Page 47 of Unrivaled
I could throw him out myself.I could throw him out of thewindow,but the door would do well enough.A well-placed boot in his teeth would do it.I could call Kaelson and get him dragged off, and hope it’d buy me a little more rope on my father’s leash.
I couldn’t apologize.
No…Iwouldn’t.
“Can I help you with the trade issues?”he asked me, his brow all furrowed, like he was worried.“Or would you rather I go?”
That wasn’t what he was supposed to say.I waited, tension making my limbs hot and uncomfortable.
He put a hand down on the side of my desk, disrupting parchment.When he glanced down, his eyes went wide.“What…”
“What do you mean,what?” It was obvious what he was looking at.“I’m planning on taking over the kingdom, don’t you know, Luca?”
He looked up at me.Nowthere was reproach in his expression.“I came in hoping the city hadn’t descended into anarchy and that you were free and safe, not prepared for you to have developed a focus on commercial interests.If you were sending messages, someone has been intercepting them.I can only hope you didn’t say anything sensitive.”
I couldn’t hold in the bitter laugh.“Like what?‘Men’s ego’?”
He was focused on the blueprints now, though.“The gardens look familiar.It’s a modified version of what you proposed six years ago for your keep’s gardens, yes?”He lifted half carefully, keeping it precisely in place as he peered at the figures beneath.“Except you’ve incorporated space for the beehives.You found they paid off in the orchard?You didn’t run me through the latest data.”
This harvest should’ve shown the first year of full benefits since I’d convinced my father to populate the orchard with hives.It had taken years to get them all into place and build up the population to the point we could fully see the payoff.
Luca damned well knew that.
“Our harvest didn’t come in.”
He looked up at me, eyes cold as granite.“What?”
There was no way he hadn’t heard me.I walked over, shifting the blueprints to the side to expose my calculations.“I’m going to be unable to meet our quotas to train the militias,” I said, as he took in the information.“There’s just no way, unless my father pulls men from the army.”
“He could,” Luca said, not looking up.“Send those recovering to cushy posts.”
I hadn’t even thought of that.Hopefully he already had, but I’d need to write him.Already my mind started to turn on how I could phrase it so my father would hear it.“Meanwhile, I’ve got some apples, but nowhere near enough wheat.If I can get the grains together, it’ll make my apples go further.”
“You can’t make the cider contracts?”he asked me, but it wasn’t in the tone of a question.
I talked him through it all.The loopholes and possibilities, the mayhaps and mishaps I could see.And he listened.The pity was gone.He poured over the blueprints and my drafted letters to explain the clause Brian had found.I wasn’treallybreaching the contract by not providing cider this year, because the same amount of cider would be delivered over the nexttwelveyears…just more would need to come later.
Isolde returned as he was dipping a quill into the inkpot, preparing to mark up two small changes to what I’d thought was the final draft to ensure there was no wriggle room.
Her eyes narrowed on Luca, then swung accusingly toward Chay.
Chay just shrugged and blew some wood shavings off whatever middling carving he was working on.
“My lord, you can’t be here,” Isolde said, primly.
Luca snorted at her.“Have you seen half of what your lady is doing, mistress?You’ve got much bigger problems than me staying a few hours past sundown.”She drew in a breath.I shook my head sharply.“This is really good, Audrey.I love the way you’ve incorporated the drinking fountain here so it’s more accessible.You’re going to need to allocate areas for stalls.Have some sort of booking system.Otherwise, you’ll get the same issue you have now.”
“A dead market?”I asked, my voice dry.
“Your jokes work on so many levels,” he said, a smile tugging at his mouth but his eyes still on the page.“You’ve already planned it, haven’t you?”
“I’ve got a few ideas,” I admitted.“I was going to put them to relevant stakeholders when the time is right, once I’ve polished them up a little.”
Isolde put a jug down noisily beside me and I shot her a smile that made her eyes narrow a little.I wasn’t sure why.Willing to continue for now, I poured Luca a drink and offered her one.She curled her lip.Behind her, Chay’s eyes had locked onto Luca.They were ever so slightly narrowed as he did when he focused hard on something he disliked.
Amusement rippled through me, but I shrugged it off.He could be as jealous as he wanted.If his love was a horizon, then my horse had a broken leg in the night.Right now, Luca was at the campfire with me.It was a shame Chay had walked away, but just because he didn’t want to be with me didn’t meanno onecould.Whether there was anything to be jealousofwas irrelevant.The jealousy was misplaced.
But also, ever so slightly satisfying in a way I suspected Isolde wouldn’t disapprove of.
