The Line of Allora by Lia Cooper

Author:Lia Cooper [Cooper, Lia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lia Cooper

CHAPTER NINE

A Simple Guardsman

Three days later, Lieutenant Adrian LaRoux found himself securing the last of his gear to his speckled, grey roan. While he did not look forward to traveling the wintery alone, this assignment from the High King was hardly the worst that he'd ever been given. There was no special treatment for younger brothers of the Guard Captain.

When he was much younger, Adrian had wondered if their kinship had inspired Jas to be even harder on him than the other trainees. His brother had been young when he'd been appointed to train new recruits and eager to show how fit he was to be promoted.

Not that Adrian harbored any real resentment for countless nights on patrol, sleeping rough in the wild, spending weeks—sometimes even months away from the castle. He had seen more of Pacchia than many could boast, and he was fitter for it.

Fit enough to be singled out by the King himself for special assignments so it seemed.

"Something I can do for you, Dupuis?" he asked, eyeing the other man where he slouched insolently against the stable wall.

The Honorable Winston Dupuis was not known for keeping his opinions to himself, especially where they involved His Majesty, and Adrian half expected the other man to launch into some sort of sarcastic lecture, but Dupuis merely held up his hands in defeat and said, "If there's any trouble you shouldn't hesitate to call upon House Riven. I'm sure Lord Riven's sister would be more than happy to give you any aid you might require."

Adrian kept his face schooled to something neutral as he replied, “Is that so?"

Dupuis pushed away from the wall and walked off without another word, his shoulders stiff under his blue brocade. Adrian watched him retreat from the corner of his eye.

The royal family was a curiosity to him, and Dupuis generally considered close enough to the King and the Dowager Prince Consort to be considered one of them.

Adrian had been fostered at the castle from a young age—the third son of a minor lord and therefore fated to follow in his older brother’s footsteps with the King’s Guard. Neither would inherit any real property forestalling their eldest sister’s untimely death. Jas had set a precedent with a distinguished service in the Guard and Sir LaRoux had hoped that Adrian could bring further honor to the family name.

But despite having lived within these castle walls longer than he had lived at home, he had rarely crossed paths with the younger Aubrey Allora or his bosom companion the Honorable Winston.

He led his courser out of the stable, shrugged into a heavy fur lined cloak, and mounted before the cold could seep into his bones. He had thought ahead enough to bring a heavy scarf for his neck and face, but there was only so much that cloth could do against the elements.

He was to travel northeast first to check in with House Harper, one of several modest holdings which had reported an unusual number of raids on their supplies that winter.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.