“How are things at River Bend?” Tovian asks cautiously.
“About where they were when you left.” I sigh. “We’ve gotten word out that we’ll take any orphaned children that need care. I’ve turned the ballroom into a giant bedroom for the younger children. We’ve hired some older women to help care for them. Older boys are housed in the North Wing with the recuperating soldiers. We let them train for a couple of hours a day. It’s good for both the injured men and the kids. Mentorship, you know? Plus, it’s an outlet for them. You know. Physically. Mentally.”
Emotionally, the kids are traumatized, angry and sad. I can’t blame them for wanting to kill every outsider on sight.
“But you won’t send them into battle?”
“Hopefully, by the time they turn seventeen, this stupid war will be over.”
“We’re getting there, Sunshine. With their bases destroyed, the enemy is in no position to run attacks. Oceanside is doing a great job of sabotaging the reinforcements. What few supplies are getting to the north, we’ve mostly been able to destroy or capture.”
“I can’t believe this is so close to being over.”And Zosia isn’t here to witness it,I don’t say. “Hey, what’s up with these rumors about Lorcan being the Hero of Auralia?”
Tovian coughs.
“Yeah. About that…he didn’t start it, but he’s not really trying to tamp it down, either. You were right that we needed him. He’s a symbol of the old order. People are more willing to fight because they know he’s the princess’ guard.”
“If he’s still fighting then she must be out there somewhere, you mean?”
To be honest, I’m starting to get a little nervous about the rumors I hear about Lorcan. I knew better than to put much stock in them. Rumors have always followed both him and Zoisa. But these are disturbing, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that there’s often a kernel of truth. I was shocked when I overheard the maids’ whispers of Lorcan’s prowess with women. Or, his lack of prowess, rather. He’s said to be willing to sleep with anyone who asks, but he satisfies himself and moves on without a care for the women.
I can’t square the rumors with everything I know of Lorcan. As far as I know, he’s never slept with anyone. He never wanted to, unless it was Zosia. Toward the end, I’d suspected they were sweet on one another for some time. The night of the invasion confirmed it. That was the moment I realized they’d taken great pains to conceal their fledgling relationship from me and the entire world.
He’d have been removed from service and thrown out of the guard altogether if her father ever found out that Lorcan and Zosia hooked up. I therefore dismiss them as wild tales told by women bored by the monotony of wartime restrictions. There are no festivals, no harvest parties, nothing to do except the monotony of cowering in the castle.
Lorcan was hell-bent on redeeming his father’s reputation. He wouldn’t have done anything improper.
Didn’t mean he didn’t want to. He spent two years in Scotland preventing any other man from getting near Zosia, to her intense frustration. That was a big part of why she hated him.
The other half of it was that he scared the shit out of her.
“It’s good to have him on the battlefield.” Tovian brings me back to the present. “If we can keep this up, we’ll be able to drive every remaining invader to Oceanside by Midsummer.”
“From there, we can load their sorry asses onto ships and send them back to sea.”
I don’t want vengeance. I want them gone. That’s all.
“We’ll still have to deal with the Skía, though. They’re a homegrown threat.”
Fact of the matter is, until Zosia has a baby or two, the line of succession hangs by a thread. If Lorcan thought his job ended with eradicating the enemy, he has another think coming. She’ll need protection for the rest of her natural life, and so will her children.
Assuming she has any. She’s never been the mothering type.
“True. Let’s not borrow trouble, Sunshine.”
Tovian and I lapse into cutesy lovebird chitchat for several minutes, until the connection abruptly cuts out. I toss my phone across the bedspread and heave a world-weary sigh.
I can’t molder here at River Bend while others fight for glory.I need to get back to Oceanside.
It takes me no time to pack. Over my father’s protests, I ride out the next morning, accompanied by a single guard.
It’s time I get to know my boyfriend’s people, since there’s a strong possibility I’ll be abdicating my throne to marry him.
Chapter 20
“What were you thinking?” Tovian rails when he finds out I’d left the safety of my people. It’s not a yell, exactly, but there’s steel in his tone I’ve never heard him use before.
Great. Now both my father and my boyfriend are furious with me.
