Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 137958 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 690(@200wpm)___ 552(@250wpm)___ 460(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 137958 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 690(@200wpm)___ 552(@250wpm)___ 460(@300wpm)
And he’d just been offered a payment in order never to see his daughter again, except at a foreign king’s leave.
He’d also just endured a lecture from a man who wasn’t even a bloody father on how he had not been a bloody good father.
He was Lord of the Arbor. He was an aristocrat. His very veins flowed with royal blood. And he was married to the daughter of a king.
Yes, Johan was enraged.
And he very much hoped his Silence and her brute, Cassius and his warrior, poor True and that slut he had to marry, and the King of the Sea and his bride could quell the Beast.
Because after they did, Johan was going to make a king beg.
And he was going to use his daughter to do it.
Though, as Johan stormed down the hall in the direction the king took, toward the stairs, he thought he would not wait for the defeat of the Beast.
King Mars was falling in love with his daughter.
And that gave Johan power.
And he was going to use it.
26
The King’s Bedchamber
Lady Silence Mattson
The King’s Bedchamber, Second Floor, West Corridor, Catrame Palace, Fire City
FIRENZE
After dinner, when I walked up the stairs and arrived at the top, I did not turn left to go to my rooms.
I stopped and looked right.
Mars’s rooms were at the very end of that hall.
Or what I knew were Mars’s rooms, now, since I noted all the clamor of the servants when the queen had moved to our end of the hall.
And although I’d finally had a rather thorough tour of the palace and had been there for days, I’d never seen his rooms.
And the day after tomorrow, we would be wed.
He was behind closed doors in his meeting room, apparently something important (and time consuming) was happening, so he, nor any of the kings or princes or Queen Ophelia, had joined us for dinner.
I should not do what I was thinking about doing.
And in thinking about doing it, I could not blame the influence of smoke. It had worn off some time ago.
Though I’d had one more glass of wine than I usually did at dinner that evening.
But it wasn’t that either.
It was about her monkey.
And the fact that the night after tomorrow, I would be married.
I looked left, then right again, noting, as guests were retiring, the servant boys were busy (thus not in the hall), seeing to bedtime needs.
This being the case, I quickly stole down the hall, checking over my shoulder repeatedly.
When I arrived at the closed door to his room, I knocked (just in case), quietly (because I didn’t want anyone to hear).
His voice didn’t come through the door telling me to enter.
I entered anyway.
And for a second, I was immobilized.
After I realized I was standing in his open bedchamber door, I shut it behind me and stood there staring.
I had a small bathing pool off my rooms.
But this before me…
This was not small.
It could have all the ladies in it, times about three!
It was tiled in black and emerald tiles, these tiles inside the pool and all along the floor. The walls around it were a warm peach. There were four lounges down the sides that were more like double-wide divans. There were also four pots with actual trees growing out of them (though they were small and artfully trimmed, they still were trees). Cushions scattered on the floor. Beautiful ceramic vases from which sprung fresh flowers.
It was enthralling.
Though as much as it was, I couldn’t stand, staring at Mars’s bathing pool, what would soon be my bathing pool.
I had to hurry, take my look and leave.
He could arrive at any moment, and even though I could easily call my shadow to hide me, I didn’t want to take even a slim chance getting caught.
So I walked in, looked left through an archway, and I felt my mouth drop open as I wandered that way.
Opulence.
More peach walls. Fluffy divans. Cushions. Tables scattered here and there. Lamps scattered. Intricate hanging chandeliers. Silks and velvets and rich furs and flowing beaded tassels.
There were plenty of places to sit and read.
Plenty more places to lounge and have hundreds, thousands (more!) conversations between husband and wife.
Or perhaps I’d ask Nyx and Zosime to attend me and I’d share time with my new girlfriends there.
And there was a desk in the room at a corner facing out. It was not as large as the one downstairs in Mars’s study. But it was large and ornately carved and kingly.
I moved to it thinking he could work while I read, and when we were done, together we could…
I stopped thinking beyond that and saw he did, indeed, work up here. There were parchments and scrolls on the desk, as well as two silver pens engraved with some designs, all of this scattered on top. Three inkpots. And four different colored waxes for sealing, one black, one red, one green and one gold. There were also two different stamps.