Read Online Miami Days and Truscan by Gail Roughton - Free Book Online
Authors: Gail Roughton
Ads: Link
they don’t know, they can’t fully miss. You will. If not this week or this month, then the month after that. Or perhaps even the next. But you’ll miss it. And in this world, you’re my wife. I’m your only option. Because to betray me is to betray Trusca. It would be high treason. I trust I need not explain the consequences of that further?”
Checkmate. He certainly didn’t need to explain the consequences further.
“Got your bases covered, don’t you?”
“I take that to mean you have no desire to play Guinevere to any prancing Lancelot?”
“No,” I admitted. “I do not.” He was, indeed, amazing. I didn’t see Johnny throwing out quotes from Lewis Carroll and stories of Arthur’s Round Table. Come to think of it, I was suddenly sure Johnny hadn’t been the one to introduce him to the Greek myths from whence had come the name of his horned mount, either.
“Your mother—what was she on Earth?”
“An English professor.”
I groaned.
“At one of your institutions called Harvard.”
“Perfect.”
He grinned. “Actually, I didn’t have any idea what that meant in your world until Johnny came through. She never told me. Her name was Madeline. Madeline Randolph. She never overcame her training as a teacher. She was a very good one.”
“It shows.”
“She always said she knew exactly how Alice felt when she went through the looking glass. I’m sure you feel much the same.”
“Politically speaking—”
“You don’t know enough of Trusca to speak politically yet, Green Eyes. But it is my intention that you will.”
“I know enough to ask this question.”
“Which is?”
“Marrying me, an outsider, won’t your nobles resent that? And Johnny said you had a son. How’s he going to feel about this?”
“That’s the greatest benefit of all. That you’re an outsider. To marry a daughter of one of the nobles would encourage further factioning among the nobles. I have enough factions. You have no strong arms waiting to the side, ready to use you and your child to stake a claim to the throne.”
“Then why on earth—well, that doesn’t apply, does it? Why did you marry Baka’s niece? That makes him your son’s great-uncle. That’s a pretty good blood claim, don’t you think?”
“Johnny talks too much.”
“Funny, I don’t think he talked nearly enough.”
“Baka has no interest in Dal. He has a—he was born with a club foot. The House of Canor considers him defective and wants no part of him. He needs his own allies, his own family. He shouldn’t be an only child.”
“Didn’t seem to hurt you any. And you took a ten-year-old boy with a handicap out on night patrol?”
“He’s not handicapped, he’s merely inconvenienced. And I’m not an only child. Just the only surviving one. My mother always planned for my brothers to hold the country with me. And Dal’s brothers, if you, as an outsider, are their mother, will not be used as pawns by my nobles, seeking to place their own family on the throne, sacrificing Trusca to satisfy their own ambitions. Besides, your background, your education—I well know the benefits to be gained by having a strong mother. You’ve no idea of my mother’s influence. For Trusca, it was extraordinary. And it was extraordinary, considering who he was, how he was raised, that my father was able to see the possibilities, to actually use them. To actually love my mother.”
“And why didn’t you just sit down and talk to me? Explain this? Did it occur to you that perhaps I would be capable of understanding it? And not feel nearly as manipulated?”
“Yes. And it also occurred to me that you would be just as outraged in any event and would present a most unwilling bride to my people, thereby causing unnecessary delay. Besides, I needed to be certain you stayed safe. Baka knows full well that my mother effectively changed the course of Truscan history. Just as he knew as soon as he saw you where you were from and how dangerous
Checkmate. He certainly didn’t need to explain the consequences further.
“Got your bases covered, don’t you?”
“I take that to mean you have no desire to play Guinevere to any prancing Lancelot?”
“No,” I admitted. “I do not.” He was, indeed, amazing. I didn’t see Johnny throwing out quotes from Lewis Carroll and stories of Arthur’s Round Table. Come to think of it, I was suddenly sure Johnny hadn’t been the one to introduce him to the Greek myths from whence had come the name of his horned mount, either.
“Your mother—what was she on Earth?”
“An English professor.”
I groaned.
“At one of your institutions called Harvard.”
“Perfect.”
He grinned. “Actually, I didn’t have any idea what that meant in your world until Johnny came through. She never told me. Her name was Madeline. Madeline Randolph. She never overcame her training as a teacher. She was a very good one.”
“It shows.”
“She always said she knew exactly how Alice felt when she went through the looking glass. I’m sure you feel much the same.”
“Politically speaking—”
“You don’t know enough of Trusca to speak politically yet, Green Eyes. But it is my intention that you will.”
“I know enough to ask this question.”
“Which is?”
“Marrying me, an outsider, won’t your nobles resent that? And Johnny said you had a son. How’s he going to feel about this?”
“That’s the greatest benefit of all. That you’re an outsider. To marry a daughter of one of the nobles would encourage further factioning among the nobles. I have enough factions. You have no strong arms waiting to the side, ready to use you and your child to stake a claim to the throne.”
“Then why on earth—well, that doesn’t apply, does it? Why did you marry Baka’s niece? That makes him your son’s great-uncle. That’s a pretty good blood claim, don’t you think?”
“Johnny talks too much.”
“Funny, I don’t think he talked nearly enough.”
“Baka has no interest in Dal. He has a—he was born with a club foot. The House of Canor considers him defective and wants no part of him. He needs his own allies, his own family. He shouldn’t be an only child.”
“Didn’t seem to hurt you any. And you took a ten-year-old boy with a handicap out on night patrol?”
“He’s not handicapped, he’s merely inconvenienced. And I’m not an only child. Just the only surviving one. My mother always planned for my brothers to hold the country with me. And Dal’s brothers, if you, as an outsider, are their mother, will not be used as pawns by my nobles, seeking to place their own family on the throne, sacrificing Trusca to satisfy their own ambitions. Besides, your background, your education—I well know the benefits to be gained by having a strong mother. You’ve no idea of my mother’s influence. For Trusca, it was extraordinary. And it was extraordinary, considering who he was, how he was raised, that my father was able to see the possibilities, to actually use them. To actually love my mother.”
“And why didn’t you just sit down and talk to me? Explain this? Did it occur to you that perhaps I would be capable of understanding it? And not feel nearly as manipulated?”
“Yes. And it also occurred to me that you would be just as outraged in any event and would present a most unwilling bride to my people, thereby causing unnecessary delay. Besides, I needed to be certain you stayed safe. Baka knows full well that my mother effectively changed the course of Truscan history. Just as he knew as soon as he saw you where you were from and how dangerous
Similar Books
