Page 84 of Long Live the King

“Make it happen then. I did like Winterborne, but it is full of terrible memories ever since the debacle withAriana.”

He didn’t look up from the binder of pages. “May she Rest In Peace.”

“Aye. With that sale will there be enough left for the cobalt mine in Africa?”

“Yes, your lawyers will have those contracts ready by the end of the month.” He added, “Speaking of, Your Highness, I think I came up with a solution for the other issue.”

I raised my brow and steadied my gaze. “My other issue?”

“You know… the fertility issue, we discussed it last year.” He squirmed under my gaze.

“I ken. Ye pried into my private business.”

“I asked, with so many wives, why you had not had any, you know… issue.”

I raised my brow. “My wives haena performed their duties.” I chuckled, “Do I sound like an ancient king?”

“Yes, it was quite impressive how stern you sounded.”

“Of the six wives not one has become pregnant, they haena performed their wifely duties, though at least two of them had performedsomeduties spectacularly, just not the crucial ones.”

“That was Raquel and Tiffany?”

“Aye,” I smiled, “ye remember Raquel and Tiffany? Were ye coveting m’wives, Bernard? Dreamin’ of bedding the wives of Asgall?”

“No sire, not at all, they just seemed, um… prone to being um…” He shifted and squirmed, while I considered the ways I might kill him.

“…prone tae being, um… seductive, desirable? Ye looked with temptation at m’wives?”

I would need tae kill him soon as he had been useful way too long. He knew details about my business, enough for me tae be counting his days, and now he had just admitted tae thinking about how I hadna sired sons, and also had been coveting my wives. “Do ye hae any more thoughts on m’wives or my cock?”

“No, sire!” He looked horrified, heat reddening his cheeks. This used tae thrill me, but he was too easy. He perhaps knew his days were numbered. “Of course not. Never. May they Rest in Peace. I would never.”

I chuckled.

“So what did ye discover when ye were thinkin’ on m’royal cock, my sexy wives, and my lack of sons?”

“That a way to have a son would be to um… acquire one.”

I nodded. “Go on.”

“I found one. I mean, a son, a boy, who you can easily…. um, acquire.”

“That’s why you’re the best in the business.”

He flipped through his pages and spread a hand across one. Then turned the book and pointed. It was a photo of a very pretty young woman.

“That is not a son.”

“She is the mother. I know when the son is born so I calculated when the child was conceived. The mother is not married at the time of conception.”

“Why would this matter tae me? The history of the world is full of young pretty women having their lives ruined by spreading their legs for a man. Who is the father?”

“Lochinvar Campbell, son of Donnan.”

“Verra interesting! I begin tae see yer point.” I picked up the photo tae admire it again. “She has a fine look, and she is coveted by Lochinvar — verra verra interesting.”

I leaned back in my chair and looked up at the ceiling and mulled it over out loud. “I could wait until the son is born — but that is more complicated — ye say they are unmarried?”

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