Page 21 of Earth Dragon
“Please,” King Ellard said. “Let us head inside. Luncheon has been served.”
“Splendid,” Lord Taggart said, offering his arm to Shannon who smiled and shook her head, instead slipping her hand around Ewan’s arm as an incentive for him to bring her inside.
Not that she needed bringing, she’d made that perfectly clear.
He wondered if she had loved Malcolm and had secretly hoped she might be able to turn him against his own House. Had she fantasized about a future together with him as her plot took hold to rent the kingdoms asunder? The mere possibility served to harden his hearts after a much too pleasant morning. He didn’t look at her as they entered the castle, and she seemed to take the hint.
Should her father’s arrival change anything? They now had two parental figures to win over through blatantly lying to their faces. Would she wish to do this, or had she hoped to simply put it in a letter that she was to be bound to a prince, thinking it would most likely please her father to hear the news. It helped clean up his name, after all. At least to some extent.
Ewan turned his head to her, but she resolutely stared straight ahead. When she wouldn’t look at him, he had the thought of pulling her aside, hiding them away in one of the alcoves for a whispered exchange of what exactly she wanted to do now. He could not force her to adhere to their agreement. If she wanted out of it, then now would be the time to declare it.
The prospect of having to find someone else to play the part seemed impossibly daunting.
His grip on her tightened, but he refrained from the alcove. They could not excuse themselves but were stuck with sharing a meal with their fathers, listening to them discuss kingdom politics over buttered bread and vegetable soup.
Please, do not change your mind, Ewan pleaded in his head, glancing back at her profile.Please, do not.
Chapter 6 - Shannon
“Thank you very much,” her father said to the king, broad smile firmly in place. “That was delicious after such a long ride to get here. Might I retire to my rooms for the rest of the afternoon so that I’m refreshed for the evening’s festivities?”
“Of course.” King Ellard smiled. “Consider this castle your home, my lord. You may go where it pleases you to.”
“I’m in your debt,” Lord Taggart said, having risen from his chair with a hand over his hearts.
“No, I believe we are in yours,” Ewan cut in.
He had barely said two words all dinner, seated next to her as though he had been suddenly cut from marble. She hadn’t been able to read his change in mood. All morning, she had thought that there was a glimmer, a possibility, that he would dare open himself up to the idea that perhaps she wasn’t as bad as his mind had made her out to be. That he would be willing to listen to her side of the story. It could be her own doing, she supposed. At the sight of her father, she hadn’t known quite what to do with herself. Ewan might have taken it as a sign that she regretted the events of the morning and that she wished nothing more than to be brought home.
She did not.
It was the last thing she wanted.
But the fact that her father had dared show himself spoke of ill tidings. Those who he worked with must believe themselves on the cusp of a revolution if he risked capture like this. She knew he had come to ensure she stayed loyal to the cause, and he didn’t disappoint when he—as she left the dining hall—appeared from behind a pillar to cut off her path. He wore that smile of his as though it was a permanent fixture on his face. She had grown to dislike it in the final few years that she was his pawn, but now she absolutely loathed the very sight of it.
“Gentlemen,” he greeted Petrus and Eric.
“We are none such,” Petrus grumbled with his usual cheery manner.
“Fair enough,” Lord Taggart said, his already too broad smile somehow widening. “Might I, please, have a word with my daughter in private? I assure you that the king has sanctioned it.”
The two guards shared a look, then Petrus gave a nod, and they shrunk into the background as though they weren’t even there. She knew they were, though. They were always there. They’d even trailed her while she rode through the grounds with Ewan. She knew they thought she had not seen them, but she had.
“Any news from home?” she asked. It was the signal that meant they were now speaking about rebel subjects, rather than everyday occurrences. Her father looked appreciative that she cut right to the chase. He thought she was still loyal to him alone. She wished she wasn’t. In that moment, she wished the thought of breaking away from him didn’t send a fear into her that made her quake from head to toe.
She had seen what he did to those that disrespected him.
She had seen what he had done to her mother.
And the fear was relentless, coiled like a deadly snake, and even when she managed to push it down, there was the reality that it wouldn’t last forever. It would push and push against whatever kept it at bay until it was sent flying.
It was why she could not name him, but it was also why the thought of whatever task he was about to put before her made her want to turn and simply walk away from him. If she did not hear it, she did not have to accept it. If she heard it, she would have no other choice but to go along with it.
And she did not want to accept it.
She was barely breathing, waiting for his reply.
“All is well at home, daughter,” he said. “The animals all graze in their pastures, and the farmers all till the soil. I wish you could see the sunsets, though. I know you always loved the end of summer for how it painted our skies in pinks and golds.”
