Page 51 of The King’s Commander

Chapter Nineteen

Aedre

Though just on the edge of the village, the walk to Nord Manor takes a bit of time and effort. Built on a massive rock island, the base of which becomes submerged at high tide, it is an impregnable and impressive structure. As I walk the long path leading to it, the low tide allowing me to pass, my mind turns over and over again, as it has since yesterday. So many questions invade my thoughts. I have a clear answer to only one.

Should I have kissed Lord Vanni d’Abella, Curia Commander to the King of Meria?

The answer is a resounding yes.

Had I gone a lifetime without such a kiss, I would never have understood the power of love, of desire—why people are willing to drink any concoction, recite any spell, for such a feeling.

Of course, I am not in love with Vanni. But he does invoke something in me I’d never experienced or understood before. Not really.

While some imagine themselves at court, surrounded by elaborate gowns and glorious luxuries, I’ve not once wished for such things. My grandmother has ensured I wish only to be surrounded by love. By my family. Someday, perhaps, that family will grow and I will take a husband.

Unfortunately, Vanni could never be that man. He is King Galfrid’s man through and through.

I come to the gatehouse after an uphill climb. A small tower with its circled stone wall encompassing the keep within its courtyard greets me, and I wave up at the guard. Though I can’t see his face from here, the portcullis is opened. Surrounded by water, this small island accessible only during low tide took years to build but is considered the crowning glory of Murwood End, much to the consternation of Lord Bailor, the highest ranking noble here. Kipp’s father, Sir Nicholas, was knighted on the battlefield but held no other title. A mercenary, he’d saved a lifetime’s worth of gold to make Nord Manor possible.

A good man, Nicholas Aldwine had left this manor, which would be considered a castle by some, as well as his legacy, to Kipp, whom he’d accepted as his son.

Kipp would never leave it, most especially not to return to a man he despises. But I made a promise to Vanni and intend to keep it. Even if it hastens Vanni’s departure from Murwood End.

I refuse to regret that kiss.

“Good day, Lady Aedre,” Kipp’s steward, one of just a handful of servants at Nord, greets me as he opens the door.

“Good day.” I walk inside and spot him immediately.

Kipp is a difficult man to miss. As always, he is dressed simply. Braies and a linen tunic, given the warm temperature. And yet, he’s a tall, broad man, and there’s a regal quality to him that must have been passed to him in Galfrid’s blood. It is a silly thought, but difficult to dismiss.

I could very much imagine him on the throne.

“Aedre? I’d have come to see you,” he says, leaping up from his chair. Unlike at Lord Bailor’s home, Anbarth Castle, there is no dais or special seat for Kipp. As he says often, he is neither a great lord or even a knight but a Voyager and the son of a mercenary.

“Today? Tomorrow? A sennight from now?”

He wraps his arms around me and I squeeze back, grateful for his return.

“I’d have come—” he releases me, laughing, “—eventually.”

There are few in the hall. I raise my hand to greet the men who hardly leave Kipp’s side, a group of twelve fellow Voyagers as loyal to Kipp as if he were their lord.

They say Nord Manor is akin to a monastery for the abundance of unmarried men and lack of women. With two very obvious differences . . . they’re neither religious or celibate.

“Not soon enough.” I nod away from the hall. “I’d speak to you privately.”

The words have barely left my mouth before Kipp starts striding toward the entranceway whence I just emerged.

A small solar just up the stairs is by far the most spectacular chamber in the entire manor. It boasts large windows open to the sea beyond.

“Something’s troubling you?” he asks as he settles into his chair.

I sit across from him in a high back, velvet-lined chair. The upholstery is brightly colored, much like the tapestries that hang on the walls—Kipp’s mother’s attempt to lighten the long, dark days here in the north.

“Have you spoken to anyone since returning?”

“Last eve when we made port, aye.”