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Jonathan enjoyed himself at dinner. Lord and Lady Goodwin were good company, but it was probably also because he had drunk a bit too much wine beforehand. He laughed a lot more than he used to, he realized at least, and he had managed to push all thoughts of Lord Helmholdt aside for now. From time to time, he would look at Maria, catch her eye and simply smile at her, not caring what she or Lord or Lady Goodwin thought about it.
Around midnight Maria and Eleanor went to bed while he and Lord Goodwin withdrew to a salon with heavy furniture in dark wood and with cushions in dark green and red on the chairs. Jonathan sensed that it was a salon that Lord Goodwin used a lot and liked the man even better for it.
“Do you want anything more to drink?” Lord Goodwin offered with a smile.
Jonathan was aware that he had had too much already, but still didn’t want to decline. It seemed to be impolite. Lord Goodwin filled his glass and Jonathan took it, pretending to drink. He was aware that Lord Goodwin hadn’t had nearly as much wine tonight as him. He was however holding a cup between his hands, the cup resting on one of his thighs.
“I hear that you plan to annul your marriage to Maria,” Lord Goodwin said without further ado.
Jonathan didn’t feel the need to ask him how he knew. Obviously, Maria had told Lady Goodwin, who had told her husband.
“Let’s not talk about that tonight. We have all day today to talk about that,” Jonathan could hear that he wasn’t as eloquent as he would have liked to be. He tried desperately not to squirm in his seat. He knew how a person’s body could give him away during negotiations.
“I think we should talk about it tonight,” Lord Goodwin said in an even tone of voice.
Jonathan had come to like the tall, blonde man during the time they had spent together. He was obviously intelligent, he had a dry humor that suited Jonathan well, and he didn’t stand too much on formality, which Jonathan was starting to realize was something that he missed more and more.
“I need a son, and we both know that Maria can’t give me one,” Jonathan simply said.
A pity, he thought. He had definitely felt that she was flirting with him in her room, earlier. He was quite sure that they would have a sensational time conceiving a child, if only it had been possible.
“If she could have a child, you wouldn’t be sitting here, after all,” he pointed out. Jonathan wondered for a moment whether he had gone too far, but Lord Goodwin smiled a little, almost unwillingly.
“I suppose not,” he conceded.
They were silent for a moment. Jonathan waited for Lord Goodwin to make the first move. There was a reason he had brought up the annulment. Jonathan was beginning to think that Lord Goodwin wouldn’t tell him, when the man finally said:
“If I am to support you, I need you to stay married to her.” He looked Jonathan straight in the eye in a way that people normally didn’t. Like they were equals.
“Why?” Jonathan asked and squinted.
“I trust her. I don’t trust you,” Lord Goodwin said plainly, raising his cup to his mouth. Jonathan was uncertain whether he drank from it.
“You don’t trust me, but you are considering joining my side?” Jonathan said.
Lord Goodwin simply nodded.
“Why?” Jonathan had to ask.
“I’m tired of the war,” Lord Goodwin said. “We both know that this is only an interlude. There will be more fighting later. Gustaf will not rest. But I’m starting to think that he might not win.”
“Why?” Jonathan asked again.
Lord Goodwin sighed and looked at the fire and not him, when he answered:
“The church. He doesn’t seem able to gain their support.”
Jonathan nodded and for a while they were silent again. Taking turns drinking from their cups of wine or perhaps in Lord Goodwin’s case not drinking. He was probably the smarter of the two. Jonathan finally broke the silence by saying:
“You know I can’t stay married to her. I need a son,” he repeated.
“You like her,” Lord Goodwin said in an almost amused voice. Jonathan swung his head around to look at the man. His blue eyes were sparkling with mirth. “I can tell that she likes you too.”
The statement hit Jonathan somewhere between his heart and his groin, but still seemed able to affect both areas. He moved a bit in the chair. He desperately wanted to know why Lord Goodwin would think that Maria liked him, but he wasn’t a teenager trying to assess whether the girl he had a crush on liked him back. He was the king and had a responsibility for thousands of people’s lives.
“I can’t stay married to her,” he simply repeated.
“You’ll have to, if you want my help,” Lord Goodwin said and got up. “If you’ll excuse me, I will retire.”
Jonathan nodded and stared into the fire. He heard Lord Goodwin place his cup on a table and close the door behind him.
Stay married to Maria. The more he got to know her, the more he realized that it would probably be really very pleasant. If only there was any indication that she could give him a child. Preferably a son, he really wanted to know that his own son succeeded him on the throne. There would be a good chance that the nobility and the church chose him as the next king, if Jonathan managed to take care of Lord Helmholdt and his sons.
But a daughter could do as well. He could choose a husband for her that could succeed him. Then at least there would be a fairly decent chance that his grandson would be king.
Her not being able to give him a child was really the only disadvantage at the moment. Of course, he would need more time to figure out whether he could actually trust her. But she had said that she would support him, and he could tell that it had taken a lot of effort for her to do that. Even though Lord Helmholdt used her as a pawn, she seemed quite devoted to him.
Jonathan couldn’t help but wonder whether she realized that he hadn’t given her a promise not to kill her brother. He had deliberately started talking about something else and she hadn’t pressed him for an answer. If she had made him promise, he would have had to keep it. He wasn’t one to break his promises, but he was glad that he hadn’t had to. A dead Lord Helmholdt would be a lot easier to handle than an imprisoned one.
His mind wandered back to the more pressing dilemma: staying married to Maria. He was very sure that their personalities would suit well. What he had learned of her these past few days had only confirmed that they would fit. She might even be a good advisor to him. She was rather intelligent, he had learned.
In fact, he should go talk to her right now. She would surely be able to see this in the right light and help him figure everything out. There was always Valdemar and Anna, he figured. They were bound to have a child soon. Maybe it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world if his nephew succeeded him instead of his son.
Jonathan smiled, dumbfounded, as he hurried down the hall to his bedchamber. He would never have imagined that he would entertain thoughts of this kind before, but now... The image of Maria flashed before his eyes as he crossed his dark bedroom. Perhaps she would even invite him into her bed tonight...
At the last moment Jonathan stopped himself from simply barging through the door between their rooms and knocked on it instead. There was no reaction. He knocked again at bit louder this time.
“Enter!” he heard Maria say in a sleepy voice on the other side. He quickly opened the door and walked into the room. She seemed confused that he was there.
“Jonathan?” she asked and yawned. Oh, she’d been asleep. He hadn’t kept track of time. He and Lord Goodwin hadn’t been in the study for that long, he thought, but... anyway, it was beside the point. He needed to say something, he couldn’t just stare at her.
“We have a...” he started. He had been going to say “problem”, but that sounded too serious. And she definitely wouldn’t invite him into her bed tonight, if he said that it was a problem remaining married to her. “A situation,” he’d therefore decided on.
“What?” Maria said, sounding more awake now.
“Lord Goodwin will only commit to my cause if we stay married.” He pointed a finger at Maria first then himself several times to illustrate who exactly he meant. He looked down at his own finger. He was probably drunker than he had thought.
“But why?” Maria said. She was only wearing a thin flax shift, by the looks of it. The light from the fire was dancing on part of her shoulder and collarbone that had been exposed when the shift had slid slightly to one side. Jonathan pried his eyes away.
“He feels that he can only trust you. If we have the annulment, he will not support me,” Jonathan said and sat down at her table. Because really, he needed to do something, if not jump into bed with her. He realized that the cup that he had been drinking from earlier was still standing on the table beside the chair. He grabbed it and emptied it.
“You cannot be serious,” Maria said. “No matter who you are married to, it will be you that he supports.”
Jonathan shrugged and tried to make out her facial expression in the darkness. She seemed contemplative.
“He seemed deadly serious when I spoke to him,” Jonathan said. He looked around the room. “Do you have more wine?”
Maria shook her head.
“No,” she said, “And you have already had plenty. You should go to bed now. We will talk to Peter in the morning—surely, he can’t be serious. The two of you shouldn’t have been discussing it this late in the evening - and when you’ve had this much to drink.”
Jonathan couldn’t help but make a mocking face. It was something a mother would say... or a wife. At the thought of what he had hoped would happen, he quickly got up.
“If you are able to crack this one, I will... I don’t know. Knight you or something,” he babbled as he was walking towards the open door.
“Women can’t be knighted,” he could hear Maria say as he closed the door. He also felt that he could hear a smile in her voice.
Jonathan sat down on his bed and exhaled heavily. Well, he had spoken to her at least. Why was it that he had wanted to speak to her about this now? Except for the fact that he had hoped to end up in her bed. But even that he hadn’t managed. He probably should not simply have been sitting in a chair, drinking wine.
He shook his head. He was too confused to think about this right now – and probably too drunk. He called for Brenner to help him undress. He unfastened the belt around his tunic himself, then had Brenner help him pull it over his head. It closed in the back, and he couldn’t open it on his own. He hated that about his fancy clothes; that he wasn’t able to take them off himself.
His leggings were halfway off when the door between his room and Maria’s opened. Both he and Brenner froze mid movement, just looking at her.
“I just wanted to... Sorry, I should have knocked,” Maria said, all the while staring at his thighs, if he wasn’t mistaken. Jonathan couldn’t help but straighten up and allow the muscles to move a bit. It made her lift her gaze to the part of his chest that was visible through the wide neckline of his shirt.
“I’m sorry,” she said again and closed the door.
Jonathan couldn’t smother his smile. Oh, she definitely desired him as well. He sent Brenner away and quickly removed his leggings.
“Maria?” Jonathan said from behind the door.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you were about to go to bed. We’ll talk about it tomorrow,” she said in a voice that sounded uncharacteristically light.
“Are you sure?” Jonathan asked, hoping that she would say that she wasn’t. That she would open the door again.
“Yes, I’m sure,” she said, however, and Jonathan felt his heart sinking. “It's not that important. Good night.”