Besotted (The Fairest Maidens #3) - Jody Hedlund Page 0,51
if you’d known, you would have stayed?”
Mikkel rubbed his thumb around the rim of his mug before he met my gaze frankly. “No. I wouldn’t have. I have spent my life doing all the right things outwardly to please the Lagting and the king. But I’ve learned that I have to stop being so concerned about outward trappings and focus more on the motives of the heart.”
“What he’s trying to say,” Vilmar added with a half grin, “is that he’s doing what’s right regardless of whether the Lagting and Father like it.”
Mikkel’s sword had been engraved with Look on the heart. He, too, had taken his challenge seriously and was living it out.
Could I say I was yet doing the same? Though I’d thought often of my sword’s engraving, Deny thyself, I suspected I’d yet to learn my lesson the same way my brothers had.
“You have both proven yourself to be men of honor. And though I plan to finish the last month of my Testing, I never aspired to be king and don’t feel worthy of such an honor and responsibility.”
“Perhaps none of us is truly worthy,” Mikkel remarked.
Just then, Walter’s daughters approached the table carrying platters of roasted quail with turnips, onions, and carrots covered in gravy. They served the food, dumping large quantities on all of our trenchers and refilling our mugs with ale.
As we ate, the conversation moved to other, safer topics as Mikkel and Vilmar both shared more about their adventures and their wives. This time, the other men at the table joined in, and for a while the warmth of the meal and room, as well as the camaraderie, made the past months fade away, so we were simply brothers enjoying a meal together.
As we began to push away our empty trenchers, I nodded my approval. “I should like to meet these beautiful women who have captured your hearts.”
“I bid Gabriella to stay in hiding.” Vilmar cleaned the last of the meat from a leg bone. “Queen Margery has become more aggressive and moved to Boarshead Hunting Ground over the border in Warwick. She brought an army of knights and has too many spies and soldiers combing the forest.”
Mikkel had taken a towel from one of Walter’s daughters and was wiping the grease from his hands. “Princess Pearl is likewise hiding from the queen, albeit not as willingly or carefully.”
“You have both made an enemy of the queen of Mercia. Exactly what Father’s weapons master warned us against.”
Vilmar nodded. “Yes, and now that we have stumbled upon the queen, she is like a basilisk that has been roused. She’s angry and is seeking to spew her poisonous venom.”
Mikkel glanced to the laborers still lingering in Walter’s cottage, now talking amongst themselves, and then motioned to Walter. “If you would be so kind as to dismiss the townspeople, we shall require a few moments of privacy.”
Within minutes, the men emptied from the room, and only our table remained, including our scribes along with Vilmar and Mikkel’s companions, Curly and Irontooth, whom I learned had become invaluable friends during the course of their Testing.
Once the door closed, Mikkel leaned in and spoke in a low, urgent tone. “We need to save my wife’s sister, Princess Ruby, and defeat Queen Margery. Queen Margery has agreed to give us Ruby if we deliver Aurora to her.”
During the time I’d lived in Mercia, I’d learned some of the history of the country, enough to know that the infant Queen Aurora had been placed into hiding because Warwick’s Queen Margery wanted to slay her and take her kingdom, which Margery believed rightfully belonged to her. While rumors abounded about the child queen having been seen in the forest, most of the laborers in and around Birchwood thought she’d been taken to the Continent for safekeeping. Others suspected she was in Norland.
Whatever the case, nobody knew the whereabouts of the child, and Queen Margery had never been able to locate her.
“We believe Aurora is here,” Mikkel said, “in the forest.”
“I have heard the rumors, but nobody is certain.”
“Pearl used to hunt in Mercia with her father at Huntwell. She believes the fortress could have provided the perfect location for Aurora to meet with her father throughout the years.”
“I haven’t been there, so I wouldn’t know.”
“Pearl recently went back, and the servants took pity on her since she’s running and hiding from Queen Margery. Though she’s certain Aurora is no longer at Huntwell Fortress, she learned that Aurora had indeed met with