by Sharon Green
“It’s hard to understand why a man would accept a woman like Elissia when he doesn’t have to,” Ostrin said with a sigh and a slow headshake. “But it’s also hard to understand why a man would begin a struggle like the one you started in your country, even if the uniting needed to be done. Do you really enjoy having strife and warfare in your life?”
“It gives me something to occupy my time,” Derand answered with a laugh. “Without it, I might get into trouble So, would you mind if we went after her right now? Waiting until she gets back would give her the first battle.”
“Of course we can go after her if you really want to,” Ostrin agreed at once despite the confusion in his expression. “But may I ask what are we going after her for?”
“We’re going to give her official notification that she’s my wife,” Derand explained gently, now keeping his amusement on the inside. No wonder this man hadn’t had a chance against the girl “Once that’s done I can take over as the person she has to obey, and also reply properly if she doesn’t. If seeing the thing disturbs you, you can certainly turn away or walk out. I won’t be insulted.”
“I’ll most likely have to leave,” Ostrin said with another sigh. “I know Elissia needs a strong hand to teach her not to be so unmannerly, but I’m afraid I haven’t the heart to watch it being applied. You really don’t mind?”
“Not at all,” Derand assured him as he replaced his goblet on the table. “Now, has she gone directly to the stables, or is possible that she went somewhere else entirely?”
“I would have assumed that she went to the stables, just as she said she was going to do,” Ostrin replied with raised brows. “What makes you think she might have gone elsewhere?”
“It’s come to me that if I didn’t want to be summoned somewhere a second time, I’d go where a summons couldn’t reach me,” Derand explained as they moved toward the door to the hall. “The second time the invitation might not be as polite, and guardsmen might even be involved. With that in mind, I’d choose a place no one would expect me to be.”
“If you’re right and she isn’t in the stables or her apartment, I think I might know where that is,” Ostrin mused. Then he turned and gestured to two of the servants. The men hurried over, and he sent one to the stables and one to his daughter’s apartment. He also told them to meet him in a certain corridor and to run, and run they did.
“We can take a pleasant stroll while we’re waiting for them to report,” he told Derand with a smile. “If you’re right and she’s made herself disappear, we’ll be in the proper place to see if my guess is correct.”
Derand agreed with a nod and accompanied Ostrin into the hall, where he told his people to wait until he got back. Listan wasn’t happy about that order, but this time it was Derand who refused to be argued with. What was most likely ahead of him was a private matter, and Derand meant to keep it one for as long as possible. If the girl forced the issue, that would change, but until then the matter was between the two of them.
Or, possibly, among the three of them. Ostrin, the third person involved, walked beside Derand with a rather unconcerned and placid expression on his face. He knew what was in store for his daughter and he’d said he couldn’t watch, but at the moment he was taking Derand to where he thought his daughter might be hiding.
That in itself could possibly be understood, but not so the fact that the man didn’t seem upset by it. If Ostrin considered helping Derand a matter of honor, he would have had to guide him no matter how he, himself, felt. But honor didn’t explain why Ostrin wasn’t upset by having to do so. That was the point confusing Derand, that Ostrin didn’t seem bothered. By rights he ought to be, unless
Unless it really had been Derand he’d been most concerned about. It seemed unlikely that a father would be more concerned about his daughter’s husband than about the girl herself, but it was necessary to remember what the girl in question was like. And how little success the father had had in coping with her. Now that Derand had refused to have the marriage annulled, Elissia was no longer Ostrin’s problem. The poor man must find the relief of that fact exquisite, which once again made Derand feel sorry for his father’s closest friend.
Ostrin led Derand through various corridors, and when they got where they were going Derand suddenly thought he knew what Ostrin had in mind. He kept the idea to himself, though, and joined Ostrin in waiting for the servants to arrive. It wasn’t long before the two of them showed up, and the rate of their breathing said they’d continued to run even once they were out of their king’s sight.
“Take a moment to catch your breath,” Ostrin told them when they tried to gasp out their reports. “If you end up passing out from lack of air, I’ll have to wait even longer to hear what you learned.”
The two men nodded and worked to restore themselves, and in little more than the mentioned moment they were again able to speak.
“Your Majesty, I was told that the princess hasn’t been seen at the stables,” the first finally announced. “A servant came only a minute or so before I did to say that her horse should be unsaddled, but she herself never showed up.”
“But she also hasn’t returned to her apartment,” the second chimed in. “Her maids insisted that she’s gone for her ride, and I found no reason to disbelieve them.”
“Thank you,” Ostrin told them warmly. “You may now return to your ordinary duties.”
The two men bowed first to Ostrin and then to Derand before leaving, and once they were gone Ostrin turned to his guest.
“So now we’ll see if I guessed correctly,” he said with a smile turned sad. “If not, we’ll go to Elissia’s apartment and I’ll speak to her maids. She could well have told them to lie if someone came looking for her.”
“That would have been my next guess as well,” Derand agreed with his own smile of commiseration. “If she isn’t in Gardal’s empty apartment, then she’s gone back to her own to tell her maids to lie.”
“So you do recognize this part of the palace,” Ostrin said with a nod. “Yes, with her brother gone off on the kingdom’s business, his empty apartment would be the perfect hiding place. Shall we take a look?”
The question was more of an invitation to join in, so Derand followed Ostrin to Gardal’s apartment. Derand had spent any number of enjoyable hours there with his friend, and the outer reception room looked deserted with all the servants busy elsewhere. Ostrin crossed the room and entered the first of the inner, private rooms, and Derand almost stepped on his heels when the man stopped short. But the reason for his stopping was perfectly clear. Elissia rose quickly from the chair she’d been sitting in, and for an instant she looked disconcerted.
“May I help you, Father?” she asked once the instant was past, clearly back in control of herself. “I usually spend a short part of every day here in Gardal’s favorite room, just to keep it warm for him, so to speak. When he comes home he’ll hate it if the room is too cold from having been unused.”
“This isn’t your brother’s favorite room, girl, and I think you know it,” Derand said when Ostrin remained silent. The older man’s expression said he felt touched by an unexpected and thoughtful gesture, and Derand could see that Ostrin needed to hear the truth. “You came here to plan your strategy for the next battle, but that’s already been joined – and you’ve lost. Your father has something to tell you which will prove the point.”
“You’ve just proven an entirely different point,” the girl returned before Ostrin could speak, not in the least flustered. “We’ve never liked the idea of battle around here, but obviously you do. Can’t you see you’re making us all miserable by insisting on staying? Why can’t you do the decent thing and leave?”
“Oh, I intend to leave, and rather quickly,” Derand assured her with a faint smile, more than aware of how her words had affected her father. The man now believed that his daughter was suffering, and he clearly knew he’d be adding to her misery. That girl was an expert at playing the man, showing she must have h
ad a good deal of practice.
“Yes, I’ll be leaving first thing tomorrow morning,” Derand went on blandly as he watched the girl closely. “But before you congratulate yourself on your victory, you ought to know that you’ll be leaving with me. It’s become the right time for you to start living with your husband.”
“You think there’s a chance I’d ever marry you?” the girl asked with a very unladylike sound of ridicule. “I don’t even like to see savages from a distance; marrying one is completely out of the question. And don’t think you can talk my father around in spite of my objections. Even if he were so cruel as to agree to sell me into a life of horror, I would never agree. But he isn’t that cruel, so you have no hope at all.”
“I hate it when a woman smirks, even on the inside,” Derand commented, seeing the veiled amusement in her beautiful eyes. “That talk about a life of horror has your father writhing in guilt, but you already know that. It was the reason you mentioned it to begin with, to keep him firmly under your thumb. He should have learned to recognize the signs himself by now, but he’s too good a man to believe that his beloved daughter would constantly lie to him for her own purposes. Since I happen to be really fond of him, I’m glad his trials are now over.”
“Why do you refuse to understand that his trials won’t be over until you and your people are gone?” the girl countered, in the process walking closer to put a supporting hand on her father’s arm. “We were happy until you showed up with your demands, and we can be happy again once you leave. Right now you’re making my father miserable, and I refuse to allow that. If you won’t go by your own decision, I’ll call the guard and let them help you.”
“Have you ever heard the expression, ‘More nerve than an aching tooth’?” Derand asked her, not quite able to believe she’d said what she had. “I stand here as your father’s guest, and you have the brass to threaten to have me thrown out? And we won’t even mention that my kingdom is slightly larger than this one – ”
“You see, Father, now he’s threatening to bring armed forces against us,” the girl interrupted with what had to be the most unreal sadness Derand had ever encountered. “I know you thought of him as your friend, but you should be able to see now that he isn’t. Tell him to be on his way, and that any agreements he thinks he has with you aren’t valid any longer.”
“Derand, this might not be the best time to pursue the matter we were discussing earlier,” Ostrin said slowly, the man’s hand patting his daughter’s where it still rested on his arm. “I think the way needs to be prepared a bit more carefully, so that no one involved comes to any harm. Can you return here at a later time, say, in about two or three months? By then I’ll have been able to – ”
“By then she’ll probably have you declaring war on me,” Derand interrupted, looking down at the girl with one of his less friendly stares. She, however, showed nothing but a bland gaze, even though a man in her place probably would have trembled.
“I think that statement means he intends to make the trouble seem like our fault, Father,” the girl said at once, taking advantage of Derand’s almost-blurted comment. “That no one will believe the contention doesn’t seem to bother him, but please don’t be upset. I know you really thought he was as decent as his father, but knowing the truth is much safer – even if it is more painful. Why don’t we – ”
“No, I don’t think we’ll have any more suggestions out of you,” Derand said quickly, interrupting before she could talk her father into having him hanged. “Ostrin, there are only two questions you have to answer right now. If the answer is no to either of them, I’ll leave without anyone forcing me into it. The first question is, are you still a man of honor? And the second is, if so, do you mean to stand behind your sworn word?”
The girl tried to say something immediately, but Ostrin raised a hand to silence her. The expression on his face was one of pain, but Derand had had no choice about putting him in that position.
“You strike at me shrewdly, son of my best friend,” Ostrin said at last, his tone filled with defeat. “Yes, I do still happen to be a man of honor, but there are some things even such a man finds impossible to do. I’ll stand behind my word, but you’ll have to be the one to tell her.”
His hand closed briefly on his daughter’s arm as he sent her a look of helpless compassion, and then he strode from the room without a backward glance. The girl called out, “Father!” just before he disappeared, and when he didn’t stop or answer she turned on Derand with an expression filled with exasperation.
“I hope you’re proud of yourself,” she accused with small fists cocked on rounded hips.
“You’ve probably just undone about ten years of work, and all for nothing but your own ego. Does that make you feel as important as you think you are?”
“What are you talking about?” Derand demanded, now completely lost. “If you mean that I’ve saved your father from you, then – ”
“Is that what you call it?” she cut in with a bitter laugh. “Saved him? You forced him to do something he didn’t want to, which hasn’t happened since I began to support him. Now he’s right back to being pushed around the way he always used to be, and he can’t even argue. If that’s your idea of being a friend, I’d rather be surrounded by enemies.”
“You’ve been supporting him?” Derand echoed, beginning to get a glimpse of the true situation. “If that means you’ve been forcing him to do things according to your own point of view, you have a lot of nerve accusing me of using force.”
“All I’ve ever done was lend my father strength to keep others from walking all over him,” the girl stated, still glaring up at him. “People always come here expecting to be able to push him around, and then they get annoyed when I don’t let it happen. Just as I’m not going to let it happen this time. Whatever it is you’ve decided he’s going to do, you can just undecide on it. He’s not going to be your pawn no matter how big a kingdom you rule.”
“So that’s why he feels the way he does about you,” Derand said with a grin born of sudden understanding. “You’ve been making him act against his nature, so he feels uncomfortable and intimidated. He may be disturbed over what I’m doing, but I’ll bet he breathes a sigh of relief when he sees you leaving with me. Or he will once you tell him how you really see things.”
“He already knows how I see things, I’m not going anywhere, and even if I were it would not be with you,” she stated, now folding her arms as she stared up at him. “What I am going to do is speak to my father again, to help him forget that he’s afraid of you. Once I’ve accomplished that I also mean to talk him into having you locked up, so you’d better leave while you still can. Everyone is entitled to a fair warning, but that’s the only one you’ll get.”
And with that she began to circle Derand in order to reach the door, the threat she’d spoken more like a sworn oath. Derand felt the urge to close his eyes and rub them, an effort that might help him believe a girl was treating him the way no man within reach would have had the stones to do. Ostrin’s attitude toward her became more and more clear with everything she said, but this was no time to let her go off on her own.
“No, the person you have to speak to first is me, because your father asked me to tell you what he was supposed to,” Derand said at once as he caught her arm to stop her. “There’s something involved here that you don’t seem to remember, and it makes a very big difference.”
“What am I supposed to have forgotten?” she asked, her tone showing clearly that she didn’t believe there was such a thing. “That your father and mine are longtime friends, so you should be allowed to act as you please? I really don’t think so.”
“Your father and mine are longtime friends, which is why they had us married when you were a small child,” Derand told her. “Your father said you had to be bribed by your mother in order to go through with the ceremony, but you did go through with it. You’re my wife, girl, and the reason I’m here is to finally claim you.”
“Have you been drinking?” she asked with a small laugh of disbelief. “If you expect me to swallow that nonsense, you’re more likely out of your head. I’m not married to anyone, and what’s more I don’t ever intend to be. Right now my father needs me more than he needs a political match, and after him my brother will be in the same position. I don’t know what your game is, but – ”
“It isn’t a game,” Derand stated, not about to let her talk herself out of believing him.
“It’s the unvarnished truth, so you’d better get used to the idea. You and I are married, and starting tonight we’ll be acting like it.”
“Over my dead body,” she stated in turn, looking at him as if he’d crawled out from under a rock. “Or, better yet, over yours. That should tell you what will happen if you try to come anywhere near my apartment, tonight or ever. Now, let go of my arm.”
“Do you always spend your time threatening people who are bigger than you?” Derand asked, finding himself really curious. “If you do, then it’s a wonder you’ve survived even this long.”
“Oh, I never threaten,” she answered with a smile. And then, without warning, she kicked him hard enough in the leg to make him flinch and reach for the bruised area. He also let go of her arm, which made her smile widen. “I just promise, and then usually keep the promise. Remember that if there’s ever a next time.”
Once again she turned toward the door, obviously meaning to leave the way she wanted to, but Derand had had enough. A man would have paid for the assault and insult with his life, but Elissia was a woman. She might later decide that she would have preferred to pay with her life, but that was too bad about her.
“You and I aren’t as done as you seem to think,” Derand growled as he caught her arm again and began to pull her over to a chair. “You’ve been allowed to run the lives of everyone around you for much too long, not to mention acting as you please and getting away with it. You’re about to pay for that kick, and if you ever try it again you’ll pay twice as hard.”