The Arranged Marriage (8 page)

“Sound argument Sir Ison,” She
breathlessly whispered. “Or should I say Prince?”

He heard the hidden meaning in her
tones at his new title. He could see both disdain and a longing in
her eyes at that moment, and he knew that if he was to win this
battle, he would do well to stand back and leave her be.

“Prince Ison will be fine,” He advised
quietly. “It is getting late. I think it is time you went to speak
with your father. We shall speak more on the morrow. It has been an
unusual day for both of us.”

She felt herself weaken at the fact he
was not going to argue with her. She did not want to leave him, yet
at the same time she did not want to back down on this, not just
yet. She couldn’t.

“Father?” Rohesia asked as she made
her way through the castle kitchens.

“Yes Rohesia, back here.”

She found him seated on one of the
kitchen stools with Nani and Dracheon in his company. They had all
been smiling until they saw her appear, and Nani and Dracheon
quickly made their excuses and left Rohesia to tend to her
father.

“Well congratulations my dear. It is
done and we can all rest.” He advised her.

“No, it is not done father, and I
think it is now safe to tell me why this marriage was so important
to you that it had to be conducted in secret, and so
quickly.”

He looked at his daughter as if
contemplating how much to tell her.

“I know you ran away from here
Rohesia.” He said and watched as the surprise reached her features.
“Both Ison and myself agreed that it would be best to keep the
information quiet in front of the servants however.”

“Oh.” She could not manage any
words.

“You were wed quickly because I did
not want you to do anything else as foolish as nearly getting
yourself killed. You are in effect, Ison’s problem now.”

The upset that Rohesia had been
feeling since the moment she had left Ecripian, started to well up
in her again. She tried to rein in her emotions with a different
tactic to find out what was really going on. No matter how much her
father was frustrated with her, there was no way he would have
changed his mind on the proposal, or rushed this wedding if there
wasn’t anything pushing it.

“Father, you need to trust me.” She
gently laid her hand on his arm and lowered her voice. “If you had
done so from the beginning then maybe I wouldn’t have felt the need
to escape. I wouldn’t have been so resistant towards the
union.”

Argarth looked at his daughter for a
long time. She was such a strong person, he knew, with more guile
and intelligence than any queen he had ever known. She had the
potential to be a great leader, but in his eyes she was still his
little girl, and he did not want to give her the duty that he and
Marianna had tried so hard to avoid. He took hold of her hands as
he repeated his thoughts.

“My daughter, I do trust you,” He said
as he looked into her eyes. “But to me you are still my little girl
and I want to do as much as I can to protect to you until the day
that I am unable.”

Her heart softened and her view was
suddenly broadened to the events that had passed.

“Father,” She declared. “I know you
do, but I am a grown woman now and your way of protecting me builds
barriers between us. You can still protect me but not by keeping
things from me. That is not the way. And plus,” She smiled at him.
“It is now my job to protect you too.”

He pulled her into his arms and held
her close. He waited a moment before gently urging her
back.

“You are right. I should not have kept
things from you, not from the future Queen of Ecripian.”

Rohesia smiled at his words, knowing
they would never become fact. Not if Yena had anything to do with
it.

“Rohesia,” Argarth began. “Your mother
and I did not want you to have the burden of becoming queen for a
long time. We did not want to see you coerced into an arranged
marriage when it was obvious you were a child who thrived on love,”
She remained silent as her father continued. “I had an accident not
long after you were born, which left me barren, unable to father
anymore children.”

“What?” She whispered, not believing
what she was hearing and turned her hand to hold tight on to
his.

“
Your mother and I still
tried of course, for a long time, but it was no good. That is why
your mother made me promise you should be able to choose your own
husband. To marry for love, and to not be deprived of all the
skills and learning that a prince would be given. She wanted to
strengthen you, not weaken you.”

A tear fell down Rohesia’s cheek as
her father spoke of her mother. She did not remember much of her,
but she had looked through all of her mother’s journals and
portraits that had been left behind. It had filled in some of the
gaps. Her father continued.

“We had to keep it quiet because I was
vulnerable with no male heir present, but at the time Centurias
only ruled through peace. There were no threats then.”

“There are threats now?” She
asked.

“Yes, there have been rumours for a
while now that the rebels are growing. At present they are only
attacking Dondayas but we fear that the whole Isle will soon be
susceptible to their attacks.” He sighed. “Without you wed, we were
at greater risk; more ripe for the picking.”

Rohesia realised how much of a burden
her father had been carrying, the reasons that he had encouraged
the wedding.

“I am sorry that I declined Baron
Minley Rohesia, but he would not have been the right man to have
supported me in this, and in truth,” He hesitated. “I did not trust
him. Call me a cynic but I feared that as soon as he discovered he
would definitely be king one day, you would have been pushed into
the background.”

Rohesia laughed at her father’s
rendition of Baron Minley.

“Oh father you are a cynic. The main
reason that I was so content in becoming Baron Minley’s betrothed
was because I found him very easy to control. I felt that I would
be most respected in the union.”

He smiled with her but did not press
it further. Minley was out of the way now and his daughter was
married. The baron was no longer his concern.

“Very well then Rohesia. I will trust
you on that matter,” He smiled. “But you have to see why I chose
Ison. He is a man who I can trust and I know he will protect you
and these lands with his life.” He frowned, not comfortable in
discussing war or threats with his daughter. However, he would feed
her as much as he could, for now. “We are protected from outside
attacks because of Dondayas defences, but the rebels are from the
Isle. They are people who are operating from amongst us, and they
are operating with warrior strategies. Ison is known for his
strategies, and his good works in the Foreign Lands.” He stood from
his seat and kissed his daughter on the head. “No matter what you
have heard of him Rohesia, he is loyal, and he looks after his
own.”

She thought about the kisses that Ison
had given her, and only her stubbornness stood ground against that
point. Her instincts were telling her a whole lot more. She
however, also knew when to back down and did not pursue the matter
further.

“We shall see father,” She managed to
say. “We shall see.”

“He is to become my advisor, and
prince to this kingdom. I ask that you show him some ease from your
erratic nature.” His tone had turned to one of pleading.

“If you think for one moment that I am
going to become a rug for Ison to walk all over then you have
another thing coming.” She announced.

“I am not asking that you do that,” He
snapped. His headache had arrived. “But I am asking that you watch
your tongue and think before you speak if you wish to have a happy
union.”

She shook her head in
disbelief.

“Then I had better be prepared for a
sad one father, because trust me, loyal or not, if Ison does
something that I do not agree with then I will most certainly voice
it. If he did not wish to have my ‘type’ as a wife then he should
not have said I do.” She lifted up her skirts to aid in her
dramatic exit from the kitchens.

“Then I suppose I had better tell Nani
to make a double batch of tonic.” Argarth said quietly to himself
before making his way to greet Ison.

“You must understand Ison, my daughter
is strong of mind but she is also strong of heart. I beg that you
be lenient with her resilient will.”

They were in seated together in the
main hall, with only a vat of wine and tray of chicken to keep them
in comfort.

“Your daughter is who she is Argarth,
and my view of her has changed dramatically from who I first
thought she may be.”

“And what is that?” He asked
guardedly.

“I heard that she was spoilt and very
demanding, but in truth, even though I assume she can still be
quite demanding, she is a very powerful woman, in heart and soul.”
He raised his goblet of wine to Argarth who repeated the
gesture.

“That she is Ison, that she is,” He
smiled at his new son-in-law.

“So,” Ison continued. “I have heard
the rumours and my father has updated me. What would you like me to
do from here?”

“
I want you to take charge
of this. If there are any decisions that are to be made, then make
them. All I ask is that you report back to me
regularly.”

He knew then what Argarth was
offering. He was giving him full reign on sorting out the problem
without any interference from the king. He was showing his
trust.

“All I ask is for my men to be rested
Argarth, and then I shall call a meeting with all of your men at
arms. I want to see who I can trust for myself.”

Argarth nodded.

“Quarters have been allocated for each
of your men. And as for yourself,” He smiled. “It is nearly dawn,
you should be getting back to your wife.”

Ison felt a sudden twinge at the word
‘wife’. He had momentarily forgot that he been wed only moments
before to a woman he barely knew.

“It has been an unusual day, I think I
will take my leave. If you could direct me to the
chamber?”

“I will take you in that direction. I
shall be retiring myself after being up half the eve. I will meet
with you on the morrow to give you the background and detail of
Ecripian.”

“Thank you.” He advised as they both
made their way to the halls that led to the royal
chambers.

Once dressed her in eve clothes,
Rohesia sat in front of her chamber table brushing through her long
hair. She couldn’t believe she was a married woman, to Sir Ison no
less, and she was finding it more and more difficult to stop
feeling excited about it.

The knock at her door made her jump as
she placed the brush back down on the table.

“Enter.” She shouted expecting it to
be Kaya, her ladies maid, who had probably found out about her
return from Nani. However, her heart stood still when she realised
that it was Ison standing in the door way.

“Good eve Rohesia.” He said. The tone
of his voice flowing across her like velvet. She stood in greeting
and felt extremely exposed with wearing only her sleeping attire.
She shivered as she watched him enter the room.

“Can I help you my lord?” She asked
him, her voice shaky.

He looked at her standing in front of
him, not quite knowing what to say. It was as if the spell she had
weaved when they had first met returned to him with a vengeance.
Her hair, long and dark to her waist, still held the waves from
being wet earlier and made her look so innocent as it fell against
her robe.

He shook his head to shake the images
of her naked in his arms from his mind. He did not need this right
now, not when he just needed sleep.

“I have come to bed,” He advised her
after closing the large wooden door behind him. “We are wed now
remember?”

She blinked rapidly as if to
comprehend what he had just said. She had not given one thought to
sharing a bed straight after the wedding and he had not given her
time to think about this. There were still a lot of unresolved
issues between them, and she wanted to get to know him a little
better before they shared a bed, let alone contemplating doing
anything in it.

Understanding that it was too late to
do anything about their sleeping arrangements, she quickly made her
way over to the large four poster bed that was situated in the
middle of the room.

If she could just get into it quickly
enough she could close her eyes from him and feign sleep if he came
anywhere near her. There was no way he would try and take her
whilst she was sleeping, would he? She cringed at the thought of
the painful act, as told to her by some of the ladies of the court
when their chaperones were not around.

Ison watched humorously as Rohesia
dived over towards the bed away from him as if he was a dangerous
animal. Her curvaceous frame jumped under the covers so fast that
he cringed when she bumped her head on the back board, hearing her
muttered curse.