Only to find himself barred by Shana.
“Healer Emryn is with her Majesty.” Shana said. “The Queen was very firm in her orders that they not be disturbed.”
“I understand,” he smiled at Shana. “Would you stay with her, Shana? She needs someone constant while the change happens.”
“I will remain in her household while she chooses her ladies.” Shana said. “I believe she will accept me as her body servant.”
Cas nodded. “I will see to your rise in pay immediately.”
“Poor thing is so frightened.” Shana shook her head. “She has these dreams, you know. Dreams of the Mother and when she dreams she leaks light all over her pillows.”
“Light?”
Shana nodded thoughtfully. “And she has awful scars on her back, like something was carved away or torn out. The poor dear.”
“Is there anything that you know she needs?”
“A friend,” Shana replied. “She has no friends here, no one she can talk to freely, but from what I’ve learned from the temple servants, she didn’t have many friends there either.”
“Why?”
“Jealousy or awe,” Shana shrugged. “Or both. She’s the nations best healer, and who looks beyond that when she’s doing what she’s meant to?”
“Perhaps she would like a companion?” Cas smiled. “Thank you, Shana, that’s very helpful.”
Cas walked away, straight out the doors to the gardens and then beyond to the stables and the kennels. His hunter had just had a litter and his master of hounds was furious. He wasn’t certain which of the palace guard dogs had gotten at his hunter, but her puppies were clearly crossbreeds.
They would also be very large, if the size of their feet were any indication.
He went to his hound master, stopping in front of the man who was dictating to the stable hands about cleaning the kennels.
“Highness?” The older man asked.
“Are they weaned yet?” Cas flipped a hand at the fluffy puppies rolling all over each other in the sunlight. “If they are, I mean to give one as a gift to my princess.”
“A week gone now, highness.” His master of hounds said, snapping his fingers. “Brutus is the one you want, friendly as anything and the largest of the litter.”
One of the puppies lifted their head at the sound of the snap and the name.
“Thank you,” Cas walked over to the puppies and crouched down by Brutus, letting the puppy sniff him. Brutus promptly climbed into Cas’ lap and licked his face.
“You need training, young man.” Cas rose with the puppy in his arms. “I will see to that.”
15
PROPOSAL
Mother bless it, what in the seventh hell had her life become? She’d worn robes since she was seven, with the exception of of the gown that she’d worn when she’d been honored by the queen. And now she was on a folding stand while a woman with the sharpest eyes she’d ever seen on a person poked at her and draped her in the finest silk and velvet she had ever seen.
And did she mention that the queen of Rodilla was watching the entire affair?
Surely, the queen was trying to figure her out, but if Emryn moved or breathed wrong, she got a pin in the side so it made having a conversation of any quality very difficult.
“That will do,” the seamstress said, pulling the silk and velvet from Emryn’s body. “I will have my girls run the seams up and I’ll deliver it with my own hands.”
The queen nodded and the seamstress left the room with her arms piled in fabric.
“Come and sit, Emryn,” the queen said, gesturing to a chair across the table from her. “I would like to get to know my daughter-in-law.”