The Broken Crown

Chapter 11

Raymond

WARNING: scenes of sexual nature.

The caravan of dark Yaguars became smaller as it moved slowly towards the horizon. The rising sun made the stones of the castle gleam red and orange and gave the entire situation some feeling of warmth. Of course, that was only a contrast to the icy cold that lay just beneath the surface.

Raymond looked at his mother, standing at the front row of people watching the foreigners take their leave. They were foreigners; no matter what his mother said or did, that would never change. The Kahari had signed the damned treaty, yes, but the Lands of the Yaguar were not a part of Etheron. The fact that she and his brother could not see that made him sick with anger.

Perhaps that was not really what made him angry; it could be the fact that Lucretia stood at the point where Adrianne, as the now crown Queen, should stand.

Adrianne, he thought. She was standing behind her husband, hidden from sight. The entire court had seemed infatuated with her, and for a reason. She was so close to flawless, yet not entirely so. It was no wonder that his mother was so afraid of her. It was the day after the girl’s coronation, yet Lucretia had postponed the tour around the city that traditionally followed a coronation. For some reason, his mother was reluctant to present the new Queen to her people.

As soon as it was appropriate, he left the balcony, turning around a corner into a small hallway to wait for Thomas to follow him. He knew it might take a while; Thomas actually enjoyed talking to those people out there, no matter how much he hated them.

When he heard steps nearing the place where he stood, he expected Thomas  to have made an exception to that rule, but the figure that turned around the corner was not Thomas.

In the light of the morning sun, which spilled from the between the pillars and from the windows, her light brown eyes came alive with red and orange shades. She seemed even more innocent now than at the feast, the front of her wild hair tied back from her face and wearing a light dress. When she smiled, she revealed white, straight teeth. Those might be the most beautiful part of her, strangely.

“Gabrielle?” he said, testing his own memory.

She made a small curtsey, bowing her head. “My lord.”

His eyes wandered up and down her body. He faintly remembered the feeling of her underneath the rough material of the dress that she had worn that night, when he had let his hands wander more than they were supposed to during the dance he had taught her. When they had left the feast, he had expected for it to go further. He had expected himself to not be able to keep from letting it go further. But it had not. “I thought your father had left?”

A corner of her mouth lifted in a smirk. “Without me.” When he did not answer right away, he ran her tongue over lips, wetting them. “You left,” she finally stated. “Without me, as well.”

“I am very sorry.”

She shook her head. “You were feeling sick. It is alright.”

It was a lie, of course – the sort of lie that he usually used to get out of conversations with lonely women that had heard of his reputation when he was not drunk enough to ignore their bad looks. That made the lie misplaced. “Still.” He cleared his throat.

“You are better?” It was clear that she just wanted to say something, anything.

He nodded his head. “Yes.” For a moment, they stood in silence. “Why did you not leave with your father?”

Her shoulders lifted in half a shrug. “I am a lady-in-waiting. The Queen invited me.”

She shifted on her feet awkwardly. “Perhaps you would walk with me,” she finally suggested. “I hear this castle is very beautiful, but equally as hard to navigate.”