The Contract (11 page)

I realized as I was thinking this over that Max was standing up. I rose as well and he led me off, going all the way back to our room. He went in and shut the door but didn’t bar it. He strode over to the window and looked out.

“My lord?” I asked finally.

He turned, looking troubled. “Yes, Katrina?”

“Is there trouble?” I asked.

He shook his head. “No. I saw you and your cousin with your heads close together. What did she tell you?”

I hesitated. His eyes narrowed. “She told me that you weren’t happy at whatever the messenger said.”

He frowned. “And how would she know that?”

I shrugged. “She usually knows what is happening about the castle. I’ve never been able to figure out how she does it. Perhaps the very walls speak to her,” I said, trying to lighten the mood.

Max said, “She’s right in this instance, although it bothers me that gossip moves so very quickly.“I waited. Max shoved his hand through his hair, which was actually worn rather long for a warrior, curling slightly about his head. “Sit down Katrina, this may take some time.”

Worried, I sat at the small table near the window. He took the other chair, turned it so he was sitting on it backwards and leaned on the back of the chair with his arms. “Katrina, what do you know about your father?”

I frowned, not having expected this. “Papa? Just that he was a good man. He raised me alone because my mama died when I was very young.”

Max said, “Did he tell you he didn’t always live in Faralee?”

I said, “He sometimes talked to me about the capital city where the King lives, but I don’t know if he lived there or just visited. I know we didn’t have any family in Faralee.”

“No, that’s because he went to Faralee when you were young.”

I asked him a question I’d had for some time. “Max, how did you know my father?”

Max tapped one finger on his arm. “I met your father one day when he came to see my father, who was lord then. I, as his heir, was present at the time your father made his request. He…wanted a favor, and my father knew it would most likely fall to me to deal with the results of the favor, so I should decide if it was granted. I granted your father the favor he asked.”

“What was the favor?” I asked.

Max hesitated. “He wanted protection and…anonymity.”

I shook my head. “Why? From what?”

Max sighed. “You understand that the power of the King has always been less here in the areas that are furthest from the King and his armies, right?”

I nodded. “Papa said that it was important that the King keep the lords out here happy or they’d revolt.”

“Exactly. Now, my father had taken over another principality when the lord there—Lord Kennsing—was daft enough to try to attack us. Once I took over as lord, I furthered our power by bringing the entire area under my hand. I became the first Regent in some years, and the King made an alliance with me so that he needn’t fear that I would take over the Kingdom and install myself as King.”

I stared at him. “You were going to do that?”

“No, I wasn’t, but he didn’t know that. In my opinion the Kingdom as it stands now is too large for one ruler. So, essentially I’ve cut it into two more manageable pieces. In practice, I rule one and the King the other, but actually, the King still rules the whole kingdom. This worked out well until the old king died.”

“Or was killed,” I said.

“Right.” Max nodded thoughtfully. “And his brother, an ambitious man if ever there was one, took over. At first all was peaceful, but in the last year he has been sending increasingly strident calls that I come present myself to him at court. I’ve refused.”

“But don’t you have to?” I asked.

“According to the King’s law, yes, I do, but it doesn’t seem quite safe to me to put my head on the chopping block in the King’s own palace.”

“He means to kill you?” I asked, aghast.

Max gave me a small smile. “If I were him, I’d try to eliminate my largest possible enemy.”

“But you aren’t an enemy!”

“I’m glad you think so,” he said slowly. “Regardless, I will not go on such a foolish errand.”

“And that’s why you threw out the messenger?” I asked, intrigued.

“You heard that too?” He looked annoyed. “Perhaps I should give up trying to keep anything quiet.” He shook his head slowly. “No, that isn’t it, although it’s part of it.” He tucked one leg under the chair. “Katrina, your father used to work at the castle before you were born.”

“He did? Why didn’t he ever tell me?”

“He actually met your mother at the palace.”

“Oh,” I said. “I don’t really know much about my mother. Papa never wanted to talk about her.”

“I’m not surprised. You see, it was your mother he was hiding from.”

I just stared at him, dumbfounded.

“As your father told it, he met your mother before she wed, and they created you. But then she was betrothed to another and summarily wed. Your father said he tried to get her to run off with him, but she refused. It was the day after the wedding she told him she was carrying his child. She managed to keep it a secret long enough that her husband, once she began to show, thought the child was his.”

I couldn’t believe it. My mother had been married to another? “Why wouldn’t she run off with Papa?” I demanded. “He was a kind man.”

“Kind,” Max mused. “Well, perhaps to you he was.”

Upset, I sat up straight. “He was nice to everyone.”

Max put up a hand to take one of mine, which I was waving around to punctuate my point. “You would know him better than I,” he said. “If you say he was kind I believe you.”

“So why didn’t Mama just marry him?” I asked, slightly mollified.

“Your father wasn’t…someone a woman like your mother would marry.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that his station was not as high as hers.”

“Who cares?” I asked. “You married me, and I’m nothing at all.”

“Yes,” he said, drawing out the word. “But you were my ward, and I knew you weren’t either a thief or a killer.”

I thought about that. “Are you saying my father was a thief?”

“No, he was an assassin,” Max said gently.

I blinked, unable to take this in. “You’re wrong.” I stood up and backed away from Max. Why was he telling me these lies? “You didn’t know him.”

“Katrina, he told us himself who he was,” he said, coming over to me.

I spun, grabbed my skirts and ran to the door, having no further plan than to leave this room, Max, and his slander of my father.

Max reached me just as I opened the door and took my arm. “Katrina, you’re not leaving.”

“Why are you telling me this?” I asked desperately. “What could the purpose be to ruin the memory of my father like this? You’re telling me I’m a bastard daughter of a killer!”

Max shut the door and set me away from it. “Katrina—” he began.

“No!” I cried, slapping at his hand when it reached for me. “I don’t want to talk to you any more!“Again he reached for me, and this time I missed his shoulder, where I was aiming, and hit his face. I froze. I’d just slapped my husband’s face. My husband, the Regent who I’d seen kill someone for a simple verbal insult.

Max took my wrists and said, “You are overwrought. But I swear if you hit me again I’ll beat you until you won’t sit comfortably for a week! Do you doubt me?”

I shook my head numbly.

His angry look faded. “Katrina, none of this changes who you are. You’re the same person you were when you thought your parents married and your father just a kindly man.”

“Am I?” I asked. “Are not the sins of the father visited upon his children?”

Max said, “I hope not. I have quite a few sins that I hope my sons do not have to bear.“I sighed, and Max stepped closer and pulled me into his arms. “Katrina, if I was sure the news wouldn’t reach you in another way, I’d spare you this as my brother suggested. But as you’ve so amply proven, gossip flies far and wide. You would rather be prepared, wouldn’t you?”

I nodded slowly. “But…he just killed people for no reason? He just killed them?”

Max said a little wryly, “He was paid well to do so. He was sanctioned by the King.” Max took me back over to the table and picked up the chair I’d knocked over. He gave me an expectant look, and I sat back down, as did he.  “So, your father and your mother were from different stations,” he began.

“I suppose I should be thankful my mother wasn’t a prostitute or something.” My eyes flew to his. “She wasn’t, was she?”

“No,” Max said, amused by something I’d said. “She was a lady.”

“How would an assassin even know a lady?” I asked.

“Your father wasn’t just any assassin, but the King’s assassin. People who threatened the King or his power found themselves face-to-face with death in the form of your father. He was an absolutely lethal man, and I do not impress easily.”

“How would you know he was lethal?” I asked.

“Katrina, this will take the entire day if you keep asking questions. Let me continue. There isn’t really that much more to tell.“I nodded reluctantly.

“So, your father saw your mother growing large with you, and he had a choice to make. Either he could stay quiet and let another man raise his son or daughter, or he could take the child once he or she was weaned and run away.”

“I thought he was this terrible assassin! Why not just kill the husband? And how many men would bother with just a girl child?”

“Katrina,” Max said, clear warning in his voice.

“Fine,” I said shortly, crossing my arms across my chest.

“He chose to take you and run. He came here, and we promised him anonymity and the protection of our forces, should it become necessary.” He saw I would question and shook his head. “There was a kingdom-wide hunt for you and your father, but no one suspected him to be living quietly in Faralee, and eventually it was thought that you either died, or that he had gone beyond the reach of the King.” He looked at me and nodded. “Ask your questions.”

“Why would the King care about one small girl?”

“Because your mother married his brother.”

“Mama married the King’s brother? Did he have more than one?”

Max shook his head, waiting for me to put it all together. “Then my mother is Queen Ophelia? Max nodded. I stared at him. “That can’t be.”

“Not only that, but Ophelia never told her husband the truth, assuming your father told us the truth about being your real father. So the new King—Walter, believes that his eldest daughter is you. Rather important since no other heirs have survived.”

“Do they know I’m here?” I asked.

Max hesitated. “Yes, they do. That was what the message was about. Somehow that fact has leaked out. The King is not pleased that I’ve married his daughter without his permission. He would be mad if anyone did it, but since he already considers me a possible rival, he’s even more furious. He demands you be returned to the palace posthaste. He’s declared our marriage nullified.” He was watching me carefully. “Before you say anything, know that you are my wife, and I will not relinquish you, not even to the King.”

“He can nullify our marriage?” I asked. This was all too much. I felt like I had to just deal with one fact at a time.

“He’s the King,” Max said with a shrug. “That doesn’t mean as much here as it does in the Capitol city, but he is still our King.”

“Then I—we’re not married.” I stared at him.

Max rose and pulled me to my feet. “You’re my wife, and you’ll remain my wife, come what may.”

“But what if the King’s armies….”

“I have armies of my own,” Max said.

“But why? Why does anyone care anything about me? Why does he—King Walter want me back? Why do you want to keep me if there could be fighting? I’m nobody at all!”

“You’re a princess. It wasn’t so bad while the old King lived. Then you were just his niece who had disappeared. You were fifth in line for the throne, after his three children and his brother, assuming that his brother had no sons, who would put you further down the line. You know how often young children die, and he assumed that is what happened to you. Now, though, after the accident that took his children, and then dying himself, you’ve moved up to first in line for the throne. And I, as your Consort, have immense political power both as Regent and Consort. If he worries that I want the entire kingdom, then I certainly have the ammunition to do it now.”

I just stared at him. A strange feeling was starting in my stomach. “So you’ve always known I was a princess?”

Max nodded.

“Would you have ever told me?”

“I doubt it,” he said quietly. “What would be the point?”

“The point?” I asked. “The point would be that my mother is alive. The point would be that I have other family. The point would be that it’s the truth!”

“The truth is that you’re my wife,” Max said.

“Why did you marry me?” I asked suddenly.

Max said slowly, “What are you asking?”

“Did you marry me because I’m some political prize? Or did you marry me to put me under your thumb, so you could punish me for the rest of my life? Or did you marry me because you needed sons? Or did you marry me on a whim?

“My reasons for marrying you are my own,” he said quietly, but with some edge to his voice. 

I shook my head. “I still don’t understand why you’d even shelter a man running away with a child who might have a king looking for her. Why did you do it?”

Max took a deep breath. “I wasn’t that old when your father came here. Your father was a famous man, and I wanted to learn from him. So I made a deal with him. He would teach me to fight and would do some work for me if I called upon him, and I’d give him my protection.”

I nodded slowly, remembering my father’s periodic absences where I would stay with the local minister and his wife. He must have been training Maximus then. “What kind of work would he do for you?”

Max said nothing, and I realized the only kind of work my father would be called upon to do. “Killing people?“Max didn’t answer my question, but I didn’t really need him to. I looked off across the room, trying to reconcile my kindly father with a famous assassin. Trying to change my dead mother into a Queen. It just seemed too much.  I stood and walked across the room. “I suppose I should thank you for telling me.”