“Sadly, yes.” Lord Lorne still didn’t enter the room. He was leaning more heavily against the jamb, and he moved one arm to wrap over his stomach. While he looked more hale and healthy, he was far from strong. Just standing for that long had his face paling, his breathing growing heavier. “Although, the assassin could just as easily be for me as for you. After all, I’m the one standing in the way of you marrying a lord’s son of the council’s choice.”
“Then having you here could put me at even more risk, not less.” She twisted her hands in the blankets, her heart hammering harder in her throat. Despite herprotests, her skin crawled at the thought of being in this room alone, sleeping and vulnerable, now that he’d mentioned the probability of an assassination.
“Perhaps.” Lord Lorne grimaced, although the expression could have been because of his growing pain as much as the topic. “But anyone who sends an assassin after me might consider it just as easy to have the assassin kill both of us while he’s at it. Yes, sleeping in the same room will make it easier for the assassin. But it won’t split our guards’ response, especially since those we know are loyal are so few. I’ll have a chance of fighting back, once I’m more healed, of course.”
Lord Lorne shouldn’t feel safe. He was an enemy lord, only bound to her by their tenuous marriage vows and their shared desire for peace. He could even be using the excuse of protecting her as a means to get close enough to kill her himself.
Yet he’d offered comfort. Safety. A listening ear. A hand to hold. And that was all in the few hours he’d been lucid. He’d given her more warmth and care than her grandfather ever had.
And now he was offering to essentially be her bodyguard while she slept.
Her fingers clutching the edge of the lap desk, she managed a nod. “Yes. Please come in. Come…”
She couldn’t manage to finish, her face burning. She couldn’t look at him as he crossed the room with soft steps, the bed dipping under his weight as he sat on the other side. Instead, she busied herself with setting aside her lap desk and paperwork. When shedidn’t have anything else to fiddle with, she buried her fingers in the blankets.
Her skin prickled with awareness of him, her breath catching in her throat. He was so close, and she was so vulnerable. Vulnerable to him. Vulnerable to the council. Vulnerable to a potential assassin. It seemed all she managed to be was vulnerable and scared. Hardly the strong queen her kingdom needed.
The blankets shifted as he tucked his legs beneath them, although he didn’t lie down. Instead he remained sitting against the headboard as she was doing.
After a moment, he placed his hand on the bed between them, palm up. Extending the offer, but not presuming to simply take her hand. When she glanced at him, he gave her a small, slightly lopsided smile. “Just sleep. I promise.”
Maybe she shouldn’t believe the truth in his voice and sincerity in his eyes. Perhaps she was truly as weak as Lord Sarlon and most of the council believed.
But she untangled one of her hands from the blankets and grasped his hand, squeezing tightly even before he closed his fingers around hers. She needed someone to hold on to, and it turned out that this enemy lord was her only choice.
His smile widened, his posture easing slightly. But instead of looking at her, he rested his head against the headboard, tipping his head back as he closed his eyes. “If you are amiable, I was thinking we should randomly switch sleeping in here and sleeping in the other room. We’ll let our most trusted guards knowwhich room we’ll be in, but no one else. Not even the other guards stationed in the corridor. A few minutes of trying to find which room we’re in could buy us crucial seconds in the case of an assassination attempt.”
“A good precaution.” Adeline peeked at him. “How dangerous is the Lalsacian court that you think of these things?”
“Far less dangerous than the Kelvernese court, I assure you.” Lord Lorne’s eyes remained closed. “But we’ve had reason to fear assassins sent from Kelverny.”
Oh. Right. She would have said her kingdom wouldn’t do such a thing, but she wouldn’t put anything past her grandfather. He had, after all, arrested and tortured diplomatic envoys who had been under the flag of truce.
“About assassins…” Lord Lorne’s posture tensed, and he lifted his head once again. When he met her gaze, there was something compassionate and aching in his eyes. “I have something to tell you. About your parents. I meant to tell you long before now. After all, it’s the reason I organized the diplomatic mission. I thought this information might make a difference to relations between our kingdoms.”
“What? What about my parents?” She tucked her knees tighter to her chest, wrapping her free arm around them. Her other hand gripped his so tightly that it had to hurt, but he didn’t pull away.
“There were no Lalsacian units in that area of the pass the day your parents were killed.” Lord Lorne held her gaze with unwavering intensity.
“No.” She shook her head, as if she could forcibly expel his words from her ears. “No, it’s not possible. I’m sure it was a mistake. Your kingdom didn’t mean to kill them. But…”
“I know I don’t have any proof that I can show you.” Lord Lorne’s fingers flexed around hers, but his gaze remained locked on her. “But I talked to every Lalsacian commander who was stationed in the pass that day. I talked to as many of the soldiers as I could track down. I searched our military records and confirmed everything with my…king. Lalsacia did not kill your parents.”
“No.” Her protest came out weaker than before.
She didn’t want to believe it. Her parents’ deaths had been her grandfather’s whole excuse for the war. It had been his reason for capturing and torturing Lord Lorne and his men.
If Lalsacia didn’t kill her parents, then that only left…
“Surely my grandfather wouldn’t have killed his own son. He was his heir.” She was still shaking her head, although slower, her shoulders hunching. She’d just been thinking that she wouldn’t put anything past her grandfather. But this?
“Not his only heir.” Lord Lorne eyed her. “He had one other heir. One he believed he could control and mold and eventually marry off to the son of his crony to further control her.”
“No, he wouldn’t…” She trailed off, curling in on herself. Her father had been vocal against any plans to go to war with Lalsacia. He’d rallied the lords opposed towar, and he’d been the leading voice standing against her grandfather.
Her grandfather had used that stance to force her father to prove how much he wanted peace with Lalsacia by going on that diplomatic mission, and taking her mother with him.
“It’s possible it wasn’t your grandfather.” Lord Lorne squeezed her hand. “Lord Sarlon would be my other top suspect. He certainly leveraged your father’s absence to worm his way into being your grandfather’s right-hand man. And he’d positioned his son to become king one day.”
