“That makes no sense to me,” she said. “Cirencester has never given my father trouble in all of the years we have known him. They are friends.”
“No longer, according to your father,” Roi said, moving past her and going to the enormous wardrobe that had been part of the chamber when he first took possession of the castle. “He is asking me to bring my army and meet him in a village called Colesborne. You can see from the missive what else he says—that Cirencester has already burned two villages near their property boundary.”
Diara was genuinely baffled. She sat on the edge of their bed, missive in hand, as Roi began to pull out pieces of clothing to pack.
“Did Mathis not say that Cirencester paid my father a visit before Beckett’s funeral?” she said.
“That is what the knight said.”
“And now Cirencester is attacking my father?”
Roi came over to the bed and began to lay things out. “Mathis told us of the meeting, but he did not know what was said,” he replied. “It is possible that Cirencester threatened your father or tried to coerce him, but your father is a stubborn man. He must have refused, and now, Cirencester is retaliating. The only thing I do not understand is why he seemed happy after Cirencester’s departure from Cicadia Castle. To me, that does not speak of a worried man.”
Diara sat there, shaking her head, until she finally turned to him. “I do not like this at all, Roi,” she said. “You do not know my father. He holds grudges. He becomes inflamed if anyone opposes him. You saw him when he went to Lioncross and bullied your father. You said so yourself.”
“I did.”
She stood up from the bed. “Something is very wrong here,” she said. “Cirencester would never attack my father.”
Roi looked at her. “Do you think it is someone other than Cirencester?”
“I don’t know,” she said, working herself up into a state. “Riggs Fairford is a wicked man, and his son, Flavian, is even worse. They were very upset when my father would not agree to a betrothal between Flavian and me, but that was so long ago. That is the only thing I can possibly think of that might make him angry enough to strike.”
Roi appeared doubtful. “I cannot believe he would show his disappointment so long after the suit was refused,” he said. “Moreover, you are married now. If they were still pursuing you, that is now ended. And wasn’t all of that several years ago?”
“Before my father went to France.”
“Then I am sure this has nothing to do with a rejected suit,” he said. “Cirencester would not decide to attack your father four years after his suit was refused.”
“But I have only been married for a couple of weeks.”
That brought Roi pause. “You think that Cirencester may have held out hope for a betrothal until you were legally married, and now he is furious?”
Diara sighed heavily. “As I said, I do not know,” she said. “But he visited my father before we were married and attacked him only after we were wed. Coincidence?”
“It has to be.”
“Then if that is not the reason, something else must have prompted the attack.”
“Like what?”
She didn’t have an answer, and because of that, she was close to tears. “I do not know,” she whispered tightly. “But I do not want you to go.”
He frowned, as if she had said something ridiculous. “I must go,” he said, turning back to the wardrobe. “I am your husband and obligated to answer your father’s call. You know this.”
She didn’t like the fact that he wasn’t taking her seriously. “My father has not had trouble on his lands in almost twenty years,” she pointed out. “And suddenly, he has an attack two weeks after I marry? An attack in which he summons de Lohr aid, no less?”
Roi looked at her. She was genuinely upset, but he thought it was more because he was going to face a skirmish and she was afraid in general. He thought that perhaps she was simplymaking up phantoms of suspicion where there weren’t any. Removing a small leather satchel from the wardrobe, he tossed it onto the bed as he made his way over to her.
“This is the first time you’ve had a husband go to war, is it?” he said, his eyes glimmering. “I would have never known.”
She didn’t like being teased. “I know you think I am being foolish, but I do not have a good feeling about this,” she said. “Nothing is making sense about my father, and it is frightening me. What about my catching him in your father’s solar?”
“What about it?”
She threw up her hands in exasperation. “It was very odd.”
“I think he was just being nosy, my love.”
