The room was silent for a long minute after she vanished. The shock of her appearance had robbed everyone of their power of speech, till King Edward spoke, “Lord Justicer, what is your decision?”
“I find for Lancaster. The charges hold no merit,” he answered immediately.
I might have cheered but I no longer had the energy. I would have left but for the matter of my fealty. King Edward was kind enough to take my oath without waiting on pomp and circumstance. The room remained silent throughout the rest of the proceedings and once they were done the room emptied quickly.
James and Genevieve took Marc with them. One of the servants assisted James until they got him to the duke’s carriage outside. Penny and I were soon left alone.
Neither of us knew what to say so I took her hand and we walked quietly back to my rooms.
Chapter 8
The silence between us stretched out after we reached the rooms. We both sat on the couch, staring toward the veranda. “You look very lovely,” I managed at last. I had never seen the dress she was wearing, but it fit her perfectly.
“Thank you.” Penelope glanced at me for a moment, her eyes taking in a hundred details at once, “I heard what the king told you.”
I almost said, ‘about what?’, but my good sense caught me this time. I knew exactly what she meant. It didn’t help that a god had just reinforced the message. “How did you hear about it?”
“Rose. She went to visit the Lancasters last night.” Now I understood… she had gone to stay with Rose Hightower. Where else could she have gone? Rose was a towering intellect framed within a slender woman’s body. Obviously she had gone hunting for information not long after Penny arrived on her doorstep.
“Did you tell her why you were there?” I asked.
“No. I started to, but then I couldn’t. How could I say I had left you because you would die? It sounded selfish.”
“So you changed your mind?” I felt a glimmer of hope combined with fear. If she stayed with me she would only know more pain.
“Sort of… Rose came back with news about the king ordering you to choose someone, to be your Anath’Meridum.”
“I haven’t decided about that yet,” I told her.
“Apparently even the gods are waiting on your choice.”
“I wonder about that, it seems as if everyone is trying to push me into this.”
Penny gave me a serious look, “You don’t have to worry about it anymore. That’s why I’m back. I won’t have anyone else taking the bond with you.”
“What!? Absolutely not! You realize what it means don’t you? When I die? Has your vision changed since yesterday?” Without thinking I had stood up and now I was glaring down at her.
She looked up at me calmly, “Yes, I’ll die with you. It solves all our problems.”
“It solves nothing. I won’t accept such a bond,” I declared.
“Then you’ll be put to death,” she stated calmly, “and I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of other innocent people also died trying to protect you. You have no choice.” Her voice held a note of resolve and her eyes a quiet madness, the madness of one determined to die with her lover.
“I have plenty of choices; at the very least I could choose someone else. I’m sure Dorian would accept the duty.” I didn’t like what I saw in her expression and my words kindled a fire.
“No you won’t, not if you value my life. You have no idea what I am capable of Mordecai Eldridge. You think murdering a priest in cold blood was easy? That is just the tip of the iceberg!” Her voice had taken on a low growl. I took an involuntary step back; the goddess had been easier to face than the angry woman in front of me now. “If you choose someone else I’ll make sure you spend your remaining days wishing you were already dead! And to top it all off, I’ll kill myself as soon as you die anyway. Do you understand?”
“Fine!” I shouted back, “Have it your way!” In truth I had no intention of agreeing. It was easier to lie now and handle things my own way later. Penny was adept at spotting my lies so I figured I should throw her off the scent. “You want to die with me? No problem, but if we’re both going to die in half a year I’ll have my way now, in what time we have left.” I grabbed her by the shoulders and half dragged her to her feet, planting a rough kiss on her astonished face.
My plan worked better than I could have hoped. What started as a forced kiss turned into a fierce embrace as she responded to my passion. A few moments later I began to wonder what sort of tigress I had taken by the tail. She returned what I gave tenfold over, and the ferocity of her love was a thing to make lesser men shake in their boots. Luckily I am not a lesser man. If I had ever been unsure of that before, she made sure I knew it that day.
A few hours later I decided that dying in a few months might not be so bad. If things continued like this for the foreseeable future I wouldn’t survive that long anyway. “There!” I declared after a long breathless moment, “I think I’ve made my point.”
Penny started chuckling beside me and soon we were both laughing. “You can believe that if it makes you feel better, my Lord Cameron.”
I grimaced in mock anger and started tickling her but a knock at the door interrupted our battle. Feeling brash I rose to answer it. “Mort! Put some clothes on!” Penny hissed at me.
“Bah! I’ll teach that brazen manservant some manners this time!” I went to the door and threw it open, preparing to embarrass the man once and for all.
“Oh my! If I had known you greet all your callers this way I would have visited you sooner Mordecai.” Rose Hightower stood in the entrance, covering her mouth with her hand as if to hide a gasp. I turned several shades of red and dashed back to the bed, hoping to cover myself with the sheets.
Penny had already wrapped them around herself and refused to share, “Oh no you don’t! You brought this on yourself you cad!” she yelled. I gave up quickly and ran for the bath chamber. Rose stood laughing in the entrance the whole time.
“I may be overstepping, but does this mean you have forgiven him already?” she asked Penny.
Penny blushed, “He was very persuasive.”
Rose laughed, “I’ll wait here in the hall till you’re both ready. Unless you would prefer I come back at a later time?”
I wanted to shout that later would be best but Penny answered first, “We’ll be presentable in just a few minutes if you don’t mind. Thank you Rose.” I heard the door close and I peeked out into the main room.
“It’s safe,” said Penny. We dressed hurriedly and once we were somewhat presentable Penny opened the door. I wasn’t quite ready to face Rose so soon.
“I came to ask if you’d been to see your father’s house yet,” Rose said after we had all sat down.
My first impulse was to answer that Royce couldn’t possibly own a house in Albamarl till I realized she must mean Tyndal Illeniel, “He owned a house here?”
“Of course, he was a counselor to the king. Naturally he and your mother kept their residence here. You didn’t know?” Rose seemed genuinely surprised.
“No, it never occurred to me. I only recently learned who he was and things have been so busy I hadn’t thought to ask. Why wasn’t the house sold after he died? No one knew I was alive after all.” Without an heir ownership should have reverted back to… I wasn’t sure who, but someone should have taken possession by now.
“Hah! No one would dare enter his home. Think of what he was! Even robbers and vandals have given it a wide berth since his death,” Rose answered. What she said made sense; I would probably have put wards and protections around my own dwelling.
“So it has stood untouched since my parents were there last?” The thought brought a host of fanciful ideas to mind. What had they been doing before they left? What secrets were there? How many of their possessions remained? I had never known them in life yet their home might be full of answers about their lives.
“As far as I know… yes.” Rose’s eyes twinkled; she seemed as excited by the prospect of exploring the house
