Married to a Sea Lord: An Epic Fantasy Romance by Diana Stark

Author:Diana Stark [Stark, Diana]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: anonymous
Published: 2024-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

Julia wondered, sleepless and giddy, if people who were not her – even the people who knew her husband all his life – would detect any great change in him had they sat down with them for this breakfast. The softening of features that at times made him seem as young as his actual age, the shadow of a smile touching the corners of his mouth from time to time.

She hoped yes, wanting to proclaim her happiness and her victory both to the world.

She hoped no, so that the change in question belonged to her alone.

“It’s a fine thing, isn’t it”, Julia said softy, “that the Midsummer Feast is so soon upon us. We can celebrate it as husband and wife.”

“I wonder how else we would have celebrated it otherwise, Julia.” There was no sharp archness to the question, not this time.

“We might as well have been good neighbors, no more, a month ago. There is not much left to prepare, I’ve agreed with some craftsmen in the town about lending a helping hand with the entremets, and…” Julia did not finish her sentence, as she heard footsteps. A footman, a nervous lad in the household’s livery, approached her with a folded piece of paper in his hands.

“Forgive me, my lady,” he stammered, “But it only just arrived – it is from the capital, from the court, I thought, perhaps, it must not wait. But if you are still –”

“Worry not,” Julia hoped her voice sounded soothing enough. “You did well. Let me take a look.”

A hope, wild as a bird, flared up in her chest for a second – King Orwyn having heard of their troubles from sources of intelligence of his own, and promising them assistance.

But that was an empty hope, and a fairly ridiculous one, too. For one thing, a letter from him would have borne a royal seal.

For another, it would have been addressed to his brother, not to Julia herself.

No. There was only one person – or, rather, two people – at court who could have cause to be writing to Julia.

There was a sickly heaviness to her heart even before she opened the letter. Even before she saw her father’s handwriting.

Even before she read the contents.

“It” s my parents”, she told her husband, the morning’s wine-light feeling in her blood evaporating. “They want to come for the celebrations.”

“Gods above.”

“Indeed. They…”

“They won’t be able to harm you, Julia. You are a married woman now. What do you have to be afraid of, rationally?”

This was not about being rational. This was about the fear that gripped the throat, the bone-etched fear of footsteps outside one’s room, the habit to shiver at loud voices.

She had escaped it, escaped her confinement. She was indeed a married lady now, a Lady Waite, the king’s own good-sister.

But she would also forever remain her parents’ daughter. There was no ritual on earth that could break those bonds of blood, however poisonous they’ve grown.

“Rationally? Nothing,” Julia said. “But I am afraid nonetheless.

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