The Vampire & Her Witch

”I had been considering asking your husband to take on similar responsibilities. Or is that too much bullying?”

For several heartbeats after Ashlynn’s question, silence dominated the sitting room. Lady Sorcha’s mouth closed with a click and for a moment, she couldn’t find words at all.

”Sorcha,” Wes said, laying a hand on his wife’s knee and giving it a gentle squeeze. ”I think we may have been mistaken,” he said, generously including himself alongside her. ”Perhaps we should listen to what her Dominion has to say,” he suggested.

”But, but what about Lady Jocelynn?” Sorcha asked as she shook herself free of the momentary shock. Hearing that Lady Ashlynn had kind intentions for Erling and her husband helped, but it failed to put her heart completely at rest. ”The knights won’t let anyone close to her room, just like it was when the Inquisition took her. And Lady Adala...”

”Jocey is sleeping,” Ashlynn said innocently. ”Not ordinary sleep,” she quickly clarified. ”After everything she’s been through, I used a bit of witchcraft to help her sleep, but she won’t be able to wake up easily for several hours. I’m doing my best to keep her safe,” she said, briefly clenching her hands into small fists.

”As to Adala,” Ashlynn said, relaxing her fingers and smoothing out her skirts as a small smile formed on her lips. ”I think, after our conversation about freedom to marry who she chooses, she was eager to see someone else,” Ashlynn said mildly. ”I’ll leave it at that until Adala has something to share.”

”Oh,” Sorcha said as her face slowly turned a shade of bright pink.

”I’m sorry, your ladyship,” Sorcha said, bowing her head and making good on her word. ”It’s just that, this past year, with so many strange things happening and everything we learned last night, I... I let my suspicions get the best of me. I’m sorry.”

”It’s fine, for now,” Ashlynn said, waving it off as though she hadn’t been troubled by it at all. ”It speaks well of you that you care so much for others, and it speaks well of your husband that you’re able to speak so freely. Not every noblewoman in the march enjoys that luxury.”

”I treasure the fact that Sorcha speaks her mind,” Wes said, smiling warmly at Sorcha before turning back to Ashlynn. ”I’m glad it doesn’t bother you that she does. Now, how can we help, your Dominion?”

”I know you didn’t call us here to gossip about everyone else,” he said, even though he was deeply curious about how Erling had come to be offered such an elevated status. But that was something he could discover later, from Erling himself.

”I have a problem in the northeast, Baron Iriso,” Ashlynn said bluntly. ”That problem’s name is Serle Otker.”

”Oh,” Wes said, unconsciously mirroring Sorcha’s deadpan tone. ”That is a problem.”

Over the past several years, as Wes and Sorcha had worked to export the exquisite and expensive granite from the quarry near her home, Wes had come to know Serle Otker very well. Almost nothing of value moved through Otker canyon without the baron’s personal involvement, and deals struck in the fall rarely survived the following spring.

There was always something that had changed, some new expense that had been incurred or some detail that hadn’t been clarified. Serle Otker would never suffer a loss, and in an instance where he controlled not only the roads through which Wes needed to transport his granite but the carters who did the hauling and the laborers maintaining the roads... Wes had very little leverage to apply as Serle Otker slowly bled his treasury dry.

”There was a time when Serle was extraordinarily useful to the Vale of Mists,” Ashlynn said with a heavy sigh. ”His ’flexibility’ has been an asset to Marcel for years. At this point, however, the qualities that made him so easy to exploit become a serious vulnerability in my domain.”

”Do you intend to replace him?” Wes asked in a carefully neutral tone.

”Perhaps,” Ashlynn said. ”Much will depend on what we discover when we seize his records and whether or not he chooses to be forthcoming about his... Indiscretions. He’s had a number of dealings with the Black Merchant. If he won’t admit to them, then I have an even greater problem.”

”It sounds like you already have Serle’s measure,” Wes said cautiously. ”How can I help?”

”I’m reorganizing the Verdant Hills around five pillars,” Ashlynn said, tapping the table in front of her as she spoke. ”Dame Sybyll holds the Southwest with Hanrahan and Airgead Mountain, and likely some expansion beyond the borders of Hanrahan before all’s said and done,” she said, pointing to one corner of the table.

”The same can be said of Lord Loghlan Dunn in the Northwest,” Ashlynn continued, moving her finger to the next corner of the table. ”I’ve granted him an expansion of his domain that extends all the way to Little Sister Mountain, and I’m confident that we can extend the official borders of Dunn some as well. In the Southeast, I have Fayle, Leufroy and LeGleau, hopefully coming together under Erling Fayle’s banner,” Ashlynn said.

”You want me to take the Northeast?” Wes asked, frowning as he saw the point that Lady Ashlynn was building toward. Dame Sybyll was, as he understood it, one of Lady Nyrielle’s progeny, and the Dunns were early allies while Erling seemed to have his own bargains with Ashlynn’s forces. But while Wes had stood for Ashlynn last night, nothing he’d done merited a reward on this scale.

”No, and I’m certain you know why,” Ashlynn said, shaking her head at the baron from Iriso.

”I haven’t earned it,” Wes said flatly. ”But you don’t have many choices either. Serle can’t be trusted, and now that Preden has fallen, Saliou is about to be inherited by a child... If you’re looking to the lords of the Northeast, then I’m the best of a bad lot.”

”Not a bad lot,” Sorcha said, giving Wes’s hand a brief squeeze. ”A jewel amidst the dross. My Wes is respected by his people for a reason, your Ladyship,” she told Ashlynn. ”If you grant him this place, he won’t disappoint you.”

”I’m certain that he’d do his best,” Ashlynn said. ”And in time, if he proves himself, he may yet win this mantle. But for now, I need him to serve as someone else’s deputy in the region. I can’t justify giving you a position you don’t deserve, Lord Iriso,” Ashlynn said. ”But, if you’re willing, I can give you a chance to prove yourself...”