Page 12 of The Rebel's Prize

He shrugged. "You married me."

"Married you temporarily," she hissed. "I never expected to be involved in the trade affairs of your estate."

"Well, fortunately for you, Iaminvolved in the trade affairs of my estate, which include, amongst other things, some very fine vineyards and quite the prized flock of serineau sheep. Do you know what those are?"

She blinked. Serineau sheep produced some of the finest and warmest wool in the empire and were highly sought after. They were, however, finicky to breed, and those who were successful guarded the secrets of their flocks closely. Imogene and Jean-Paul had sheep but of the more regular kind, though Imogene had given her a shawl made of serineau wool for her Ascension. She hadn't taken it to Anglion, and she had no idea where it might be now.

Even in Anglion, she'd occasionally encountered serineau wool, though the Anglions had their own breeds of fine wool sheep, particularly in the northern regions where Queen Sophia's husband, Cameron, was from.

"Yes, not being an idiot, I am aware of serineau wool." Though, if she was honest, her mind was spinning. She'd always thought about the political and social obligations of having a title. And yes, while she'd stayed at Sanct de Sangre with Imogene, she'd learned a little of how busy it kept both Jean-Paul and her friend to run their estate. But she'd still never thought of the business of it and all the details that might entail.

She'd worked herself to the bone merely running a small store in Kingswell during her exile. She couldn't imagine running an estate the size of Lucien's. And she hadn't thought of him as a farmer. Her mouth quirked slightly, picturing him in breeches and a rough linen shirt, chasing after a recalcitrant sheep. But then again, he had servants and staff and tenants to do that kind of thing. Though maybe that was unfair. She knew he cared for his estate, though his twin duties as marq and Truth Seeker due to his magic stretched his obligations somewhat.

"Then you will know that it's a lucrative commodity. Though not the only one we trade."

"And you just happened to have a caravan heading north at this very moment?"

"Yes," he agreed. "It's difficult to get caravans up to that part of the empire safely during the peak of winter, so trade slows over winter and resumes in early spring. The Andalyssians and the Parthians are quite fond of our wool, it turns out." He smiled. "Actually, they don't mind my wine either—or the brandy, rather. They take more of that than the wine."

She didn't remember drinking brandy in Andalyssia. There'd been wine, yes, but the liqueurs served in the palace at Deephilm had mainly been kafiet, a mountain herb distilled into something that had the kick of one of the ice giants of their legends. But kafiet was rare and expensive, so she assumed those who didn't live in the palace with the budget of a king at their disposal might appreciate other liqueurs and alcohol to keep them warm during the worst of Andalyssia's winter. And Andalyssia was primarily snow and ice and mountains. What little fertile ground they had was given to growing grains and vegetables and feeding livestock. The important things. Luxuries they didn't produce could be bought with the wealth of the gold and jewels found beneath the mountain.

Like Lucien's brandy, it seemed. Just her luck. Or his.

"So, you were just going to travel with the caravan up to Partha and hope you found me along the way?"

Looking somewhat bemused, he shook his head. "We caught up to the caravan. It had left Terre d'Etoi before...well, before any of this happened. It's faster to travel via portal than caravan, after all."

And he and Silya hadn't necessarily been trying to avoid detection like she had.

"We had a vague idea which way you were headed, but it seems the goddess wanted us to be reunited." He glanced at the door. "Or at least, that's what Sejerin Silya said when Captain Jennings led us to you."

Silya, who had dreamed of ravens flying north. "Did Silya tell you to head north?"

Lucien shook his head. "We knew what Violette told us about the man who was teaching the facial illusions. It didn't take such a stretch to figure out which direction you may have been headed. And you couldn't travel by sea with Octarus, so it seemed likely that you would head for one of the caravan hubs. Silya didn't object to the direction I proposed." He paused. "Which I guess is an endorsement of a kind. If she did see something, then it didn't conflict with my proposed route."

"How fortunate."

"Yes. It was. We found you before anyone less friendly could," he said, his expression cooling again. "So, on behalf of my caravan master, I am conveying an offer to travel north if you desire."

"Maybe I can't afford the prices a Castaigne caravan wants to charge."

"I think you may find that you can't afford the price of refusing the offer. So say yes."

Her breath hitched a little, though whether in annoyance or relief she couldn't have said. Relief, yes, that he wasn't dragging her back to the capital to face the consequences of her hasty departure, which hopefully meant she hadn't been judged guilty in her absence.

"And Aristides is happy for you to go on a jaunt north?"

"The emperor was keen for me to find you," Lucien said. "He is equally keen to find those who attempted to kill him."

That was a sentiment she appreciated. Though she would have preferred if she had no involvement in schemes imperiling the emperor. But she had come to the limits of the ways in which she could delay giving Lucien an answer. He had found her. She doubted he was going to leave.

She sighed. "I think I never want to attend another wedding ball in my life. So far, they have only ended in disaster."

His face was even more unreadable. "Are you intending on having another wedding?"

"No," she said flatly. Regardless of what happened between her and Lucien, eventually when this all played out, she couldn't imagine letting her heart be taken yet again. So far, her record when it came to love and relationships was one of unmitigated disaster, it seemed. One treacherous husband dead at the hands of the Imperial executioner. One affair with a sea captain who left her for her own good. And now Lucien, who seemed to have lodged himself in her heart but didn't deserve the trouble she was bringing to his life. Perhaps if the army did end up dismissing her, she might just be better off joining Valentin and Irina as a temple healer and leaving annoying things like romance behind.

"What about the crown prince?" she asked, not wanting to think too hard about the people she'd left behind in Lumia.

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