Page 119 of Ashborne Forged

She didn’t react to the news that I was watching her messengers, but the fact that she didn’t respond was enough signal for me to smile.

“If this particular prey is beyond your reach, you can admit it, Mother. I will not condemn you. But I will handle it myself.”

“If you touch a hair on a Lord’s head, I will remove your ability to procreate,” she said with a smile, before taking a bite off the beef and showing me her teeth.

I snorted. “First of all, no you won’t. And secondly, since when do you dance carefully around a rich noble? If he dies, his wealth will be disbursed and—”

“There will be no further discussion on this. You came to me for help, which I offer freely—”

Freely, my ass.

“—So your role is to wait until I have my pawns in place to deliver what you cannot. Death is the last resort.”

“Not always,” I muttered.

Her eye glittered. I let mine reflect the sentiment.

But my mother was the consummate strategist, and had taught me well in the ways of keeping your opponent off-balance. She flashed what was supposed to be a reassuring smile, then deftly changed the subject, forcing me to either back down, or escalate the conflict, knowing either course would shift power in her favor.

I refused to give her the satisfaction, and ruminated on how to turn the tables back on her.

“Have you replaced your beloved Athos with an equally admirable steed? And, if so, what is his name? I assume you only ride studs these days?”

The servants all looked straight to me, their eyes widening at her boldness in raising the unspoken.

Fire.

My false death.

The killing of my favorite horse.

I kept my expression blank. “I didn’t come by horse. I was offered a ride.”

“Oh? My men saw no one on the road the night you arrived—and none came to the house with you.”

“I wasn’t with friends. I walked the final stretch.”

She didn’t need to know that stretch was from the field alongside the manor, not on the road.

My mother’s nose wrinkled and she sniffed. “I do not understand your willingness to accept the inconveniences of a common life, when so much more is available to you.”

I grinned. “The common life is a great deal more fun than noble society.” I winked at one of the serving girls lined up against the wall. Her cheeks colored, but she didn’t meet my eyes.

Mother ignored my games. “That can’t possibly be true.”

I broadened the smile and leaned forward, rudely placing my elbows on the table, either side of my plate. “Why, Mother, I’m shocked. In this, at least, it appears my experience exceeds yours.”

The room went silent as she raised her eyes from her plate, to meet mine. A warning simmering in her cold gaze.

I only smiled more and leaned even closer, over my plate, to press my advantage. “I came to you for ease. If you cannot provide it, I will move ahead on my own, as I am fully capable of doing.”

“If you were fully capable, you would have done so,” she said simply.

I shook my head and laid down the gauntlet, ignoring the servants’ shocked inhalations. “If my baby is lost, it will be on your head, and there will be none to follow it. I am not taking another man’s seconds.”

The fury that rose in her gaze when I mentioned the baby in front of the servants gave me a burst of satisfaction that should have shamed me. But I would beg God’s forgiveness later.

She needed to be humbled, and if she insisted on playing these games in front of the servants, then I would remove any confidence she might have in my desire to save face.