The Devastation (Unexpected Circumstances 7)

“Move, you dogs!” Yagmur commanded the handful of workers who exited the shaft with sacks on their backs. “Do you think I want to wait for you all day?”

The dark-haired, stocky man waved a cane around when he wasn’t leaning against it. Though I recognized him right away, he had changed much in the years since I had last seen him. His hair was still dark but thinner, and his beard was speckled with grey.

The three men he yelled at were younger and scruffy—definitely the kind of men who were used to doing hard labor. They took turns going inside the small cave as Yagmur verbally assaulted them to move faster. Soon after one man went into the dark recesses, he came back out, carrying a sack. There was a good-sized collection of similar, bulky bags lying in a stack on the back of a cart hooked up to a mule.

“How many are left?” Yagmur barked at one of the men.

“Maybe fifteen,” the worker replied as he added another bag to the pile.

“Good!” Yagmur turned and looked toward the woods where we crouched behind trees. “Sir Leland should have been back by now. We do not have time to wait for him though. If he has been discovered, it is our gain, yes?”

The men laughed darkly.

“We will leave as soon as the cart is loaded.”

Yagmur began to hobble across the grass toward the cart, and Dunstan looked at me with a nod. I signaled the other men with us, and we ambushed the lot of them. They were unarmed and easily subdued by the small handful of soldiers accompanying me. Within a few minutes, they all had their hands bound behind their backs. Dunstan lined them up next to the cart as I pulled one of the bags closer to me. When I reached inside the bag, I felt cool stones amidst my fingers. I slipped my hand out, and the sun caught the stones lying in my palm, causing them to sparkle.

“Gold!” Dunstan said, astonished. “Right there and nearly in sight of the castle! Did you know it was here?”

“I had no idea,” I replied as all the pieces of the puzzle slowly dropped into place. This was the reason Edgar was so bent to the point of war on marrying me to Whitney. He wanted Sterling lands for the gold within the southern hills. Once he had control of the castle, he had to locate the one piece of evidence that would prove his guilt before anyone else discovered the secret. If it was found and he was implicated, the royals would have demanded the lands—and also the gold—be returned to me.

But how would Edgar have ever found such a thing in the foothills of my father’s castle?

I turned to Yagmur and gazed upon his face with narrowed eyes.

“You are the one who found it,” I said slowly. His eyes answered me when his mouth would not. “You could not take it for yourself because it was found on Sterling land, so you struck a deal with Edgar.”

He scowled and looked away from me in guilt. I laughed without humor, shook my head, ordered the executions of Yagmur and Sir Leland, and headed back home. Once I returned to Silverhelm Castle, I went immediately to my own chambers to seek out my wife and son. When I told Alexandra what we had discovered, she also understood immediately.

“Whitney wanted you,” Alexandra said with a nod, “but Edgar wanted the lands around Sterling for their gold. Once he had the lands, he no longer needed you, but she still expected to be the Queen of Silverhelm.”

“With her brothers ahead of her in line for the throne, she would never be more than a princess in Hadebrand,” I said with a nod.

“She wanted you,” Alexandra said, “not just the title.”

“Then she wasted her life,” I said simply. “Even if I had not found you and fell in love with you, I would never have agreed to her as a wife.”

Alexandra ran her hand over my cheek, and her fingertips scratched at the stubble there.

“Not that I could have blamed her for wanting you,” my wife whispered. “You are quite the catch.”

“So you admit you only want me for me titles?” I said, teasing her.

“I am fairly certain there are more days I wished you did not carry such titles than days I was glad of them.”

“I would have to agree.”

I brought my lips slowly to hers as I tried to remember exactly how many days it had been since Branny had been born. Had it been enough time?

“Do you think…” I paused for a moment as she pressed her lips more firmly to my own, effectively silencing me until I could manage to separate us again. “Do you think you are…ready?”

“Yes,” she whispered huskily, “most definitely. But Branny is asleep in our bed, and I do not think I would feel right if we were to, um…”

Her cheeks turned crimson as she ducked her head against my shoulder.

“Not with him here,” she said, her voice still low.

I placed my finger under her chin and tilted her face to look at me.