Sweep of the Blade (Innkeeper Chronicles #4) - Ilona Andrews Page 0,22
not to your liking?” Arland asked.
“What are you doing?” she asked through clenched teeth.
“I’m showing you your room.”
“This is the room of a Marshal’s spouse.”
Arland looked into the room, his expression puzzled. “You think so?”
She resisted the urge to punch him. “Yes, I think so. It has the House Krahr banner positioned behind a chair with a Marshal’s insignia on it.”
Arland blinked and rubbed his chin. “So it does. How peculiar.”
“My Lord Marshal.”
“My Lady Maud?”
“I’m not your wife. I’m not even your betrothed.”
“Where would you like me to put you?”
“Not here.”
“I don’t know a room suitable to a woman I asked to marry me and who replied with ‘maybe.’”
“That wasn’t what I said.”
“You said, ‘Arland, I’m sorry, I can’t marry you right now. I need time to decide.’”
It was an exact quote.
“I assure you my recollection is accurate. Your words are branded in my memory. Did I misinterpret?”
She opened her mouth. He had her there. “No.” It was a maybe.
“Aside from my mother’s quarters, this is the most secure place in the castle. The door is keyed to your harbinger. By assigning these quarters to you, I send a clear signal to everyone within my House. I think of you as my betrothed and I expect you to be treated accordingly.”
“It’s not an honor I deserve.”
“Last time I checked, I was the Marshal of House Krahr,” he said, his voice gentle. “Assigning honors to my guests is my prerogative.”
And he just reminded her that she was stomping on the most basic rule of vampire hospitality: one abided by the laws of the host’s House. It would be a mortal offense to refuse the rooms given to her by the Marshal. From his point of view, no other quarters could be assigned to her either. If he sent her down to the guest rooms, it would look like a dismissal. Here is the woman who rejected me, I brought her here, and now I don’t want anything to do with her…It made him look bad. It made her look bad. There were no winners in that scenario.
“Would you prefer some other woman takes these quarters?”
There was no point in lying. “No.”
“Very well, then.”
“This will make things harder,” she said.
“Are you unfit for the challenge?”
She glared at him.
Arland grinned and handed her a key. It was a real key; heavy, metal, and cold. “That door next to the bathroom opens into a passageway leading to my quarters. There is a second door there. I left it unlocked. There is only one key, my lady, and you have it. If you have any need to see me in private, all you have to do is unlock your door and walk down the passageway.” He bowed his head. “My lady.”
She pictured herself smacking him on the head with that damn key.
“Thank you, my lord,” she said. She’d loaded enough steel into the words that even the densest vampire wouldn’t miss it.
“Make yourself comfortable,” he said and went back down the hallway.
Helen slipped into the room, dropped her bag, took a running start, and leaped onto the bed. She bounced straight up, waving her tiny arms.
“Wheeee!”
Wheee. That was about right. She’d remembered Dina saying Arland had the subtlety of an enraged rhino. Her sister didn’t know him at all. Neither did she. Which was why she told him maybe.
Maud stepped into the room, listened to the barely audible click of the electronic lock, and slid the heavy metal bar in place, barricading herself in the Marshal’s quarters.
She wasn’t unfit for the challenge. This was going to be one hell of a visit. Either way, it was time to unpack and settle in.
Maud made it four feet from the door before a knock stopped her. Maybe Arland forgot something…She unbarred the door and swung it open. A female vampire knight stood in the hallway. Broad-shouldered, sturdy, with a lustrous mane of chocolate-brown hair, she wore the full syn-armor. Her dark eyes stared at Maud, and she felt herself weighed, measured, and judged in a split second.
“My name is Alvina, Lady Renadra, daughter of Soren,” she said. “You may call me Karat. That’s my battle name. I’m Arland’s cousin. His favorite cousin. And you are the human gold digger who rejected his proposal. I think we should talk.”
Maud leaned against the doorway and studied her nails. “If I were a gold digger, I would’ve married him already and come here as his wife. There would be nothing you or your whole House could’ve done about it.”