It was the day of Ananda’s emancipation.
Quietly, she closed the door to her husband’s solar and went about her business, just as he had asked.
Let someone else find the body.
She was finished.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Pembridge Castle
It was awaiting game now.
Daniel, Curtis, Douglas, Westley, Chris, William, and Arthur had come to Pembridge and left. They’d only left the day before, heading out with about six hundred troops, a mix of men from Lioncross Abbey and the remains of those left behind at Pembridge. Unfortunately, they had to explain their arrival at Pembridge when they’d come seeking Roi, and Diara had told them that he’d gone to the aid of her father. The men had very nearly panicked over that news, and their behavior, in turn, had upset Diara, so they were forced to tell her everything.
Absolutely everything.
Now, all that she had feared had become reality. Her father’s meddling, his odd behavior—it all became clear as Curtis calmly told her what Mathis had told them. Diara wept as she realized what her father was trying to do. She knew, as she lived and breathed, that it all had to do with the scene back at Cicadia when Roi had struck her father in the face. Before Roi left to answer her father’s summons, she’d tried to tell him that her father wasn’t the forgiving kind and that he held a grudgeagainst those who went against him. She’d even begged Roi not to go. But not even Diara thought her father would go this far.
The man was trying to kill her husband.
It was beyond belief, but in the same breath, she really wasn’t surprised. Diara had seen her father turn against men who did not obey his wishes. Curtis and Daniel were adamant that they needed to leave for Colesborne to help Roi, so she let them go. Kyne remained with her, still in command of the castle, but Curtis and his brothers, cousin, and sons took a large contingent and rushed out of Pembridge.
Rushing to save her husband.
Diara hadn’t stopped weeping for days.
Now, it was morning of the fifth day since Roi had departed, lured by the false missive sent by her father. Curtis and the others had been gone for a couple of days, and Diara couldn’t eat or sleep. All she could do was watch from her window, for any sign of a returning army. Sometimes she wandered the bailey, hoping she would be there at just the right time when the army came through the gatehouse. Kyne watched her walk around, and sometimes, he would join her and try to calm her fears. But he knew it was useless.
Truthfully, he was fearful himself.
But this morning, Diara made it down into the fishpond area behind the kitchens. Roi had had a stone bench put in before he left because sometimes they’d come down and sit, watching the fish or watching Dorian as she tried to make the area thrive again. It was her pet project, this pond and the surrounding garden, and Diara sat on the bench, watching the fish, remembering the time when Roi threw her into the pond without meaning to.
It had been one of the better moments of her life.
“Diara?”
She heard her name, and looked over her shoulder to see Adalia entering the area. Diara forced a smile when she saw Roi’s daughter, holding out a hand to her.
“Come and sit with me,” she said. “I have been thinking about all of the fish we will put in this pond once Dorian has it clean.”
Adalia took her hand and held it as she sat down next to her. “I do not like fish very much,” Adalia admitted. “I like to watch them swim, but I do not like to eat them.”
Diara grinned. “I do not like fish, either,” she said. “Have you noticed that we’ve not had any fish for supper? It is because I cannot stand the smell of it.”
Adalia smiled timidly. “Nor I,” she said. “I would rather have chicken.”
“I would, too.”
“I do not even like goose.”
“I cannot stand it. Too oily.”
As they giggled over their mutual dislike of fish and roast goose, Dorian entered the area, looking as if she was armed for a trip into the lion’s den. She had on gloves and boots and a long tunic of canvas that Diara helped make for her. She was also carrying several gardening implements. When she noticed her sister and stepmother sitting there, she threw down the tools in her hands.
“I am cleaning out the plants today,” she announced. “All of those plants in the pond that are making the water so green. I am removing them.”
Diara nodded. “That is very brave of you,” she said. “The pond will be wonderful when you are finished with it.”
