Knight's End (The Knight Trilogy) (13 page)

“I suppose
news travels slowly from Fridel to
Northsbury
. No one seems to know who I am,” Aston said, turning to look at Jade.

“What does that mean for us?” Jade asked him.

Aston smiled, jumping down from Sterling.
“It means we can stay here,” he said, motioning to the building they’d stopped in front of.

Jade looked up and smiled, her eyes crinkling.
“Real
ly? We can stay here?” she exclaimed, bouncing slightly in her saddle
. When Aston nodded
,
she laughed and jumped down from Edward, pulling Aston into a hug before going inside.

Aston looked up again, his eyes glancing at the sign.
The triangular board depicted the silhouette of a knight on a horse, a plume rising from his helmet:
Knight’s Inn. It was fitting, he thought. He handed Sterling and Edward over to the inn’s stable hand and followed Jade inside. He was surprised he didn’t find her in the main room.

Aston walked to the desk at the front of the inn, clearing his throat to get the innkeeper
’
s attention. When she looked up at him, she immediately stopped what she was doing and leaned forward, exposing a good amount of her chest for his eyes.

“I was wondering where the young woman who just walked in went,” Aston said, deciding to get right to the point.

The woman frowned and
straightened,
crossing her arms over her chest. “Upstairs, third room on the right,” she said, looking down at her desk.

Aston pulled his coin purse from his pocket and opened it.
“How much for the room?” he asked.

The lady waved him off.
“It’s been taken care of.”

Aston frowned as he put his purse away before
heading up the stairs. He found the third one and knocked, not wanting to intrude on Jade.

“Come
in,” she called.

Aston stepped inside and smiled. Jade was lyin
g on the only
bed in the room, her arms crossed behind her head, her legs taking up most of the rest. She pulled her legs together when he walked in and patted
the empty side of the
bed beside her.

Confused, Aston w
alked over and sat beside Jade, glancing around the room. A tall wardrobe occupied one corner, and there
was a single window overlooking the town with thread-bare brown curtains. Aside from that, the bed was the only other furniture in the room.

“Well, lay down. Get some
sleep,” Jade ordered
,
interrupting his thoughts. She folded
her arms back under
her head and closed her eyes.

“This isn’t proper,” Aston said, uncomfortable.
He cleared his throat and looked away from the princess, folding his hands in his lap and squirming.

“Well, I didn’t think to get two rooms. I thought it would be pointless. Besides, if you are going to be my protector, you need to be in
the same room as me,” Jade stated
, opening her eyes again and looking over at Aston.

Aston looked down at her and sighed, giving in and laying down beside her. “How did you pay for this room, anyway?” Aston asked.

Jade cringed
.
“I ‘borrowed’
some money from my parents when I left,” she answered.

Aston laughed and turned onto his side
, facing the wall away from Jade. He felt Jade turn around as well. Aston didn’t intend to sleep. He didn’t want to fall asleep and not
wake up in time to catch the Rogue. The knight didn’t want to have to go back to Fridel. By now, everyone would know what he had done, and the price on his head would be high.

He
heard Jade’s slow breathing and knew she’d fallen asleep. He go
t up slowly, careful not to jar
the bed and wake her. He left the room
, locking the door behind him,
and went downstairs, going to the stable to grab
their bags.
When he reached the room again, Aston remembered the letter Richie had given him
from King Aric. Curious, he dug the letter from the pack and went downstairs to read it.

Donn,

I appreciate the help you sent. Prince Talbot held everyone together when The Rogue Royal got away. You should know I don’t blame your knight or your son for what happened to Duke Aeron. If Aston and Talbot had not been there, we wouldn’t have found The Duke when we did, and my daughter might be dead as well. I want you to thank Talbot for staying with her while Aston went after
t
he Rogue. She is a fragile soul, so like her mother.

That said, I have news of her. My daughter has run away. I haven’t seen my s
on in a month and now sh
e
is gone as well. I don’t know where I am failing as a fathe
r
,
but I fear she was angry with
me. I had arrang
ed for Duke Aeron’s eldest son, Marquess
Jacob, to marry h
er, but my daughter is spirited
.

If you could send someone to help me find her, I would be most grateful. Maybe Aston? I have heard he is the best of your knights, and I believe he
would be able to coax h
e
r
into returning home. I hope for word from you soon.

Your friend,

Aric

Aston raised a brow at the letter. King Aric had wanted him to come and find his daughter? He wondered what Donn’s reply would have been. I’m sorry, I can’t send Aston because I hanged him? Rereading the letter, Aston found what he needed.

“I want you to thank Talbot for staying with her while Aston went after The Rogue… King Aric knows it was Talbot that stayed with the princess,
and
not me,” he whispered, reading the line again. This letter could be the key to his salvation.

With a sigh, he placed the letter aside. If he
returned
with the letter, King Donn would think it was forged. He would accuse Aston of stealing the real letter and forging a new one and he would be in worse shape than he was already.

Aston jumped as he fe
lt small hands on his shoulders, his body tensing as he was pulled from his thoughts. Grabbing the dagger at his belt, h
e tilted his head back and looked up, finding Jade standing over him.
He let out the breath he had been holding and released his dagger, relaxing. “Jade,” he said, acknowledging her presence.

She smiled at him but quickly dropped the expression.
“What are you doing down here? Y
ou should be sleeping,” she stated
, letting go of his shoulders and c
oming around to sit beside him on the hard sofa.

Aston laughed halfheartedly. “I f
ound something that could clear my name
,” he said, tossing the letter onto Jade’s lap.

Jade picked
up
the letter
ca
refully
.
After reading it, s
he raised an eyebrow and looked at him.
“You’re on fir
st name basis with…King Aric?” She’d paused
to read the signature.

Aston shrugged.
“He’s always been kind to me when my travels take me to Adion,” he explained.

Jade nodded.
“How could this save you?” she asked. Aston pointed to the letter and she gasped. “Aric knew you went after the
Rogue?” she asked.
“This is great!”

The knight
shook his head.
“King Donn would claim the letter was a forgery
if I brought it to him. This doesn’t change anything. I might have King Aric on
my side, but, if I show up in Adion
, I don’t know
what
would happen to me. I’d probably be thrown in the dungeon and left until King Donn arrived.”

“Oh…I’m sorry,” Jade said,
refolding the letter so that the address was on the outside.
She
returned the letter to
Aston’s lap and stood. “If you aren’t going to sleep, we might as well go and see the town,” she offered,
holding a hand out towards him
.

Aston
stared at her hand for a moment, contemplating. On the ride into town, no one had recognized him, but that didn’t mean that they wouldn’t. Was it really a good idea, going into the market in the middle of the afternoon? The look on Jade’s face, the blatant excitement, made him sigh. He accepted the hand she offered,
allowing Jade to pull him to his feet.

Once standing, Jade smiled and pulled him out the door, leading him onto the stre
ets of Northsbury
.
The air was thick with the smells of winter. Baking apple pies, the faint smell of pine, and cinnamon filled Aston’s nose, and he breathed deeply. Winter was almost there; another week and snow would start falling, blanketing the ground in its soft, white powder. When winter came
,
he would have to find a place to stay with Jade. He couldn’t allow her to live in the forest, sleeping on the frozen groun
d. Aston made a note
to talk to Delgrab about finding a small cabin for him to use for the winter.

Jade’s eyes lit up as she walked through Summerslade. The streets were alive with jesters, musicians, and merchants. Stalls lined the streets selling jewelry, cloth, pottery, and ribbons. Store owners were outside with trays of their products to sell, competing with the travelling merchants who had stopped before the Winter Ball. Several people stopped Jade as they walked the street, offering her jewelry and samples of fresh fruit, but Aston made sure not to let her talk to too many people.

Aston was grateful the king’s soldiers seemed to be absent from the market. Undoubtedly, they were all at the palace, being briefed on what to do in case the Rogue showed up. Which he
would. Right now, it was more important that the king’s life be protected than that his people were behaving during their winter festival.
Jade, however, seemed to be enjoying herself. He bought her an apple covered in a sweet, sticky candy and laughed as she attempted to eat it without getting completely filthy. And she insisted they stop at every vendor to look and marvel at what they were selling.

As they traveled through the village, Aston
couldn’t help but keep
his eyes out for Talbot. The prince
was the one person that could ruin this mission for him. If Talbot found him, he had no question that the prince would try to stop him.
He couldn’t afford to be stopped now, not when he was so close. If he couldn’t catch the Rogue here, in
Northsbury
, he feared he wouldn’t get another chance.

“It’s especially difficult when siblings leave
the nest and grow into their own person, often
apart from other siblings and parents. The
ones we shared so much with growing up,
we suddenly have nothing in common with,
it seems.”
-Unknown Author -

Jacob frowned. It had been five days since he reached Adion and he still had not seen his bride. He sat in the king’s throne, tossing a gold coin in the air and catching it, one handed. He’d spent the last five days wallowing around the castle, giving the servants a hard time and harassing the cooks. King Aric had finally sent him to the throne room, promising Jade would be along any time.

He
knew it was all rubbish. The princess hadn’t be
en in the palace since he’d arrived
, he was sure. He’d snuck to her room several times and nothing ever changed. Her mirror was tilted just so, her wardrobe slightly open, her bed neatly made. No one had entered that room.

Standing, Jacob left the throne room in favor of something more interesting. As he passed the library, he paused, hearing King Aric and his wife talking on the other side of the door.

“We have to tell him something, dearest.
We can’t just let him wonder
about the palace until Jade decides to come home,” Queen Margaret was saying.

Jacob heard King Aric sigh.
“I know, Margaret. What do we tell the boy? Jade knew she would have to marry you and ran away? Jade wanted love and not duty?”

The marquess
reared back, scowling at the door. Who would run away from him? What kind of foolish princess had they raised in Adion?

“We have to be discreet, Aric. If we told Jacob the tru
e reason our daughter left, their marriage would never be saved, and our contract with Summerslade would be broken.
She’s a smart young woman, Aric. You’d do well to remember that.”

“I know, I know. But s
he’s neve
r been rebellious before this
. She’s always seemed generally interested in being Queen one day,” Aric said.