Page 126 of The Duke and the Disciple

Rahn’s face was a portrait of pure hatred. Disgust. “You threw away any chance of her accepting your betrothal when you betrayed her.”

“Betraying her would have been to tell my father and the steward what the two of you havereallybeen doing in the tower.”

“You want me to believe you had altruistic motives? That you aren’t holding onto the information for another opportunity?”

The informationwasuseful. But Pieter had no intention of using it. Nor did he expect Aesylt to accept the betrothal, even if it was the prudent choice. That didn’t mean he had the stomach for indulging the scholar’s delusions though. “You’re entitled to your fears, Scholar, but it wouldn’t do at all to have my wife’s fidelity called into question before we’re even wed.”

Rahn narrowed his eyes in disgust. “You’re mad if you think she’d ever marry you.”

“If she’s smart, she will.”

“You cannot even fathom intelligence such as hers.”

“If you truly cared for her, you’d convince her to accept, Scholar. She’ll never get a better offer. She can save an untold number of lives by averting a war her brother is too proud to accept help for under any other condition. Aesylt knows, once she peels away the shock and anger, that I would make a suitable partner. I don’t want someone to bear my children and make my home; I want someone who will challenge me, every day. She could live whatever life she wanted.” Pieter emptied his drink and set the scholar’s on a nearby table, preemptively grinning at the scholar’s reaction to what he was about to say. “It isn’t as if she has a heart match waiting for her.”

Rahn pressed his fingers to his temples with a bracing sigh. “What, exactly, is your game, Pieter?”

“It was never a game.” Pieter crossed his arms and leaned against his mother’s abandoned pipe organ. The thing was older than all of them and was seldom used, but she refused to get rid of it. She held onto things long past their expiry; it was why it had taken her so long to come to terms with her own son’s defection. “I’m not in love with her, but I’ve never been in love and can’t say it holds much interest for me. It seems... distracting. Marriage was my father’s idea, and I recognize the merit in it. I see a future where she and I could do great things together. Even love can’t compare to that.” Pieter propped his elbows on the smooth mahogany surface. “A value I assumed you and I shared. The research has to come first, no?”

“You know nothing of me and my values.” Rahn scowled, scoffing, and turned toward a long shelf full of weathered journals. “And you know nothing ofher.”

“Not like you, you mean?” Pieter peeled away and started toward the scholar. “You could still have her, you know. My father doesn’t know this, and he wouldn’t hear it if I told him, but I won’t be having any children. Aesylt can bed whoever she wants, and I’ll never begrudge her for it because I intend to do the same.”

“You,” Rahn said, horror spreading over his face, “are disgusting. A foul excuse for a man. How can you look at yourself?”

“I seem to recall that Duke Rahn Tindahl had the Reliquary in mind as his own destination, before he was waylaid in the Cross for... research.” Pieter laughed. “Or whatever excuse you’re using now. You could have that again, Scholar.Thatis the future you’ve been offered. And she’ll be there. You don’t have to give up anything. The only person with the authority to care is me, and I don’t.”

Rahn continued to stare at him with the same aghast scowl, his head moving in one long endless shake. “You think you’re describing freedom? What you offer her is just a cage of another metal.”

“We’re all caged, Scholar, if we’re brave enough to admit it.”

“I was only headed for the Reliquary before I knew who they were. How low they’d stoop to get what they want.” Rahn straightened, his lip hitching. “I wouldn’t join them now for all the gold and renown in the world. And you really don’t know Aesylt if you think she feels any differently.”

“So says the man who showed her the sun and then took it away.” Pieter slowed as he neared Rahn, who was practically radiating with heat and fury. “Only her husband and her blood have the right to such a stirring defense on her behalf. You’re just the man who saw an opportunity to have her without commitment and took it.”

Rahn raised a hand, then clenched it. His head passed slowly back and forth. “Say whatever you want about me.Dowhatever you want to me. But if you ever do another thing to harm her, say a single word that even slightly fades her smile...” His laugh was almost sinister. “I may not appear to you to be a violent man, but I only value the lives of those who value the lives of others.”

Pieter flinched when the slamming door shook the furniture.

He chuckled to himself when it settled.

The problem with men like Rahn Tindahl was a surplus of vision but a lack of grit. All the threats in the world wouldn’t resolve his anger or address the gap already forming where Aesylt had once fit.

Pieter might not be in love with her, but he did love her, in the same way he loved his family—enough to fight for her and even die for her, if matters called for it.

It was more than Rahn would ever allow himself to offer her, and Pieter could live with that.

Aesylt waitedfor Rahn in the tower for over an hour, plenty of time to devise all sorts of reasons he might be avoiding her. Every one made her feel worse.

She’d already decided what she needed to do, but she couldn’t until she looked Rahn in the eye and asked him how he could justsit therewhile others talked about marrying her off to another man. How he could... how he could daresuggest to Lord Dereham that it was the right move. How he could whisk her away from Revelry like a protective lover and then abandon her like it had meant nothing at all.

When he finally opened the door—wearing a pathetic, defeated look that only made her angrier—she was so exasperated, she had to close her eyes and remind herself that he hadn’t yet had the chance to explain himself.

“You’re here,” he said. Her heart added a tone of accusation to it.

“You sound disappointed,” she retorted, not fast enough to quash her annoyance.I might never see him again. If I want answers, a fight isn’t the way to get them.

“I’m sorry you feel that way.” Rahn closed the door and went straight to his bed. It creaked when he dropped onto it.

---