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.Surprisingly, her enthusiastic agreement didn’t seem to brighten Danubeat all.“Would it be better, do you suppose, if I name you as successor?” heasked unexpectedly.“Behind Midalis, perhaps, but ahead of Merwick andTorrence?”Jilseponie’s face screwed up and she worked hard and fast to get throughthe multitude of refusals that tried to rush out of her mouth.“Why wouldyou even think such a thing?” she asked.“You are the queen,” Danube answered simply, and he finally did look upat his wife.“No,” she answered flatly.“I have no desire to be further immersed inthe politics of Ursal.Nor do I desire, nor would I accept, anyappointment to the line of succession.My life is complicated enough—”“Troubled enough, you mean,” Danube interjected.Jilseponie didn’t even try to disagree.“My possible ascension was nevera part of our agreement, not before I came to Palmaris and not since.Isee no reason to change the standing arrangement—a solemn vow that yougave to your brother and to the other nobles that goes in directopposition to such a course.If you alter things now, if you change yourmind and the formal line of succession, you will be openly betraying thetrust and confidence of many of your court, including many who alreadyconsider me an enemy.”“Perhaps those courtiers do not deserve my trust and confidence,” Danubeoffered.Again, Jilseponie had to pause and fully digest the surprising words.“I’ll not lie to you,” she said at length.“If at our next grandcelebration, a huge crack split the grand ballroom and dropped more thanhalf of your courtiers into a bottomless pit, I would not lament theirloss.But I did not come here to shake the court of Castle Ursal apart,nor do I wish to be put into such a position.Nor do I wish to be aruling queen.”“Yet all of the former is a consequence of your simply being here at myside!” Danube yelled at her suddenly.“Split the court?” he echoedincredulously.“Have you not? Have I not by bringing you here? Where isConstance, then? And where Kalas?”“Kalas?” Jilseponie asked, for she had not heard of the King’s fallingout with the Duke nor of Kalas’ plan to leave Ursal.Danube seemed not toeven hear her, though.“Perhaps I erred in bringing you here, for measured against you and yourways of the northland, life at court seems pale indeed, wretched even tome, who grew up in this world,” Danube rolled on.“All your ideals, yourquaint notions of friendship.they cannot stand against therealities of this life.”“Myideals?” asked Jilseponie.“These are not shared by you? What of thetimes we spent together in Palmaris? What of your proposal—your choice—inmarrying me? Do you believe that to be an error?”“I did not foresee the depth—”“Of the shallowness of your court,” Jilseponie interrupted.“Quite anirony, and not one that you, or I, must assume responsibility for.”King Danube stared at her.“There is a rumor circulating that you havebeen taking herbs, the same ones used by the courtesans to preventpregnancy,” he said.How Jilseponie wanted to lay it all out to him then and there, to tellDanube about Constance and her conspiracy.Perhaps she had erred insimply sending Constance away without explanation.Perhaps she shouldhave brought it all out in the open and let an honest trial judge thewoman.Perhaps she should do so now.Jilseponie had to take a deep breath to even get through the merethought of it, for she understood the implications of such a course: acomplete destruction of the present court, and some long-festering badfeelings from very powerful landowners and noblemen that could well haunther husband for the rest of his days.“I am taking no such herbs,” she answered honestly, phrasing her wordsin the present tense.“Nor have I ever knowingly consumed any substancethat would prevent pregnancy—nor did I ever even hear of such thingsuntil very recently.”Danube stared at her for a long while, and she did not blink, secure inthe truth of her words.“Do you love me?” Danube asked suddenly.“I came to Ursal, gave up all of my life before this, because I do,”Jilseponie answered.“That has not changed.”Danube narrowed his eyes and stared at her even more intently.“Do youlove me as you loved Elbryan?”Jilseponie winced and shrank back, her breath coming out in one long anddesperate sigh.How could he ask her such a thing? How could she comparethe two when she was at such a different place in her own life.“I havenever lied to you about that,” she answered after a long anduncomfortable pause.“From the beginning, I explained to you thedifferences between—”“Spare me,” Danube begged, holding up one hand.If he had stood and slapped her across the face, he would not havewounded Jilseponie more.Duke Kalas wore his most threadbare outfit this evening, and hadpurposely neither shaved nor washed very thoroughly after an afternoonspent riding.He needed to get away, from Danube and all the trappings ofcourt.For Kalas, that meant a journey to the slums of Ursal, to thetaverns where the peasants gathered to gossip and to drink away therealities of their miserable existence [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]