Page 126 of Ironling
Anger for the knights behaving poorly toward the people of Dundúran—and even more for their baron who used them as a threat against Aislinn. Yet it was tempered with a sweet wonder as he watched his mate quickly ready for her day.
Neither she nor Fia shooed him from the room as he slowly got up himself and began to dress. He watched them through hislashes as Fia pulled a fresh shift, stockings, and stays from one of three large armoires in the room. Aislinn selected a plain green gown, telling Fia she didn’t want to fuss with anything fancy but instead get to the great hall.
Fia laced her stays and gown as Aislinn plaited her hair. It all happened in concert, a perfectly timed domestic harmony. Witnessing it softened something in Hakon.
This was what mornings should be like for them always.
He wanted to see this part of his mate, the private, domestic side when there were no duties to do or people to please. She and Fia chattered easily, and he felt honored to be privy to their inner world. It felt like something of an acceptance, that he now too got to inhabit this most private realm, and it took the sting out of her denial last night.
When she finished, Aislinn walked over to where he sat in a chair, lacing his boots. Taking his face in her hands, she bent to bestow a kiss on his lips.
Heaviness hung between them—he worried what he should say and what she would say to him. She wouldn’t have allowed him to stay, to watch her dress, if she meant to be rid of him.
“I’ll go now. You stay in here with Fia until the corridor is clear.”
“All right.” He reached to press her hand more firmly against his cheek. “Be safe,vinya.”
She gave him a smile, though it didn’t reach her eyes. With another kiss, she left her rooms, the guards closing the door behind her.
Hakon and Fia waited in silence for a long moment. When all was quiet, she waved him toward the bed.
“At least be helpful while you’re here, if you would.”
He stood and rounded the bed, helping her strip it of the coverlet, blankets, and sheets. It only seemed fair to help after the mess he’d made of it pleasuring Aislinn last night—aboutwhich he had no regrets.
He eyed Fia under his lashes and thought, no, she wouldn’t let him take one of the sheets to have Aislinn’s scent.
The bed bare, Fia fetched a fresh set of sheets and blankets from a deep trunk.
“Did she sleep well?” the maid asked as she handed him one end of a sheet.
“Yes.”
“Good. She hasn’t been sleeping much.”
“I worry for her.”
“I do, too.” Fia frowned at the blanket she unfolded. “This business with Bayard is the last thing she needed.”
“Is she…” He didn’t know how to ask without sounding pathetic.
Fia looked up, taking his measure, before answering his unspoken question, “She’s no intention of accepting him. They wouldn’t suit at all, not that Bayard cares. She’s playing for time.” She peered at him from under her lashes. “She needs someone very different from the baron. Someone who can put her and the Darrowlands first.”
His beast snarled at the insinuation that he didn’t know how to care for his mate, but Hakon bit it back. That wasn’t what Fia said, even if what she had was almost as hard to swallow.
“Does he pose a real danger to her? Should he not be imprisoned for treason?” Hakon couldn’t imagine Chief Kennum or even Lord Merrick standing for such insolence, but then, Bayard wouldn’t have moved against them. He saw an opportunity with Aislinn vulnerable and meant to exploit it.
Hakon would ensure the baron lived to regret it.
“I can’t imagine him doing her any harm,” said Fia. “He needs her. Doesn’t mean he can’t sit around and be as insufferable as possible, of course.”
Hakon appreciated her growl of disapproval.
“And his men?”
“A threat to what my lady holds most dear.” Fia stopped fluffing the pillow to regard him seriously. “She’s always put her people first, and they love her for it. They will defend her and her claim to the end.”
Ears heating, Hakon dared to admit to her, “She is first in my heart.”
