Page 24 of Pawns of Fate

ROSE

T hey made love three more times that night. Each coupling was more heated and frantic than the last. Their time together was running out.

After the fourth time, Rose fell asleep in Nicholas’s arms, far too tired to continue. But when he left a soft kiss on her head, she wished they could have made love the entire night.

A gentle knock at the door woke them late in the morning.

“Lady Rose? Lord Nicholas?” a servant’s voice nervously inquired.

Rose, still resting on her husband’s chest, felt him sigh.

“Bring out breakfast in five minutes,” Nicholas replied brusquely. He kissed Rose a few times and wrapped his arms around her.

She wanted to tell him that last night had been one of the best of her life.

She didn’t care about going to the Ojoh.

As soon as she was back, they’d make a wonderful life together and make love every single day.

She’d give him as many heirs as he desired, assist with managing the estate, and be the perfect lady of House Sharp.

Whatever he needed. Rose didn’t care—she’d fallen for him.

But the words clung in her throat. Doubt lurked in the back of her mind. After all, many couples had pleasurable sexual relations and little else between them. What if that was all Nicholas wanted? Uncertainty urged her to think with her head instead of her heart.

She needed to prepare for the meeting.

Instead, she decided to trace the outlines of Nicholas’s well-sculpted chest and lightly kiss his neck, just for a minute or two.

His manhood brushed up against her sensitive thighs. He was already rising to the occasion. She leaned into his heat.

A loud knock at the door poured cold water on the pair.

“As reluctant as I am to deny newlyweds their pleasures” —Syzman’s smug voice cut into their chamber— “your poor servants are huddled just around the corner with your breakfast, about to lose their minds because they’re terrified of interrupting your lovemaking.

The meeting starts in an hour. I’m sure neither of you is ready. ”

“Damn it all,” Nicholas huffed .

“You’re welcome, my lord.” Syzman snickered.

Nicholas threw on a robe. He caught the servants at the door and brought the food in himself, so Rose had more time to make herself presentable. She wrapped herself in a discarded robe and ran her fingers through her tangled hair—sure she looked as disheveled as she felt.

They ate breakfast in a hurried, miserable silence.

Nicholas, who’d spent their entire breakfast glancing around the room, sighing, and fiddling with his silverware, had just found the courage to speak when yet another knock at the door interrupted them.

“Excuse us, my lord, my lady,” Betty said with a frantic curtsey after she and Lyla entered the room. “We don’t have much time to prepare.”

Rose put down her fork and glanced at the clock on the mantle. There were only three-quarters of an hour to bathe and dress before the delegation arrived. She didn’t have time to finish a leisurely breakfast.

She reached a hand out to Nicholas, eyes imploring him to break the tension that had built up between them ever since Syzman had knocked on their door. “What did you need to say?”

He shook his head. “It’s fine, Rose. Go with your maids.”

Rose snagged a pastry, then followed Betty and Lyla out the door. She cast one last glance at Nicholas, her smile forced and tight. He returned her smile, but his was full of hesitation and melancholy.

Rose wanted to run back into his room, back into his arms, but the door slammed shut, and before she knew it, Lyla and Betty had whisked her down the hallway and straight into the bath for a scrub.

The maids had her looking prim and proper within the hour. Betty worked so fast that Rose thought she might be using speed-enhancing magic. Even Lyla, who usually did little more than comb a few strands of hair, attended to Rose as if she were actually a maid, not a bodyguard in disguise.

“Are you ready for our trip?” Lyla bent down to ask Rose as she styled her hair.

“What do you mean by our trip?” Rose quipped back, wincing as Lyla worked at a particularly snarled section of hair.

Lyla leaned down to whisper, “Did Lord Nicholas not tell you? I’ll be joining you. My dressing as a maid was never meant to fool the staff at Castle Sharp. The Ojoh would never let me accompany you if I walked around with knives strapped to my hips.”

Rose looked at Lyla with confusion.

“Well, I hide the knives even if they are strapped to my hips.”

“Lyla, I understand that… people in your line of work must hide their weapons. I don’t understand why you’re coming to the Ojoh with me. I assumed you’d stay here to guard Ava.”

“You’re the future marchioness of House Sharp. Getting the Ojoh to agree that you should bring a handmaid wasn’t so hard. They’re the ones who didn’t investigate further into what skills the handmaid possesses.” Lyla shrugged as if she were stating the most obvious fact in the world.

Rose felt a strange relief flood her body. She’d never had a companion, let alone a bodyguard, for these journeys. Her heart whispered that it was Nicholas’s way of caring for her. His hand had to be in this. He ensured she was safe even if he hadn’t stopped the trip entirely.

And yet, a nasty thought wriggled in the back of her mind: too little, too late.

Lyla finished styling her hair, and Betty finished lacing her corset. Another knock on the door signaled that it was time.

“We’ll be alright.” Lyla gave Rose’s shoulder a small squeeze. “You’ll be back in your husband’s arms before you know it,” she added with a wink.

A butler opened the door and asked if Rose was ready.

A calm courage flooded Rose’s chest. The knots in her stomach slowly undid themselves; the wriggling thoughts went still. She could face this situation; she’d done it a dozen times before.

Rose, Lyla, and Betty followed the butler through the castle and to the meeting hall.

Besides the banquet hall, which was still being cleaned after the wedding ceremony, Castle Sharp had no grander room.

The ample space must have been designed to impress or intimidate guests.

Rose wasn’t sure if it was working on the Ojoh delegation, though.

Twenty Ojoh warriors marched into the room, black crow feather capes streaming behind them. The Sharp knights that flanked them did look impressive, but not like the Ojoh warriors with their war bands and troll hide armor.

“They look so scary!” Ava tried, unsuccessfully, to whisper to Rose without anyone else overhearing. York elbowed her.

A tall woman with pale, golden hair, eyes the color of the sun, and the loose kaftan of an Ojoh civilian closely followed the band of warriors.

Rose’s eyes widened with surprise as she realized that the Ojoh were offering a captive as collateral in exchange for her.

This was the first time Rose would be part of an equivalent exchange of captives.

Her uncle had always just offered her up without bothering to ask for reciprocal collateral.

The Ojoh leader, denoted by his long cape and the five war bands painted onto his arms, stepped forward.

Rose had only spent a few months among the Ojoh, but she knew that five war bands meant the man was highly ranked.

Clan leaders had six; five were only one step away.

It was all the more impressive given his young face.

The warriors and knights all moved to stand at their places on the edge of the room. The Ojoh leader and the blonde-haired woman walked toward where the Sharps were seated with stiff backs. Two warriors flanked them. Only their footsteps could be heard in the tense, silent room.

Rose’s eyes drifted to the two flanking warriors. The one on the right had hair as black as his crow feather cape and a permanent scowl, but there was nothing else about him of great note.

Her heart stopped when she saw the warrior on the left.

She blinked twice. Surely, her eyes were making some kind of mistake.

There was a tall frame filled with the same sinewy muscle.

He wore three war bands on his arm now. He still had his short, blonde hair and haughty brown eyes.

When she saw the smirk that tied all these details together, she knew her eyes hadn’t betrayed her. Camillus, her first lover, was here .

Nicholas squeezed her hand and shot her a concerned look. Her surprise had to be visible despite her efforts to contain it. Nausea overpowered her for a few breaths, then Rose pulled herself together.

Camillus stared at her as the party sat down and the negotiations began. He was trying to fluster her; he’d done things like this when they were romantically involved. She wanted to calm down and ignore it, but her head felt lighter and lighter as the Ojoh warrior’s stare grew more intense.

Camillus always played these games for a reason. What was it this time?

“Welcome,” Marquess Sharp began. “We are honored that your party has come to Castle Sharp. I am sorry that you won’t be able to stay the night and enjoy our hospitality.”

“We have to make haste back to our city,” the Ojoh leader declared flatly.

“In that case, let me introduce my family so we may begin our negotiations,” Marquess Sharp replied. He introduced himself, Nicholas, York, and Ava. Finally, he got to Rose. “This is my daughter-in-law, Rose Sharp. She will be the one going with you today.”

Rose bowed her head toward the delegation.

The Ojoh warriors shared a strange look among themselves.

Rose wondered if Nicholas and Marquess Sharp noticed.

Things were about to go terribly wrong, but she was helpless.

Rose couldn’t even tell Nicholas about her old connection to Camillus. Not that she particularly wanted to.

The Ojoh leader introduced his delegation .