As Maximilian and Ishbel sat down at the table, Lixel retrieved the marriage contracts from a satchel. He couldn’t believe Maximilian was moving this precipitously. By gods, there hadn’t even been the time for a convivial glass of wine first, let alone any time put aside for Maximilian and Ishbel to see if they liked each other or not.

      As Lixel sat down at the table, sliding the contract towards Maximilian, he rather hoped that Maximilian had been so smitten by Ishbel at first sight that the king would grant Lixel immediate permission to return to Escator.

      “I believe you have hashed out the contract with StarWeb, Ishbel?” Maximilian said.

      “Yes,” said Ishbel, and Lixel was not surprised to see a hardening of her expression and a tightening of her shoulders at the mention of StarWeb.

      Maximilian nodded, running his eye over the document. “Are you prepared to sign?” He looked up at Ishbel then, and something passed between them that Lixel could not identify.

      “If you are agreeable,” she said, softly.

      “I am agreeable, Ishbel,’ Maximilian said. “Shall we make a marriage, then?”

      There was a long pause, then Ishbel dipped her head. “Yes.”

      Lixel’s mouth dropped open. Never had he witnessed such an unemotional, almost clinical assenting to a marriage. Why not spend time together, getting to know each other? Wasn’t that what this entire exercise of meeting in Pelemere had been about?

      “Lixel,” said Maximilian, “can you fetch Garth and Egalion in to witness?”

      Lixel closed his mouth, nodded, and did as he was told.

      Garth had not answered Egalion’s question truthfully. He couldn’t. Not before he’d spoken to Maximilian. He’d fudged an answer, and was grasping about for something to say to distract Egalion when the door to the secondary chamber opened, Lixel appeared, and requested Garth and Egalion enter.

      Garth could not believe what was happening. Maximilian was about to sign the contract within a few minutes of meeting the woman for the first time. What in the name of all gods was he doing?

      Maximilian was running through the clauses, checking them, as Garth and Egalion entered.

      “This one …” he said, tapping the document and looking between Ishbel and Lixel. “How did this come to be here?”

      “StarWeb insisted on it,” said Ishbel, her tone strained. “She said you would not ratify the marriage, declare it valid, until I was … um …” She glanced up at Garth and Egalion, clearly embarrassed.

      As she has every reason to be, thought Garth, getting angrier by the moment.

      “Until you were pregnant and in Ruen,” said Maximilian. “Well, I think we can dispense with that, yes?” and with a single stroke of the pen he drew a thick black line through the clause. “Now, Ishbel, if you would sign here, if you please —”

      “No!” Garth broke in. “No. Maxel, I beg you, a moment of your time, please.”

      Maximilian looked at him. “Explain yourself, Garth.”

      “Maxel,” Garth said, “a moment of your time, I beg you. If you care or trust me at all, then grant me this moment. Please.”

      Maximilian looked at Ishbel. “I apologise most sincerely for this unwelcome intrusion,” he said, then rose, walked over to Garth, took his elbow in an ungentle hand and ushered him out of the room.

      “Garth!” Maximilian said. “What was the meaning of that?”

      “Maxel, Ishbel is pregnant.”

      Maximilian went utterly still. “What?”

      “Not much, perhaps a week … she has only just conceived. But she is pregnant. You know I can feel this.”

      Maximilian nodded. Garth had the Touch; determining an early pregnancy was but a trivial task for him. “And so,” he said, “your point is …”

      Garth was growing more astounded by the moment. Maximilian’s anger had faded and he was now regarding Garth with an amused air.

      “The Lady Ishbel is not as virtuous as you had hoped, Maxel,” Garth said, wondering if he needed to put this into one-syllable words for Maximilian to comprehend. “Dear gods, my friend, you would take a woman to wife when she’s carrying someone else’s bastard?”

      Maximilian grinned, the expression so surprising that Garth felt his mouth drop open. “It’s my child, Garth.”

      Garth was now so shocked he could not speak.

      “Where did you think I went,” Maximilian said, “when I rode ahead of the main retinue and left you and Egalion to your own company for well over a week?”

      Garth gazed at him, struggling to come to terms with what Maximilian had done. “You said … the forest …”

      “Yes, yes,” Maximilian said, waving a hand dismissively. Then he smiled, and actually winked. “Changed my mind. Thought I’d see if I couldn’t make Ishbel’s acquaintance under less strained circumstances than a formal meeting.”

      “Well, you surely made it very well,” Garth muttered.

      Maximilian laughed, and clapped Garth on the shoulder. “She is well with the child?”

      “Yes. Yes, she is well. There is no problem that I could feel.”

      “Good. Then perhaps you can come back in and apologise to my future wife for your behaviour.”

      Garth wasn’t going to allow Maximilian to get away with this entirely. “And perhaps, later, when your future wife is safely out of hearing range, you can apologise to Egalion and myself for your deception.”

      “A bargain,” said Maximilian, and led the way back into the room.

      Ishbel was growing more certain that her entire time as Maximilian’s wife would be spent in this terrible state of feeling completely overwhelmed. Maximilian had arrived, greeted her, swept her inside, asked for the marriage contract, scratched out the clause StarWeb had fought so hard for, and all within a relatively few short minutes. Ishbel doubted that enough time had yet elapsed from his arrival for his entire entourage to have completely dismounted.

      Adding to this sense of feeling completely overwhelmed by Maximilian was a stab of hurt that Garth Baxtor had so obviously taken an immediate and deep dislike to her. Ishbel had liked Garth — he had such an open, friendly attractive face which invited instant trust — but then he’d taken her hand and within a heartbeat his face had closed over and he had turned his back to her.

      And now he’d demanded that Maximilian talk with him privately.

      What had Garth discovered? Ishbel’s heart was beating fast, pounding in her chest, and her hands were damp where she clutched them in her lap. Garth had felt something when he’d touched her … Great Serpent, please let it be that he hadn’t felt —

      Maximilian