When I was married to Darius and I became queen of Kallenore, I might journey around the kingdom from time to time watching him practice magic if it made him happy, but I was not traveling in a cart and I was not sleeping four to a room, listening to people breathe and snore and chatter in their sleep.
Well, of course I would hear Darius breathe. And snore.
“Hungry?” Dannette asked.
“Not really,” I said, “but let’s eat and move on.” We stepped into the crowded taproom, trying to avoid the three women and one boy threading their way through the packed tables as they delivered trays of eggs and sausage. My stomach clenched as it had this morning, but this time I thought the response might signal hunger, not nausea. I looked around for Darius and Harwin, and finally spotted them sitting at the end of a long common table. I was a little surprised to see Harwin speaking intensely to a woman sitting next to him, for he was not the type to strike up conversations with people he did not know.
I was astonished when I realized the woman was Gisele.
I marched through the taproom without bothering to get out of the way of the scurrying servers. “What are you doing here?” I cried, standing behind Darius and pointing at Gisele.
She touched a coarse napkin to her mouth and gave me a limpid look. “Having breakfast,” she said.
Dannette slipped into one of the two empty seats next to Darius. “You’re the queen, aren’t you? I saw you sitting by the king in the throne room.”
“I’m married to the king, yes,” Gisele replied with some bitterness.
“What are you doing here? Why are you following me?” I demanded.
Darius smiled at me over his shoulder. “Sit down and eat something,” he said. “The oatmeal is very good if your stomach is queasy.”
“Why should her stomach be queasy?” Gisele wanted to know.
“Too much beer last night,” Dannette said, helping herself to one of the platters handed to her by a woman sitting toward the middle of the table. “Olivia, do you want any of this? It looks like apple fritters.”
“Yes—I suppose,” I said, flopping into the seat next to her and still staring resentfully at Gisele. “You haven’t answered me.”
Harwin spoke up. “She says your father decided that Dannette would not be a sufficient chaperone. He did not know that I had come after you as well, or perhaps he would not have been so worried.”
Gisele gave him a quick, droll look. “Exactly so.”
I tried a bite of the fritters. They were excellent. When the woman to my right handed me a steaming bowl of oatmeal, I ladled out a lavish portion and passed the bowl to Dannette. “My father never worries about me,” I said.
Gisele shrugged. I noticed that her clothes were very neat but not at all fancy, and her hairstyle was almost as plain as Dannette’s. She looked as tired as I felt, but her eyes were not as puffy. “Perhaps now that you are about to be married, he is realizing how much he will miss you.”
She was obviously lying. I narrowed my eyes and took a big mouthful of oatmeal. It had been seasoned with honey and raisins and tasted delicious. “So you plan to travel with us for the next week or two?” I asked slowly.
She nodded. “I know you do not like the notion, but—”
“Oh, we’re happy to have you with us,” Darius said. He sounded sincere; after two days in his company, I was pretty certain he was. “But I’m not sure how much more room there is in the wagon.”
“And she brought a maid with her,” Harwin said. He glanced at me as if to say, And if you truly cared about your reputation, you would have brought a maid as well.
“Well, it’ll be a tight fit, but if one sits up front and three ride in back—”
“I have my own coach. And a coachman,” Gisele interposed. “All I require is that you allow me to join your caravan.”
I stopped with another spoonful of oatmeal on the way to my mouth. “The coach,” I breathed. “It’s yours. Oh, Gisele, I want to ride with you!”
“Tell me again how sitting inside the coach with me is helping you become better acquainted with your bridegroom,” Gisele said twenty minutes later.
We were on our way again, a much augmented party from the one I’d started out with a couple of days ago. The coach, with its team of high-spirited horses, led the wagon by an appreciable distance. Harwin had cantered ahead of us but I was sure he would circle back soon to check on our progress. Gisele’s maid was sitting outside with the coachman, probably flirting madly. Dannette rode with her brother. Everyone was happy.
“You tell me the real reason you came after me in this ridiculous fashion,” I said. “I know it wasn’t because my father asked you to.”
There was a flare of malice in her eyes. “Oh, but he did,” she said. “I could tell how pleased he was when he came up with the idea. Ever since Neville arrived, he’s been trying to get me out of the way.”
I was bewildered. “What does Neville have to do with it?”
“Nothing. His daughter Mellicia? Everything. Your father is infatuated with that simpering, stupid, soulless girl. He wants to court her while I am not on hand to watch.”
“But—what—I mean, you’re his wife. I suppose he could take her as his mistress, but—”
“I am a wife who has failed to produce the son he is determined to have,” Gisele said softly. “I will not be his wife much longer, I guarantee it.”
I simply stared at her.
She met my gaze briefly, then looked out the window. The prospect was not particularly inviting. The treelined hills of the past two days had flattened into grasslands that supported grazing livestock, though the occasional stand of elm and oak shuddered in a brisk wind. The sky was scudding over with clouds, and the air had that damp, overburdened feel that promised a storm.
“So!” she said brightly. “If he’s going to marry again, he needs to review the likely candidates. Naturally, she must be young enough to be fertile, and beautiful enough to catch his fancy. And by now he’s realized that he doesn’t like clever women—or, at least, he doesn’t like me, and I’m clever—so vapidity has become an important attribute—”
It took me this long to find my voice. “Is he going to divorce you?”
She turned to look at me again. I had never seen her face so sad. Then again, I had never paid much attention to the emotions on Gisele’s face. “I hope he is going to divorce me,” she said.
“Why, if he wants to marry again, what else could he…” My voice trailed off. “Surely you’re not suggesting… I mean, I know he is not an admirable man, but…”
She looked out the window once more. “I have been wondering if I should take a ship to Newmirot,” she said. “Dannette was describing it over breakfast. Surely your father would be so glad to be rid of me that he would just allow me to disappear, don’t you think? And declare me dead, rather than killing me outright.”
“Gisele! You can’t be serious!”
“I’m quite serious. I should like to see Newmirot.” I reached across the open space between us and shook her by the shoulder. “You don’t truly believe my father would have you murdered,” I said. “Merely so he could marry again.”