Page 24 of Winter's Fate

The courtyard doors swung open, saving Callum the necessity of responding. At least it gave him more time since Edmun was unlikely to let this go. The man had been a soldier since before Callum had been allowed to wield more than a wooden practice blade. Callum might be his superior officer, but Edmun took no shit from anyone.

And it was clear he knew precisely what Callum had done. During the weeks of their journey from Aglye to Etra, he hadn’t said a word. But Callum had felt it in the long, knowing looks the old man had leveled at him.

Apparently, he planned to say it outright.

“I wonder that the queen-to-be did not come to see us off,” Callum said, shifting the subject before Edmun could speak. “Seems strange.”

In fact, aside from the encounter in her waiting room, the queen-to-be had said nothing to him at all. Callum hadn’t been lying to Laena when he’d said he rarely talked to royal families. His typical jobs were raids and skirmishes. Battle, not diplomacy.

But he’d have expected the queen-in-waiting to at least make an appearance. Perhaps she’d been planning something—a ball or a feast, or at least an insufferable council meeting with speeches and gaudy gifts—and his insistence at leaving this morning had changed the plan.

He suspected that would be giving her too much credit. Still, she ought to be here, to say a few words or let her regent do the speaking on her behalf. To send the delegation off with the blessing of the crown, or some shit like that.

“I wouldn’t know about such things,” Edmun said. “Being naught but a simple soldier.”

“Stop it.”

“My superior officers,theyknow what’s best. I wouldn’t dare rise above my station.”

“Edmun.”

Edmun steered his gelding in closer, as close as it was possible to get without entangling the horse’s legs. Or so it felt. “What do you suppose the king will do, upon our return?”

Callum shrugged, finding that his gaze had once again drifted to the head of brown curls at the front of the party. She’d taken up the lead, he realized. Without prompting, without asking, and without him. She looked natural there, her back straight, her smile relaxed and easy as she chatted with one of the other soldiers.

“I suppose Hawk will bore the lady with a bookish speechthat she’ll probably understand every word of, as clever as she is,” Callum said. “Provided that he doesn’t put her to sleep. Then he’ll hold a party and we’ll make an alliance, sign some papers proclaiming our continued peace, and she’ll be on her way home.”

What were they going to discuss? The question sat heavy in the pit of his stomach. A simple peace treaty between already peaceful nations would make little sense. Hawk couldn’t mean to go to war with Silerith—could he?

Edmun rolled his eyes heavenward. “I meant what will the king do about your stealing the delegation.”

It was all Callum could do not to reach over and clap a hand over the old man’s mouth. Which, aside from drawing attention, would likely unseat him from his horse. “Do not let her hear.”

“If you want my advice?—”

“I don’t.” The words came out sounding harsh, but Callum could not afford to be soft. “I want to guide this delegation back to Vunmore in safety. The king will have no objection to that.”

Edmun clamped his mouth shut, narrowing his eyes as if considering whether to speak his mind anyway. Before he could, Callum urged his horse forward, cutting around the side of the procession to join Laena and the others at the front of the group.

“My lady,” he said, interrupting whatever conversation she’d been having with young Godfrey and another soldier. “I trust you slept well?”

She glanced over at him, her expression shuttering. As though his very presence irritated her so much that she could no longer be cheerful. “Well enough.”

“Princess Laena’s never played snakes and roses, sir,” Godfrey piped up, clearly unaware of the tension between them. “We’re gonna teach her.”

“Careful playing cards with these rogues, my lady,” Callumsaid as Godfrey and the others protested. “They’ll take you for all you’re worth and look innocent while they do it.”

She tipped her nose in the air. “I can handle myself, Captain.”

CHAPTER 10

The common room belowdecks was more pleasant than Laena would have anticipated, had she given it much thought before first descending to play cards with the soldiers. Cramped, certainly, but pleasant nonetheless. Triple bunks lined the walls, packed together so tightly that it was difficult to imagine how the soldiers on the bottom and the middle could possibly squeeze between the mattresses.

There was a long wooden table bolted to the floorboards in the center of the room, with bench seating on each side and a pair of lanterns overhead. A ladder led to the deck above, and a narrow passage at the end of the room led out to a hall lined with the officers’ cabins, including the one the ship’s captain had given up for Laena’s use.

Callum Farrow had not seen fit to grace them with his presence at the nightly card game. She wondered where he might be laying his head at night. In one of the other private cabins, she assumed, though it was just as possible that he snuck into the common room after her departure each night to take up an unused bunk. It was difficult to picture how a man his size would be able to breathe, wedged into one of those tight spaces.

It was just as well that she saw him only in passing. She did not wish to spend more time with him, to warm to his smiles and forget the danger of spending too much time in his presence.

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