robe over his shoulders.

  “I have never missed the cold so much,” Will said as he wiped his brow clean of sweat. “It will be a long soak in the hot springs for me when we return home.”

  “Would you mind some company?” Tamzin asked as she stretched her arms over her head. “I didn’t know you had hot springs?”

  “Just a number of places I will need to show you when I return,” Will smiled as he turned to look at her. He leaned up against the chair and watched her face fall. “I know you’re nervous, but the last six years of my life have been spent in battle and your father’s army is much more formidable than any true Southern army.”

  “You’re going to kill children?” Tamzin asked with uncertainty.

  “Douglas Johansson has a real army this time, with real men. I was a boy myself when I first began to fight. I was twelve when I killed my first man and my father has been training me to be a soldier since I was five,” Will said as he took a deep breath. “I was never much of a child, so I don’t understand the sentimentality of children.”

  “You will when we have ours,” Tamzin smiled as she wrapped the sheet around her body. At the edge of the bed was a clean chemise and a fresh light dress with a wool shawl. She dropped the sheet on the floor and pulled the chemise over her body when she pressed her hand to her stomach. Her moon blood would soon be late, and while it had been late before, Tamzin had never been having nightly trysts with a husband. It had been over a month since Jacque had started producing true fertility drinks for Tamzin and it seemed to have been effective, or that she had hoped. “Do you have your chain mail?”

  “I don’t need chain mail to ride a horse home,” Will laughed as he pulled on his breeches and boots. He wore another light tunic with a leather one going over his shoulders. “I don’t need any more layers in this heat.”

  “It won’t be long before it becomes cold again. As for the chain mail, what’s the harm in it?” Tamzin asked as she placed her hands on her hips. “I would feel better if you wore it.”

  “I don’t remember this type of worry when we originally came,” Will said as he watched Tamzin open up their joint trunk. She rifled through it before she came across a chain mail for his torso. It was heavy but the clinks were a comforting sound.

  “This was before I was told that a mad king intends to start a war. We are not in peaceful times, Will,” Tamzin said as she held out her hand to him. As Will reached out, she handed him the chain mail. He didn’t argue as he pulled his tunics over his head and placed the chain mail over his bare skin. The armor was a welcome cool as the chains hit his skin, but the weight kept his shoulders down. But Will couldn’t take it off after he saw Tamzin’s face; she was relieved as the worry wrinkles fell from her lovely face. “Thank you,” she said as she stood on her toes and kissed him chastely.

  “I won’t do this all the time,” Will said as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and kissed her hair.

  “Be glad your wife cares so much about your safety,” Tamzin scolded lightly as she punched his arm. Will laughed before he grabbed his discarded tunics and tossed them over his head. “Finish getting dressed, wife. Our plans never fare so well when you are barely dressed.”

  Tamzin laughed as she fingered the soft dress that still rested on their bed. She turned towards the window where the sky was beginning to lighten and was splashed with bright oranges and pinks. Carefully, Tamzin pulled the dress over her body and felt the slight tightness in the bodice. She bit her lip to hide her bright smile and her reddening cheeks. Was there a little prince or princess hiding inside of her? Should she tell Will about her suspicions? No. If she was wrong and her monthly blood came, or worst, Will would be devastated. He was leaving for war in a matter of days; he didn’t need to worry more.

  “Do you leave the morning after we return home?” Tamzin asked as she slid her feet into matching kitten heels before she sat down at her vanity. She watched Will through the mirror as she quickly ran a comb through her tresses. He had just finished clasping a light cloak over his frame when his long strides brought him to stand behind her. Quietly, he swept her curls to the side of her neck. His thumb ran across her pulse point and dipped into her collarb
one.