Defender of Hearts by Tanya Bird
Chapter 5
Astin walked the muddy road to the gate that separated the royal and farming boroughs, a large knot in his stomach. His sister only ever came to him with bad news. The last time had been twelve months earlier, when rinderpest had found its way to the herd. They tracked the disease back to a bull their stepfather had purchased from outside the wall. Thankfully, Presley had acted at the first sign of symptoms, isolating the sick to prevent spread to neighbouring farms.
Six months before that, it had been a wild dog attack. They had dug under the wall and taken the new lambs as they were being born.
Now Presley stood on the other side of the gate wearing her usual wary expression, auburn hair plaited to one side and dark circles enclosing her amber eyes. She worked harder than any man he knew.
Astin watched her through the portcullis as it rose, and she watched him right back. He walked beneath the archway and away from the guards. Presley tucked the piece of parchment she carried, which allowed her to ask for him at the gate, into her dress and followed him. She stopped a few feet from him when he turned to face her.
‘You look well.’ Her tone was flat. ‘At least we know where all the food is going.’
It was an uncomfortable thought that he had more access to meat than the farmers producing it. He knew King Borin had men tracking every ear of wheat grown and every chicken hatched in that borough. When his family lost the lambs to the dogs, the king had sent defenders to the farm to investigate.
‘Everything all right?’ he asked. ‘Rose? Mother?’ The latter was the news he was expecting any day now.
‘Cooper’s finally done it,’ Presley would say. ‘He beat our mother to death.’
‘Rose is good.’
Rose was their half-sister who had been born a few years after he left the borough. He had only seen her a handful of times in her six years but always asked after her.
‘And Mother’s fine,’ Presley added. ‘And Cooper.’
‘I didn’t ask about Cooper.’
She studied him a moment, no doubt trying to read his mood before continuing. ‘I’m getting married.’
Astin’s eyebrows shot up, though he had no idea why he was surprised. She was twenty-two years old, and her friends were dropping babies all over the borough. ‘Married? To whom?’
‘Chadwick Wesleye.’
Astin leaned his weight on one foot. ‘Royce Wesleye’s boy?’
She lifted her gaze. ‘He’s not a boy anymore. He’s twenty and three.’
Astin tried to picture the little thug as a man. ‘He still throw rocks at sheep?’
She gave him a tired look. ‘He was eleven when he did that.’
‘I didn’t catch any other boys his age doing it.’
She shrugged. ‘Maybe you would have if you stuck around for longer.’
He did not miss the pain that flashed in her eyes. She was never going to forgive him for leaving, despite knowing his reasons. ‘Do you love him?’
‘Does that matter?’
‘Not to anyone else, but it should to you.’
She wet her lips. ‘His family produces ninety percent of Chadora’s grain. It’s a smart match.’
Nothing changed on his face. ‘This match your idea or Cooper’s?’
‘I can barely remember.’ She lifted her shoulders in a resigned shrug. ‘He showed up, we courted, and now we’re to be wed. I just thought you might want to know.’
He sucked on his teeth. ‘So he asked Cooper for your hand?’
‘Who else is he going to ask?’ she said, her voice even. ‘You?’
Fair point.
If Cooper had laid one finger on her, fifteen-year-old him would have found a way to take her with him. But for whatever reason, the old man had reserved his bad moods for his wife and stepson. Though Lari Brooke would never admit her second husband hurt her. She could be black and blue and still deny any wrongdoing on his behalf. That would mean admitting she had made a mistake in marrying the man mere weeks after burying her first husband.
‘Well, congratulations,’ Astin said. ‘When’s the wedding?’
‘In the summer.’ One corner of her mouth lifted. ‘Whatever that means anymore.’
‘It’s your best chance of finding a flower for your bouquet.’
The faintest smile appeared on Presley’s lips before she suppressed it.
Their childhood had been filled with jokes and knowing smiles, but it seemed those small moments had not added up to much. Now they were just sad reminders of a past life.
‘Well, I should let you get back to the king’s side.’ She took a step away, mumbling, ‘God knows he needs you there.’
Astin pretended not to hear that last bit. ‘Am I invited to this wedding?’
She started walking backwards away from him. ‘If you come visit us before summer, I’ll consider it.’ Turning, she headed off down the road.