“A fine woman.”
“How old are you?”
“I have seen thirty years and five.”
Roi grunted. “She has seen seventeen,” he said. “She is still quite young.”
“She is a woman,” Diara said firmly. “You said yourself that you should be seeking a husband for her. Mathis is a most worthy candidate.”
Roi looked at her with some exasperation. “I know the man,” he said irritably. “Let me at least get used to the idea before you marry my daughter off tomorrow.”
Diara laughed softly. “I apologize, my love,” she said, properly contrite. “I will say no more about it.”
“Thank you.”
“Until tomorrow.”
Roi rolled his eyes, sighing heavily as he turned to Mathis. “When are you returning home?”
Mathis instinctively turned to the crowd in the near distance, seeking out Robin as he spoke to a couple of men he was acquainted with but didn’t really know.
“I am not certain,” he said. “As soon as Cheltenham decides we must leave, but I have no idea when that will be. It could be tomorrow or it could be in a week. He’s been fickle as of late, so I have no way of knowing.”
Diara looked at him. Something he said stuck in her mind—he’s been fickle as of late. That reminded her of finding her father in the hall.
“Mathis,” she said slowly. “Has my father been acting strangely? Is that what you mean by fickle?”
Mathis shrugged. “Your father has his moments,” he said. “The past week or two has seen him more short-tempered than usual. Ever since you and Roi departed Cicadia and Cirencester arrived.”
Diara looked at him sharply. “Cirencester?” she said with surprise. “What did he want?”
Mathis shrugged. “Evidently, Beckett’s funeral procession passed through his lands on the way to the marches,” he said. “Since he was coming from Selbourne, the fastest routewas through Cirencester. I do not know the details of the conversation, but I do know that he came to pay his respects for the loss of your betrothed to your father.”
Diara grew tense, uncharacteristic for her. “There has to be more to it than that,” she said. “Riggs Fairford has never done anything without an ulterior motive. What did he want? Money for allowing Beckett to pass through his lands?”
Mathis shook his head. “I do not know,” he said. “But his visit must have done some good because after he left, your father was much happier and far more congenial than he’d been since he received the news that Beckett had died. After that, your father was eager to come when he received your wedding invitation.”
Roi had been watching the exchange. Mostly, he’d been watching his wife nearly become irate over the visit of Cirencester. He patted the hand that was still clutching his elbow.
“See?” he said. “Your father has forgiven us our hasty departure.”
Diara wasn’t convinced in the least. “Then why was he in your father’s solar, poking around?”
Mathis heard her. “What was he doing?” he asked.
Roi waved him off as if it wasn’t a serious issue, but Diara answered. “When everyone was down here at the field, I found my father in Lord Hereford’s solar, reading through his things,” she said. “I thought it very strange that he should do so.”
“I am sure he was simply being nosy,” Roi said. “What harm can he do?”
Diara’s gaze found her father near the field speaking with more men. “I do not know, but I do not like it,” she said. “I told you that he can hold a grudge. What you did in his solar… he will not easily forgive that. I worry that he is… Oh, I do not know what I worry about. But I do not like Cirencester’s visit.”
“Why not?”
She shrugged. “Because I do not like the man,” she said. “He’s devious and immoral. He wanted me to marry his son, but my father would not allow it. Even he knows that Cirencester is not the most noble of families.”
“Yet he accepted a visit from the man,” Roi said. “And according to Mathis, the visit helped him a great deal.”
“Possibly.”
