Secret Heart (46 page)

Walderon was executed the next morning. Garit
and Roarke attended the execution. Jenia could not bear to go.
Walderon did not ask to see her beforehand, nor did she visit him
in his cell. She had nothing more to say to him.

“
Jenia,
dear, come to my rooms this morning,” Lady Marjorie urged. “We’ll
spend our time planning your marriage ceremony and the feast to
follow it. Queen Hannorah has asked me to learn what special dishes
you want.”

“
I find
it unseemly to think of a celebration on such a solemn day,” Jenia
protested.

“
Oh, but
you must hear the wonderful ideas I’ve had,” Marjorie insisted.
“Just listen to this....”

Jenia let
her future mother-in-law prattle on about a gown made of bronze
silk all trimmed in gold, and of the great feast that King Henryk
had offered to host. In the interest of family reconciliation she
did her best to listen and to be grateful for Marjorie’s concern
for her, though she contributed little to the plans for her own
wedding. All the time she was with Marjorie, her thoughts were on
the scaffold where Walderon was meeting his well-deserved
end.

Roarke and Garit returned at midday looking
grim and white around their mouths. The two of them, along with
Jenia, Elwin and Anders, left Calean for a long ride across the
fields and then down to the shore.

“
The air
is cleaner here, away from the city,” Garit said, “but for me, the
world is empty now and always will be.”

Three
days later Roarke and Jenia were married. With King Henryk and
Queen Hannorah standing in for Jenia’s parents, Garit as Roarke’s
witness, and Lord Mage Serlion overseeing the service, the contract
was read, signed and sealed. To Jenia’s delight, King Henryk
immediately confirmed Roarke as the new lord of Gildeley. Lady
Marjorie and Lord Oliver were relegated to the crowd of courtiers,
for Roarke refused to ask his father to be his principal
witness.

“
The
place at my side rightfully belongs to Garit,” Roarke had said to
Jenia earlier, when they discussed the arrangements. “He has always
been my true and loyal friend. I suppose in time I will accept my
father again, but not just yet. Let it be enough that he is invited
to be present.”

Late on
the morning after their marriage Jenia and Roarke departed from
Calean. Garit accompanied them as far as the road that led toward
Jenia’s ancestral home.

“
Thanks
to you two,” he told them, “I can go on with my life knowing
Chantal is at peace. The painful questions are all answered now. As
for you, Jenia, your quest is finished at last.”

“
You must
visit us at Gildeley,” she told him.

“
Perhaps.” Garit looked doubtful.

“
Definitely!” Jenia said, laughing. “Come in the spring. As
I recall, Gildeley is beautiful in springtime. The views will
revive your spirits.”

“
In that
case, I must see it.”

“
Promise?” she teased.

“
I
promise. In fact, my grandmother lives on her dower lands somewhere
north of Gildeley, so next spring I will dutifully stop to see her
before I visit you.” Garit kissed Jenia on the cheek, the kiss of a
dear brother. Then he embraced Roarke and slapped him on the
back.

Jenia’s
last glimpse of Garit was of a lonely figure on horseback, waving.
Then Roarke smiled at her and she pulled her own horse around to
ride close to her new husband.

“
I cannot
wait to see home again, after so many years,” she murmured. “My
mother never liked Gildeley, but I always did.”

“
Then I
will like it, too. Home,” Roarke added, “is where you are. In my
most secret heart, you have been my home since the first moment I
saw you.”

Garit sat on his horse, gazing after his
friends until they were out of sight behind a low hill. When he
heard approaching hoofbeats, he was not at all surprised to find
Sir Durand stopping beside him.

“
I waited
until they were gone,” Durand said, “so as not to delay their
well-deserved wedding journey. I bring news.”

“
Oh?”
Garit raised an eyebrow and contemplated Durand’s deceptively bland
face.

“
I’m
happy to report that Domini Gundiac has learned of Walderon’s
capture,” Durand said with a sudden grin. “It was a serious blow to
his ambitions, though I doubt if he will stop his scheming for
long. Still, he has pulled his armies away from the border. And, in
case you haven’t heard, this morning King Henryk deployed a strong
armed force to Catherstone, to seize the castle from Walderon’s
illegitimate son and to guard the bridge and the border there. So,
you need have no concern for the immediate safety of Gildeley and
its people.”

“
Does
this mean your work in the Dominion is finished?” Garit
asked.

“
Indeed,”
came the answer. “I’m too well known there to be an effective spy
any longer, so King Henryk is sending me elsewhere. Tomorrow I
leave for Kantia.”

“
Really?”
Garit regarded Durand with renewed interest.

“
Perhaps
we could discuss Kantia and King Audemer’s relations with his
contentious nobles,” Durand suggested. “I know a tavern near the
river, where we can speak privately.”

“
I’ll
wager I know the same tavern.” Garit realized he was smiling in
anticipation of a new mission for the king of Kantia and also,
perhaps, for King Henryk, whom he regarded as a friend. For the
first time since Chantal’s disappearance he felt a lightening of
his sorrowing heart.

“
A good,
plain meal is just what I need right now,” he said to Durand. “Lead
on to that tavern, my friend. Roarke may be wed and happily
settled, but you and I still have work to do.”

Flora Speer is the traditionally published
author of twenty full-length novels and two novellas. She writes
historical, futuristic, and time-travel romances. Born in southern
New Jersey, she now lives in Connecticut. Among her favorite
activities are doing the research for the next book, which is
always great fun, gardening, especially herbs and flowers used in
medieval gardens, and amateur astronomy. She firmly believes in
space travel and wishes the U.S. would restart its manned space
program, which was not only exciting to follow, but often provided
great ideas for her futuristic romances.

“
The
Secret Heart” is the first in a series of fantasy romances set in
an alternate medieval world where a form of magic known as the
Power is accepted – and is sometimes sadly corrupted.

Connect with the author:

Web site:
www.floraspeer.com

E-mail:
[email protected]

HISTORICAL ROMANCES;

By Honor Bound

Much Ado About Love

The Viking Passion

For Love And Honor

Rose Red

Castle of Dreams

Castle of the Heart

Two Turtledoves (Christmas novella)

TIME-TRAVEL:

Twelfth Night (Christmas novella)

Christmas Carol

A Time To Love Again

A Love Beyond Time

Timestruck

Love Just in Time

Love Once and Forever (also paranormal)

PARANORMAL
– medieval magic

Heart
’s
Magic

The
Magician’s Lover

A Passionate Magic

Love Once and Forever (also time-travel)

FUTURISTIC ROMANCES:

Venus Rising

Destiny’s
Lovers

No Other Love

Lady Lure

Original E-Books

Lord
Royce’s Knights series:

So Great a Love

Cast Love Aside

True Love

Where Love Has Gone

Love Everlasting

Love Above All

And a Romantic Fantasy series:

The Secret Heart

The Fire of the Soul

The Anvil of the Mind (available in fall,
2015)

Coming in 2016:

All The Fine Realms, a historical

saga set in the days of Charlemagne