Beguiled (The Fairest Maidens #2) - Jody Hedlund Page 0,29
complained about our arrangement, had in fact appeared to be making the best of the situation. And that made me feel worse for using him and our marriage as a way to save Ruby. Especially because he’d gone out of his way to treat me politely, giving me plenty of privacy whenever I needed it, deferring to me on most decisions, and remaining chaste in every sense of the word.
We’d spent long hours fishing and hunting, collecting firewood and root vegetables, and joining in the weapons training Irontooth led every day. And though we hadn’t recaptured the camaraderie of that first week when he was in the dungeon, we’d still had plenty of time to talk and get to know each other.
He’d told me more about his Testing, where his brothers had gone for their Testing, and how he hadn’t been in communication with either of them since they left Scania in May. Vilmar had been relegated to laboring in the gem mines as a slave, and Kresten was a woodcutter in Inglewood Forest. He’d spoken of both men with the utmost respect.
In turn, I’d shared more about my family, mostly my love for my father and sister. And while he’d known a little bit about the history of the Great Isle, I’d told him more about my mother and her twin sister, Leandra, how their father, King Alfred the Peacemaker, had given each of them an inheritance. My mother’s had been Warwick and the coveted white stone, believed to be the primary means of alchemy.
Mikkel had been curious about the white stone and alchemy, but I didn’t want to talk about it for long. My mother had obsessed over the alchemy process while I was growing up, had spent countless hours and resources trying to unlock the secret ingredients so she could be the first to transform stones into gold. She loved her alchemy more than anything or anyone, including her family. And because of that, I resented everything having to do with it.
While Mikkel hadn’t requested to see my face, he had asked me again to tell him what had happened to cause my blemish. I suspected he believed I was unbearably deformed and had no wish to see me for fear of knowing exactly the kind of woman he’d married. Thus, I told him I didn’t want to speak about it and not to bring it up again.
I focused on a goshawk floating above the dark Scots pine trees. It was too distant to see its red eyes and white eyebrows, but the bird of prey, with its oddly colored eyes, somehow seemed to belong to the island.
Belong. The word opened up the wound in my heart, which I’d tried so hard to ignore these many months. I didn’t belong anywhere—not in Warwick, not here on the island, and not even in Scania with Mikkel.
Though Mikkel had reassured me he intended to keep our marriage vows, I wouldn’t hold him to his promise. As soon as I was settled in Scania with Ruby, I would proceed with an annulment nonetheless. Then he wouldn’t be stuck with a wife he hadn’t wanted, and he’d be free to marry the princess his advisors had arranged for him.
I scanned the gorge again for a sign of the warring tribe but glimpsed only the others of our party hidden in their strategic locations. “Perhaps your wish is to return to Blade’s tribe.”
“My wish is to solve the differences between the two groups peacefully, like adults, rather than fighting like barbaric children.”
“Then you would return to Blade if given the chance?” I didn’t know why I was baiting him, but suddenly I very much needed to know whether he wanted to stay with me of his own will or whether he’d rather leave. “If you would like to go, I shall not stop you.”
I watched the goshawk circle and then swoop toward the river. Mikkel didn’t speak, and I felt foolish for going on about whether he wanted to stay or not. Of course none of this was his desire. The primary thing holding him to the island was his Testing. He’d shown that he’d do anything to prove his worthiness to become the next king. If not for the Testing, he would have left me and the island behind long ago.
“Pearl,” he said softly.
I shot him a cautionary look only to find his summer-blue eyes holding me captive.