Plans
Roark tied the cover over the lens andslipped the spyglass into its sheath at his waist belt.As far ashe could see, neither Murtaugh or Gall were onThe Roverasit was being loaded for the voyage back to Sea Ridge.But Kerry andKerwin were.He walked Artur to the docks and tied him off to apost.
The secret of Ash drinking on his own hadlasted only a day.Alina hadn’t wanted to deprive Ash of the chanceto feed when he wanted, and so they’d left the bucket of milk outas they always had.Yesterday Gare had come upon the foal drinkingfrom the bucket.He’d been apologetic about telling Roger.Roarkand Alina had assured him they understood.
Gare had also told Roger that it would begood for both the foal and the mare if Alina could continue tendingthem throughout the day, freeing him and Fergus to tend to alltheir other duties, and Roger had agreed.
Roark figured it was as much to keep his wifeand sister-in-law happy as to help out Gare and Fergus, but nomatter the reason, it allowed Alina to be with the animals sheloved rather than trapped in the manor house with people who hatedher.
When he’d ridden out on Artur this morningfor the docks, she’d been overseeing Ash’s and Smokey’s first timeout in the paddock under the watchful eyes of Roger’s guards,laughing at their antics as the foal and the kid gamboled andtumbled in the grass.
“Ahoy, the ship,” he called out as he steppedonto the gangplank.
Kerry poked his head over the railing.“Roark.What brings you here?”
“I was out for a ride,” he nodded towardwhere Artur was tied off, “and saw the ship being loaded up.Thought I’d come by and say hello.”
“Glad you did,” Kerry said as Roark steppedon deck.“Always good to see you.”
Roark clasped his arm and then Kerwin’s.
“How’s the princess?”Kerwin asked.
Roark told them how she’d only been at thekeep a day before she ended up tending Ash.He told them aboutSmokey and Mama Cat, and how Alina still wore her breeches andtunic.
“Sounds like her,” Kerwin said.He’d neverbeen shy about his admiration for Alina.He looked to Kerry andpressed his lips into a thin line.
“What’s wrong?”Roark asked, and went fishingwhen neither brother answered.“You don’t agree with what Roger hasplanned for her either?”
Kerry bit.“Do you?”
“No,” Roark said.“I never wanted any part ofit from the beginning, but like you two, I had little to no choice.Now that I know her…”
“It don’t feel right,” Kerry said.
“It ain’t right,” Kerwin added.“She don’tdeserve it, none of it, even if what laird high and mighty saysabout her parents is true.”
“No,” Roark agreed, “she doesn’t.”No matterwhat the new plan was.If Roger concocted it, she didn’t deserveit.Roark glanced around the deck, making sure they were alone.“Tobe honest, lads, after what I saw and heard at Sea Ridge, I have mydoubts about the laird’s version of his family’s banishment.”
“Even if it were true,” Kerwin said.“Theprincess is an innocent in all of it.She don’t deserve to be takenand sold in no slave market.”
Roark did his best to hide the shock joltingthrough him.“Of course, she doesn’t,” he managed to say.Hecleared his throat and scuffed his boot on the deck, trying tothink.“At least she’ll have you two looking after her on thevoyage,” he said.“How long a sail do you expect it to be?”
“A moon’s sail at least through the Mid EarthSea to the desert port,” Kerry said.“Then we have to stay untilwe’ve traded all the goods and the princess is sold to some king,special like for his pleasure house.Roger’s orders.”
Roark didn’t even try to hide the ragebuilding up inside him.Roger was exacting his revenge on KingJerrik and Queen Alyssa with some twisted play on their family’shistory.By selling Alina as a pleasure woman as hergreat-grandmother, Oona the Swan, had been.He spat his distasteout onto the deck.
Roger was many things, but stupid wasn’t oneof them.If he sold Alina as a slave in some desert port, andJerrik found out, he had to know that the Northman king would sailinto North Shore with his warships and raze the town, the keep,everything to ashes.Which meant he had no intention of telling herparents, ever.His revenge would be letting them think her dead forthe rest of their days while secretly gloating over the fear anddegradation she’d be living through for the rest of hers.
“You said you sail in ten days’ time?”heasked the brothers.
“Aye,” Kerwin said.
“Do us all a favor,” he said.“Don’t tellanybody we had this conversation.”
The brothers looked from each other to Roark.“What conversation?”they said in unison.
***
