Chapter Thirty

Duncan watched Faelan’s hopeful expression wilt as he read. At some point, she moved from his lap to perch on the corner of his desk, her expression pensive. Pain shot through his chest. A woman fresh from his bed shouldn’t look pensive. It was a terrible expression and one he longed to erase.

Laying the document on the desk beside Faelan’s sweet, sheet-clad bottom, Duncan tapped the edges straight with his fingers. “Was I not generous?”

Faelan jerked as if he’d startled her. Leaning forward she placed her hand on his shoulder. Immediately, Duncan felt the knot in his chest ease.

“General parole for the rank-and-file in exchange for an oath is very generous. You promised your people justice for the men who raided your camp, so I understand why those men must hang, but…”

Faelan glanced away. Oh, he didn’t like that at all. “But you would have me change…” Duncan let the last word stretch out inviting comment.

“Most of the men involved in that heinous raid are conscripted men under orders. As such, they can’t protest as your troopers can. Hanging them alongside their commanders doesn’t feel like justice to me.”

Duncan dipped his pen in the inkwell and made addition to the document. “I will offer a choice, and limit executions to those who refuse to swear an oath of peace. This is the best I can do. One can only push progressive ideas so far before running into the stone wall that is Captain Fawr.” He glanced up at her. “You are not smiling yet.”

“Must you transport my uncle and the chief-men to Elhar?”

Duncan opened his arms, wiggled his fingers in invitation hoping she would not refuse him. “Come here.”

Faelan slid off the desk, settling on his lap.

“Your uncle invaded a peaceful neighbor and ordered the murder of Kingdom citizens, citizens under the protection of the Great Ladies. There’s no help for it.

“But in truth, I have another reason. You see, I find I do not enjoy war. I do not want to fight this war again in a score of years. Your uncle must face the Ladies with your peoples’ accusations and own your own myths and legends, whether they are true or false.”

Much as he wanted to, Duncan did not try to stop Faelan from leaving his lap. He silenced the protest that threatened to burst from his lips when she began rewinding the yards of fabric that made up her clothing, even though he liked seeing her wrapped in his sheet much more.

Duncan didn’t move a muscle, but his anxiety grew with every passing silent moment. His inner temperature climbed, and now that he understood its meaning, he mentally sung the pact. All the while, he watched Faelan finger-comb her hair and prepare to leave him.

She was going to walk out of his tent and take her sea-breeze scent with her. He knew it. He even expected it.

Just when he thought he might fall on his knees and beg her to understand, she turned to him. “You have to look at the big picture. I know you do. It’s just Uncle Ari and Quinn are the last blood family I have.”

Duncan crossed the space and held her in his arms before he knew he had moved. “I did my best, Faelan. I counted scouts with the rank-and-file over the objections of my generals. I prevailed because Captain Fawr supported me.”

“What happens to my uncle?”

“I cannot say.”

Faelan tilted her head back and narrowed her eyes. “Why can’t you, because you don’t want to or because you truly don’t know?”

“It is beyond my control. I hope the Ladies will hear your uncle’s story and be merciful. Maybe they will ransom him.”

“I could never pay a ransom.” Her voice broke on a little sob at the end.

Duncan almost blurted out, “If you marry me, you can.”

Instead, he settled for rubbing her back.

The familiar and insistent sound of his captain’s voice drifted to his ear from the outer tent. Duty called or rather, Captain Fawr called, which meant Duncan had a bonfire to attend. Drawing a deep breath, he filled his soul with Faelan’s fresh sea-breeze scent, and stepped away. He didn’t want to say goodbye. He never wanted to say goodbye again.

“Come to the bonfire with me.”

Faelan stared at him as if he had suddenly run mad. Why he could not imagine. It had sounded like a straightforward invitation to him.

She must have read his puzzlement on his face because she burst out laughing. The sound of her laughter, as beautiful to him as always, for the first time, did not fill him with a sense of joy. He didn’t have a clue what she found amusing. An invitation to bonfire was an honor, not a joke.

She read that too, for she stifled her mirth pressing her hands over her mouth. “I’m sorry, Duncan.” Faelan dabbed a tear out of the corner of her eye with one fingertip. “I didn’t mean to laugh, but you’re asking me to celebrate my own defeat. Are you trying to make it so I have no place at all among my own people?”

Duncan offered a wry grin. “I did not think.”

Faelan chuckled as if he had made another joke. “There’s a first time for everything.”

Dipping his chin, Duncan gazed at her through his lashes the way he knew turned women sweet. “My only thought was of not having to say goodbye so soon.”

It worked. Faelan moved into his range, palmed his check. Slipping his hands around her waist, Duncan pulled her in for a kiss. He rested his forehead against hers. Now we’re seeing eye-to-eye. Duncan smiled. He hadn’t thought of his brother’s silly expression since he was last at home, a lifetime ago.

“How would you like to visit your uncle instead?”

“Mmm…very much.”

He eyed his rumpled bed. “Will you come back to me after?”

Faelan followed his gaze. “I can’t.”

Was it his imagination or did her tone imply more than her words. “Will I see you at the signing ceremony?”

Faelan pulled out of the loose circle of his arms. “I have no place there. It’s considered men’s business.”

Men’s business? Duncan frowned. His Faelan would see that as a reason to attend.

“For fuck sake,” Captain Fawr roared from outside Duncan’s private chamber. “Kiss her goodbye and let’s go. It’s your damn bonfire. It can’t start without you.”

“Give me a moment, sir.”

Crossing to his desk, Duncan scrawled a few sentences on a piece of paper, folded it in half, and closed Faelan’s fingers around it.

“Don’t make me come in there, Sugar-babe.” The captain’s voice sounded much closer this time.