“No alliance, no marriage,” he said, trembling because he was so angry. “If you are serious in your promise, then I will dissolve the betrothal at this very moment. I’ll find a husband for my daughter who will bring me a strong alliance elsewhere.”
Roi hadn’t forgotten that Diara was standing back by the doorway, hearing all of this. Before another word was said that would see his betrothal broken, he took a deep breath. He found that he had more at stake than he thought he did.
He didn’t want to lose Diara.
“See if you can understand my position, Robin,” he said, struggling with his composure. “Think back to the days when you had some compassion and understanding. My son is in a wooden box at Lioncross Abbey, waiting for me to return so he can be buried. I do not want to marry Diara before I put him in his crypt because she was his betrothed before she was mine. It would be in extremely bad taste to marry her now and then show up to my son’s funeral married to the woman that had once belonged to him. Furthermore, if I marry her now, my focus will not be on her. It will be on my son and the grief that is tearing at me. That is completely unfair to her. Can you understand that in the slightest?”
Robin was still in verbal battle mode. “It will make no difference to your son if you are married to her or not,” he said. “Beckett is dead. He is not going to crawl out of his grave and berate you for marrying a woman he did not show much interest in marrying to begin with. It will not affect his ability to lie in that grave and rot.”
That was all Roi could take. He took three steps and lashed out an enormous fist, catching Robin squarely in the face. The man fell backward, immediately unconscious, as the blood flowed from his mouth and nose. But Roi didn’t even check to see how badly he’d hit him; he simply turned for the door, where Diara was standing with her hand over her mouth in shock. He marched right up to the panel and put his hand on the latch, pausing to look at her before he opened it.
“If that upset you, then I apologize,” he said through clenched teeth. “But I will let no man speak to me so callously about the son I lost. He should be thankful you were in the chamber, or I would have done much worse.”
With that, he yanked the door open and headed out of the keep. Diara, however, wasn’t going to remain behind. She ranafter him, catching him as he descended the stairs into the bailey.
“Wait!” she cried, rushing down the stairs. “Roi, please wait!”
He came to a halt at the bottom of the steps, turning as she came up behind him. Her eyes were wide with concern.
“Where are you going?” she asked.
He took a deep breath, struggling to calm himself. “I am going to prepare my horse,” he said. “I am also going to tell the de Lohr troops to prepare to leave immediately. I must return to Lioncross.”
“May I go?” she said eagerly, putting her hand on his forearm. “Please? I should very much like to go with you.”
He sighed. Looking into that anxious face, he was starting to feel some remorse for what he’d done. He knew it was the end of the betrothal, and he deeply regretted that.
“I do not think you should,” he said. “I am certain that when your father awakens and realizes what happened, our betrothal will be no more.”
“Why?” she said. “You did nothing to warrant such a thing.”
His brow furrowed in confusion. “What do you mean? You just saw what happened.”
She was very calm as she spoke. “I saw my father trip and hit his face on the edge of his table,” she said evenly. “I saw you move to try to catch him, but he still injured himself. That is all I saw.”
Roi’s eyes widened. “You… you sawwhat?”
She smiled at him. “I saw my father trip and fall,” she repeated patiently. “Now, I am going to tell my mother that Iris and I will be going to Lioncross to attend Beckett’s funeral. Iris will make a good chaperone, don’t you think?”
“But your father did not give permission.”
“He did,” she said. “Before he hit his head. He simply will not remember.”
With that, she winked at him and turned around, heading back up the steps and disappearing into the keep. It took Roi a full minute before he realized that he was standing there with a stupid grin on his face. Every hour, every minute, saw him learn more about this woman he was about to marry.
And positively loving it.
CHAPTER SIX
He didn’t tripand fall.
He knew he didn’t trip and fall, no matter what Diara and Roi had attested to. They’d both sworn he tripped on the rug under his table and pitched forward, knocking himself silly. Two witnesses with the same story.
But Robin knew differently.
While Roi gathered his troops and departed for Lioncross Abbey along with Diara and Iris, because Diara had convinced her mother that he’d given his permission, Robin had remained in his solar and sulked. He didn’t even bother seeing them off because they’d all gone against him and he’d lost control. It was as simple as that. Somehow, Roi had taken over his daughter, his niece, and finally his wife because Ananda was so thrilled her daughter was finally to be married that she didn’t care that the man had assaulted her husband.
In fact, she didn’t believe he had.
