Page 42 of Untempered
There were a number of servants coming and going out here, and they all looked a lot less confident than they had earlier in the day.
The reason for their worry loomed, larger than life, as he turned the corner. The Butcher. Servants dropped down into deep curtsies or bows and cast their eyes down. I remembered what Thomas said, but I was holding a chest and wasn’t going to pretend to care for his rules. I’d sworn myself toher.
Mayhap I should’ve let him fill me with crossbow bolts. My spirit could’ve watched over the ensuing civil war as Darrius sought an apology, and Victor refused to give it. The straw that broke the donkey’s back.
Audrey had the Butcher’s jaw, his long mouth, and his eyes, too.
“Come on.” He swept past us, and Thomas jerked his head at me as if I were supposed to understand what that meant. The two men in the black tabard of the Duke’s own guard settled outside the door. I really hoped they didn’t expect me to do that all day while Audrey pottered around in here.
He opened the inner door with an almighty crash that echoed through the tower. Past him, I saw Audrey in a dress that was too tight across her strong shoulders. And despite it, she looked every bit as powerful as her father.
Unease plucked at my heart, and for a moment, I was a child again, looking to hide behind a woman’s skirts.
“Close that, sir Thomas,” the Duke said, coming to a halt before the fire. Behind us, Thomas closed the door obediently. “The situation has changed,” he said to Audrey. I kept my face straight and held the child within me close, away from the Butcher’s searching eyes. “After the assassination attempt by the Southern rebels,” he said to Thomas and I, “and given the changing situation—” a polite euphemism forI’ve realized I can’t trust my own men, I assumed “—I am increasing the security around my daughter.”
The way he saidmy daughterwas the way most men would saymy swordormy saddle. She was a thing to him. But at least she was a precious thing. I was just a tool. I breathed around that knowledge and straightened my shoulders, better to protect the boy in my heart.
“Aside from the four of you, there are three servants permitted to enter this tower who you have already met. Anyone else who wishes entry must be accompanied by one or the other of you.” The man’s gaze made the contents of my stomach turn to liquid. “Whilst my daughter is within this tower, you may organize a roster between yourselves as to who is in attendance and when. I expect one of you to always be present. Mistress Isolde, if there is a man present, I expect you to be in attendance regardless of whether it is one of the trusted men or not.”
“Of course, Your Grace.” Isolde’s brows were raised as if he’d just issued her an insult. Unease crept up my spine, and respect. She played a close game. And here I was, just hoping he didn’t look too closely.
He acknowledged her words with a brief nod and a modicum of respect I hadn’t anticipated. “If Mistress Isolde is indisposed, the door to my daughter’s chambers remains barred. If my daughter leaves this tower, I expect all of you in attendance. Nineteen years ago, a man gained entry to this tower through deception. He was a Southern rebel.” His eyes rested on me for a moment. I felt the tension in the air like a living creature. “He killed the Duchess and more than half the guard before being dealt with. The guards whose errors cost me so dearly were executed. Not a single person survived that. When I tell you to go with every single man, I expect it to happen.”
“Yes, Your Grace,” Thomas said, his words gravelly.
“Sir Chay, if my daughter visits the infirmary, where will you be?”
I was still scrambling to sort through the history he’d just tossed at us as I tried to sift truth from lie from misdirection. “I’ll be in the infirmary, too, Your Grace,” I told him. “In attendance.”
“Sir Thomas, if King James visits, where will you be?”
“If we’re in the tower, Your Grace, I’ll be in attendance,” he said. “Or sir Chay will be, depending on our roster. If he visits out of the tower, I’ll be in attendance.”
“He’d better be out of the tower.” The threat hung in the air. “You know your job well, woman,” he told Isolde. “Do not flag. Anyone’s failure will mean everyone’s death. I expect your presence tonight, child. You two,” his eyes rested on Thomas and I, “see you’re cleaned up. You’ll be in attendance. You are dismissed.”
He swept out, and I allowed myself to fall in behind Thomas once more as he let himself back into the entry chamber. “We’ll get the last of these chests in,” he said brusquely. “Then I’ll go, get us both a black tabard.” He eyed me critically. “Your boots could use a polish, son.”
I looked down at said boots. They were a bit dusty and a bit worn, but they were fine. Was that actually the most pressing thing he’d taken from that tirade? Disoriented, I fell in behind him. And when we returned to the half-assembled room, Audrey, still pale, stood. “While I have you both, this level has traditionally been for guards’ use. It was going to be for me, as they’ve turned the second bunkroom into a sitting room. However, I don’t need all the space, and I like company. This is a shared area.”
Thomas somehow managed a bow around the chest he held. I didn’t bother trying. My ribs weren’t that much better than they had been, and I couldn’t save her damned life if I couldn’t breathe.
In a bid to get the reins back in my hands, I asked Audrey, “Are we going to the banquet tonight?”
Beside me, Thomas shot me a look so shocked that my attention was dragged fully onto him.
“Sir,” he said, his expression become shuttered, “I’m not sure what you’re talking about, but, for the sake of the lady, I ought to let you know that the Duke?—”
There it was. I cut in, hard, impatient. “My oath isn’t to the Duke. It’s to Audrey.” I wasn’t ending up in that mud.
The blood drained from his face. “They’re one and the same, sir.”
The feral gleam in Isolde’s eyes, the way she shifted ever so slightly to put herself between the door and where Thomas stood, made unease slide under my skin. But my mind was trying to put it all together. Was the Duke the same as Audrey? Was ending up in the mud the same as ending up serving Audrey—who was, herself, either in it already or a hair’s breadth from going down?
I wasn’t keen to mess with a Matri’sion. Even a wounded one. So, erring on the side of caution, I said, “Here was me thinking that we were owned by a grown woman with her own opinions and desires.” And the One help me if the daughter was anything like her father.
Thomas’ mouth opened, closed. Wide-eyed, he looked to Audrey for support. “I don’t own you,” she said, clasping her hands together with enough force her knuckles went white. “And I won’t ask you to split your loyalty, Thomas.”
Split?Mine had been severed and was actively hemorrhaging, and Thomas’ needed to be amputated.
