Page 70 of Rogue's Possession (Covenant of Thorns 2)

“There, there, dearie.” She folded her white hands under her bosom. “You know how men are—always off chasing some new idea. Lord Rogue will turn up soon enough.” Her gaze flicked to my belly and up to the earrings. “He knows how to find you when it’s time.”

“Lady Blackbird. I don’t think Rogue is gone of his own free will. The night before last, I—”

She tutted and shook her head to stop me. “No need to explain a thing to me, Lady Gwynn. I know the ways of these things. It’s no fault of your own. Men will be men, after all.”

“That’s not what happened.”

“No worries. Worrying isn’t good for you in your condition. Lord Rogue will be back for you. Have no doubt. When the time is right. Now if you’ll just wait a bit, we’ll all be ready to leave. Unless I can get you something?”

Dismissed and wishing I’d just lingered in my rooms longer, I stood by and seethed over Blackbird’s assumptions. My “condition” indeed. By the way they all—fae and human, alike—cast sideways glances at me, then looked quickly away, word had gotten around. I should stitch a scarletPto my dress, just to make them all happy.

To my eye it would be an hour yet before the many carts had been loaded. Whatever an hour was in Faerie time—no way could I stand here and be Object of Pity. I found Starling supervising the loading of a standing mirror.

“I’m going for a walk.”

A flash of sympathy and guilt crossed her face. Yeah, no one knew what to say to the jilted girl, the bride left at the altar. Women could be sympathetic friends, but also ruthless competitors. When one of us failed to successfully hook the man, there was always a bit of wondering. A little judgment that she must have done something wrong to blow the deal.

I heard it too easily in her, what all the speaking glances implied. She felt sure we’d done the deed and she had me figured for knocked up from Rogue’s magically potent seed and him run off to parts unknown.

“Maybe you should just sit and rest,” she suggested, confirming the shadow of her thoughts.

It was on my tongue to tell her that even Rogue’s magically potent sperm couldn’t impregnate me if it never got near my magically fertile hoo-haw, but I bit down on it. She didn’t deserve my anger and, right at that moment, I couldn’t say much without giving vent to it.

“I’ll be back.”

Darling trotted alongside me, waving his tail. I didn’t care to stroll through the orchards, now entirely denuded of fruit, as if a flock of apple-eating locusts had passed through, leaving only a few shredded leaves behind. The air held cooler moisture, a breeze blowing that carried an edge of wildness to it. It reminded me of the autumn winds that heralded the frozen death of winter. Once again glad of the cloak Rogue had given me, I wrapped it around myself and indulged in full-out worrying.

A footstep grated on a rock behind me and I spun, abruptly aware I’d forgotten my dagger, much less a longer fighting stick. Larch gazed at me with placid blueberry eyes, holding out the offending dagger.

I took it from him with a sigh. “I apologize. I forgot I’d left it on Felicity’s saddle.”

“Unlike you, my lady sorceress, to be so careless.”

“Yeah. I’m out of sorts. I need to get my head together.”

“Lord Rogue would never have broken his pledges to you. The rest are fools to think it.”

Something inside me steadied. He regarded me solemnly, Darling sitting beside him with an equally grave look in his light green eyes.

“I’m not pregnant.”

“As you say, my lady sorceress.”

Darling mentally sniggered.

“I’m afraid for him.

If I thought Larch would allay my fears, I was sadly mistaken. His brow creased. “Me also.”

“Everyone says how amazingly powerful Rogue is and no one could stop him.”

“This is true. For the most part.”

“So what’s the other part? Who’s more powerful than Rogue—her?”

“Sometimes, my lady sorceress, it does not take more power to defeat someone, but simply the correct leverage against a known vulnerability.”

“What does that mean? Don’t give me riddles.”

---