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“Why shouldn’t he believe it?” Leeana asked simply, and Kaeritha stared at her.
“Because he’s almost four times your age, that’s why!”
“He’s also wealthy, a favorite of the King’s chief minister, a member of the King’s Council in his own right, and related by both blood and marriage to Baron Cassan,” Leeana replied.
“But you said he’s almost fifty!”
“What difference should that make to him—or the Council?” Leeana asked. “He’s a recent widower with four children, two of them boys, by his first wife, and the youngest is less than a year old. So it’s obvious he can still sire sons.”
She said it so reasonably that Kaeritha had to bite her own tongue hard. For just a moment, she was furious with Leeana because she did sound so reasonable. But then she made herself step back from her own anger. Leeana’s tone was that of someone who knew the world in which she had been raised would find what she was saying reasonable, not of someone who agreed with it.
“Do you really think,” the knight asked quietly after another brief pause, “that your father would let someone that age—anyone, regardless of who he’s related to!—have you?”
“I don’t think he’d do it willingly,” Leeana said in a very low voice. “In fact, I think he’d probably refuse to do it at all, and I know he won’t accept this offer. But in a way, knowing that only makes things worse.”
She stared into Kaeritha’s eyes, her own pleading for something. Sympathy, of course, but even more than that, for understanding.
“What do you mean, ’worse’?” she asked.
“Rulth Blackhill is a greedy, powerful man,” Leeana replied. “He also has a reputation I’m not supposed to know anything about as someone who’s abused his position as lord warden whenever his eye falls on one of his holder’s attractive daughter … or wife,” she added with a grimace. “But what matters most is that he’s both ambitious and closely allied with his cousin and brother-in-law, Baron Cassan. And Baron Cassan and Father … don’t get along. They don’t like each other, they don’t agree on most matters of policy, and Baron Cassan heads the Court faction most opposed to anything resembling ’appeasement’ of the hradani. In fact, he almost convinced the King to deny Father’s petition to strip Mathian Redhelm of his wardenship, and Blackhill supported him. The two of them—and the ones who think like them—would love to see Father’s heir married off to one of Cassan’s allies.”
Her young face was taut with distaste and anger, and Kaeritha nodded slowly. Of course, judging by what Leeana had said about this Rulth Blackhill’s reputation, the thought of bedding someone as lovely as Leeana probably figured in his thinking as well, the knight thought sardonically. Indeed, if he’d abused his authority the way Leeana was suggesting, the knowledge that she’d been forced to wed him against her will would only give the thought of forcing himself upon his political enemy’s lovely only child a certain added savor for him.
“I’d think Cassan would have realized all of that would have made your father even less likely to accept Blackhill’s offer,” she said.
“He did,” Leeana agreed. “In fact, he was probably counting on it.”
“Now you have me really confused,” Kaeritha admitted.
“Cassan hates Father, and he wants to discredit him in any way he can. And however I might feel about marrying someone Blackhill’s age, it’s a perfectly appropriate match by most standards.”
“Even given what you just said about his abuse of his holders?” Kaeritha asked, cocking one eyebrow, and Leeana shrugged.
“Most of the Councilors have probably heard the reports about him and the women in his bed, Dame Kaeritha, but he’s a lord warden. No one’s going to want to bring something like that up, because they won’t want their own reputations put under a glass and thrown up to them. So Cassan could be certain there’d be enormous pressure from several Council members for Father to accept, and very little support for him to refuse the offer. And if Father doesrefuse it, Cassan’s supporters will urge the King to overrule him and order him to accept it. I know some people think Father’s too clever to be caught out that way, but managing to avoid it may cost him dearly in terms of political support. Especially when he’s already upset so many people by his ’surrender’ to Prince Bahzell.”
Kaeritha shook her head.
“That’s too complicated and devious for my poor peasant-born brain to wrap itself around,” she said. Leeana looked at her, and she snorted. “Oh, I don’t say I disbelieve you, girl. And intellectually, I suppose I can even understand the twisty sort of thinking that would go into something like that. I just can’t understand it on any sort of personallevel.”
“I wish I didn’t,” Leeana told her. “Or that I didn’t have to, at least.”
“I can believe that,” Kaeritha said. She put some more wood on the fire, listening to the hiss as flames explored its damp surface. Then she looked back up at Leeana.
“So someone you don’t like and certainly don’t want to marry has asked your father for your hand, and you’re afraid that when he refuses the offer, it will make serious problems for him. That’s why you ran away?”
“Yes.” Something about that one-word reply made Kaeritha cock an eyebrow. It wasn’t a lie—that much she was certain of. Yet somehow she was certain it wasn’t the entire truth, either. She thought about pushing harder, then changed her mind.
“And how does ru
“I’d have thought that was obvious, Dame Kaeritha,” Leeana said in a surprised tone.
“Humor me,” Kaeritha said dryly. “Oh, I think I can figure out your basic strategy. I don’t flatter myself that you followed me just to place yourself under my protection, champion of Tomanak or not. So I suspect that what you’re really doing is heading for Kalatha with some scatterbrained, romantic schoolgirl’s notion of becoming a war maid in order to avoid your unwelcome suitor. Is that about right?”
“Yes, it is,” Leeana said just a touch defensively.
“And have you really considered all you’ll be giving up?” Kaeritha countered. “I’ve been a peasant, Lady Leeana. I doubt very much that your lot would be quite as hard among the war maids as mine was in Moretz, but it would be very, very different from anything you’ve ever experienced before. And there won’t be any going back. Your birth and family won’t protect you any longer—in fact, for all intents and purposes, you’ll be dead as far as your family is concerned.”
“I know,” Leeana said very, very softly, staring into the fire once more. “I know.” She raised her eyes to Kaeritha again. “I know,” she repeated a third time, jade eyes brimming with tears. “But I also know Mother and Father will always love me, whether I’m still legally their daughter or not. Nothing will ever change that. And if I go to the war maids, I take the decision out of Father’s hands. No one can possibly blame him for refusing to allow Blackhill to marry me if I’m no longer his daughter. And,” she managed a crooked smile, “the disgrace of what I’m doing should put me so far beyond the pale that not even someone as ambitious as Rulth Blackhill would consider offering me honorable marriage.”
“But you’re not yet fifteen years old,” Kaeritha said. She shook her head sadly. “That’s too young to make this sort of decision, girl. I haven’t known your father as long as you have, but I know he’d agree about that. You may be doing this for him, but do you really think he’d want you to?”
“I’m certain he wouldn’t,” Leeana admitted with a sort of forlorn pride. “He’ll understand it, but that isn’t the same as wanting me to do it. In fact, I’m pretty sure he and his armsmen are on the road behind me by now, and if he catches up, he’ll believe he doesn’t have any choice but to take me home again, whether I want to go or not. Because he loves me, and because, like you, he’s going to argue that I’m too young to make this decision.