Page 16 of Severe Husband Warning

“In return, I ask only two things.” My throat tightens despite every effort to keep my voice steady. “The first is that you settle my family’s debt to House Malakor immediately.”

He gives no indication of what he thinks, forcing me to continue.

“My father received the final writ of seizure this morning. They will return for him in three days, but he is too ill to survive labor service. I am asking you to prevent that from happening.”

Speaking Father’s fate aloud nearly steals my voice, and I pause to take a deep breath.

“My second condition is your protection. My father remains under House Stromgarde’s protection for as long as our agreement lasts. Lord Malakor relinquishes every claim against him.”

When the final words leave me, I realize there is nothing left to add. Every argument worth making now belongs to him. The absurdity of what I have asked hits me all at once, and I fight to keep my legs from giving way.

I have walked into the heart of one of Galmoleth’s greatest Houses and asked its lord to exchange his name for my father’s life.

The gardens fall quiet again. The metallic leaves whisper overhead as another roll of thunder drifts across the mountains, and the steady hum of mercury over polished stone fills the space between us.

My own pulse beats loudly enough that I start to wonder if he can hear it.

I want to tell him about Father—about the hands roughened by decades spent repairing noble conduits or about the stubborn dignity illness has never managed to steal from him. I want him to understand that I am not bargaining for ambition.

But I remain exactly where I am, my fingers curled tightly inside my cloak, refusing to speak again unless he asks.

Lord Rothgar doesn’t.

The storm rolls overhead, silver light washing across the mercury before fading into shadow once more. When the brightness passes, he stands exactly as I first found him—calm, unreadable, as immovable as the fortress surrounding us.

I came here believing courage meant asking the impossible.

Now I discover the harder task is standing still long enough to hear the answer.

8

ROTHGAR

Across the fountain, the human stands with her hands folded beneath her cloak, allowing my silence to remain undisturbed. Most petitioners fear silence. They mistake it for rejection and rush to repair arguments that required no repair in the first place.

Calla Alder waits.

In doing so, she displays a discipline I had not expected.

Her proposal is disarmingly simple. She offers a marriage stripped of everything noble houses normally bargain over. No estates accompany her name. No influential relatives stand behind her hoping to inherit favor through proximity. She brings neither obligations nor political entanglements.

Ordinarily, those absences would count against her, but today, they are precisely what makes the proposal valuable.

A marriage to Calla creates nothing my rivals can seize. Malakor gains no foothold within my House. The King acquires no convenient pressure point. Every advantage normally sought through a political union simply fails to materialize.

I suspect she understands that. If so, then I have already underestimated her.

Malakor sought to bind House Stromgarde through one of his nieces. This human musician has quietly presented an alternative that exists entirely outside the expectations of court.

Unexpected solutions are uncommon. Useful ones even more so.

My eyes find her again.

She has remained perfectly still throughout my silence, though I notice the faint tension where her fingers tighten against the fabric of her cloak. She understands that I am weighing her future.

“Your proposal,” I say at last, “is unusually well reasoned.”

Relief touches her features before she gathers herself once again.