‘I’d trip you if I wasn’t 100 percent sure you’d fall and not be able to get back up.’
Smiling, she looked ahead. ‘That’s just your future grief talking.’
He laughed quietly as they continued towards the port.
CHAPTER10
When Eda asked Roul to stay for dinner, he should have said no. He had spent every day watching her obsessively on the training field for the past two weeks. It was too much. Every time a sword struck her, every time she fell from a horse, every time the air was knocked from her lungs, he felt it. Every blow, every knock, every gasp for air.
He was exhausted—and entirely responsible.
But if Queen Fayre’s insane plan went ahead, Eda needed to be 100 percent ready for what lay before her. Going easy on her now might be a death sentence later.
If only he could care a little less. It would be so much easier then. Instead, his respect for her was growing, his feelings evolving and deepening. And he had rules about that. Friendship was perfectly acceptable. One could be friends with any number of people and go about living their lives. But when an attachment formed between two people, separating them became problematic—and separation was inevitable.
Five years.
He was in the latter half of his service now, a couple of years from leaving Chadora and never returning. Eda still did not know, and he knew the news would crush her when she eventually found out. She would not want him to leave, and if he were being honest, the reality of leaving her behind was starting to eat away at him.
‘I wish I could offer you some meat,’ Candace said, taking a seat at the table. ‘Unfortunately there was nothing at the market this morning, and Blake still refuses to slaughter the goats because they were a gift from Harlan.’
Blake rolled her eyes. ‘Clove is a milking goat, Mother. You’re not supposed to eat animals you get milk from.’
Candace laughed. ‘And where is this mythical milk?’
‘It will come.’ Blake passed the plate of boiled eggs to Roul. ‘We can’t breed a dead goat.’
Harlan scooped Luella off the floor and kissed her face until she squealed, then placed her back on the ground with the duck. ‘This family has a history of getting attached to its food.’ He nodded at Garlic, who was now quacking at his feet for attention. ‘Blake still hasn’t eaten the first meal I gave her.’
Blake turned in her chair. ‘Whose eggs do you think we’re eating?’
‘The chickens’,’ Candace replied dryly, picking up the plate of boiled carrots.
The smug expression fell from Blake’s face, and Harlan smiled at his plate.
Roul noticed Eda staring longingly at the tray of roasted onions, then realised her arms were probably too tired to lift it. He picked it up and dropped a few onto her plate.
‘What did you do to my sister today?’ Blake asked Roul. ‘She came home frozen to the bone, and then I had to fill the tub for her because she couldn’t lift the pail—and it was empty at the time.’
‘Sounds like he did his job,’ Harlan said.
When Eda picked up her fork, the sleeve of her dress slid up. Candace sucked in a breath when she saw Eda’s yellow-and-purple arm. She caught Eda by the elbow, dragging the sleeve higher to inspect the bruises.
‘Oh my goodness,’ Candace breathed.
Blake wiped her mouth with a napkin. ‘That’s nothing. You should see the rest of her.’
Eda glared at her sister. ‘Stop. I’m always peppered with bruises—many of them from Harlan.’
‘Harlan has never bruised you like that,’ Blake replied. ‘Your back looks as though someone took a hammer to it.’
Candace looked accusingly at Roul. ‘Are you permitting grown men to use my youngest daughter as a pell, Commander?’
‘Mother, please,’ Eda said. ‘I give as good as I get.’
Candace released her arm, tutting.
Roul found himself without an appetite suddenly, but he forced himself to eat the small amount of food on his plate.
