Page 19 of Stolen Princess's Secret

‘It’s going to work,’ she murmured, suddenly desperate for reassurance. ‘It has to.’

Cas stared and she lifted her chin high, even as fierce heat flooded her cheeks. She didn’t usually display her vulnerability, at least not in public. She was the stolen princess who’d returned to her country, fierce and unbroken, some twenty years later. She had a myth to uphold. Desperately wanting approval for her actions didn’t fit her image at all.

‘Don’t stare,’ she told her brother. ‘It’s impolite.’

‘I’m so sorry.’ The tenderness in his voice slid through all the cracks in her armour and she silently cursed him for it. ‘I didn’t realise your feelings for our falconer ran so deep.’

‘Well, now you know, and I’ll thank you to keep your newfound insight to yourself. Tomas is going to love Aergoveny when he sees it. He’ll be his own man, free to live and love as he pleases, and maybe he’ll live well and choose to love me. That’s my big master plan. Lame, isn’t it.’

‘It has a few holes in it, Cas conceded. ‘You do realise that being pushy might not get you what you want?’

‘Well, that’s going to be annoying.’

Cas snorted. ‘Poor Tomas.’

‘Not any more.’ She fixed Cas with her sternest gaze. ‘You are getting ready to leave so we can all get out of here, right?’ No one could leave before Cas made his exit. ‘Rudolpho’s been eyeing his watch and giving you stern glances for at least fifteen minutes.’

Rudolpho was Cas’s valet or equerry or private secretary—it depended on requirements. Rudolpho kept her brother’s days doable.

Cas nodded but made no move to leave. ‘If I may be so bold as to make a suggestion concerning our newest baron?’

‘You may. Provided it’s only a suggestion.’ One she could ignore.

Cas rolled his eyes and then leaned over to whisper words for her ears only.

‘Patience, sister.’

Claudia had five minutes, if that, once Casimir took his leave before others started leaving too. So while Cas headed towards Rudolpho, Claudia made a beeline for Tomas.

‘I have the keys to the map room,’ she said as soon as she reached his side. ‘Would you like to see drawings of the lands now under your care?’

‘This is your doing.’ The repressed fury in his voice gave her pause. She’d never seen Tomas properly angry. He was a man of infinite patience when it came to his birds, and horses and wolfhounds. Any beast, really. Even their occasional, ahem, arguments, hadn’t involved full fury. Until now. ‘You put this reward in your brother’s ear.’

The way he said the word reward made it perfectly clear he thought of it as something else entirely.

‘Cas didn’t need any convincing—if that’s your problem.’

‘I don’t want a barony and great piles of money. I don’t need them. I have enough responsibility.’

‘To your birds.’

‘Exactly. I don’t need any responsibility to people. I don’t generally like people.’

‘Is that really true, though?’ She nodded and smiled at her brother across the room as he finally took his leave. Tomas noticed, he always had been observant, and sketched a brief bow of his own towards the retreating monarch. ‘Because you get on well enough with Silas and Lor. And Ana and Sophia and the stable master and his family and your apprentices.’ There were others she could name. ‘And they like you. You’re firm and fair and I hear tell you have a kind heart.’

For those who could find it.

‘Maybe what you don’t like is thinking that you’re going to somehow let people down, but I don’t think you will.’

His scowl had intensified and she redoubled her efforts to convince him that she’d done the right thing for everyone concerned.

‘The people of Aergoveny have been ignored for a very long time and they’ve heard of you, Tomas. They want their high country preserved, and who better to do that than a baron in need of vast tracts of wilderness, into which he can release all manner of wild creatures? They’re willing to show a lot of respect to a man who can honour them and their children and preserve the old ways of falconry. They’re already tuned to protecting habitat, as are you. As am I. You’re going to be an excellent fit, and I, as mistress of the winter fortress, am going to support you in every way I can.’

Did he really not understand what she was trying to do?

‘Aergoveny is yours now. And it’s a big change from what you’re used to, but think of what you can achieve. You can appoint a steward to help with the day-to-day management of your household and the surrounding lands. You can employ people to help you accomplish goals. You know how important remote settlements can be for those who inhabit them. You know how they run.’

His silence unsettled her.

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