✓ | TOUGH AS THE IRONWOOD (A.FORRESTER 2)

Never Cross Asher. Chapter Seventeen.

"Something about him seems off to me." Asher grumbled, perching himself stiffly on the edge of Cynthia's bed with arms folded and tensed. He looked to be brooding, as he always used to, with a furrowed brow that only seemed to push further down his face with every second he spent thinking further on the matter. "If Mira is happy, we cannot interfere, Asher-" Rodrik sighed as though not even he believed the words he spoke so wisely to his brother, his own frown growing the more he sought out reason. "-No matter how much we may wish to." He finished with his hands sternly on his hips, contemplating the rules he'd set in place as if trying to work out a way around his own orders. "What if she isn't happy?" Asher persisted, pushing himself aggressively from where he leant, staring intensely at Rodrik - the way the pair of them were acting was like they already knew, before Cynthia had said a word. "Then it's her place to say so, not ours assume-" "-what if she can't? What if he's scaring her, or worse, and she's too afraid to come to us for-" "Enough!" Cynthia cut through Asher's rant, fed up of hearing Rodrik deny what Asher was saying, as she knew it to be true. "Asher we have to be nice, he is to be family after all and until Mira says otherwise we-" "I said enough!" Cynthia barked again, turning her glare to the lord. "Enough?" Rodrik repeated with a confused glint in his eyes. "Asher's right. She isn't happy - Morgryn is an arse and we need to deal with him." Cynthia stepped to Asher's side, the look of ashamed pride lingering in his familiar and relaxingly grey eyes; none of them wanted it to be true, but Asher was a competitive sort, and any chance he could correct his brother was one well accepted. "Until Mira says-" "She has said, Rodrik, to me. When we took our walk earlier she explained her circumstances to me." Rodrik's face fell upon hearing Cynthia's solemn words: "She said that Morgryn knew about the attack on the harbour, and on Ironrath; he anticipated you'd both be dead by now. And with Ethan gone, and Ryon presumably killed, he thought Mira would become the heir to House Forrester - so he blackmailed her with her life to marry him, seeking out the title of lord so that he might kill Mira and sell off all the Ironwood to make a profit." Cynthia recited, remembering every aspect of the story which Mira had explained in detail but hours before this conversation was taking place.

Both the boys fell gaunt for a moment, their expressions turning pale for but a second before Asher's eyes ignited with a fury Cynthia had seen too often, and the embers within Rodrik's own eyes weren't a great deal calmer than those of his brother. If she didn't hate the bastard as much as she did, Cynthia would almost fear for Morgryn at this moment, given the anger that seemed to radiate from one Forrester to another. "Supper is ready!" A maid called from the corridor, ignorant to the wildfire brewing amongst the lord and his company currently, and how awfully inappropriate an announcement such as that had been given the mood. Asher was seething, and about ready to rip that man's head off right now, the decleration of said man's whereabouts was doing little to calm the second son's rage. "Come on - we needn't let on that any of us know yet, we need to take time to plan our actions. I can trust you won't do anything rash, can't I brother?" Rodrik said with feigned wisdom, as he was clearly not as calm as he liked to let on, but Cynthia knew his tactics well enough by now - this was his best attempt to calm his brother's anger as much was possible before he did, in fact, dismember Mira's betrothed. "I won't do anything the bastard doesn't deserve." Asher growled through gritted teeth, a threat that almost scared Cynthia. Almost. "Go. Rodrik. I've got him." She whispered softly to the lord, who didn't seem overly convinced leaving Asher alone with her was the best course of action, but then he knew Cynthia as well as she knew him by now - and he could trust if there was one person Asher would never harm, it was her.

With the words spoken as quietly as could be managed, Rodrik left the room in defeat - hardly looking back at his enraged brother as he departed their company. "Asher-" "Don't, Cyn. You know what we do to people that mess with us." Asher snapped, though in his eyes he seemed to fill with a sense of remorse at having shown any sort of violence to the one person whom had never received such behaviour from him. He never touched her, shouted at her even, not in all the years he'd maintained his bad temper did he ever direct it at Cynthia. And even now, when he was on the verge of completely losing his control, he showed all the signs of guilt at having gotten even close to aiming it at her. All she could do was bare a small, sensitive smile, and place a calming hand on his cheek. "Listen to me, we are going to make the sod pay for this, but not yet. If he figures out that we know of his plans, he'll hurt Mira - and that'll be on us. Alright? So we behave, we play nice, and we get him when he least expects it." She cooed in the quietest, gentlest voice she could manage, while she looked dead into his eyes and watched the fury slip back to the affection he wore only for her. "Now come on, they'll be waiting."