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ChapterTwenty

“There she is.”

Roland wanted to care that they were finally about to meet the woman who they’d sworn to protect. Who he’d severed his relationship with a family he loved for, trained for, and would risk his life for, because he believed her claim was right and just. However, he was finding it difficult to care about anything except Amalia.

Amalia sat atop her mount beside him, and nothing but her smile mattered. After last eve, things had shifted between them again. This morn, when she arrived in the hall to break her fast, even Alden and Darien could sense from the way she smiled that something had happened between them.

Indeed, it had.

She might have been with other men, but he’d given her the first taste of real gratification, and Roland could not help but be pleased by the fact.

Tearing his gaze from Amalia, he looked then toward the entrance of the keep. Empress Matilda, or Matilda of England as she was sometimes called, was both extraordinary and simple all at once. Her gown was that of a future queen, a gold color Roland had never seen before in cloth. Her jewels, also gold, were not plentiful, but those she did wear gleamed in the early morning sun as she made her way toward the coach that would take her to London.

The rest of her, however, was nondescript. Her hair, bound and barely discernible, was covered with a similar gold-colored cloth. She wore no coloring on her cheeks or lips, and though Matilda was not young, neither did she appear as mature as he would have expected.

“She appears already a queen,” Amalia said beside him.

“Aye,” he agreed as the crowd quieted. The empress had raised her right hand, seemingly imploring all of those in the courtyard to silence.

“I am honored,” she said, her voice strong and clear, “to serve you as we set forth on this momentous journey. My gratitude for your protection is eternal, our cause right and just.”

Cheers went up at her words, the empress’s reputation seemingly on par with the woman herself. It was said she was as humble as she was tenacious and intelligent.

“She will make a good queen,” Alden said, riding up to him and Amalia.

“Indeed,” he said, agreeing with his friend. “Come,” he said to Amalia. “We’ve been given leave to ride beside her.”

Amalia’s eyes widened. “We have?”

Roland sought out Sir Eamon, who was standing beside one of the empress’s own men. Catching his commander’s eye, Eamon nodded.

“We have,” he said, navigating his mount through the crowd. Just as he and Amalia arrived, Empress Matilda was being guided into her coach. Her eye caught his own and narrowed. She spoke to Eamon and then called to him.

“De Vere,” she said. “Come, and bring the healer.”

He did as he was bid, Amalia riding beside him.

“I am told there are none, not even Thorne”—she nodded to Eamon—“who can best you in a swordfight.”

Roland would not presume to tout his own abilities. “I am certain Sir Eamon could best me if he chose to do so.”

Eamon laughed. The empress raised her brows. “You are more humble than your father.”

That got his attention. She knew his father? Or perhaps she just knew of him?

“And smarter, I would say, as well, for having chosen the right side of history in supporting my cause.” The cheeky woman actually winked at him. “Come,” she said to Amalia then. “You will ride with me.”

With that, the empress spoke to those around her in a hushed tone and was assisted into the coach. Roland had already dismounted and was at Amalia’s side. She allowed him to help her down, and escorting her to the future queen’s coach, he reluctantly gave her up as Eamon assisted her inside.

Amalia said nothing but appeared as rattled as he’d expected by the request. She gave him a final backward glance and then was swallowed by the four-person coach as the door was closed behind her. A young squire, by the look of him, had already come to fetch Amalia’s mount.

“Ride with me,” Eamon said, spurring his mount in front of the empress.

Roland joined him.

“That was most unexpected,” he said as their contingency began to move through the courtyard.

“I spoke with her briefly this morn and told her we’d brought along a healer.”