“What should we do about it?” Marcus said as he placed King Argon’s letter back onto the large oak table in the meager library.
The musty smell of the room had not faded. Some of the original scrolls were still in the room and had suffered some water damage due to the leaky roof. Now that it had been fixed the smell was trapped with no where else to go.
“Nothing.” Donovan cracked his knuckles. “Let him come.”
“Our people have gotten stronger, yes, but we cannot take the King’s whole army.” Marcus leaned against the table on both hands forcing a groan from the wood.
“Who said anything about his whole army?” He began to pace at the end of the table. “His men should arrive in Dragandria any day. He wouldn’t send his entire army. But no number of men he is willing to send will be too much for our men. I want the men moved into the town as soon as possible. That way there is some semblance of normalcy when the troops arrive. They don’t know the townspeople so there is no way to know that our men are not theirs.” It sounded brilliant in his head but he always ran it by Marcus in case there was a flaw he had not considered.
“What about Laura? They could know her. It is her father after all. They will want to discuss it with her.”
Donovan rubbed the scruff on his chin. He hadn’t taken the time to shave before he left his quarters and it was bothering him. For the longest time he’d had no way of shaving, now being able to was a symbol of his no longer being without a home. “No, we can have one of our women play her. I doubt they would know her.”
“My Lord.” A concerned look crossed Marcus’s gaze. “If she has gone to court…”
Donovan snarled at the idea. If she had gone to court then there were numerous males after her affections. He would be damned if her affections would belong to anyone but him. He had them once, he would get them again. Damn him for thinking like that! He knew that her feelings were not the point at the moment. “I will see what I can do. Perhaps we can spin this and create a means for her to search for her father and make us look like the good guys at the same time. A plan was forming.
The door to the Library swung open with a loud bang that had both men reaching for their swords. Sheera growled by his feet for a moment until she saw who it was.
“Ellen? What is wrong?” Marcus moved quickly to his wife. “Is the baby coming?”
She had a grin on her face that said she had something good to share.
“Is it Laura?” Donovan interrupted.
“No to both of you. I have glorious news!”
“Well spit it out, woman!” Marcus grew impatient as he cupped her elbows in his large hands.
“We are having twins!”
Donovan stared at his friend’s back. Marcus didn’t say anything in response to his wife so Donovan clapped him on the back a few times.
“Congratulations my friend.”
“Is the physician here?” He asked her.
“No.”
“Then how did you find out?” Donovan watched as his friend paled out.
“Laura. She’s a midwife.”
“And you trust her? I can’t believe you let her touch you.” He spat.
Donovan squeezed his friend’s shoulder. The thought that she was a midwife had never crossed his mind. Though it made some sense since she had spent her evenings with the local midwife across town. He remembered her saying that her father disapproved of the whole thing, but that the woman was nice and taught her a lot. She had even put a poultice on his shin one morning after he had scraped it on a rock. Donovan had laughed at her and made fun of her while she had mashed up some leaves. But she paid him no mind. The wound hadn’t gotten infected and had healed quickly. He still had the scar but never paid it any attention.
Ellen stood silently looking very upset. She had come in thinking that her husband would be happy and now he was furious with her.
“It is fine, Marcus. Laura would never hurt her. You are having twins, man.”
“Oh,” he snapped. “Because you knew her when she was a child you think you know her now? You don’t know anything about her!”
Donovan’s blood began to boil. Being spoken to in that manner just didn’t happen. He certainly wasn’t going to let his friend say anything negative about Laura. “I am going to give you ten seconds to leave this room. If you don’t leave by then, there will be hell to pay for your insolence.”
The muscles in Marcus’s jaw jumped before he turned on his heel and stormed out the door. “I am going to fetch the physician,” he shouted behind him and slammed the door.
Ellen stood, her eyes full of tears and her hands clasped together gently. “You knew her once?”
“Yes.” He nodded. “When we were little.” He walked up to her slowly. Sometimes he could be a real bear but he didn’t want to scare her. “Ellen, she is a wonderful person. She would never cause anyone intentional harm. If she says that you have twins in there, then you are going to have twins. If there’s anything that I really do know about her, it’s that she is smart and honest.”
“My Lord?”
“Hmm?”
“What power does she possess?”
He thought about it for a moment. “I’m not sure yet.”
She nodded solemnly. “Please excuse me,” and turned to leave.
“Ellen?” She stopped and waited as he had beckoned. “Has she done what I have asked of her?”
“She seems to have eaten and bathed. I healed her face and left her one of my dresses from before the pregnancy. It does seem that she’s made a friend and scared most of the slaves.”
“What?” He cocked an eyebrow and smirked humorously. “How did that wisp of a woman scare all the slaves?”
“She apparently got into one of the females faces and threatened her after the slave woman backhanded one of the slave boys. It also seems that she has taken a liking to the boy.”
He rubbed the bridge of his nose. Little Laura was proving to be quite the tyrant. He hadn’t seen Marcus this upset ever. Now the slaves were scared of her? “Thank you for healing her. You didn’t have to do that.” That was the truth. One thing he stood firm on was never forcing his people to use their magic. It was always their choice to do so. He would have never even considered asking Ellen’s unique ability to heal on Laura.
“I normally wouldn’t have. But, there was something about the way she touched my stomach and pressed her face against me. It was…it was like she had been doing it her whole life and honestly, I don’t want to trust her. It all makes sense though. Why else would I be so much bigger than the other mothers?”
He nodded. “I know I am a pain to deal with sometimes,” he admitted gruffly, “but I do appreciate what you did. She really does mean something to me. In fact, she is the only happy thing that ever happened to me in my life, before I met other magic bearers.”
Her eyes widened at his admission.
“Now that we know you have twins in there, I do not want you going up and down the stairs unnecessarily. That is an order.”
She opened her mouth to protest but Donovan raised his eyebrows at her. “Yes, My Lord,” was all she said before she left too.
Donovan wasn’t sure how he was going to get all of this to work. He now had to get Laura to play into his plot and play the worried daughter that he knew she was, while he had her father locked away in the same building as her. He was disgusting. How could he tell her that he had him? In reality, his emotions aside, Remington was useless to him now. Donovan had Dragandria. The King already knew he was missing. If he were to let him go, no one would be the wiser. So what if Remington told? There was nothing anyone could do about it. Once outside of the magical sphere of influence, he would be unable to see the castle, which meant he would be unable to lead anyone to it.
