“Will you spare us?” She wrung her hands together. “If you and Lord Caelan go to war, will you harm his people?”
A shiver of disgust wormed its way through me. How much war and strife had the shifters seen to ask me this question? How low had their enemies sunk?
“Have I ever harmed any of you? At any time? I was willing to marry your Lord, to give him a crown and bear his children. I boosted the health of his lands and gave him all that I was, only for him to throw it all back in my face. Even then, did I harm you?”
The woman stared at me until understanding flickered over her face.
Every woman knew the cost a wrong man could bring to their doorstep. Every woman knew war was only the answer when all else had failed. I never wanted this, but Caelan had brought war to my home, and I was only responding in kind.
Sheila nodded then, her anger washed away with realization. My battle had never been with them. It had always been a battle with myself and my demons until Caelan had involved Rowan.
When he’d done that, I was willing to wipe him and everything he loved off the face of the earth. If Rowan had not been there to bring me back to myself, I would have.
Now I only wanted Caelan to face what he’d done and try to broker some sort of peace between us. Rowan was still a Lord, and working with Caelan was part of the job. Even if I’d made him surrender his Lord title while all this was going on.
I’d made the possibility of Rowan and Caelan working together all but impossible.
I couldn’t bring myself to feel bad about doing so.
“Would you like some coffee or tea?” I asked.
Sheila blinked, opened her mouth and closed it before sighing. “Yes. I would. Coffee would be wonderful.”
I nodded. “I’ll send someone out.”
Moira, like Tess and Ash, had a key to the wards. She was the safest and deadliest person to send minus one of Rowan’s people, and I thought Sheila might feel more relaxed if someone neutral brought her coffee out.
Not that Moira was in any way, shape, or form neutral. She’d tear someone’s throat out if she thought they were looking at me sideways.
But Sheila didn’t know that, and Moira could be sophisticated as they came when she wanted to.
Not that she wanted to very often.
“Be nice to her,” I whispered. “Her son is alone on enemy land.”
Moira snorted. “Have you seen your husband? He and the boy are out on the deck playing checkers.”
I blinked. Sounded about right. “Of course he is.” With a snicker, I sent Moira out the door with a small tray of coffee with cream and sugar. Was I being too nice?
Psychological warfare meant you had to play with your enemies’ heads just a little. Even the slightest seed of doubt planted in one of Caelan’s people’s heads, and we might win the day.
Moira grinned and added a few fresh baked chocolate chip cookies from the mysterious shifter pastry chef who kept slipping in and out of our kitchen without getting caught. Even Rowan was mystified because they left behind delicious goods and left no scent behind.
I suspected Moira, but she’d denied being the culprit.
I also suspected she was lying. She stress baked, and Moira had been on a tear over Ethan for a few weeks now.
He’d done or said something to her she didn’t care for, and she refused to tell us what it was—only that he was a sonofabitch and she’d tear him apart next time she saw him.
But after that, delicious baked goods started showing up in our kitchen.
“Be careful,” I warned.
Moira rolled her eyes and sailed out the door.
I grabbed a handful of cookies and went to find Rowan, spotting him and Jensen hunched over a small table on the patio, both intent on a rowdy game of checkers.
Rowan was losing.
