Fostering Faust

by Randi Darren

  “We’re women who they probably view as little more than your personal bed servants,” Valeria said. “We even have numbers instead of names. We’re not military advisers and we contribute nothing to these meetings at all.”

  “Well, they can get used to it. Now, I believe you all wanted me to look over your recruits tonight?” Alex asked.

  “Ah, yes. I’ll go first since I only have two for now,” Valeria said, leaving his side to go to the door. “I haven’t found my third.”

  “We’ll go next,” Nannie said, smacking her wrist into Carla’s side.

  “Obviously,” Carla said in return. “One hired enough women from the dungeon that it actually looked only ‘full’ instead of bursting. It’ll take a while to get through them.”

  Alex didn’t say anything but rolled up the map instead.

  “Master, these are the two I recruited. I think they’ll serve quite well,” Valeria said, getting his attention.

  Looking up, Alex almost did a double take.

  “Coffin?” Alex asked, looking at the dark, wild-haired, cold-eyed woman standing there. The last he’d seen her, he’d put her back into a coffin in the dungeon.

  “Yes,” said the woman, her voice oddly tense. Her eyes shifted in every direction but to his, her head jittering a bit from side to side as she did so. “I’m the knife.”

  Alex looked to Valeria for any type of clarification.

  “She’s your new assassin. I don’t think she’ll be hard to train at all,” Valeria said, tapping the woman on the shoulder. Then she tapped the second woman.

  She was rather mundane looking in general. One might call her cute, if she tried hard enough, but she looked more like she’d blend in with a crowd.

  “And this is going to be my shadow. She’ll be working in the background for the most part. They’re just here to swear their oaths to you directly.”

  “I’m the knife,” said the dark-haired woman again. “I’ll make them die.”

  Looking to Valeria again, he raised his eyebrows.

  Valeria grinned at him and shrugged her shoulders. “The best tools are sometimes the broken ones.”

  As if you could talk.

  Chapter 30

  Anna was smiling at him. And Alex knew it was for show. It looked very similar to her normally wide and simple smile, but it didn’t reach her eyes.

  “Anna,” Alex said. He reached up and tapped her gently in the middle of her forehead with a fingertip. “It’ll be alright. I’ll return to you. I promise it.”

  “Of course you will; that’s not even worth mentioning,” she said, her smile remaining exactly as it was.

  “You don’t have to be strong on my part. I know this isn’t easy, and you haven’t exactly had an ideal married life with me so far. I can promise you that after this, I’ll settle down for a bit and try to stay home.

  “Spend a lot more time with you.”

  Anna’s smile faltered, then shattered.

  “You will?” she asked, her voice becoming soft and brittle.

  “Yes, wife. I will. Be your normal self. Do not put on this silly brave false face for me,” Alex said, encouraging her. His fingertips lightly slipped through her silken hair, curling it behind her ear.

  Anna’s face become a massive frown and her big eyes immediately welled up in tears.

  “I love you. I miss you. Don’t leave me,” Anna said, cuddling in closer to him. “I don’t like it. Daddy said Mommy was brave to put up with him traveling all the time. I’m not.

  “I’m not brave. Stay home with me.”

  “Oh, my silly thing. Did you feel like this the first time too?” Alex said, enfolding his arms around her shoulders.

  “Uh huh. I started crying as soon as you were gone and hid in our bed all day,” Anna sobbed, her nose turning bright red as she started to cry more heavily.

  “Want to come with me?” he asked suddenly, grinning at her.

  “I can’t,” she said, but the corners of her mouth turned up in a tiny smile. “I have stuff I need to do. Daddy told me things to watch out for while you were gone to protect our home. And to make money. I want to be a good wife and make you money.”

  She said it, then nodded her head once. “I’m not a trophy!” she said sternly.

  “I never suspected you were,” Alex said, still combing her hair gently.

  “No?” she asked, her eyes watching him for any sign of deceit. Or so he thought.

  “Beautiful like a trophy wife, but not a trophy wife. A trophy wife wouldn’t have filled my dungeon with so many toys for me.

  “And thank you for that, by the way; it was very helpful. Keep it to one woman per cell though going forward,” he said. Then he leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her lips.

  “Now, I need to go, dear. I’d like you to release Sylvia while I’m gone as well. Here’s the letter freeing her and pausing all charges against her.”

  “Conquered her?” Anna asked, her mind moving in that strange way it did. “Seemed like you did. I think the only reason she wasn’t in your bed was you didn’t force it. I think she would have given in.”

  “Which is half the problem. If they’re simply willing to do it, making them do it holds no value,” Alex said, holding the folded paper out to her. “Set her free for me. Tell her to behave, and to not get in trouble again. That her oaths remain intact to me, except for her need to be pure. She can do as she likes.”

  And I don’t have to see her leave when I get rid of her. Please do this for me, please, please, please.

  “Ok, dear,” Anna said, taking the paper. She pouted at him, her cheeks puffing out a bit.

  “When you get back, can we make some deals together for the dungeon girls? I want to participate. It seems fun and challenging.

  “And then you need to stay long enough to put a child in me.”

  “Sure hon, we can definitely work on the deals. Leah did promise you could make some on my behalf, after all.”

  “And the baby?” Anna asked, her chin tucking to her chest, glaring at him.

  “I’ll be happy to try every hour until you’re satisfied,” he said with a grin.

  Anna’s cheeks turned a deep red, her fingers tightening into his clothes.

  “I’m not satisfied… You can’t leave… yet,” she said huskily.

  ***

  “This’d be the point of no return,” Max said, pulling his horse in to Alex’s side. “Andrew is supposed to meet us here with his people tonight. We’ll be moving out tomorrow morning.”

  “He’ll be ready?” Alex asked.

  “Yes, sire. I warned him of your plan to move immediately. He’s actually resting his troops nearby in your lands. He just wanted to keep out of sight he wouldn’t tip off our friends.”

  “Delightful,” Alex said, looking around. This would be the bit of border between himself and Count Ridge.

  Looking at it closely, it really did have the look of an old, abandoned highway. One that’d simply been grown over and left to fail.

  I wonder… how long it took to become this way. It doesn’t quite match the way it was described to me at all.

  “It was a highway. When your family had its ducal titles. In fact, that barony over yonder is a de jure vassal,” Max said, reaffirming what Alex already knew.

  Looking up, Alex followed the bend of Max’s arm towards the distance.

  Set a ways out, a small keep was perched in such a way that it faced the north and east, and the south and west of it seemed more where a town would lie.

  “It was an outpost that protected the lands between. A military outpost, once.

  “That’d be where I sent that letter you wanted to go.”

  “Ah. And what’s the family name? I imagine we’ll be knocking on their door at some point and asking them to rejoin us as our vassal,” Alex said with a lopsided grin.

  “Tilly,” Max said after a moment of thought.

  Turning in his saddle, Alex looked at the man to make sure he heard it right
.

  “Tilly?”

  “Ah, yes. Unfortunately they’re relatives to those we fought with directly,” Max confirmed.

  Mary?

  “Three,” Alex said loudly.

  Dressed as his camp woman, Valeria eased her horse up to his other side.

  “Yes, Master?” she purred at him, living the role completely.

  “Is it the same woman?” Alex asked, leaning in close to her and keeping his volume low.

  “Yes. She’ll not be a problem though. I imagine she’s being pressured by her uncle now that her husband is slain,” Valeria whispered, her left hand pressing to his shoulder.

  Riley popped into view on her own horse, trying to wedge herself up between Alex and Max.

  Her jealousy was getting the best of her again.

  Valeria’s eyes flicked to Riley, then back to Alex, and then abruptly she leaned in and kissed him quickly.

  Alex sat upright in his saddle, pulling back from Valeria.

  She did that just to piss off Riley. Brat.

  They’re worse than Nannie and Carla.

  Glancing to his other side, he saw Riley pouting at him, her hands tight on her reins.

  She hadn’t gotten good in the saddle very quickly, and they’d given her a slow and gentle mare.

  “Err, shall I send up a runner to see if anyone is home?” Max asked. He wasn’t an idiot, and had somehow read between the lines.

  “No, we’ll just head up. Max, Dave, One, Two, Three, Five, with me. Dan, I leave the army in your hands for now. If Andrew shows up, send him my way,” Alex said, pulling his horse toward the keep.

  Let’s give Dan some time to shine. He’s lived under his brother long enough.

  “Uhh, yes sire. Of course, sire,” Dan said even as Alex was already riding towards the keep.

  Max was fumbling with something in his pack for a minute as they went.

  Eventually, he managed to pull out a white flag from his bags and tied it to his lance.

  Ah, that makes sense. I wonder if she’ll try to have me locked up.

  This is actually a terrible idea, isn’t it?

  That thought tormented Alex right up until the gates opened and he saw Mary and her niece, along with a handful of assistants and maids.

  Without guards, and seemingly not unhappy to see him.

  “Count Brit,” Mary said, her arms folded across her chest. “I’m surprised to see you.”

  She looked the same as he remembered her. Maybe a touch more tired looking, but the same.

  Her niece had aged a few years and looked much more like her aunt now.

  War and conflict does that.

  “And why is that? Once I realized where your lands were, I set out immediately,” Alex said, dismounting. “I wished to see you, Baroness.”

  Mary’s mouth twitched at that, and she let her arms fall to her sides.

  “Would you dine with us? I welcome you to my home for the evening,” the baroness said.

  “I accept, delightfully so. Would you quarter us for the night as well? We’ll be gone in the morning, and I have news for you as well,” Alex said, bowing at the waist to the baroness in deference.

  Mary clicked her tongue, then froze in place.

  “Ah… I received a letter, now that you mention it. It was most curious,” Mary said. “Come, we’ll retire to a private room and speak for a time before dinner. My niece will take care of your compatriots.”

  Alex fell beside Mary and walked with her. Neither party spoke, both apparently content to walk in silence.

  It wasn’t until the door shut behind them, putting Alex in a room alone with the baroness, that he felt any sense of awkwardness.

  “First, let me thank you for releasing my niece in the way you did. It was quite generous of you. You could have simply taken her with you and there would have been little we could have done to retrieve her.

  “Secondly, what are you here for exactly, Alex?” Mary asked, moving towards a table in the middle of the room.

  “To wage war on Count Ridge. I plan on taking his land for my own. That and to see you,” Alex answered immediately.

  Honestly.

  He had nothing to hide from her. She was sworn to his secrets.

  Taking a seat at the table as his host did, Alex folded his hands together in his lap.

  “I see,” Mary said, a smile forming. Then she sighed, crossing her legs and rearranging her dress. “That’ll just make my life even more difficult, regarding both issues. Ridge was one of the few who was willing to trade with my small holding.

  “Or would that be partially why you’re here? To broker a new deal with me, as it were?”

  “I wouldn’t mind attempting to talk myself into your bed, Mary, but I have no intention of causing you distress either. You’re not my enemy.

  “I’m sure we can come up with a very reasonable trade deal for both of us.”

  Mary had apparently been holding her breath, which she now let out in a slow exhalation. She wasn’t half as collected as she was pretending to be.

  “I’m glad to hear that,” she said.

  “Which—trying to get into your bed, or the trade?” Alex said, unable to help himself.

  Mary looked at him and shook her head with a smile.

  “You’re terrible. Haven’t you had enough of this dumpy little barren widow?”

  “I’m fairly certain if I had, I wouldn’t be trying to get into your bed. Now would I?”

  Mary rolled her eyes, her smile widening.

  “Is that all you came here for? To bed me?” she asked, her foot moving up and down slowly in a controlled response.

  “Partially. You’re quite deserving of a good bedding, you know. You’re a lovely woman.

  “Though it was also partially to see how you were doing. Make sure you knew what was going on. That you could possibly expect to see Ridge make a move up this way.”

  “You’re just too direct for me, Alex. You’re not supposed to admit such things,” Mary said, her fingers locked tightly into one another. “As for how I’m doing… not so well.”

  “Talk to me. I not only wish to hear your voice, but to bear your worries if I can,” Alex said, leaning forward toward her.

  Mary opened her mouth and then paused for a heartbeat.

  “Why not?” she said, giving him a bitter smile. “It’s not as if you don’t hold terrible truths about me already.

  “My uncle is working to have me removed as Baroness. He wants to put my niece into the position and wed her immediately. Apparently, I’m no use to him as a barren widow. I’ll be set aside and retired to a home out in the country, I imagine.”

  She looked to the side, staring at nothing.

  “My poor niece will go through everything I did, though with no one around willing to help her. I doubt my uncle will be as kind with her as he was with me in the early days. I imagine she’ll be pregnant in a year, or a mistress will be, and damn the consequences.”

  Alex considered that.

  It wasn’t a bad political play on the count’s part. Realistically, it was rather valid.

  And yet, this is a possibility for me to make a move.

  As a de jure vassal, none could fault her for changing her allegiance to me. Especially if I have her sealed up on more than fifty percent of her borders.

  “Swear yourself to me, Mary. I’ll reaffirm you as Baroness and leave your succession to you to handle,” Alex said suddenly.

  Mary’s head whipped around toward him, her brows pinched together.

  “Are you mad?” she asked in an angry whisper.

  “Not at all. You’re my de jure vassal. You could easily switch your allegiance over to me in a heartbeat without repercussion. And once I’ve taken the title of the count of Ridge, you’ll be nearly surrounded by me.

  “If you wait till that happens, maybe I’ll turn you into a concubine for a while before I reaffirm you as the baroness,” Alex said, smiling at her.

  Mary’s eyes were full of
her thoughts. Clear as day to him, she was weighing out her options.

  “It’s not as if you have an alternative. Unless you want to be moved out to a home in the middle of nowhere? If you do, I promise I’ll treat your niece as politely as I would if it were you. Consider it a gift for what we shared the last time we spent the night together.

  “Though I can’t promise I won’t raid your manor house and carry you back to turn you into a concubine anyways. That and to make sure you’re treated well.”

  Mary snorted at that in a very unladylike manor.

  “You’re a cad. You really would bind me as a concubine, just to make a point of it. That and try to sweet talk your way into my niece’s bed as she’d become the baroness,” Mary said. Then she threw up her hands in defeat. Pressing her fingertips to the pin at the collar of her dress, she gave him a flat stare.

  “As the de jure vassal of the Brit family, I hereby accept the request to transfer my vassalage to him during this time of war,” Mary said. Dropping her hand in her lap, she quirked a brow at him. “You’d better be able to save me, or so help me, I’ll haunt you.”

  “Of course. I wouldn’t be able to try and sneak into your bed or make you my personal concubine if you weren’t among the living, now could I?”

  “Since I’m among the living, and clearly unwed and barren, why would my lord need to sneak into my bedroom?” Mary said, standing up.

  “Is that an invi—”

  “If you have to ask, then no,” Mary said, staring down at him.

  “Lead on, Baroness. Lead on.”

  ***

  The next morning, Alex met Andrew for the first time in the courtyard of the keep.

  He was a bigger man. Broad and wide. With a smile on him that he seemed to wear constantly. Mischievous, even.

  His muted blue eyes didn’t help that impression either.

  “Sir,” Andrew said. “Powell’s cavaliers, ready for orders.”

  “Great, get everything sorted out with Max and Dave. They have what you need to know, Drew.”

  “Drew?” the man mouthed, unsure.

  “He does that,” Max muttered, holding out his forearm in a shake to the other soldier. “Names get shortened considerably. Come this way. We’re just going over the order for today.”