Page 67 of To Love

“I will be sad to leave,” she said. “But we must return to Roland’s home someday.”

“To inherit an earldom,” Evelina reminded her. “You will be as beloved there as you are here.”

“What of you, Elara?” Amalia asked. “When the empress regains the throne, where will you go?”

“When she does so, ’twill be safe for me to return to court. We can admit my marriage to a Scot was a ruse. Until then, however, it is not safe for me to do so.”

“This succession crisis has been many years in the making,” Evelina said after taking a sip of ale. “With the recent setbacks, ’tis clear many more could be necessary to see Matilda installed as queen.”

“The right Matilda,” Amalia added. King Stephen’s wife, the current queen, was styled Matilda as well.

“Aye,” Elara agreed. “It could be days, or years, ’tis true.”

“So perhaps,” Evelina said, “you should live your life in the interim.”

She’d assumed they would discuss Alden today, and she did so reluctantly now. “You are right about my feelings for him. The longer he is gone, the more worried I become. Perhaps I should have expressed more before he left, but . . . ’tis a complicated situation.”

“You said yourself, when the empress is queen, you can return to court. Can not Alden return with you?”

“With no land, nor title, I fear court life would be difficult for him. ’Tis possible he could find a position as a steward.” She smiled. “Can you see him doing as much?”

“Nay,” Evelina agreed. “I cannot. What does he wish for, after Blackwood?”

“He mentioned weapons training and mercenary work, but in truth, we’ve talked little about our future, knowing our joining is fleeting.”

“Your joining?” Evelina’s eyes widened.

“Nay, nay. We have not. I’ve no desire to raise a babe alone.”

“We do not wish to intrude—”

Evelina cut off her friend and former maid. “Aye, we do. It seemed, for both of us, all would not be well, but it was. And will be for you too.”

Elara wished she had her friend’s confidence.

“Now that he is gone,” she admitted, “I wish for him to return. The worry I have, that he will be safe, as I know you worry too . . .”

“They will return to us,” Evelina said. And though Elara knew she had no more information than Evalina did, her words were still oddly comforting.

“They must,” she said. Then, with more resolve, “And when they do, I will tell him how I feel. If he does the same, perhaps . . . perhaps there is hope for us.”

“Not perhaps.” Amalia lifted her mug and motioned with her other hand for the two of them to do the same. “There is hope for you. As there once was for us. Let us drink to their safe return.”

They did, but Elara drank for more than that.

To the traitor being uncovered, and the hope he acted alone, save for Lila.

To new friends who understood her current situation without judgment.

To finding love in the unlikeliest of places.

To the strength she would need to admit her love for Alden when he returned, knowing their future was, at best, uncertain.

Chapter

Twenty-Eight

Smoke rising from burning buildings with the flash of steel in the sunlight gave Alden a momentary pause. Stepping over bodies strewn across the cobbled streets, and the shattered remnants of siege engines, he appraised his surroundings.