Page 70 of Honeythorn
“If we slept on the horse, perhaps.”
“If we took a crawler all the way there. There are ones for quick travel. They are not terribly comfortable, but they are efficient.”
“Oh,” Milan said. “Yes, I didn’t think of that.”
“Well.” Katerina sniffed. “How splendid.”
“You could come too, Katerina,” Milan suggested. “You and Gianna.”
Katerina flushed slightly. “Yes, well. That does sound appealing.”
“Well, then. It’s a plan. Not that my sister is planning a wedding yet—we are getting far ahead of ourselves.”
Raphael kissed Milan’s forehead. “It’s good to have something to look forward to.”
Milan swayed towards him, grinning. Katerina cleared her throat pointedly, and Raphael looked at her.
“I heard one of your staff is sick with a chest cold, Miss Rosewood. Please let me know if she needs anything. I know that you can provide for her, of course, but if her family needs any extra food…”
Katerina blinked at him. “Oh. Well, thank you. She is recovering, but I’ll keep it in mind.”
Raphael nodded and then leaned towards the low table to grab a sandwich. “Oh, these are my favourite.”
Milan threw Katerina a smug look, knowing Raphael was making a good impression. Katerina huffed, but Milan could see her trying to hide a smile.
If Raphael could win over even Katerina, Milan knew the game really had been won.
**********
And so, Milan thought, this was the end of the beginning. After all their trials, Milan believed he had found someone to happily spend his life with. The villagers, the workers, his apprenticeship, his friendships—there was a life here for him. This was where the fairy tale ended, and the ‘happily ever after’ begun.
Of course, it only took thinking that for disaster to strike.
Milan had been out with Lima and Pax when his chest suddenly seized. Horror, nausea—it was as if a phantom had passed through him and left a trace of their death behind.
Without even thinking about it, he started running back to the manor. Something terrible had happened to Raphael, and Milan’s fear joined the one that was spilling through the bond.
Milan crashed into the study to find Raphael hunched over his desk, face paler than Milan had ever seen him, expression frozen in a cold terror that had Milan stumbling to get to him.
“What is it?” Milan said, his heart racing, falling to his knees beside him. “Raphael, what is it?”
That was when Milan noticed Raphael was clutching a piece of paper. Milan’s mind immediately went to a notice of death—but whose death would make him look like that? Milan’s thoughts jumped to their marriage—what if it had been annulled? What if it had been a mistake and the forces that be were sending Milan back?
Milan grasped Raphael’s stiff hands. “What is it? Please, what is it?”
Raphael finally looked at him. “Jack…” he croaked. Milan’s heart thundered even louder. “He…he’s coming here. He’s claiming wrongful divorce, and that he is owed part of the estate and that he is suing for it.”
Milan gaped. “That’s…preposterous.”
After seeing Raphael be rebuilt piece by piece. After seeing him flourish, opening before Milan to reveal sweetness and patience and love, Jack thought he could come and destroy what had been so painstakingly cared for?
Rage replaced fear in one swift wave. Milan jumped to his feet. “Raphael, listen to me,” he said, tilting Raphael’s chin up. “That is not going to happen. I—we—are not going to let it happen.”
Raphael blinked, seeming to regain some of his composure.
“Right—give me the address of your solicitor, of your accountant, Mister Gale, and the head of police. I will send an urgent note to them right now. Whilst I am doing that, you are going to grab every bit of proof I know you have stored away of what Jack did to the estate whilst he was married to you.”
“He didn’t do—it was the accountant. There’s no proof againstJack.”
