Bonds that Burn and Bind

Chapter 4 Part 4

By the time I arrived back at Ashwood Manor, there wasn't an inch of me that didn't hurt or ache in some way, including my heart. The sky had turned soft yellow, casting everything in shades of light and dark, including the Sea Side City of Moonas that hugged the coast down below. Already, lanterns were plinking on along Moonas' cobblestone roads.

My childhood home loomed large before me, a stone giant hunched on a gently sloping hill made of many windows, ivory-covered stones, and seven chimneys that curled gray smoke into the evening air. The wrought-iron gates, usually closed, hung ajar to allow wedding guests that would be staying the night to travel up the road, which bisected the sprawling mall of manicured grass leading to the front entrance.

Three carriages were pulled in front of the circular drive by the time I arrived in front of my home. Servants, weighed down by trunks and boxes containing personal effects and gifts, trailed guests through the large green wooden doors as they were directed to their designated apartments by our head housekeeper, Delia.
I followed one of these carriages through the porte-cochère and into the high-walled courtyard that was the heart of the manor.

The courtyard bustled with life like usual but with the added excitement and chaos of wedding preparation. A maid stood on a ladder, hanging lanterns on the branches of one of the pear trees, while another held its base steady. Numerous other staff members set lavish floral arrangements and outdoor furniture around the large stone fountain under the watchful eyes of Lady Margaret Aimsworth, my soon-to-be mother-in-law. Her strawberry blonde hair was swept into a tasteful updo atop her head, like a tiered cake.

Thankfully, everybody seemed too preoccupied with their task to pay me any attention.  I pulled my cloak around my face and made for the doorway of our healer, slinking along the courtyard's outer wall.

I almost didn't notice him lingering just within the shadows of the kitchen's doorway, blending into the shadows in his usual black leathers, until he stirred.

I paused while my father, Lord Aimsworth, Prince of Thieves, stepped into my path.
His bright blue eyes swept over me, and his curls sparkled silver and gold in the fading light.  Although I mostly took after my mother's people, I had inherited his wide mouth, as had all my brothers. But the rest of my features, like my heart shape face, pointed chin, narrow nose, and slightly uptilted eyes came from my mother.

"You look like somethin' a griffin dragged in. What do you have for me?" he asked, quirking one of his eyebrows, almost too light to see against his rosy-white skin. Without a word, I retrieved the gold rose coin and flipped it to him. He snatched it from the air, holding it between his fingers, beaming at it with pride. "I'm guessing this cost you dearly?" His eyes flicked back to me.

"You have no idea. If two girls named Cassie and Tula show up here, you pay them one gold coin every full moon cycle to train Vi how to fight."
He nodded without comment and glanced over his shoulder. "You best get goin' to the healer before Lady Assworth sees you lookin' anythin' less than perfect for her son."
Lady Assworth was the nickname my father had bestowed upon my future in-law, but never to her face.

"I swear, I've never known such a loud sound could come from somethin' so small until she found you gone this mornin'."
I grimaced. "That's why I snuck out before anybody was awake. I warned Fredrick first, though."

"Val, darling!"  Lady Aimsworth exclaimed, and my father's eyes widened.

"Go!" he mouthed, but she was moving toward us with purpose, the layers of her pink skirt swishing around her like the petals of a rose. A necklace made of silver and rubies glimmered along her throat.

"There you are!" she exclaimed. "I was worried you wouldn't get back in time from your trip," the last two words of her sentence were clipped enough for me to feel the cold aftershock of her fury at my absence.  "We had an unexpected guest of honor arrive, so I need your opinion on the new seating chart."

"Um, can it wait, I need to take care of something first," I said, turning my face to the side in the hopes of concealing what I looked like at the present moment.

Lady Aimsworth clicked her tongue. "Oh, my lovely little seal cub, you could've had all the moments you wanted if haven't gone off this morning. But you did so now I need you to make some decisions on some last-minute arrangements like the seating chart. An unexpected honored guest just arrived, and I have no idea where to place him."

I didn't dare point out that I would've preferred a small ceremony, but Lady Aimsworth had insisted on this big elaborate mess.

I sighed, knowing it was no use in hiding from her any longer, and turned to face her. She let out a gasp, then smiled with way too many teeth, and her left eye twitched. "Oh, how nice. At least we'll have a distraction from the awful flower decorations that arrived half-dead."

"Nothing that Magpie can't fix!" my father said, looping his arm around my shoulder and turning me away.

Magpie was the healer that lived and worked on our estate.
"The seating chart-"   Lady Aimsworth began.
"Don't you think the bride's face is more important than a seating chart?" my father replied, clicking his tongue and looking over his shoulder at her.

"Yes, however-"

" I can help.  It is my damn house, after all. I should be able to figure out where to place one more guest," he let go of me, and I mouthed a silent thanks before he swiveled around to face his nemesis with a smile.

I made for the healer's doorway, located on the far wall of the courtyard before Lady Aimsworth could think of a good response to stop me.
"So, our bride has finally returned." An all too familiar male voice locked all my joints in place, and I had to force myself to continue breathing.
"Your majesty!" Lady Aimsworth exclaimed. "We were just discussing an appropriate place to seat you during the ceremony."

"No need to trouble yourself. It does not matter where I sit."

I turned around slowly and met smoky gray eyes. There He stood, his tanned, muscled arms crossed, his short brown hair trimmed neatly, jaw clenched tight with barely contained anger. Prince Orin, heir to the throne of Incartha. The man I loved. And the man I separated myself from by an entire ocean, standing in my family's courtyard, glaring at me on the eve of my wedding.