herself.
“Why, Alton, of course.”
Reese grinned.
“And you believed it?”
Gwen stared back, feeling a flutter in her chest, beginning to wonder if she had made some sort of awful mistake.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“I was there with him that day,” Reese said. “In the brothel. We all were. The entire Legion. After the hunt. He did nothing wrong. It was more tavern than brothel. In fact, I was by his side when the women came out. He had been surprised to discover there were any women there at all. He had, in fact, tried to flee. The men shoved him forward. He did not go forward willingly.”
“But still, he went forward,” Gwen said accusingly.
Reese shook his head adamantly.
“You have been misinformed. Thor did nothing. He reached the landing and passed out. He hit the floor before a woman could lay a hand on him. He did not touch any woman, I assure you. Alton was lying to you. It was Alton that made a fool of you. Your pride remains intact.”
Gwen felt her whole body flush at his words. She felt overwhelmed with relief, but also with shame. She had been wrong about Thor. She thought of her harsh words to him. She had never meant to call him a commoner; she had not known why she’d said that. She sounded so haughty, so arrogant; she was disgusted with herself. How could she have been so cruel?
“What did you say to him exactly?” Reese asked.
Gwen lowered her chin.
“Something stupid. Very, very stupid. Something I did not mean.”
Gwen felt overwhelmed; she reached in and gave Reese a hug, and he hugged her back. She cried over his shoulder.
“I miss our father,” she said.
“I know,” Reese said over her shoulder, his words muffled. “I miss him, too.”
Reese pulled back and looked at her.
“I will talk to Thor. Whatever you said, I will try to smooth it over.”
Gwen slowly shook her head, unsure.
“Some things cannot be taken back,” she said softly.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Gareth walked with his brothers, Kendrick, Godfrey and Reese, and with his sister, Gwen, into the huge castle hall, packed with hundreds of the king’s men, who milled about in an agitated way. The small group of them were ushered through the crowd, as knights from all provinces of the Ring reached out to offer condolences as they went.
“We loved your father, sire,” said a knight to Gareth, a burly man he had never met. “He was a great king.”
Gareth did not know these men—and he did not care to know them. He did not want their sympathy. It was a sympathy he did not share. Now that he had time to reflect on it, to let the reality of it sink in, he was glad his father was dead. His father had never held any love for him, and while the night before Gareth had initially been torn over it, he was beginning to feel differently about the matter. He now felt a great sense of relief—even victorious—that his assassination plot had succeeded. Although he had not actually killed him himself, and although he had not even died in the way he had planned, at least he had set the plan into motion. Without him, none of this would have ever happened.
Gareth looked around at these knights, at this great crowd, so chaotic, and was shocked to realize that he was responsible for all this. He had single-handedly changed the lives of all of these men, whether they knew it or not.
The group of siblings was ushered through the crowd by several attendants, as they headed for the distant hall, where the king’s council was waiting to meet with them all. Gareth felt a knot in his chest as they marched forward, wondering what lay in store for them. Of course, they had to name a successor. They could not leave the kingdom to go on without one, like a ship without a rudder. Gareth hoped that they would name him. Who else could they name?
Maybe they would use the meeting to name his sister as ruler. He looked at his siblings all around him, their faces set, grim and silent, and wondered if they would fight for the throne. They probably would; they all hated him, and after all, their father had made it clear that he wanted Gwen to rule. This was the one moment in his life that he really needed to fight. If he walked out of this meeting successful, he would walk out as ruler of the