Page 48 of Untouched Queen by Royal Command

CHAPTER TEN

SERASTAREDUNCOMPREHENDINGLY at the letter Augustus’s private secretary had just handed her. It hadn’t taken long to read.

‘Lady Sera, you are free to leave,’ Augustus’s secretary said firmly. ‘The terms of the accord have been satisfied, or close enough. I’ve made arrangements for you and your retinue to stay at a hotel in the city.’

Ari stood beside her, arms crossed and his face impassive. ‘It’s eleven at night.’

‘It’s a five-star hotel with round-the-clock check-in,’ the older man countered. ‘Organised and paid for until the end of the month, should you wish to delay your return to the mountains. They’re expecting you.’

‘How? How has he satisfied the terms of the accord?’ asked Sera.

‘The King has an offer of marriage on the table and believes the terms of the accord have been satisfied in principle, milady. Lady Lianthe agrees. Double your weight in gold has already been delivered to her.’

‘I—’ She needed to call Lianthe. She needed to speak to Augustus. ‘Is His Majesty in? May I speak with him?’ Not that she had any idea what she was going to say. Thank you? How did you do it? Are you really going to cut me loose, just like that?

‘He’s not in.’

There’d been no evening event written into his schedule this morning. Sera knew this because the man standing in front of her had been emailing her Augustus’s daily schedule every morning for several weeks.

‘May I see him in the morning?’

‘His Majesty has a full schedule tomorrow. He needs to finish everything he put on hold today in order to accommodate your wishes.’

‘My wishes?’

‘Your wish to leave.’

‘Right,’ she said faintly. ‘That wish. The owls—’

‘Will be taken care of. Your belongings packed and returned to the High Reaches. There’s a palace vehicle at your disposal. It’s waiting for you at the south wall entrance.’

Funny how freedom felt a lot like dismissal.

Sera nodded. Manners before breakdown. Discretion over protest. ‘I’ll leave a letter for His Majesty on my desk. Will you see that he gets it?’

‘He’ll get it.’ The older man seemed to soften and sag. ‘The question you should be asking is: will he read it?’

Ari waited until the King’s secretary had left the room before turning silently towards her, eyebrow raised.

‘I need to ring Lianthe,’ she told him. ‘Alert the others that we might be on our way.’

He nodded and reached for his phone, heading over towards the entrance doors but staying inside the room where once he might have stood outside the doors to give her more privacy. Sera walked in the opposite direction and made her call from the bedroom.

Lianthe picked up on the second ring.

‘Is it true? Have the terms of the accord been satisfied?’ Sera asked without preamble.

‘Well, he doesn’t have a wife and he doesn’t have an heir but he does have a valid wedding proposal in play and I have no reason to believe it will be rejected. He also informs me that your presence is no longer required and has threatened to expose your connection to the Byzenmaach throne if I don’t agree with him.’ Lianthe drew a heavy breath. ‘So I agreed with him. I’m not sure where he got his information from. I can’t imagine you told him.’

‘I didn’t.’ Sera closed her eyes and tilted her head towards the sky, only the sky wasn’t there; it was only the ceiling. ‘He had us investigated.’

‘That information’s not available.’

‘Nonetheless, he got it from somewhere.’ The sudden sting of hot tears welled beneath her eyelids. ‘He asked me to marry him. And I didn’t know what to say.’

‘I suspect that says it all.’ The other woman’s voice was soft and soothing. ‘What a pity. I find his utter ruthlessness on your behalf quite admirable. He must be very much in love with you.’

‘He’s trapped, that’s all. He’s being forced to take a wife and his heart’s not engaged with any of the available candidates. I’ve watched him. He can drum up polite friendliness towards them if pressed.’

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