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“Are you sure you don’t want to wait until they return?” Jonathan’s brother Valdemar asked as Jonathan led his horse into the courtyard of the castle. Its hooves sounded on the cobbled ground and for a moment that was all that was heard.
“Yes, I’m sure,” Jonathan replied. “I might have to marry his sister, but there is no reason for me to give him a grand welcome.”
Jonathan turned to mount the horse, but Valdemar put a hand on his arm and made him turn to face him again.
“Isn’t the whole point of this to please Lord Helmholdt?” Valdemar asked, making a gesture with his arms that made his dark, almost black hair flutter in the wind. Jonathan had been envious of that color since they were teenagers. Girls always seemed to like Valdemar better. Granted, his brother was more charming than him, but still Jonathan couldn’t help but blame his own hair as well. It was a weird shade of brownish grey. Valdemar had always teased him that it was the same color as cooked liver.
Jonathan nodded, even though Valdemar of course knew that the point of him marrying Lady Maria was to please her brother.
“Then why would you jeopardize this by displeasing him? He’ll expect a grand welcome for him and his sister. Who you are marrying, you know?”
Jonathan sighed. He knew. He didn’t need Valdemar reminding him of it. He’d never met Lady Maria, but since she was Gustaf Helmholdt’s sister, he could only assume that she was a horrible woman.
“Just for now,” he said. He looked around the courtyard. The two guards that were to escort him on the ride were standing several yards away, talking animatedly to each other. A couple of servants and stable boys were walking around, but all of them seemed out of earshot.
“I’ve spoken to the archbishop,” Jonathan said as he leaned closer to his brother. “He has promised me that I will be able to get an annulment, if I don’t bed her.”
“But you’ll have to consummate the marriage,” Valdemar said. “I can’t imagine that Lord Helmholdt would allow you not to.”
“Well, he won’t be there, will he? I can simply go along with the bedding ceremony and then once everyone has left, I can sneak out. I should be able to lay next to a woman in a bed long enough for it to seem like we’ve consummated the marriage.”
“You say that now,” Valdemar said with a smile, and Jonathan could tell that he was no longer being serious. “I still think that it’s a bad idea, that you’re not here when they arrive,” he then added in a more serious tone of voice.
“I know. Then why don’t you and Anna greet them?” Jonathan suggested as he turned around and mounted the horse. Anna was Valdemar’s wife. They had been married for about a year now. Jonathan had never seen two people so in love. It was almost nauseating ... and quite sweet, and able to make him incredibly envious from time to time.
Kings never married for love; Jonathan knew that. But even his mistress couldn’t invoke these kinds of feelings in him, despite him being very fond of her.
“I’m sure Anna would like that. And she is to be Lady Maria’s lady-in-waiting.” Jonathan continued to suppress all the crazy thoughts of love.
He gave his brother a pointed look and regretted that he had mounted his horse. He leaned down and said in a more subdued voice:
“You did talk to her, didn’t you?”
Valdemar nodded.
“She thinks it’s a splendid idea and terribly exciting,” he said in a tone of voice that told Jonathan that Valdemar clearly didn’t think that it was a splendid idea.
“I need to know what’s going on,” Jonathan insisted as he sat up straight on the horse again.
“You could talk to the woman, get to know her,” Valdemar suggested.
Jonathan shook his head.
“There’s no reason for that, when I have Anna to do it for me.” He smiled and waved at his brother as he left the courtyard, the two guards close behind him.
Jonathan would have liked to have taken the quickest possible route out of the city surrounding the castle Haraldsborg, but it was also the most plausible route that Lord Helmholdt and his wretched sister would use. Jonathan couldn’t help but imagine that she had a club foot and was missing several of her teeth.
She was probably tall too—Lord Helmholdt was very tall. It had always bothered Jonathan that he was taller than him. Which was why he always preferred to do negotiations sitting down. He simply couldn’t muster enough authority when Gustaf Helmholdt was staring slightly down his nose at him.
As soon as Jonathan was out of the city and in the open country he started to relax. For some reason just being out in the open helped him calm down. Even though it was November and the fields were brown, the trees were bare, and the whole landscape looked rather bleak, it was just what he needed.
It was going to be all right, he told himself as he made his mount gallop. Lady Maria surely couldn’t be as bad as he expected – or as conniving as her older brother. And as soon as Lord Helmholdt was dead, Jonathan could get the annulment and find a more suitable bride.