Page 30 of Stolen Princess's Secret

‘I’ll be interviewing for apprentices tomorrow.’ Just like that, his mind was made up. ‘I’ll need at least half a dozen, maybe more.’

‘Oh, man! The guys are going to go ape. Balo, okay? Remember the name!’

‘Why not you?’

Her eyes widened with shock and excitement before she slowly, ruthlessly snuffed that light out. ‘I work for Da. He needs me more than you do.’ She set his packsaddle on a nearby table and returned her attention to the horse. ‘Don’t worry. You’ll get plenty of interest. Is there an age range?’

‘Not children—although I’ll take falconry classes for children once the manor is up and running.’ Go him. Being his own man and winging it and feeling good about it. And all because Claudia had challenged him to let go a little and loosen up on his emotions. He was doing it. ‘Apart from that, anyone of any age can apply.’

‘Do you need household workers too?’

‘I’m thinking about it.’ He’d make better decisions about that after he saw the place. He had ideas about open days to bring in income for running costs. Even the prize money he’d been given would run out eventually if he didn’t figure out how not to bleed money when it came to running all the programmes he’d dreamed into existence while up in the mountains.

‘I’ll get the word out,’ she offered.

‘I’ll do it myself.’

She wrinkled her nose and probably bit her tongue in an effort to keep her many opinions to herself.

‘What now?’ he grumbled.

‘I mean, first impressions and all. You need a bath.’

The next day Tomas took interviews, got to know the people of Aergoveny. He’d sent word of his arrival to Claudia by text once his phone had recharged, and received a thumbs-up in reply.

He’d sent another short message about interviewing for apprentices and got a laughing smiley face in reply and nothing else. For a woman who had a lot to say in person and via drone, she was surprisingly circumspect by phone.

At six thirty-five on the morning of Claudia’s arrival, he got a text from her.

Tomas, I have to cancel. I have a dreadful stomach bug and travel just isn’t going to happen. You’ve got this!

He told her to get well soon in reply.

Maybe she really was sick with a rapid onset stomach complaint. Bad seafood at the royal banquet luncheon. A bad chicken wing during her afternoon snack.

He had to give her the benefit of the doubt.

He bundled up his disappointment into a tight ball and swallowed it whole, along with the breakfast on his plate. Claudia, the Princess Royal, had responsibilities to more than just him. She didn’t owe him a longer explanation or for him to hear her voice while she explained away her absence. They were still at the start of a very long journey that could lead anywhere.

She didn’t owe him anything.

The Aergoveny manor did nothing to curb Tomas’s burgeoning dream of setting up a specialty raptor sanctuary. Situated in the middle of a hidden valley, surrounded by mountains, it stood harsh and plain, a grey fortress surrounded by high stone walls. A barren nest long since abandoned, but there was so much promise here, and the stonemasons and carpenters had made a good start on repairs. The stables were to the east, along with entrance gates and bunkhouses. The aviaries were to the west. The kitchen garden and orchard lay to the south and consisted mainly of weedy garden beds and ragged fruit trees that had once been espaliered against protective stone walls. What a place to train birds to the glove!

He could see it already. This tiny jewel in the Byzenmaach crown could one day become a raptor breeding and rehabilitation centre that could easily earn its way by putting on open days and re-enactment fairs and providing education opportunities for children in the summer months. If he wanted company in the main house, it could potentially accommodate a handful of environmental researchers and ornithologists all year round.

He claimed a room on the ground floor near the kitchens for his meagre belongings, and maybe one day he’d graduate to feeling comfortable inhabiting the master bedroom but that day had yet to come. He spent another week organising aviary repairs and ordering materials and trying not to read anything into the fact that Claudia hadn’t contacted him.

He invited Silas and Lor and stablemaster Ivan from the winter fortress to visit and give their opinions on staffing and maintenance, ever grateful for their cheerful support and practical experience. He moved back and forth between the fortress and his new home for another two weeks, running himself ragged trying to do his job and oversee the work happening in Aergoveny.

For a man who’d objected so strongly to becoming a baron, he wasn’t lost to the fact that he was wholeheartedly embracing the reality of it.

Claudia was right. Having the freedom to build something for himself was addictive.

He wasn’t actively trying to avoiding Claudia but she was never in residence when he returned home, and on the one occasion he’d asked Lor where she was, Lor had got the strangest look on her face and muttered something about her being tied up at the palace while multinational water negotiations took place.

It sounded perfectly reasonable. There was no earthly reason for him to suspect something was off.

Claudia was an important woman.

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