by the fountain of thirst chapter 3 sneak peek

[figureofdismay]

Logan’s plans for Roman involved including him with his other two brothers in campaigning with the lords of the Privy Council to back him in making a divorced woman his wife, and to arrange that if issue followed this conjugation, they should be allowed to hold titles befitting their station. It made him flinch, made his innard shift and quail with the realization that his father was employing his children to replace their mothers, and potentially make way for a rival to their own succession. Ewan and Connor were already examples that the elder and the favorite can just as easily be moved aside. None of them were willing to openly defy Logan in the height of his obsession with this woman, so they did agree to lobby, carefully, while the court was all snugged in together for the dark, cold months at the Sea Palace and the circuit of smaller nearby establishments they visited in the winter when the king’s favorite place needed refreshing.

Privately Roman talked with both Kendall and Siobhan and agreed that they should only put forward the most hesitant, slow walking campaigning for the happy couple. There was no way such a mating could last. Not just because Logan could be brutally fickle when he got what he wanted, but because the couple had only been keeping company for 9 months and already cracks were beginning to appear. Little spats brewed up that left the court on tenterhooks, straining their ears for whispers and shouting and tiptoeing around Logan so as not to aggravate or offend a monarch who was already stewing in rage and frustration.

“What I don’t see,” lamented Connor, one late morning when the Royal children had gathered together to strategize about just how little they could get away with doing to show their joy and support for their father’s future’s happiness to the lords of the council without angering Logan, “Is why he can’t just give her a good tumble and move on. Make her his mistress, if necessary, and give her a pension and a husband when the time comes. It worked well enough for Lady Geraldine, and she certainly had more charms in her day than Sally has, and her position was far more worthy.”

“Lady Geraldine was Logan’s mistress?” squawked Roman, sitting up from where he was slouching across the arm of the upholstered settle in Kendall’s rooms. “Surely not. Are you sure, Connor?”

“Of course I’m sure. Everyone knew it. Though you would have been still quite small then, wouldn’t you, Roman. It was while your mother was pregnant with Siobhan here, and she wasn’t too happy with father for some reason or other. She’d left Court to begin her confinement early in that southern place she liked, you know, Wheaton, and Father was set loose to place his attentions elsewhere for a while.”

“Even I knew this, Roman, and I wasn’t born yet when it happened.” said Siobhan with a particular sisterly scorn, thrilled to be ahead of Roman in the stories of Court scandal once again. She smiled with a cutting slyness and divulged. “It’s an old story now, that everyone loves to tell. That’s how Lady Geraldine was given Lord Kellman even though she walked half savage out of the water only six months before. She might have powers to stagger us mere mortals but she certainly didn’t come with a pedigree or a dowery. And besides, as much as her beauty attracted the lusty lords at Court, they were afraid if they tried to bed her, that her Sea Lady powers would make their members shrivel up and drop off in the attempt. But once the King proved it could be done safely, there were many ready to take her on, only Lord Kellman is Logan’s best old crony so of course it was he who came out ahead, with Papa’s blessing.”

Connor tutted softly and shook his head. “I wish you wouldn’t talk so, Siobhan. Such language for a princess. It could get you into awful trouble.”

“But really?” repeated Roman, trying to take it in, “Lady Geraldine and Father? While Father was married to Lady Caroline? That is. I know it’s happened before, that Kings do… But with Lady Geraldine?”

“What upsets you about it, Roman? Father’s faithlessness? Mother’s well used honor? She hardly needed the protection, she came and rousted the witch when she came to show me off at Court, and made him suffer for the trouble, so they say. And it was years ago,” said Siobhan with a jaded shrug, “Mother isn’t even here to thank you for being offended for her.”

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