Redemption, M J Marlow [best way to read ebooks TXT] 📗

shone with delight. Prince Rafel watched as the girl ran to a tall, brown-haired man standing next to a silver-haired elder. She threw her arms around his neck and then the older man’s. He felt jealousy surge through him until the men were introduced as her father and her grandfather. The men bowed to Rafel and he nodded to them with a smile of welcome. Willem and Walter bowed low before Marit and she smiled and held her hands out to them happily. She saw Sysha’s look of censure and did not care.
“These two men and their family,” Marit defended the familiarity, “kept me as safe from Horis Tun as it was possible for them to do, lady Sysha. I will not act the noble to the point of snobbishness with men I consider my own.” She looked at Willem, whose smile widened. “Why are you here, Willem?”
“The death of Horis Tun left a position open in our village,” Willem told her. “We come to your sire to ask approval for our choice of Elder.” He shook his head as Marit looked at him happily. “Not me, child,” he laughed at her expression. “I am too old to take on an entire village. No,” he said, putting his hand on Walter’s shoulder. “My oldest son will have the position, if it is approved.”
“How could it not be?” Marit asked him. “Walter is a fine choice for village elder. If I am allowed to voice my opinion, I will tell my father so.”
“I do not think, my lady,” her lady Naji smiled as she turned and saw king Marius standing behind them, “that you will need to worry about it being allowed. Your Majesty,” Naji bowed her head and curtsied. “We were just making the acquaintance of men from the village where your daughter was raised.”
“Indeed,” Marius stated, looking at the two men and liking their attitude. The older man raised his head and he smiled. “But you are known to us, Willem of Sovertun.” He surprised everyone as he put his arm around Willem’s shoulder. “Come with us, you and your son, and tell us how things have been since last we met.” He looked at Marit. “We shall discuss this later, daughter.”
He led his friend and the bemused Walter off and people bowed as they passed. Marit wondered if she was going to get a lecture about her behavior. She could feel her back aching with remembered pain. Marius would not strike her, surely. That was something a man who did not care would do and, despite the fact that she had known her father only a day, she was certain he cared very deeply about her. She came back to her self to find the lord Martyn and the lord Edmund bowing to her.
“That was – odd,” lord Martyn of Solliston said as he and Edmund joined them. He lifted Sysha’s hand to his lips. “My wife. There is something I wish to show you that I believe our Verina would enjoy. If you would excuse us, Your Majesty?”
“Of course, lord Solliston,” Marit replied, smiling as she saw the joy in Sysha’s eyes. “It would be selfish of me to keep you from your lady. I will be fine with the guidance of the ladies Celia and Naji and the lords Edmund of Fellstone and Lorenz of Thaxton.”
The couple moved away and Marit continued on with her companions, delighting in the various wares on display at the Faire. She had heard about such things as fairs, and some of the villagers had been allowed to attend the closer ones. But Horis had kept her close to the village; knowing why, as she did now, did nothing to alleviate the hurt and disappointment she had known. She heard a gentle music in the air and turned to see a stall with strands of crystals formed into delicate pieces of art that set off the sweet sounds as they struck each other in the breeze. Something in them reminded her of the woman she had seen and she lifted her hand to one.
“You must come, daughter,” the woman said to her, urgency in her tone and her eyes. “Time grows short and you are in danger.”
Marit was held frozen in that place and time. The woman reached out to her and she felt love, and acceptance floor through her. This woman was a part of her and there as something she needed Marit to do. One moment she was in the woman’s arms as her hair was being stroked; and a soft lullaby was being hummed to her. The next moment, she was tumbling into the darkness, accompanied by sounds of alarm from her companions.
“It was nothing,” Marit was protesting as her father strode into the tent she had been carried to. She could not tell him what she had seen. It was a daydream; she had told herself, nothing to worry about. “Faintness from lack of food, Father. That is all.”
Marius looked at the healer and the woman shook her head. There was something more at work here, the woman’s expression told him. But what it was, the woman did not know. Marius allowed Marit to believe what she did, holding his arm out to her and escorting her to the refreshments tables. They sat down among the minor nobles and the merchants, shocking those people immensely, and had a meal. It was apparent to Marius that the attacks against his child were only going to get more frequent as the days drew nearer to the wedding. He could do nothing more; she had guards and companions to keep watch over her, and there was no safer place for her than the castle.
“We have been told that you gave the princes of Northfell and Stormkeep a dressing down, daughter,” Marius whispered as he leaned close to his child in the pretense of picking up a piece of fruit. He felt her flinch and look up at him. His own eyes were sparkling. “Well done.” He finished the fruit and rose to his feet. Then he bowed his head to her. “We leave you to the Faire, daughter. Your companions will know when to bring you back to the castle for the evening court.”
“Princess?” Celia asked as she saw the stunned look on Marit’s face a moment after Marius left. “Are you all right?”
“He approved of me,” Marit said softly, a smile lighting her lovely face. Her eyes were shining with joy as she looked at Celia. “He said I had done well in my censure of the princes.”
“You are not used to having people approve of your actions, my lady?” Naji’s lord, Teodor of Marshwood, asked her. “How could they not? You are a delightful young woman.”
“The man who raised her managed to find fault with her at every turn,” Susa spoke up from where she was sitting near prince Rafel. Her eyes were quite cold. “He was a hateful man. We are all better off without him.” She saw Marit’s frown. “There is no defense for what he did to you, Marit! None.”
“It is enough, Susa,” Marit sighed, wondering if there wasn’t something she could have said or done to keep Horis alive. “He is gone.” She saw Justin and Tavin hovering nearby and looked at each of her companions in turn. “Have they been punished long enough,” she asked their opinion, “or should I make them suffer a bit longer?”
“That is up to you, Princess,” they all concurred. “If it were me,” Celia spoke up a moment later, “I would keep them at a distance until at least the evening meal.”
Marit nodded and put her mind to a decision. She finished her meal and rose to her feet. The others fell in around her and she went back to the booths to continue her inspection. She took a route that led her past each of the men and they bowed to her and looked wounded when she barely acknowledged them. She did not speak to them and she could see their confusion and hurt. Perhaps they would quit lying to her, Marit decided, if they knew it would earn their dismissal from her presence.
“You possess a cruel streak, daughter,” Marius said to her later as they were heading into the gardens after court. “The princes of Northfell and Stormkeep did everything but go down on their knees to regain your favor.”
“Perhaps they will understand then,” Marit replied as she sank down on the bench near the fountain, “how important it is for them to be honest with me.” She saw the frown on his face. “I don’t understand how I know this, Father, but this anger between them has to stop. They need to set it aside and start to work together.”
“My daughter is very perceptive,” Marius smiled back at her. “You are correct in your feeling that the feud between their lands is the weak point in the borderlands. If it can not be strengthened, we may yet see the loss of all we have worked so hard to accomplish.”
“You married my mother because of your wish to keep the borderlands strong, Father,” Marit realized. She laid her hand on his as he sank down next to her on the bench. “Is this alliance truly the only way we can keep our lands safe?”
“There are those who do not believe so,” Marius sighed, wondering why he was being so open with her now. She was just a child, he thought as he looked into her concerned eyes. She is my child, he thought proudly; and she needed to know all. “Justin of Northfell will be able to hold the borderlands together.”
“If he can let go of the past enmities and meet Stormkeep as a true ally?”
“Exactly, my child,” Marius nodded, looking down at her proudly. “And I am more certain than ever that you are the one to help him do that.” He got to his feet as he saw Susa coming into the gardens with Rafel. “I will leave you with your companion now. Rafel,” he beckoned to his nephew, “I would speak to you.”
“Yes, Uncle,” Rafel bowed his head. He kissed Susa on the hand, turned to kiss Marit on the forehead and then followed his uncle away.
“You didn’t tell your father about your visions, did you?” Susa asked the moment the men were gone. Her expression was exceedingly worried.
“They are nothing, Susa,” Marit frowned at her. She saw that Susa was not in the least convinced. “You’re right. I’m afraid that my father will look at me with disgust if he finds out that I see things.”
“King Marius is not Horis Tun, Marit,” Susa told her firmly, gripping Marit’s hands in her own. “He is an intelligent, well-educated noble man. He will understand what you are going through.” She pulled Marit to her feet, smiling. “Now, what do you say to a late night raid of the kitchen? There was some of that wonderful desert left over after the banquet.” She saw Marit looking at her blankly. “You know the one! It was made out of that brown stuff that the ladies told me is called chocolate.”
They linked arms and made their way to the kitchen. The staff was washing up but the cook was more than happy to have someone find them a plate and two forks to share a piece of the desert. Marit thanked the woman with a warm smile that had the cook red-faced with delight. Susa found out that some of the servants were from a village near Sovertun and she encouraged them to share some of the songs they had learned as they had grown up. The kitchen filled with song and laughter and, for a moment, Marit forgot her situation