Page 41 of A Baron of Bonds
“There’s no need.” Karus replied, pulling my fingers to her lips to kiss. “I know the way.”
The man paused before we heard his decision at the sound of his footsteps leaving the corridor.
“What do you think this is about?” she asked. “Surely, the Lady of the Spire and the Madame of the Mountains have not arrived yet.”
I shook my head and ran my fingers down her neck, then her chest, and took ahold of her left hand. “No, my guess is she’s heard a rumor and wants to hear the truth herself.” I kissed her wrist where her liberum mark had graced it for years before last night.
“How would she know so quickly?”
“I could not gather all we needed last night alone, my love. Servants talk. I think Mierah especially would have been willing to do so.”
“You got all of this fromMierah?” she scorned.
“Yes, we’ve met.”
“Oh, I’m sure shelovedmeeting you.” She shook her head and clenched her jaw.
“Am I detecting you do not like Mierah?” I didn’t know if that was jealousy that crossed her face just now, but I was enjoying it.
“It started with Mierah not likingme. I’m surprised she helped you at all.” She paused and looked back to my face, her eyes flitting down to my bare chest and broad shoulders. “Actually, I know exactly why she helped you. And no, I don’t doubt that she got word to the Queen immediately about the kind of tea you needed.”
Her anger and irritation rolled off her, and I realized just how much I enjoyed it. For so many years, I watched Karus emit little to no emotion at all. She would recite the same answers to my questions in my study each day—her body like Karus, her mind not.
“Let’s go prove the rumors true, then. The Queen probably thinks I’ve entrapped you somehow. Maybe we can convince her I have not.”
“Oh, you most certainly have, Baron Revich. The difference is, I came willingly.”
“And many times over.”
She tilted her head back and laughed before falling into my chest.
I chuckled and smoothed the top of her hair.
She lifted her head to meet me and pulled our right hands up between us. “Are you ready?”
I nodded and began to help her untie our bonds. We pulled gently at the gold ribbons and slowly unwound them. They left red marks on our skin, and we both rolled our wrists, finally free of the physical bind, but never of the invisible one.
“Come on.” She pulled me up to stand next to her.
I stretched my arms up high, popping them and then settling them back down and around her waist.
She reached over and grabbed an apple from one of the trays, holding it up to my mouth to take a bite before sinking her own teeth into its red flesh. “I’m taking you out to the market and my favorite stall after we speak to the Queen. I hope it’s still there.”
“And what if the Queen does not wish me to leave the castle?”
Karus huffed, taking another bite and chewing ravenously. “This nonsense ends today. She’s had plenty of hours to think on what I said to her last night, and if she does not yet understand, I will make her.”
Karus always had a fire that burned for what she loved and who she believed in, and, though it had been months since she had woken, I had not seen it flicker as fiercely across her face as I did now.
“I believe you, love.” I leaned in to kiss her once more. “I believe you.”
Chapter 26
Karus
We half-randown the halls and corridors, my satin slippers softly clicking on the long red carpets that lined our way. I pulled again on Revich’s hand to keep up, not wanting to show any sign to the Queen that we were two adults who could not even make it to a meeting on time.
I fussed with the ties across my dress, pulling at the cream ribbon that slipped through each loop, sometimes twisted, and making for a haphazard appearance. Or at least one the Queen would notice.
