“Exactly!” he exclaimed, throwing up his hands. “Idenlen is a small village in Hegnen. Now, it will be an adjustment; the people aren’t as high-strung and proper as here. They are farmers. They bring you soup when you’re sick, they raise animals, and—”
“I like it already, Papa,” I assured him. The idea was beyond appealing. To start somewhere new, to live where people didn’t know me as the ‘ex-Queen.’ It sounded normal.
He plastered a smile to his face. “I’m so glad to hear it. It’s simple, and the people are tranquil. I know that is what you want. It is your chance to make your life whatever you want it to be.”
I leaned toward him, wrapping my arms around him. My eyes began to swell with tears. I couldn’t be more blessed to have him. “Thank you, Pa.”
He patted my back. “I just want you to be happy.” I pulled back from him, sitting back in my seat. “If something happens at the castle,” he continued, “send me a note with the word ‘sunset’ in it. I’ll know then that it is time to make the arrangements. We will meet halfway from here to the palace and travel there.”
“Oh!” My hand cupped my mouth. “But what of the business! We can’t leave it. I won’t let all your hard work go to waste,” I replied.
He held up his hand. “No need to fret over that. Mr. Torres will be the face of the business, but we will be still communicating with him and receiving our income, as we are now. I have organized all the details with Mr. Torres.”
I took a deep breath. “We’d really leave, Papa?”
“In a heartbeat,” he answered with a smile. I hugged him again. As much as I loved the idea of Idenlen, my heart would ache for home. It would miss my bantering with Eve; it would throb for Garrett. I waited years to come home and return to a normal life, but I never received that much time before George swooped in.
But how could you leave George behind?
I could write him, have his letter sent to Mr. Torres so they wouldn’t be traced back to us. I had to start living my own life, like Papa said. George had a life of his own to live as well, and I couldn’t put mine on hold any longer.
Four months.
It seemed so far away, but so close. If the assassins weren’t eliminated in that time, I would force fate to give me my life.
∞∞∞
I readied myself for bed, physically exhausted from running around and the emotional encounter with Garrett earlier that day. But mentally, my brain wouldn’t stop with thoughts of Papa’s plan. I had never been offered an alternative before; I was just told what to do and where to be.
Placing my hairpins on my vanity, I discovered a small blank letter, my name scrawled messily on the front.
Lord Ashton.
My heart pounded fiercely as I broke the seal, my eyes running over the contents.
Dear Lady Barlow,
I am writing with great sadness to inform you that I must withdraw my marriage proposal. Some things have come to my immediate attention where I must think of Emma. This is not due to your character and liveliness. I wish circumstances were different. Please accept my humblest apology.
I wish you all the happiness in the world.
Your friend,
Owen
Dropping my hands to my lap, I gazed over my bed. One minute, he was zealous about marrying, and now, he was abandoning the idea.
This didn’t sound like him. Then suspicion set in and my jaw tightened.
Garrett.
Garrett
Chapter 26
Black smoke brimmed the sky, blocking out the bright sun. Red and yellow flames engulfed homes of people who lived two days away from the castle. I stood in the middle of utter chaos, not able to tear my eyes away from the scene. Families dragging their crying children away from the flames, men being carried away, covered in blood, and soot from the ashes of the buildings. A woman sobbing in the arms of another, her clothes torn, blood trickling from her legs.
She was raped.
Clenching my jaw, I ran my hands through my hair. The village was destroyed, people were dead, lives were ruined. It would take months to rebuild.
“Cranfield.” Peering over my shoulder, I watched as John trudged toward me.
With another fucking note.
“It was left with one of the women,” he advised, handing it over to me. The paper was cream colored with a bloody fingerprint on it. No seal, just folded in half. Dreading the contents, I spread open the letter.
Edward steps down. Or more people die.
So that was what they wanted now.
Then what?
My mind spun with possible motives. The Brandon family had sat on the throne for close to a century; the people seemed to love my father. So, I thought outside the country. Romenia had a ruthless King; power-hungry, land-starved, and cruel. A decade back, King Leo Dufour raided Hegnen, one of the most fertile and largest countries on the continent. Greedy for land, he fought against them, waiting to become richer with crops and trade.
He lost.
Hegnen took some of his land in recompense for the loss of their fallen soldiers. Maybe he was attempting to come for ours with a different, silent approach. But King Dufour wasn’t a patient man, so the years he’d possibly wasted didn’t sit well with me.
A Lord, maybe. I drudged through my head the possible men who wanted more power, strong allies, and plenty of money.
“Garrett.” John’s voice pulled me out of my rumination. “What are we going to do with these people?”
“Are there lodgings nearby? An inn or a—”
“One inn, but it won’t hold all these people,” John replied. “The next town is over three days away.”
I bit my lower lip. “Send a man to the castle. Tell my father that we have people coming to stay with us for a little while until we can rebuild this town.” I pointed at the people, all huddled together away from the flames. “I want every able-bodied man to stay here, to help rebuild. The injured, women, and children, come with us.”
John nodded. “I’ll have the men round up any horses we can find, as well as food and supplies. It’s going to be a long journey back for them.”
“I know,” I agreed. “But we’re in the middle of fucking nowhere.” I glanced behind me; nothing but open fields, with a set of woods in the horizon. “And they’re watching us, I’m sure.”
“We’ll see them coming, for the most part,” John voiced. “Until we get to the hills, then we might run into a problem.”
I glanced at him. “How many men did you bring with you?”
“A dozen.”
“How many people do we have here?”
“Hmm...I’d say close to forty or fifty.”
Outnumbered. With women and children.
Shit.
I let out a harsh sigh. “Send the message.”
∞∞∞
I hadn’t seen her in five days. Her red hair between my fingers, the remembrance of her kisses, kept me going through the ongoing week. We arrived at the castle with thirty-two people, with no issues. I was surprised.
No. I was floored.
I was half-expecting us to be slaughtered or captured, but there were no enemies in sight the entire way back. It brought more questions than obvious answers to the burning unknown of what we were up against.
My father was ready for us when we showed up. Women and children were brought to rooms that they never knew could be so elegantly decorated. How much money went into this castle was nonsense, with Cecilia’s bottomless spending limit. It irritated me—embarrassed, even—that people would never live equally when it came to a means of living.
Reaching my own room, I craved a hot bath, but was too exhausted to even deal with washing. I just wanted to sleep. As I tore off my tattered, dirty coat and shirt, my door exploded open, hitting the wall behind it.
“How dare you embarrass me by visiting that whore!”
Ah, yes.
The first problem I was having, before I had to deal with the more important one. Sophia’s pride had been pricked for days now; each one that passed probably sending her even more into a fury. Hence, my poor door.
“And hello to you too,” I replied, my tone flat. I turned on my heel to look at her. Sophia was perfectly dressed in a green gown covered in gold flowers. It was hideous on her, the green too light for her skin tone, blending in with her pale complexion.