Sodrin reached for her hand and gave it a squeeze. “I can’t think of a better man to be your husband, Jahna. Nor a better woman to be his wife. You have my blessing…if you help me with this list.”
Jahna circled the table to hug her brother. This early celebration might all come to naught, and it might well be that, in the near future, Sodrin would be hugging her in comfort. She hoped not. She prayed not.
Good as her word, she helped him with the numerous tasks his future wife had set for him. Between them, they managed to complete all save a few. Sodrin looked frazzled as they met again in his chambers. “I have to accompany Manarys to the Exhibition and supper before that.”
He handed her a silk sash intricately embroidered with the Uhlfrida crest and the crest of the Ilinfan Brotherhood below it. He grinned at Jahna’s gasp. “I commissioned it right after you told me you thought you’d seen Radimar in the market. Can you take it to him? If he wears it tomorrow, he’ll be able to sit with you at the wedding.”
Jahna slid the sash through her hands, admiring the smooth feel of the silk and the painstaking stitchery. It was more than just a visual pass to a better seat at an event. The sash signaled to all that Lord Sodrin Uhlfrida considered Radimar Velus a part of the House of Uhlfrida. “I think he’ll be pleased when he sees this, Sodrin.”
Sodrin motioned for a waiting servant to help him change into more formal garb. “Just be sure to tell him not to forget it tomorrow.”
She reassured him she’d take care of it and made her way through the palace, descending the stairs to the floor below the one Sodrin’s rooms occupied and came to a narrow door tucked into the rounded wall of an equally narrow turret.
She hadn’t seen Radimar since the previous night, and her lips still throbbed with the force of his kisses. The door opened on her second knock and Radimar greeted her at the room’s threshold wearing trousers and a tunic with its sleeves rolled to the elbow and the lacings undone to reveal a muscled chest. He was a breathtaking sight.
It took her a moment to drag her gaze up to his face, and she blushed at the humor in his eyes. She thrust the wrapped package containing the sash at him. “For you to wear tomorrow at the wedding. From Sodrin.” She winced. Could she sound any more idiotic?
Radimar took the package before stepping to the side and gesturing to the room’s interior. “You’re welcome to come in if you wish.”
A thousand thoughts raced through her mind, not the least being the question of whether or not they would continue where they left off in the garden the previous night. Jahna nodded and walked past him into a room the size of a broom closet, and she’d seen bigger broom closets.
This was no way to treat an honored guest. She spun around, a heartfelt apology on her lips along with the promise to string her brother up by his feet for cramming his friend and former teacher into a space a mole would reject as too small.
The lack of room and Radimar’s size put her nose to chest with him, and she gasped before tilting her head to stare up at the swordmaster’s smiling features.
~10~
The Maiden claimed
She stood soclose her breath tickled his skin where his tunic lay open. The temptation to drop the package and gather her into his arms nearly overwhelmed Radimar. Instead, he satisfied the urge with a brief caress of the hair bound at her nape. She wore her cloak, but the hood lay back on her shoulders, the outrage on her lovely face plain to see.
“Sodrin assured me you’d have a fine chamber for you to stay in if his luck held and you came for the wedding. There’s hardly any room in here to breathe much less move.” Her eyes were wide, her words breathy as if her criticism of the chamber’s size wasn’t an exaggeration.
“Peace, Jahna, I’ve slept in far less comfortable places.” He turned her gently to face the opposite wall. “See? I have a warm bed and a table to put a candle or a plate of food if I choose to eat here.” He pointed to a spot under the bed. “My things are stashed there, and best of all I don’t have to share it with a dozen other people, something unheard of for this palace during Delyalda as you well know.” He gave her a gentle nudge. “Have a seat while I open this.”
She perched on the edge of the bed, her gaze avid. “Sodrin bid me tell you not to forget it tomorrow night.”
The “it” was a silk sash of deepest winter green, with the stag rampant stitched in gold thread on the weave—the heraldry of House Uhlfrida. Below it, more of the gold embroidery, only this time it depicted the crossed swords of the Ilinfan Brotherhood. Radimar traced one of the swords with a fingertip, his heart in his throat.
It was a simple sash of fine weaving and lush color, but its message was more valuable than a cart full of gold and meant so much more.You are one of us. You are of House Uhlfrida.
He looked up from the sash to Jahna who watched him, candlelight making her eyes almost glow. “Sodrin does me a great honor.”
Her smile was gentle, heartfelt. “You honor us by wearing it for the wedding.”
Radimar folded the sash carefully and rewrapped it in its linen cover before tucking it under the bed behind Jahna’s feet.
The candle on the table shared space with a slender carafe of wine and a goblet. Radimar poured a dram. “I have only one goblet. We’ll have to share it if you’d like wine.”
She placed a hand over her heart in mock solemnity. “I promise not to spit in it.”
He chuckled before sitting down beside her, and they passed the wine between them.
Radimar sensed her nervousness. It didn’t spring from fear. He could smell fear at a hundred paces. This was anticipation. Had she daydreamed about last night as he had? He wanted far more than a few passionate kisses from her, but he didn’t need her verbal confirmation to know she remained untouched. The knowledge sent a frisson down his spine at the thought he might be the fortunate one to introduce her to the pleasures to be had between man and woman. It also reminded him that the responsibility of making it pleasurable rested entirely with him.
“I hope Sodrin will be happy,” she said, worry lines creasing her brow.
He stroked her knee. “They’ll be a good match, Jahna.”
