@TheWattys 2022 Shortlist Novel
@HistoricalFiction Top 25 of 2022 For Historical Fiction Awards
@HistoricalFiction Best of Historical Fiction 2022
This is a continuation of @TheWattys Shortlisted Novel, The Ostler's Boy.
(BOOK 2)
-----
Love. Duty...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"Is this... Is this too weird for you to be subjected to?" I asked Svana.
She laughed. "A little late for that, perhaps? But... No. I don't think so. I never knew her, and you are my friend. Not my father... I mean it is a little strange to hear so much about my father... I knew he was..."
"Would you prefer I cater to that? I can leave out—"
"No," she shook her head. "No. Please don't. I said I wanted all of it. So. Let us hear your story," but her voice was softer than it normally was. She was considering every vulgar detail of the history I was telling, and though I would continue to glean over certain parts to come... I hoped I would not damage her with the truth.
"Should I–?"
"I am a little lost, I admit. I thought you were something of a ladies' man?"
"Rumors, love," I said.
"Rumors you never corrected? I've heard people say things to your face. You never thought you should say anything?"
"I never had the desire to. The more it was suggested that I was sleeping with other women, the less anyone felt the urge to look towards the Queen and I."
"Ah. Hiding in plain sight," she realized. "Even from me, years later?"
"A trick I do believe I taught you is most effective when blanketed over everyone equally. Time has no consequence. A secret remains a secret, even when half of it is gone."
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
I'll admit the first few days of this... Sneaking of passionate collisions every fifty feet, behind any and all available shrubbery, was taking a strange toll on me. I was convinced that at any moment, my uncle or even the King would erupt from whatever shielded us, and demand my blade and head.
It takes a while to merit sea legs in a clandestine affair. A little longer, when the woman you are courting already belongs to someone so above you. And longer still, when she is the Queen and wife of the man you are sworn to God to serve faithfully.
