Pigsty Princess

by Nancy S. Brandt

  “At least that’s something,” Traren said. “I’m going back to the caves to tell the others what you’ve got planned.”

  He left the barn, followed by most of the other men. Odel, however, stayed behind, a victorious grin on his face.

  “Looks like you’re losing your control of the rebels, Orlando,” the man said.

  “Don’t think because you had one idea the men agreed with that you’re one of us. I’m sure you’d betray us for the right price.”

  “Didn’t you fight in some war we lost?” Odel asked. “What does that say about you?”

  “You might want to leave now,” Elnys said. Orlando recognized the warning in his brother-in-law’s tone.

  Odel apparently didn’t. “Why? What is he going to do? He isn’t even man enough to bed a woman the King handed to him. Maybe there’s a reason no one else wanted her.”

  Orlando punched Odel in the mouth. The heavyset man fell against one of the barn’s support posts ,and his hand went up to his jaw.

  “Orlando.” Elnys jumped in front of him. “You don’t want to start this.”

  “He insulted my wife, El. You wouldn’t let him get away with insulting Dira.”

  Elnys spit at the ground toward Odel’s feet. “He’s a blowhard. Don’t let him get you riled up.”

  “I don’t need you to defend me,” Odel said. “What deal did you make with the King? What did you tell him about us that he let you out?”

  Orlando saw a vein in Elnys’s neck bulge as he clamped his jaw tight. Odel stepped closer.

  “You both think you’re big important men in this village because you robbed a few nobles, ransomed back a few men who were traitors to this country anyway?”

  “Traitors?” Orlando took a step forward, but Elnys stopped him.

  “The King was right to leave them behind,” Odel continued. “Don’t you get it? Clearlea isn’t near the power Valborough is, so why did we lose, huh? I heard the stories. Men getting tired of fightin’, so they find themselves some nice Clearlea woman and bed down with her. Time comes to defend King and country, they’re too busy playin’ with their new girlfriends.”

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about.” Orlando spoke through clenched teeth.

  “Yeah, big man? Tell me you don’t have a sweetie in that port somewhere raisin’ your brat. No wonder the Progenna ain’t want nothin’ to do with you. Probably knows where your equipment’s been.”

  Orlando charged, adrenaline pumping through his veins. Odel took a step back in surprise, turning sideways and lifting his hands to guard himself, but it was too late.

  When Orlando’s head made contact with his stomach, Odel gave a satisfying grunt.

  Orlando continued forward, using Odel’s weight and momentum to drive him into the wall.

  The bigger man tried to get a chokehold on Orlando’s neck, but Orlando sprang away and kicked Odel’s legs out from under him. He crashed to the ground, but before he could get up, Elnys jumped on top of him, locking his arms to the ground.

  Odel glared up at Orlando and began to jerk around, trying to release himself.

  “Don’t you ever talk about my wife or my time in the army again,” Orlando said.

  Blood had dried on Odel’s mouth, and when he snarled, it made him look almost frightening.

  “I don’t take orders from you,” he said.

  Elnys shook his head and threw a jab at Odel’s jaw. The beaten man’s head snapped to the left, and Elnys stood up.

  “Get out,” Orlando said, rubbing his knuckles. “Don’t ever come near my wife or me again.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Andreas ignored Honoria as he walked through the living room toward his brother’s private library, as was his habit. This was the same thing he did at their estate when he came home from spending time with his cronies, discussing business or whatever it was men of nobility did all day long. Deliberately, Honoria stood, setting the book she’d been pretending to read on the side table.

  “A moment.”

  As though he hadn’t noticed her, he stopped, turned, and stared. The expression on his face was a mixture of bewilderment, possibly at trying to remember her name, and annoyance at being interrupted.

  “Honoria,” he said and took a deep breath. “What are you doing here?”

  “I need to talk to you. I would have waited for you to come home, but I’m concerned you won’t be doing that anytime soon.”

  He sighed. “I didn’t think you even knew I wasn’t there. Don’t you have some kind of charity function you should be attending?”

  “We are not in Aldlake, Andreas. You know as well as I there are no charity functions in Byspell, at least not until after the races.”

  “Ah, yes.” The standard response when he didn’t want to deal with something but wanted to give the impression he was listening. Distractedly he glanced around the room, probably to find something to pull him from this conversation.

  A moment later, his valet, Verrin, entered the living room with Andreas’s evening jacket. He froze just inside the entrance and stared, first at his master and then at the mistress.

  “Pir Andreas?”

  “You won’t be going out tonight,” Honoria said to her husband. Then she instructed the valet, “Please get your master’s things together and take them back to our estate. Then make sure the kitchen staff is aware both of us will be dining at home this evening. We have to discuss our Eltano Cup fete.” She turned her eyes toward her husband, but he kept his face neutral as he nodded to his servant.

  “Yes, Verrin. I forgot to tell you my meeting with the Margrave of Prirdorr has been postponed. The Margress has been taken ill.” He took a deep breath and nodded to his wife. “I think it’s time we went home anyway. My lady wife apparently misses me.”

  Verrin hesitated for less than half a second, but it was long enough to signify he understood and would make the necessary apologies to Prirdorr or whoever Andreas was actually planning to spend his evening with. He nodded once.

  “I’ll handle everything, my lord,” the valet said. “The carriage will be ready to take you home in half an hour.”

  “Thank you.” Andreas waited until Verrin left the room and closed the door. Then he said. “For the love of the Elements, Honoria. What is this you’re playing at? What fete?”

  “Why can’t you stay at our house? You have to know servants talk.”

  “Chaos take the servants.” Andreas stalked the room like a wild animal searching for a way out of a cage. “What have you done?”

  “Done?” She set her expression to innocence. “Why, only what you should have done yourself. You do know your son has wed the Progenna?”

  “Orlando?” Now Andreas stopped pacing and turned to stare at her. “Have you heard from him?”

  The change of his voice from anger and annoyance to something near reverence broke her heart. Why could he never speak to her that way? What was it about that Child of the Elements that kept him in the secret places of Andreas’s soul?

  She was tempted to lie and say the invitation to the affair had gotten lost, but even she couldn’t convince her husband a royal wedding had happened and he’d just missed it. He might not be interested in the details of noble society, but something that big should have consumed the whole of the kingdom, had it been done right.

  “No, Andreas, but he lives in Talla, you know.”

  A range of emotions flowed over his face, and she mentally braced herself for the fallout when he settled on anger that she’d never told him before.

  However, that didn’t happen. Instead, he dropped into a chair, joy and relief flooding his features.

  “He lives in Talla? Truly?”

  Swallowing, she sat on the loveseat on the other side of a low table from him. “His…mother was from this region. You know that.”

  “Elrica.” As always, he said the name as though it were the name of a deity or angel. Honoria’s heart began to pound.

  “She has been
dead for ten years,” she said, careful to keep her voice gentle. Enough time had gone by that the hurt in her soul had scabbed over and was nothing but scar tissue now. She might never have her husband’s love, but life had taught her she didn’t need to hurt him constantly in retaliation.

  “Our son…” He started what would undoubtedly be a list of grievances against her, but she knew it well and didn’t have time for it.

  “The past is past,” she said, still keeping her voice as gentle and calm as she could. Nothing would be served by anticipating his attacks and thus beginning the old patterns. “We must celebrate his marriage.”

  “What?” He narrowed his eyes in suspicion. “What game are you playing? You never acknowledged Orlando’s existence after you sent him away.”

  She bit her tongue. Andreas took some kind of pleasure in outlining her failings whenever he could, but the only way he could continue was if she let him bait her into responding directly to the charges.

  “It has been years since we hosted a ball and banquet in connection with the Eltano Cup. This is the perfect opportunity to celebrate his marriage without exposing him or you to a scandal.” She couldn’t bring herself to actually say the boy’s name in Andreas’s presence for fear of hearing that reverent tone again.

  “I would have thought you’d take great pleasure in reminding the nobility of my failings as a husband.”

  Honoria closed her eyes and drew a calming breath. “Your relationship with Elrica was before we were married, my dear. Any failure in this marriage has roots on both sides.” She swallowed. Pride had no place in this if she was to serve Valborough, the Elements forgive her.

  “The failure in this marriage has been on my side.” Her voice sounded small even to her own ears. “You have proven to the world you can sire children and, more important, heirs. Our childlessness is entirely on my own shoulders.”

  Andreas stepped back as though she had struck him. “What is this? We have been married more than twenty-five years, and never, not once, have you spoken words such as these out loud in my hearing. I ask you again. What are you playing at?”

  “I am ashamed of my selfishness over the years.” The words tasted like moldy fruit in her mouth, but her first duty was to Valborough, not herself. “I want to make it up to you. I have kept your son away from you out of pride and embarrassment. Please, my love.” She eased out of her chair to sit at his feet. “Let me hold a party to welcome the Progenna to our family and reconcile you with your son.”

  Andreas stood, took her hands, and helped her to her feet. As he gathered her into his arms, he sighed in contentment, his soft breath whispering against her neck.

  “You have made me so happy, my darling Honoria. This is surely the beginning of a new phase in our relationship. I know we can finally be happy together.”

  ****

  The next morning, Mariana woke up and heard Orlando in the kitchen. She was curious about what he’d been doing that kept him out all night, so she got dressed and brushed her hair. As soon as she stepped out of the bedroom, she saw him sitting at the table, soaking his hand in a bowl of water.

  “What happened?”

  He jumped. The water poured over the table and onto the floor.

  “Oh,” she cried and ran to the cupboard that held towels. She pulled a couple out and started cleaning up the puddles.

  “What happened to your hand?”

  “Nothing.” He took the bowl and went out to the pump. She waited, doing her best to dry the table and the floor until he came back in.

  “Let me see.” She dropped the soaking towels in the empty wash tub and took the bowl of water from him.

  “Don’t worry about it.” He hid his torn and bloody fingers behind his back.

  Shaking her head, she set the bowl on the table and reached for his hand. “Don’t be such a baby. Let me see.”

  “Don’t make such fuss,” he said. “It’s nothing.”

  “It doesn’t look like nothing.” She reached around and behind him and tugged on his arm.

  Finally, rolling his eyes, he relented.

  “Oh, Orlando.” She shook her head when she saw the cuts and scrapes already beginning to scab over. His knuckles were discolored and one finger had started to swell. “Sit down. Let me clean you up.”

  “I cleaned it already.” His voice rose in a childlike whine. A stern look from her dropped him into the chair.

  “When did this happen?” She took some more towels off the shelf.

  He sighed. “Last night.”

  She examined his hand, trying to be gentle, but he cringed a couple of times. Softly she probed his enlarged middle finger. “Can you move this one?”

  He shook his head. “I think it’s broken.”

  “Oh, dear. We need to get that doctor. You can’t let this heal on its own. You could lose the use of it.”

  Color filled his cheeks. “I know. I didn’t want to bother Hamneth with this. It was…stupid.”

  They were both silent for a few moments while she tore strips of cloth from the towel and bandaged him up the best she could.

  “So,” she said when she’d finished. “You want to tell me what happened?”

  “No, frankly, I don’t.”

  “Why don’t you tell me anyway?”

  “I was…defending you.” He didn’t meet her eyes, looking instead at the table.

  “Defending me? Why did you need to do that?”

  “Someone suggested we don’t have a real marriage and that…I married you because no one else would.” He didn’t meet her eyes as he spoke.

  “I don’t understand. Why would someone say that?” She stood, taking the remnants of the towel and folding them as best she could.

  “It doesn’t matter. That’s not why we got married. However, we didn’t get married out of some sense of undying devotion, either. Rumors about the real reasons are beginning to start in town because someone thinks they saw me going to sleep in the barn.”

  “They did see that.” Now she began to refold the soiled towels to keep her hands busy.

  He shook his head. “It isn’t anyone’s business where I sleep or why. I’ve known enough married couples in Talla to know sometimes couples sleep apart for a myriad of reasons. However, we are going to need to present ourselves as a loving couple. Eventually, the rumors are going to get back to the palace, even if it is only the servants.”

  She listened and nodded. “If Father or Mother were to hear these rumors, it would be bad for both of us.”

  “That’s an understatement.”

  The two of them were silent as she cleaned up the table. He threw the bloody cloths into the fire, which sprang to life with the new fuel.

  “It would squash the rumors if the town sees us happy together. I also think it would bother your father as well.” Orlando said this with his back to her, so she couldn’t see his face.

  She straightened and stared at him. “What?”

  He turned from the fire to grin at her. “I mean, he suspects you lied about being in love with me. What do you think would happen if he saw us together, and we were happy?”

  “You mean, would he be angry?”

  Orlando shrugged. “I don’t know. But I’d bet if he saw us together at some public event, he’d start thinking maybe we are a happy couple. It might bother him to know he was wrong about us.”

  “A public event? Like you mean, out in the marketplace. We go out…”

  He took a deep breath. “I was thinking about the Eltano Cup.”

  She scowled. Where had this come from? “The horse race? What about it?”

  “It’s a big deal among the nobility around here. I assume he’ll be there. He always has at least one horse in it, right.”

  Nodding slowly, she said, “Yes. In fact, the royal family traditionally hosts the opening day banquet. You’re not thinking about attending any of the Cup events, are you?”

  “We could, couldn’t we? You are still the King’s daughter.”

&
nbsp; “I don’t understand.” She scowled, her mind whirling. This was the last thing she’d ever expected him to mention. “Why would you want to go to any of them? All the attendees are nobility. You might feel…”

  She stopped. This was beginning to sound insulting, and that wasn’t something she wanted to do. Especially not after the talk about them acting like a couple in love.

  The last thing she expected was for him to laugh. “You might be surprised. Could you get us in?”

  “I suppose so. As you say, I’m still the King’s daughter. The opening night party is in two nights.”

  He took her hand. “Let’s go. I’d love to see his face when we dance together.”

  She took her hand away. “It won’t be that easy. We need appropriate clothes. There’s a theme, and I don’t know what it is.”

  “But you can find out.”

  “I suppose I can.”

  Orlando kissed her cheek. “Let’s go into town for breakfast, and I’ll find Hamneth to look at my hand.”

  ****

  Mariana sat at Adindira’s kitchen table, watching as Hamneth rewrapped Orlando’s injured hand. He’d put some kind of smelly herbal concoction on it first.

  “You probably should go to the palace and speak to the royal physician,” Traren said. He was leaning against the fireplace, a cup of coffee in his hand. Orlando faced him, and Traren shrugged one shoulder. “I figure you’re part of the royal family now, right?”

  “Don’t.” Orlando’s voice held some kind of warning Mariana didn’t understand.

  “Whatever you say, boss.” Traren pushed himself upright, took another sip of the coffee, and handed the cup to Adindira, who stood nearby, holding Hamneth’s things. “I have to go. Things to do.”

  Traren passed Mariana on his way to the front door. “Or not do. Whatever.” Shaking his head, he glanced at her. Then he left.

  “What was that about?” Mariana asked. “He was angry about something.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Orlando said, but he was looking at Adindira as he said it.