The Arranged Marriage (22 page)

At the word Baronage, Rohesia didn’t
like the new form of speculation that entered her mind. It seemed
too much of a coincidence but with what the baron had told her she
needed to check.

“What did he look like? Like you?” She
asked harmlessly.

“Same build, dark hair. But he wore
his hair long, like the Mookai, only his build was not as light as
the Mookai are.” He gently stroked her hand as he spoke. “He used
to roam around with a badge of green and black and a horrid symbol
of a man with a snake heard spiralling through a triangle. It was
obviously one he had invented himself through lack of taste. No one
in their right mind would choose that as their family emblem. It
made us wonder how sane he actually was.” He laughed gently at his
small stab at humour, but with this new information revealed, she
knew.

The explanation of the emblem took her
back to when Baron Minley had kissed her hand at the ball. She
remembered looking at the emblem on the ring, and the words he said
about being a bounty hunter himself. She thought for a moment,
knowing how easy it was for one to change their appearance, and
Ison had not seen the baron up close at the ball, only at a
distance. No wonder the baron had rushed off when he had seen Ison
approaching.

“Are you well Rohesia?” He asked,
concerned at her change of colour.

“Yes my lord I am well, I have just
gone a little cold.” She smiled lightly to keep his worry at bay.
She would keep her thoughts to herself for now. For what good would
it do telling him about it? The baron had been looking for a wife
and that had been taken from him the moment she had wed Ison. If he
was the kind of man who Ison had explained, then he had obviously
at the ball just to cause trouble.

“Well we can’t have that now, can we?”
He advised, reaching out to her. “Let’s make our way upstairs to
our chamber,” He wiggled his eyebrows and she laughed at his new
light hearted attitude, allowing him to assist her out of the
water.

“To sleep my lady, that is all, just
to sleep,” He lifted her into his arms. “Tut tut, you have such a
filthy mind Rohesia.”

* * *

“What would you like to do today?”
Ison asked his wife as he tucked into the eggs and salmon they had
prepared on the fire. The only thing they had requested to be
present on their wedding moon was the supplies.

She felt a small smile as her thoughts
drifted to what they had been up to earlier in the morning when
Ison had awoken her.

“What are you smirking at my lady?” He
asked with his own smile, sensing her thoughts. She felt herself
blush a little.

“
Nothing,” She advised
before taking another. She chewed it quickly, eager to change the
topic of conversation. “I just thought we could take a roam through
the woods around the lagoon, there is something that I would like
to show you.”

“Another secret place? Aren’t you full
of surprises,” He teased. “We shall make our way once we have
broken our fast if you wish. Unless, there is something else that
takes your fancy?”

She laughed aloud in spite of
herself.

“You’re insatiable my
lord.”

“Only where you’re concerned.” He
whispered, allowing the husky tones to seep into his voice. She
knew exactly where this was leading and felt the familiar tingles
of pleasure shoot through her.

“Oh no you don’t,” She coughed to calm
herself. “We are going out for a walk as soon as we have eaten
otherwise we will never get out of here.”

“Is that a bad thing?”

“Not at all, but seeing as our wedding
moon has already been cut short, I would like to show you my secret
place as you call it, before we leave, and that will be on the
morrow.”

He sensed the hidden disappointment in
her voice and felt a pang of guilt.

“I will make it up to you Rohesia,” he
whispered, his voice full of promise.

“Oh Ison I didn’t mean to sound
ungrateful. We can always come away back to The Loyal when this
matter at home is resolved, it’s just,” She found it hard to voice
the remainder of her words.

“It’s a tease isn’t it?” He finished
for her. “That we have the one opportunity where we could disappear
for a whole cycle, just the two of us, and we can’t take it. I am
annoyed also my lady, believe me.” He finished with a smile.
Rohesia laughed before they finished the remainder of their food in
silence, any awkwardness slowly drifting away.

“
It’s not much longer now,
are you tired?” Rohesia said cheekily as they made their way
through the rough trail. They were moving deeper into the forest
that surrounded the lagoon.

“It would take more than this to make
me tired,” He replied with a smarmy look on his face. She rolled
her eyes and carried on walking, deciding to take the opportunity
of them being alone to ask more about his past.

“How is it you came to be in the
Foreign Lands, being the son of a king?” She asked, praying he
wouldn’t take offence and close away from her. She continued to
walk forward with him following and jumped a little when she heard
his voice come from behind.

“When my mother told me about the
identity of my real father I foolishly believed, being young of
course, that I would be openly welcomed by him and his kingdom. I
understood nothing of society and its rules about bastard children,
especially in the Monarchy,”

Rohesia said nothing as she waited for
him to continue.

“My father accepted me, but he could
only do so in secret whilst I was a youth. I decided I didn’t want
to be shamed that way and felt a desire to prove to him, and my
mother, I could make it on my own. I didn’t need his pity or
charity.”

“Were you angry with him?” She asked
as they made their way deeper into the trees.

“I was for a long time, but also with
my mother for telling me when she needn’t have. I didn’t realise it
was because she knew her life would be a short one; she didn’t want
me to be alone.” He continued. “I couldn’t make peace with either
of them until I had found peace with myself, so I requested to be
shipped off to the Foreign Lands where no one knew me, where I
could be who I wanted without judgement.”

She slowed her pace so he could fall
in step by the side of her, the narrow width of the pathway forcing
them closer together.

“Did you get that?” She asked, gently
taking his hand. She was pleasantly surprised when he didn’t reject
it, wrapping his hand around hers as they moved.

“No I didn’t, and neither would you
have if you had made good on your elopement,” He looked at her and
smiled slightly before continuing. “It was a harsh learning ground
and I had to harden fast to it before I became dead or a part of
its distaste. You had to be quick to rise above it in order to
survive.”

“So why stay if it was that bad?” She
asked inquisitively.

“Because once you had done that, it
wasn’t all bad. There are small villages within the Foreign Lands
that are just like those in Ecripian and Dondayas. It is just they
have no Monarchy and no army to protect them, making them ripe for
the picking. Hence why business was always good for me.”

She smiled with him.

“I think sometimes in life we have to
go through harsh lessons in order to appreciate the good, otherwise
we would have no comparison, would we?” She stated in order to
lighten the mood. Ison smiled.

“My lady, are you saying that you are
my harsh lesson?” He teased her as she loosened his grip and took
it upon herself to jump against him, her hands finding his ribs to
tickle him in response to his taunt.

“I will be the best thing that will
ever happen to you,” She continued to tickle him as he finally
succumbed and raised his hands in the air to surrender, his
laughter touching her heart.

“Very well, I give in,” He laughed as
he grabbed her by the waist and pulled her to him, hard. “You are
the best thing that will ever happen to me, that has ever happened
to me.”

He kissed her before she could say
another word, feeling very tempted to ignore the trip to Dondayas
and keep her here for the full cycle. If only he could. However, it
was a while before he allowed her to break their kiss.

“Just as long as we have that cleared
up then my lord,” She advised breathlessly as she straightened her
hair and gown. She started to move forward again as if to do
something to regain her balance. It satisfied Ison to the core that
he could always affect her like this. “Now, if you would just bow
your head and mind the branches, we have to burrow through these
bushes to the other side, and then,” She lowered her voice to a
whisper. “We must be quiet at all times.”

“Why?” Ison was curious.

“You’ll soon see.”

After pushing away branches and
getting scratched by a thousand thorns, they finally came through
to the end of the bushes that seemed to act as barricade to
something. The light was sudden as they came out on a large open
field, total greenery surrounding them, and Rohesia quickly pulled
him behind a larger tree.

“Why are we hiding here?” He asked,
looking out at the plain field.

“They probably heard a sound and
scattered, so just wait a moment. They will be back
soon.”

He waited patiently with her, taking a
few moments to revel in the excitement she was exuding beside him.
He wondered what they were waiting for, but as soon as he did, he
was awed by the sight of the wild horses appearing before him. They
were of all colours, cautiously sauntering back out on to the field
one by one. As soon as they had collected back into their group, he
managed to count at least thirty of them, some grazing whilst the
others stood guard on the foals.

“This is amazing,” He whispered. “How
did you find this place?”

“Many games of hide and seek as a
child with Fabian,” She refused to look at Ison just in case he
started at Fabian’s name, but she didn’t want to keep anything from
him regarding her friend. “I found this place and sometimes we
would sneak food out for them. He told me these animals had never
mingled with humans and must never be forced to do so.”

Ison nodded as she forced herself to
look in his direction, content to see his expression
passive.

“He is right. Animals who have not
been bred and raised around human contact do not behave well around
humans. They can be dangerous, if not beautiful. As no one ever
found this place?”

“Not to my knowledge, and no one must
ever find out. You know what people are like at times, they only
respect what they own.”

“And sometimes then respect is
lacking,” He replied. “Your secret is safe with me
Rohesia.”

She looked up at him then and felt
guilty about keeping the information away from him regarding the
baron. He needed to know the truth of what the baron said to her
during the wedding ball. They should not have secrets.

“My lord I must speak with you,” She
told him as she moved away from the horses and back into the
bushes. “It is of great importance.”

Ison watched as she walked away from
him as he felt something harden in his gut. He motioned quickly
after her, throwing one last look at the beautiful scene before
him.

“What is it Rohesia?” He asked her as
they finally made their way back into the trees.

“Do you remember at the wedding ball,
when you asked me what the baron wanted?”

“Yes.” He replied, his worry scaling
higher.

“He didn’t come to talk to me to give
us his congratulations, like I said.”

Ison stopped her and made her face
him.

“What did he say to you
Rohesia?”

She could see the change in him happen
right in front of her. The lightness in his eyes was disappearing
and the control was coming back. She cleared her throat before
continuing.

“I won’t go into too much detail my
lord, but he did seem bitter about the cancellation of his
betrothal to me.”

He laughed callously, shaking his head
in disbelief.

“You will go into detail. You will
tell me everything that fool said to you.”

The hurtful tone he used cut through
her like a knife.

“You will let me go first.”

He reluctantly loosed her
arm.

“Fine, I’ve let you go. Now tell me
what he said to you and then you can explain why you lied to
me.”

“I didn’t mean to lie to you Ison. I
just didn’t know what to make of what he said. I didn’t want blood
spilt at our wedding ball.”

“What did he say Rohesia?” He said
through gritted teeth.

“He basically said I was in danger
with you and so was my father. He said he knew you from a time when
he was in the Foreign Lands. He said,” She hesitated, knowing she
was about to lose everything that had been built between
them.

“He said what.” Ison was on his last
nerve.

“He said he used to be a bounty hunter
who knew you to be a killer. He said he hunted you.”