The Duke's Knight

Chapter 14

I waved goodbye to my parents and brothers as I boarded the carriage with Alister.

"Are you okay?" I looked at him as he faced me attentively and smiled.

"Some how, I'm quite tired." He reached for me and brought me to his side of the carriage.

"Feel free to rest on me." I smiled and I took him up on his offer as I placed my head on his arm and got comfortable beside him. I closed my eyes and welcomed the sleep that had been following me around for a few days.

~&~

When I awoke there was a warm body beside me and an arm thrown over my midsection. I looked down and there Alister lay, comfortably snuggled into me. I moved his hand and sat up and stretched. I suppose I slept through our first night together as a married couple. I saw our clothes thrown over a chair in the room and I looked down again properly and realised that I was in one of Alister's shirts. I looked back at him and smiled; he was in shorts and sleeping on his back.

I was about to lay back on the bed when a shadow passing over the window stopped me. I laid down and summoned a dagger and turned on my side so my back was to the window. I took a slow deep breath and listened. There were two heartbeats, I couldn't hear what they were saying but they were coming into the room. Their breaths became louder as they came into the room and came closer to the bed. A shift on the bed and a spray of something wet had me spinning around dagger drawn. Alister knelt on the bed, short sword drawn and blood splatted over his chest. He looked back at me.

"Are you okay?" My shoulders sagged.

"I'm fine. I was going to handle it, you were sleeping." He reached for me and rubbed my cheek.

"I was awake the moment you sat up. When you froze, I realized something was up."

"Is this a regular occurrence for you?" I yawned as I lay back down on the bed.

"I am the fourth of five children. It is not my place to become a Grand Duke when I have older brothers." I frowned.

"But you were chosen." He lay next to me and pulled my body closer to his.

"Was your younger brother chosen?" I smiled and turned to look at him.

"It was very different for us. Vidya wanted to be a knight more than a Lord and I was following Vidya, trying to prove that I could do anything he could do. Terrel did not have the slightest interest in a sword or fighting. He told our father that he was doing his job poorly and he would do it better." I shrugged "So it just became obvious that he would inherit it."

"That does make things a little easier." I laughed lightly.

"It makes things a lot easier. I don't have to take boring classes and I can swing my sword as much as I want."

"You can't, remember the King's orders." I rolled my eyes.

"The King will not be coming to our home often, I will be able to swing my sword."

"As the father of our child, I am deeply concerned that your stubbornness would be inherited." I swatted his chest.

"I am not stubborn. I simply wish to do what I enjoy doing." I fixed him with a look.

"Okay wife, go to sleep." I blinked.

"Are we just going to act like we don't have blood on us." I blinked. "It'll be harder to come off in the morning and the bodies would smell."

"Alright, stay here." I watched as he left the room and and came back a few minutes later with two knights in tow. They kept their eyes on the ground and didn't look up once and I assumed Alister scared them. Once they removed both bodies they returned to to begin cleaning the floor and I watched as they were meticulous about removing the blood.

Once they were finished Alister approached me with a wash cloth and basin and began wiping my face.

"What's wrong?" I asked him as he began to wipe his own face far more aggressively than he was wiping my own.

"I fear I may have put you in danger." I caressed the clean side of his face with one hand and took the cloth from him with my other hand.

"Alister, there would always be danger. As long as I am a knight I will always be in danger. But you have to trust that I can protect myself; and our baby." He placed his hand on my shoulder and I frowned.

"Apart from you being a knight there comes a certain amount of danger from being the wife of the Grand Duke." I placed a light kiss on his lips.

"Whatever I can't handle, that's why you're there." I smiled and he cracked a smile. He kissed me deeper and guided me back to the bed. He rubbed his hand against my bare thigh and I hummed.

"I hope it never comes to that. You are quite strong." I pulled away and smiled brightly.

"And don't you forget it."