Of Swords And Horses (The Ostler's Boy Book 2)

Chapter Thirteen

"What I had not come to notice yet, was that my uncle was already right... It didn't matter to me, if the child, if you, were mine by blood or not. Call me a liar if I did not confess that while I was away on this mission, there were times I'd even pray for you to be the King's. If only so that Eliza and I could continue to exist in the way we always had. It was not as if I did not wish you were my own... I had that battle with myself, as well. Often, when I would lie awake. It was, one day, I realized, simply... that you were an extension of your mother. I knew I would love you regardless of the odds. I already did love you regardless of the odds, because I loved your mother," I said. I cleared my throat. "But. You were but a tiny thought. No physical proof of you existed yet besides a lack of blood, and I had many things pressing on my mind that Summer and Fall."

Svana's daughter was sleeping. She took a moment to gather her thoughts; a rare occurrence for me to witness. "...My mother was a very lucky woman," she decided. "To have a man so devoutly hers. Even after all these years. Not many men can love another's child so easily."

"Then they are not men, or they are not in love," I sang.

"How long were you gone this time? I've never heard you talk about this mission!" She laughed, no doubt trying to lift the mood for us. "A right Knight you were!"

"...I was gone... For four months and twenty eight and half days. Or a hundred and fifty one, if you do the math."

"That's more precise than I expected to get out of you..." She bit her lip.

"Well, I had time to count," I grinned. "And I didn't tell you about this trip because..."

"Listen, Eli. You don't have to tell me about it now, about anything, if it's too much."

"Well we're in it already... Aren't we? No. I've told you this much. So. Where was I?" I leaned back. "Ah. Right. The War... War changes a man," I said.

"But the War didn't actually start until Winter?" she asked. "Was it not early December?"

"By official transcripts, yes. But this was a feud that had began long before this journey. December is just the date our historians picked."

"So ominous."

"The reasons for such an act as war are never bound to the surface, I hope you'll never find. They run deep, like jagged roots, and your father was... Willing to tear the whole plant out, rather than treat its sickness."