“Stargazer!” She ran over to me and enveloped me in her maternal way, the kind of hug that cuts off oxygen.
“Mother,” I repeated once she finally let me go. “Something is wrong. Can we speak with you and father? It’s important.”
“We?” she looked over my shoulder, and a look of surprise appeared on her face. Not surprisingly, really. It wasn’t every day your daughter brings home eleven other women, comprised of Hearts and Diamonds, none of which have seen a shower or a hairbrush in weeks, and most of which were wearing nothing but blankets. At least with her shock at the sight of the women, she didn’t see Willow slip his hand into mine.
“Right, ok, Reed!” she shouted my father over. When he looked toward us, his face dropped and the jovial demeanor he was showing just a few moments before descended into concern.
We were all taken to my father’s office. It was a large office for one person, but for fifteen, it was quite a squeeze. Some of the castle staff brought chairs in for us, but only thirteen fits, so Willow and I stood at the back. I was glad. It gave me the excuse to stand close to him. Even though the blanket was still wrapped around me securely, I was still grateful for his heat and the comfort of him holding me discretely around the waist.
“Welcome, ladies,” my father began. If he was unnerved by this ragtag group of women showing up, he didn’t show it. I knew he’d picked his office to meet in because it was one of the few soundproofed rooms in the castle, the others being his war room and the treasury. “I understand that you have all been a guest of the Queen of Hearts. I received a message yesterday that told me my daughter was also there. As you know, I sent some of my best men to speak to the Queen to find out what the situation was. It seems my orders were ignored, and instead, a breakout occurred.”
I could see the women begin to look alarmed by the way my father was speaking.
“Daddy! These women were being held captive for no reason at all. There is a jail in Urbis for thieves and murderers. These women are guilty of no such crimes.”
“Calm down, my love.” My father waved his hands at me. “I’m not accusing anybody of anything. I trust you not to bring murderers into my house; however, I am at a loss to know exactly what happened and why you are all here.”
Everyone began to speak all at once. My father looked overwhelmed, and I could see his hand creeping towards the drawer in his desk where he kept his pipe.
“Ladies, please!” He waved his hands again, trying to get everyone to shut up, and resisting the urge to get his pipe out. “Can I have just one spokesperson? Stargazer. Can you tell me what is going on, and then if any of these fine ladies would like to add something afterward, that would be ok.”
“Yes, father. The Heart district has become very anti-Clubs thanks to the propaganda that the Queen is pouring out. It seems that she has the editor of the Heart Echo in her pocket.”
I saw my mother look at the women worriedly. Even with the dirty, ragged hair and the lack of attire, there was no mistake that most of them were Hearts.
“Can we stick to the facts as you know them, Stargazer,” my father said. “You don’t know what the Queen of Hearts does or does not do with the Heart media. Can you tell me what happened to you?”
“Ok, well, I left Elphin by...” I brought my hand up to my mouth. “Elphin! I completely forgot about him.”
“I’ll send one of my men to Urbis to find Elphin. Please continue.”
“Ok, well, I left Elphin in the Club District. There were guards at the entrance to the Heart District, and they wouldn’t let him in. They didn’t really want to let me in either.”
“Is that so?” he rubbed his chin thoughtfully. The hand that had been on the drawer handle returned, and he got his pipe out. He began to roll it around in his fingers but didn’t light it.
“Yes. The people in The Heart District were awful to me. You could tell that I wasn’t welcome. There are signs in shops windows saying that Clubs aren’t allowed to shop there. It wasn’t until I found Alice here and her mother who owned a dress shop, that I was treated well. They helped me disguise myself as a Heart. Alice agreed to come with me to buy some Feverthorne from a local alchemist, but he saw through my disguise straight away and called the queen’s men. They brought me back to the castle in The Heartlands and...”
“Just a minute,” interrupted my mother. “The alchemist called the queen’s guard? On what charge?”
“Nothing. There was no charge. He told me that the queen didn’t want any Clubs to buy Feverthorne and the next thing I knew, I was thrown into the back of a van along with Alice. Alice was thrown in the dungeon, and I was taken to meet the queen. She told me that she was going to send her men to kill the Heart soldiers in our castle.”
“The Heart soldiers? Her own men? Are you sure you understood her correctly, Stargazer?”
“Yes. She didn’t want them returning home with stories of us saving their lives or telling people that their own men left them to die. It would undermine her position, you see. She wants her subjects to think that we are all evil. She’s doing the same thing with the Diamonds and Spades too.”
“We sent a lot of the men home this morning,” my mother cried. “They were well enough to travel.”
“Are you sure about this, Stargazer?” My father looked me in the eye. I could see the other women nodding, but I understood; my father needed confirmation from me before he acted.
“I’m sure.”
“Right! I need to get a message to Wulfric. He’s in the War Room. Willow, you know the way. Tell him to send his men out to intercept the soldiers on their way home. Tell him the full story, so he understands why. They will need to be quick as the soldiers set out hours ago. He has full disposal of any method of transport he so chooses. Make it very clear to him that the Heart soldiers need to know why they are being brought back. Hopefully, the hospitality and goodwill we have shown them over the past couple of weeks will go a long way toward having them trust us.”
“Yessir!” He let go of my hand to salute, and then he was out of the door. My hand felt cold now that he’d left. I tried not to think about it while I told my father the rest of the tale. I told him everything, leaving out only the rape. I didn’t want Allaya having that broadcast to everyone. If I had to tell my father, I’d do it in private later.
“I have a lot to think about,” my father said. He picked up his tobacco and started to fill his pipe. He’d never smoke in front of strangers, so I knew he was ready to dismiss us. “Heather, can you organize rooms for these ladies? I suspect that they will need a few days’ rest, a bath, and a good meal. Those of you that wish to return to your own kingdoms, I will organize tickets for you on the Urbis Express.”
“I don’t want to go back!” Alice shouted. “I don’t want to live in the Heart District anymore. I don’t want my mother there either. They threw me in the palace dungeon just because I was helping Star buy medicine. I can’t live in a place like that. I’m worried that my mother will be arrested too, once they figure out she’s related to me.”
“Hmmm,” my father replied, pushing down the tobacco. “Any one of you ladies who needs somewhere to stay, you will always be welcome in The Club Kingdom. If you give your mother’s address to one of my men, we will organize, safe passage for her here. However, I do have my own kingdom’s safety to consider, and you all were in prison. After you are all sufficiently bathed and fed, I’d like to speak to you all individually. In the meantime, you may stay in the castle until we sort this mess out.”
“We are going to need lots of rooms if we are going to have the Heart soldiers back here too,” said Mother. We may need to ask the local villagers to take some people in.”
“So be it. I trust you can organize that?”
“I’ll sort something out. Ladies, if you’d like to come with me, I’ll show you to the bathrooms. Stargazer, you can come with me too.”
We all trooped out of the room and before the door was closed, I heard the telltale soun
d of a pipe being lit.
My mother and I managed to find enough bathrooms and bedrooms for all the women, although some had to share. The soldiers would have to sleep in the barracks when they came back. I offered to share my own room with Alice and Allaya, much to Alice’s joy. My mother made arrangements to get Allaya back home safely within days so I wouldn’t be sharing with her for very long. Upon finding out what had happened to her in the cell, my mother insisted that Doc look her over and make sure she was ok. I suspected, she’d never be fully ok, but at least Doc could help her with any physical scars if not the emotional. All three of us shared my en-suite, and so I found myself waiting in my room, still covered in a week’s worth of grime. I couldn’t wait to get back into my clean, embroidered, boring Club clothes. Alice would probably be sick when she found out what she was going to have to wear. She was going to borrow my biggest dress, but it would only come down as far as her knees. Allaya, who was taller still, would struggle to find anything to fit her in the Club Kingdom, so the palace seamstresses had been ordered to put together some clothes. They’d make some for Helena too. In the meantime, she’d have to wear men’s clothes, borrowed from our tallest warriors. These still were way too small for her, but she didn’t seem to mind. After her bath, she wandered down to the kitchen for food along with some of the other ladies. Alice was in the bath, so I had nothing to do but wait my turn. When there was a rap on the door, I thought it might be Allaya back so I was surprised to see Willow at my door.
“Willow! I never really thanked you for rescuing us. I...”
He pulled me close and kissed me, taking me completely by surprise. My first instinct was to break away and shout at him for taking liberties, but something inside me quashed that notion pretty quickly. It was just too good to tell him to stop. I had never wished more that I was clean and not in the most disgusting state of my life. Not that the fact I’d not washed or changed for a week was putting him off. I felt hot which had nothing to do with the temperature of the room, and I could feel something stirring within me that I didn’t even know existed. I couldn’t have broken free of him if I tried, not that I wanted to. I heard a wolf whistle from behind me. Alice was obviously out of the bath, but even an audience did nothing to cool us. It was only when we both heard my mother’s familiar tap tap tap of her heels on the stone floor coming up the corridor that Willow finally backed away.
“Hello, Willow. Did Wulfric get the message about the soldiers?”
“Yes, ma’am.” He was red in the face. I had a horrible feeling that I was a similar color. It didn’t help that my mother eyed us both suspiciously.
“You’ve done a lot for us, Willow. I really appreciate you bringing Stargazer back to us. You can take some time off to recover. Most of the ladies are eating, so please join us in the kitchen.”
“Thank you ma’am.”
When my mother had left, he turned to me, but he didn’t speak. Instead, he brought his hand up to my face and brushed an errant hair away from my forehead.
“You should go and eat,” I echoed my mother.
“Yes, milady.”
“I think we really can dispense with milady now, don’t you?” I said for the second time that day. “Please, for the love of Monsatsu, call me Star.”
“I’ll call you anything you want, milady.” He kissed my cheek.
“Come on lover boy!” Alice grabbed hold of his arm. “Let’s go find food. I’m starving. Star can meet us down there after her bath.”
When they had gone, I lowered myself into a piping hot bath. A couple of servants had come up to refill it after Alice’s bath. The heat of the water caused me to sigh. War was imminent, and for whatever reason, the Clubs seemed to be central to it. I washed the last week out of my hair, thinking of all the problems we were facing in our nation's near future. The biggest of which was, how on earth was I going to get Willow to stop calling me milady!
Other books by J.A.Armitage
WAR AND SUITS
Two of Clubs
Three of Clubs
Four of Clubs
Five of Clubs
Six of Clubs
GUARDIANS OF THE LIGHT
Endless Winter
Infinite Spring
Eternal Summer
Autumn Ever After
Guardians of The Light Boxset
LABYRINTHIANS
Labyrinthans
Labyrinthian Diamond
Labyrinthian Escape
MURDER AT THE BITE CAFE
Bloody Mary Murders
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Three of Clubs (War and Suits Book 2) Page 11