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After their deaths, he’d never brought a woman again into this house. He’d never wanted to.
Until now.
And that thought also scared the shit out of him. He shouldn’t be wanting Hannah anywhere near his home or in his life, for her safety alone. He wanted every Invictus in his realm dead, before he married again.
But for the first time since having taken that vow, his longings rose like a sudden flash-flood within his chest.
He tried not to think the thought, but the truth was that he’d give just about anything to have Hannah making a life with him in his home.
As he touched down in the stone courtyard, he heard a troll singing what he knew to be a beer-drinking song. Nothing had felt as normal as hearing Nathan sing. Not liking the word ‘butler’, he’d assigned himself a new title: Executive Castle Coordinator, or ECC, and was proud of it.
Jude didn’t care what he was called; he loved having Nathan keeping his life working day and night.
He opened the large wood front door and passed through.
“Is that you, Jude?”
“It sure is. Am I smelling coffee?”
He moved past a large living room built with a couple stories high ceiling, inset with wood beams. Three tall, arched, diamond-paned windows ran along the east wall, flanked with sun-blocking shutters.
A long dining room came next, with tall, tapestried chairs, and a runner crocheted by his nanny two-hundred years ago. Naomi had loved the runner, so he’d kept it on the heavy, dark wood table all these years. A very large window made of the same diamond panes as the ones in the living room, framed a view of the lake. Across the water, a dozen villages climbed into the surrounding hills.
His own vision saw everything in a glow of green hills and blue lake.
It was a beautiful vista that one day he’d love for Hannah to see. Maybe if he shared with her some of the favorite parts of his realm, she might be inclined –
But there he stopped his thoughts cold.
What was he thinking?
He needed to guard against any such hopes or fantasies. Hannah loved her bar and belonged there. And he never wanted her to sacrifice what meant so much to her just because she was now a blood rose.
And he needed to stay focused on the Invictus and finding a way to run the last one to earth.
He passed through the hall that housed storerooms on the left and a butler’s pantry on the right. Once a year, he brought in his lieutenants and lead Guardsmen, serving them a feast he catered from one of the talented, local elven restaurants.
Once in the kitchen, Nathan held up a tray of intricately decorated cupcakes.
Jude’s brows rose. “Don’t tell me these are from — ?”
“Yep. Just Two Sweet in Merhaine. Arrived an hour ago. Abigail sent them over. Actually, Elena did.” His eyes glazed over for a moment. Nathan had a thing for Abigail’
s business partner and spent as many long weekends as he could courting the elven beauty.
“Well, this is a treat.”
Nathan had a few crumbs clinging to the corner of his mouth. Trolls loved sweets.
Jude moved to sit at the large island. Nathan poured him a cup and slid a plate over to him. The cupcake was decorated with the front image of his castle. Jude smiled as he bit down.
Needing to bring the kitchen up to date, Jude had given Nathan full control over the remodel. The results were stunning. The entire layout was made of white marble and stainless steel and made for a serious cook, which Nathan was.
The kitchen had a north view of the lake and its rolling hills. Several villages could be seen in the distance, with cottages and shops climbing in various places all the way to the top. The most expensive dwellings sat on the ridgeline and had excellent views of Kellcasse in both directions.
As mastyr homes went, the castle was fairly small with an upper story of three bedrooms and his own large suite. Nathan lived in a detached guest house, the one connected to Naomi’s boathouse and dock. Sailing had been one of his wife’s favorite pastimes and she’d spent a lot of time on the water with Joy.
Well-groomed gardens, now in early summer’s full bloom, pressed up against all the stone walls of the castle and more than one lattice-work took purple clematis as far as it would go. Naomi had laid out the gardens herself.
