Merri snapped the book shut with a tense breath.
“What did the front cover say?” Ilsa kneaded her skirt. “I heard he was going to write me a sweet note!”
“It was a joke about a cow, Your Excellency,” Merri lied. She hid the book behind her back and took Ilsa by the hand. “Come with me, your son is in trouble.”
I followed Ilsa and Merri down the palace halls until we reached the wooden door of the Duke’s study.
Ilsa’s hands hurriedly felt around the door until she found the handle. She pushed the door to reveal Alastar the Wise at his desk with young Ragnar and Anders standing in front of him.Alastar the Wise had grey streaks in his curls and Anders was the handsome man I recognized from his coronation portrait.
“My darling Ilsa,” Alastar the Wise said in a tense voice, “leave us. This matter is none of your concern.”
“If it involvesmyson, it concerns me.” Ilsa reached out and Ragnar took her hand. He was about the same age as he was in Astrid’s memory, with his long white hair flowing down his back.
I settled near the wall and got a clear view of Anders rolling his eyes at Ilsa lovingly clutching Ragnar’s hand.
Ragnar smiled. “Mama, I have wonderful news—I have a son. The House of Hyton finally has an heir!”
Ilsa’s white eyebrows lifted only for a moment before her face softened. She splayed her hand over Ragnar’s heart.
Anders glared at his younger brother. “Freya is actually in labor this time. The twins will be here soon and—”
“And you have a weakness within you that makes you only have girls,” Ragnar said smoothly.
Anders set his jaw and cut a glance to his father, who did not so much as blink.
Ragnar ignored his brother and held his mother’s hand over his heart. “Astrid Bloodstone had my son, Mama. I fell in love with the North, just like you wanted!”
Alastar the Wise leaned on his fists. “The House of Hyton will have an heir.”
Ragnar’s eyes flashed with triumph.
“We will have a strong lineage.”
Ragnar squeezed his mother’s hands.
“But it willnotbe because of you.”
Ragnar’s face fell. “But I am the only one with a male—”
“And I have six granddaughters perfectly capable of ruling,” Alastar the Wise interjected, his voice hard.
Anders’s eyes widened.
Alastar the Wise was going to make his granddaughters eligible for the throne? Did that mean he had listened to Freya all those years ago? Was he about to sign the reformation making Lycaster women citizens like Freya had dreamed of?
I walked over to Alastar the Wise and examined his hard face. Maybe he had not killed the Alastar in his mind yet, but he was close.
There was something in his eyes…something clear and pure…
Anders stepped forward. “Father, my daughters were not raised to—”
“Then we can change that,” Alastar the Wise cut in. “Just as Freya said, what has chasing after the perfect male heir gotten the Hytons? Bloodshed and betrayal!”
Anders shook his head. “Freya—”
“Is right.” Alastar the Wise glared at his son. “If you had not spent so much time filling her with Cupid’s Blood and insteadlistenedto her, you might know that too.”
The fierce protection…the reverence in his voice…the respect…
