Page 2 of Straw and Gold
I turned my attention away from the day’s accounting reports and closed the book. Folding my hands across my chest and leaning back in my leather chair, I sighed.
Fedir continued polishing his blades, laying each one flat on the small table by the fire as he ran his cloth across the sharp metal.
“Marriage is already not agreeing with you,” he continued, shifting his gaze to find me frowning his way.
“She is a foolish, fanciful princess, Fedir. It’s the only explanation for why she is still coming.” I flicked my own blade from my baldric and began to polish away invisible specks.
He chuckled. “She’s already gotten under your skin.” He replaced his blades, adding, “I’m going to enjoy this.”
“You’re going to do what you can in the next three days to get me out of this,” I replied sharply, throwing my dagger across the room. It embedded into the leg of the table with a loudtwang.
“Missed, Your Majesty,” he goaded.
“You sure?” I replied, sitting back once more, resting my hands behind my head. “Check the right leg of your breeches, Captain.”
He pulled my knife from the table and inspected his leg, finding the slice across the leather and poking his finger through. “Are you sure you need me to waste my time looking for a way out of this contract? Your precision is better than mine.”
“I’ve been over it so many times,” I admitted, rubbing my face. “Sheis the only one who can break it.”
He chuckled, rising and stretching, flinging my knife right back to my desk, impaled in the corner. “Maybe she’ll get one look at you and run.”
“If only I were so lucky,” I grunted, scratching at my overgrown beard.
“Or,” he continued, “maybe she’ll get one look at those luscious red locks and fall to her knees like the rest of them.” He winked and moved to the door.
I glared at his back, stringing my fingers through my long, flaming red waves. I could use a shave. And a haircut.
“Three days left as an unmarried man, Killian,” he called, heading out the door of my study. “If I were you, I’d find some company before I was tied down for the rest of my life.”
“If you were me, Fedir, this castle would have its own brothel.”
I heard his chuckle in the hall as the door swung closed.
In three days, I’d be bound to a wife I’d never met.
In three days, she’d be queen.
I wasn’t sure which I was dreading most.
CHAPTER 3
Morella
“This one isfor scrapes and small wounds,” Seraphine said, handing me a jar of blue paste. “And here’s one for blemishes.”
My trunk was already full, but my sister-in-law was wrapping her jars of salves in brown paper, tucking them tidily into each corner. She made the ointments using crystals she found in Moonstone Wood and sold them at the Forestfae market once a week. I admired how everything Seraphine put her mind to, she accomplished. There was very little I could attempt with her level of success.
“And this one…” she trailed, taking a small jar of something clear but viscous from the top shelf of her cabinet, “is for you and your husband-to-be.”
“What is it?” I asked, taking it from her and shaking the contents.
“Well…when you and your husband are…intimate, this will enhance the experience for the both of you.”
“Ah.” I blushed, wrapping the jar tightly and shoving it into the top pouch inside the trunk. Lowering my voice, I asked, “And where exactly do we put it?”
Her gaze shot across the room to my brother who was holding my niece upside down by her ankles as she laughed andhiccuped. “Just…wherever you feel comfortable with the king touching you.” She twisted her lips, closing the trunk lid. “Maybe introduce it a few weeks into your marriage, after you’ve both had some time to adjust to each other.”
I pulled her into a tight hug. I’d never had a woman in my life to speak to about men, and love, and romance, until my brother had brought his soon-to-be wife home to our castle in the Brackish Wood. I loved her the minute I saw her, and we’d been thick as thieves ever since.
