From Moonlight to Mayhem (Swords, Secrets, and Scandals Book 1) Page 18

  “You Majesty, I don’t know what Sebastian told you, but I can assure you, he is very happy to be free of my presence. He and I approach crisis’s in very different manners that are far from compatible.” Saika kept her tone calm and respectful. “Now, if it’s not too much trouble, would you kindly explain the reason for …” Saika waved a hand at the makeup and fancy hair style.

  The queen took a deep breath and adapted a cheerful expression. Saika's eyes narrowed. She didn't know what words the queen was about to say, but she got the distinct impression she wasn't going to like them.

  “After a great deal of discussion about what has gone on during the past few days and how to ensure you remain loyal to the crown and never consider another assassination attempt, it's been decided that you and Sebastian Harper shall wed.”

  ********

  Saika heard Queen Charlotte’s words, but she was unable to make sense of them. Perhaps the sleeping herbs she’d been given still remained in her system and impacted her ability to process information.

  She stared blankly at the queen. “I'm sorry. I fear I don't understand.”

  “I've known Sebastian since he was a young boy. I consider him a close friend and love him every bit as much as I love my own children. I cannot think of a single person who I trust more. No one could make me doubt his loyalty.”

  Saika waited for the Queen to continue.

  “Sadly, the same cannot be said of you. As of this moment, there are only a few people who know of the crime you intended to commit, but it will not be long before word begins to spread. Eventually someone will want to know why you weren’t punished. No one knows you well enough to defend you and if word were to spread about the plot you were involved with to kill my husband, and sooner or later, it will spread, the general population would not understand why you weren’t prosecuted. The simplest solution would be to have you found guilty of crimes against the crown and execute you, but I find the thought of doing so to a young woman who was merely trying to protect her family upsets my stomach. It seems … unholy. So, after a great deal of discussion about what the best course of action should be, it was decided that while marrying Sebastian won’t prevent gossip, it will lend you a degree of respectability and trust that you would not otherwise have. As your spouse, he would watch over you and make sure you do not get into any additional trouble.”

  “Sebastian and I have to wed?”

  Charlotte nodded. “Yes.”

  “I don't wish to wed.”

  There was nothing could have done or said that would have shocked the queen more thoroughly. “You must wed. It’s your duty as woman. First you wed, than you bear children. It’s the way the world works.”

  The idea made Saika shudder. “As soon as a woman weds, she gives up everything she holds dear and becomes the property of her new husband, another one of his possessions. She loses all claim to herself.”

  Queen Charlotte’s already protruding eyes grew even bigger as her skin grew a shade paler. “I'm afraid now I'm the one who doesn't understand.”

  “I was raised to follow in the footsteps of my ancestors.” Saika hesitated and the queen motioned for her to continue. “I can trace my linage back to Tomoe Gozen, one of the greatest onna-bugeisha, women samurai soldiers, to ever wield a sword. When my grandfather told me stories about her, he also told about how different life for women was in Japan. They are respected, honored, and trusted to protect themselves and their homes, even when there aren’t any men about. They are free in a way British women aren’t. That’s the kind of life I’ve always wanted for myself thought it’s not possible here. Right now, my father is responsible for me and has the power to decide the course of my life. He is a good man who is happy to let me do my own thing. If I wed, my husband might force me to live a very different life from the one I want.”

  “But if you don't wed, you can't have children.”

  Saika decided to not point out the high number of children who seemed to be born to unwed London women each year. She wondered if the Queen even knew such things happened.

  “My mother died shortly after my birth. At the time she was twenty and only lived to bear two children and my father told me her mind was never quite right after she bore my older brother. I would far prefer to live the life I currently enjoy to taking a chance and bearing children that could kill me before I even have a chance to love them.”

  Charlotte studied Saika for a few moments. “For a woman who God seems to have blessed with a great deal of intelligence, I must say I find your thoughts regarding marriage and motherhood to be very silly. While I will admit that there are times when things might be easier if women weren’t so dependent on men, but I wonder if there weren’t times when your ancestor, this …” Queen Charlotte searched her memory for the unfamiliar name.

  “Tomoe Gozen,” Saika supplied the name.

  “Tomoe Gozen,” Queen Charlotte repeated. “I’m certain there were times she wished she would have wed. Times when she would have found a husband useful.”

  “She didn’t need one, she was a greater samurai than any of the men who fought beside her.”

  “All the same,” impatience sharped Queen Charlotte’s voice, “you don’t live in Japan. Your grandfather left that country and as a result of the choice he made, you are a British citizen and as such you have two options. You can do the smart thing and marry Sebastian Harper, or you can continue to be headstrong and stubborn and spend the remainder of your life in a prison cell before you are found guilty of regicide and sent to the scaffold. I urge you to consider carefully. Of those two choices, I can assure you becoming Sebastian's wife is the most sensible. Surely you must see that.”

  The queen was backing her into a metaphorical corner and Saika didn’t like it one bit. “What about Sebastian. He would be stuck with me for the rest f his life, I cannot imagine he is happy about the situation. He has his choice of any of the well-bred woman who come to London for the season.”

  “The matter has been discussed and he appears to be satisfied with the way things have been resolved.”

  “He should not have to pay for my crimes.”

  “Sebastian has had plenty of time to choose one of the pretty young things who has paraded themselves in front of his nose over the past several seasons, yet none have caught his eye. Maybe he's been waiting for a girl such as you.”

  Saika cast her eyes downward and refused to say anything.

  Charlotte smiled and walked to the bed. “Believe it or not, I know how you feel. When I was promised to George, I wasn't happy either. And I certainly wasn't what he considered an ideal wife, but we did our best and over time we fell in love. Now I can't imagine being with anyone else. Maybe the same thing will happen to you and Sebastian.”

  Saika refused to respond and glared at the queen.

  Queen Charlotte waited for several moments before she shrugged and crossed the room. She grasped the door handle. “I’m going to take your silence as confirmation that you have decided to do the sensible thing and become Sebastian Harper’s wife.”

  She opened the door and waved to someone in the corridor and Sebastian, King George, and a priest shuffled into the room.

  Saika blinked at Sebastian. Panic bubbled up in her chest, making it difficult to breathe. Her brow furrowed. “We can’t wed. Not yet. The banns haven’t been read. It’ll take weeks.” The tightness in her chest eased a bit. The amount of time it would take for the banns to be reads would give her enough time to think of a way out of this situation.

  Sebastian shrugged. “A special license has been granted. We’ve been given permission to wed this very morning.” His eyes flicked to the window and the corners of his mouth kicked up in a mildly amused smile. “The license also provides us with a way that we can wed during the afternoon, if we so desire.”

  Saika struggled to wrap her mind around everything that had happened to her in the past hour. Last night, despite the intense pain in her stomach, and the uncertainty of her future, sh
e’d been able to relax for the first time since her family had been snatched. It had seemed like an entire lifetime had passed since she’d felt like she was in control of her own life.

  Now she felt the same way all over again. Her sense of freedom and ability to be her own person was being taken away from her again and there wasn’t a thing she could do about it.

  Saika had never been one of those girls who had ever dreamed of her wedding, mostly because she'd never planned to wed anyone, but even she was prepared to admit that this wasn't like any ceremony she'd ever attended before.

  She'd never thought she would be the type of girl who would get married with both the King and Queen of England in attendance. Nor had she thought the groom would be an arrogant man with a keen mind who also enjoyed a close friendship with Queen Charlotte. And that she'd be so sore from a self-inflicted injury that she'd be unable to move from the bed.

  As the priest moved to stand at the foot of her bed, Saika looked up through her eyelashes at Sebastian and wondered what thoughts rolled through is mind. At the moment, his face was as impassive and unreadable as he said her's always was. For the first time she understood why he found this so frustrating.

  She wished she knew what he was thinking. Was he feeling as trapped as she was? Did he wish she was a more socially prominent, less determined, and prettier wife? Was he only doing this because the King and Queen had told him it was the only way she could avoid being labeled a traitor.

  Saika didn't know why the answers to these questions suddenly seemed so important, only that they were.

  Not that it really mattered. Right now, she had no say in the matter.

  Saika couldn’t concentrate.

  She was dimly aware of Sebastian standing by her bed, his expression subdued while a strange man dressed in official robes recited a memorized speech, and asked her a few questions. Saika felt her mouth move, though she wasn’t completely sure just what she said, but the words must have been correct, because the elderly man smiled benignly at her and shifted his attention to Sebastian who was asked the same questions. The next thing she knew, Sebastian leaned close and pressed a firm kiss to her mouth before drawing away and accepting well-wishes from both the King and the Queen.

  When the priest shuffled from the room, Queen Charlotte rubbed her hands together and looked expectantly at Sebastien. She raised a brow. “So, what do you intend to do next?”

  Saika felt Sebastian’s eyes boring through the top of her skull, but she refused to look up. After several long seconds, Sebastian transferred his gaze from Saika to his queen. “We will stay here until Saika’s injuries have healed sufficiently. Once that has happened, we'll travel to Bath and investigate Silver Spoon Bank and try to learn how they're connected to this bizarre plot to assassinate the king.”

  Saika glanced up at him with the corner of her eye and studied his face. He looked the same as always. The ceremony didn’t seem to have turned him into a cruel man who would exert his will on her. Some of the tension drained out of her shoulders.

  Fine, she decided, there hadn’t been anything she could do to stop the ceremony, and now their lives were bound together. She would just have to learn to make the most of it. If things got to rotten, well, she would deal with the problem when developed. Until then, she was going to stay focused on the task of bringing the men who had irrevocably changed her life to justice. She wanted to be there when they were forced to pay for their crimes.

  She reached up and curled her fingers into Sebastian’s sleeve. She pulled him towards her until his face was quite close to hers.

  “I want to make sure you and I are perfectly clear on a few matters.” She kept her voice low. The last thing she wanted was for this particular conversation to be overheard by any of the room’s other occupants. They wouldn’t understand.”

  “Such as?”

  “I have several high quality, very sharp blades in my possession.”

  “I am aware.”

  “I plan on keeping them very close at hand.”

  Sebastian’s eyes locked with hers and he waited for her to continue.”

  “The moment I feel you are attempting to exert your will on me, or you act like I am a piece of property you control, I will take the nearest blade and drive it through your heart before I than use it to remove your manhood. Do I make myself clear?”

  Something that bore a suspicious resemblance to humor floated across Sebastian’s expression. “As a piece of high quality crystal.”

  “Good. I just wanted to make sure you understood where I stood.”

  “You have. Now is there anything else you wish to say to me?”

  Saika noticed Queen Charlotte drawing close, her own expression wary. “What are the two of you discussing?”

  Sebastian drew away from Saika. “My new wife was simply asking me a question.”

  “Oh, and what does she wish to know?”

  Saika didn’t miss a beat. “I was just telling my new husband how I’ve not had an opportunity to visit Bath and wondered if I will like it.”

  Sebastian took her hand in his. This time, there was no hiding the amused glitter in his gray eyes. “While I can’t say whether or not you will like the town, I have no doubt that Bath has never experienced anything like you before. I am equally certain that the last thing our time in Bath will be is boring.”

  Book Two in my Swords, Secrets, and Scandals Series, which takes Saika and Sebastian to Bath where they will investigate the bank, will be available in 2016.

  In the meantime, you can read about Sebastian’s younger brother, Simon Harper, in my short story, A Pig in a Poke, which is part of the Chocolate House-All for Love-Anthology. Sebastian Harper is also a secondary character in my debut book, a Georgian rural romance novella called Snowflakes & Beeswax.

  The List of Books Currently Available by Jess Schira includes:

  Rendezvous with Destiny-Book One in my Shadows of WWII series (Young Adult historical rural romance)

  Pig in a Poke-Part of The Chocolate House-All for Love Anthology (Georgian & Regency historical romance)

  Snowflakes & Beeswax-a Georgian rural romance novella

  For information about my upcoming releases and other fun stuff, check out my:

  Official author Facebook page!

  My Blog, Whimsical Quests of a Curious Mind,

  and my Twitter page.

  Thank you!

  Sample Chapters from Pig in a Poke, a short story that can be found in The Chocolate House-All for Love-Anthology

  Pig in a Poke

  Jess Schira

  Chapter 1

  January 1800

  Simon Harper rubbed his neck and scanned the piece of paper one more time. He hoped the words had changed since the previous reading. Luck wasn’t on his side. The blasted message remained the same.

  Simon,

  Meet me at Masqueraders Chocolate House at 1:00 pm. No excuses.

  Sincerely,

  Sebastian

  Simon glanced at the tidy stack of ledgers piled on one side of his desk and heaved a sigh. He would far rather sort through the complicated tangle of numbers left by the previous proprietor than meet with his older brother.

  What did Sebastian want with him? They weren’t close, years had passed since last they spoke, so what possible reason could there be for this sudden need to meet?

  And why Masqueraders? The popular chocolate house wasn’t the type of place Sebastian frequented.

  Simon tore off a corner of the paper and rolled the scrap between his thumb and index finger. He was torn. On one hand, he wanted to ignore Sebastian’s missive. All of his childhood memories consisted of his older brothers ordering him about. When he’d left home, he swore he’d never do their bidding again.

  On the other hand, he wondered why his brother wanted to meet. A dozen different possibilities drifted through his mind, but Simon dismissed each one. None felt quite reasonable.

  Simon stood and reached for his coat. Only one way to find o
ut.

  The sound of an angry, feminine voice drifted through the window.

  Simon opened the wooden shutter and looked out the second story window to the street below.

  Two men and a tall slender woman with a powerful pair of lungs stood across the street, in front of a small, nondescript building. The woman’s arms flailed while she berated the well dressed, barrel shaped man who Simon recognized as the owner of the plain building.

  Simon succumbed to the impulse to lean closer to the window and strained his ears, hoping to catch a bit of the conversation, enough to let him get the gist of the conversation but his efforts went unrewarded. He sighed and reached for his coat. The truth of the matter was that whatever drama was unfolding on the street wasn’t any of his business and his older brother’s request meant Simon already had quite enough to worry about without taking on a stranger’s problems.

  Still …

  Simon glanced out the window one last time, and took a moment to study the young woman’s face. She really was quite pretty and clearly upset about something that had been said to her, it would be irresponsible for a gentleman to simply ignore her and Simon had always considered himself a gentleman.

  Chapter 2

  “You've made a mistake.” Letty Malleson tugged at the edges of her damp cloak, over lapping one over the other in an attempt to shield herself from the brisk wind and frosty air. She narrowed her eyes at the numbskull livestock broker standing before her and resisted the urge to stomp on his foot. “How do you plan to correct the error?”

  Nathaniel Brice crossed his arms over his barrel chest and blew out an impatient breath. “All the information is in place and I assure you, it’s accurate.”

  “No. Impossible.” Hysteria bubbled in Letty’s chest, and she sensed an invisible noose tighten around her throat. She shook the papers she held. “It cannot be correct.”