Page 18 of Stolen Princess's Secret

Tomas held his tongue some more, bowed his head and knelt before his King.

‘Tomas Sokolov, I bequeath to you the Barony of Aergoveny, henceforth to be held by you and your descendants, male or female, for as long as your bloodline exists. The land is mountainous, with summer grazing in the high passes. There’s a village with several families in residence within your borders and they pay pennies in local government taxes in return for being left largely to themselves. I’m reliably informed that several people there have expressed interest in becoming apprenticed to you, should you want to encourage it.’

‘I already have apprentices,’ he murmured beneath his breath.

‘Have some more. A modest manor house surrounded by solid outer walls lies east of the village—I have stonemasons working to bring it back in good repair. There are aviaries, stables and animal enclosures that should please you. As for funds, which you’re going to need, I bestow upon you the prize money recently won by the falcon Sweetybird McTender Heart, otherwise known as Cloud—we seriously need to work on those bird names, Master Falconer, if we’re going to keep winning major competitions.’

‘Blame your daughter.’ Tomas sneaked a glance at the other man, unsure if this was some kind of elaborate joke, or maybe just a dream. But he’d never dreamed of being an aristocrat—and it wasn’t because he lacked ambition. He ran one of the most ambitious endangered raptor breed-and-release programmes in Europe. But he emphatically didn’t want the responsibility to people that came with an aristocrat’s title, and he’d make a terrible Lord. Could he refuse the honour? Maybe not publicly, maybe not now, but later?

Did he want to refuse fifty million dollars?

Casimir’s eyes narrowed and Tomas swiftly bowed his head.

‘In addition to the prize money, as per the competition rules of 1649, I grant you permission to keep two wives, now that you have the monetary means to do so.’

What?

‘Rules are rules.’

Tomas felt the tap of a ceremonial sword on each shoulder. This wasn’t real. It couldn’t be. He was no nobleman. He barely had table manners. But Casimir was smiling and taking a scroll from a purple velvet pillow and handing it to him and people were applauding, so maybe it wasn’t a dream after all.

‘Arise Lord Sokolov, King’s Falconer, Baron of Aergoveny. Welcome to the circus.’

CHAPTER FIVE

HE WASN’T TAKING it well. Claudia scoured the banquet hall that heaved with all the people and the families of the people who had received honours that day. Tomas stood alone, silent and forbidding. There’d been no Sokolov family to invite—his parents and grandparents were dead and, according to Silas and Lor, who’d acted as his surrogate family for years, he had no extended family.

The way he stood with his feet slightly apart and his arms behind his back suggested a man perfectly at ease. The tension in that perfectly chiselled jaw and the ice in his eyes for anyone he didn’t know suggested otherwise. The look he’d given her a few minutes earlier had been glacial enough to compete with the highest mountain peaks. She’d raised her chin and offered her most challenging smile in return.

Your move, my lord.

Sadly, he’d yet to move an inch.

‘You’re glaring,’ said a voice from beside her and she turned to survey her brother, resplendent in ceremonial garb. ‘Little wrinkles around your eyes, here and here.’ Cas touched his own face in ever helpful fashion. ‘Why are you glaring?’

As if he didn’t know. ‘Two. Wives.’

Cas smirked. ‘Don’t look at me. The right to two wives came with the prize money. Of course, the rules go on to say that should a man’s first wife object to the taking of a second one, the first wife gets the inflationary indexed equivalent of all the prize money. She can do whatever she wants with it.’

Claudia contemplated this latest bit of information. ‘How perfectly brutal.’

‘I knew you’d like it.’ He touched the space between his eyebrows. ‘Still with the little wrinkles.’

‘I don’t like these events.’

‘Who does? And yet they serve a valuable purpose. Who should praise and encourage good deeds and excellence if not a country’s leader?’ Her brother’s smile cooled. ‘You were the one who came back, Claudia. To advocate for change, you said. To be of use. Well, the price to pay is your presence in my inner circle and that means a million more banquets like this one. You know this.’

She did know.

She’d made that devil’s bargain. She had her brother’s ear. He listened when she spoke of the concerns and needs of those who straddled the borders to the north. More than that, he’d offered consultation and collaboration and respect for a nomadic way of life he couldn’t possibly understand because he’d never lived it.

But she had lived that life of freedom, throughout her childhood, teens and early adulthood, and sometimes she missed it so much she wanted to weep and rage at the loss of it.

Now was one of those times.

She’d lobbied hard for Tomas to be given the barony and the prize money. He needed more room for more birds and the ability to expand his activities in that arena as he saw fit. He could be so much more than just a king’s falconer, and Casimir needed strong, steadfast noblemen who could help preserve the mountain regions.

She hadn’t realised until this moment, watching Tomas glower at her from across the room, that he might not have wanted to trade freedom for riches.

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