Free Love's Call by C. A. Szarek Page A

Lord Aldern’s eyes and knew better than uttering a denial. Jorrin’s magic would have called him a liar even if the duke did not. “I know…” Leargan said instead, grimacing.
    “So, tell her about the scroll, or ask her to marry you, even demand it.”
    “Aye, because demanding anything of a Senior King’s Rider would get me far.”
    The duke smirked. “Well, I suppose you have a point there.”
    “I don’t want a marriage without love,” Leargan admitted, looking away. “Your fault, of course.”
    “My fault?” Jorrin asked.
    When he met Lord Aldern’s gaze again, his breath exited on a whoosh. Kindness made up his friend’s expression. “Well…you and Lord Dagget and your lovely wives. Yet, I’m trapped, ordered to marry. I’ve never disobeyed the king before.”
    “Are you planning to?”
    Leargan didn’t sense judgment or censure in the question. “No.” He paused. “I don’t know.”
    “King Nathal is nothing, if not sensible. Can you explain things to him? I don’t know her father, but I’m sure he wouldn’t want his daughter to be unhappy.”
    Jorrin’s tone was reasonable, but something flared within Leargan.
    “Are you saying I can’t make her happy?” he barked. Leargan flushed. He was addressing his lord and had no right to speak to him in such a manner. He wouldn’t blame Jorrin if he knocked him on his arse.
    The duke laughed. “No, not at all.”
    Calm yourself and stop jumping to conclusions. He took a breath.
    “Do you want her?”
    “ That is about the only thing not in question,” Leargan murmured.
    Jorrin shook his head, chuckling again. “At least that won’t be lacking in your marriage then,” he teased, but there was knowledge and acceptance in his eyes.
    Leargan grinned.
    Silence descended, but it was companionable.
    “I ambushed her…shamed her…I’ve been avoiding her ever since.” He winced.
    Why did you say that?
    “Tell me what happened,” Lord Aldern ordered.
    Bollocks.
    The look on the duke’s face didn’t bode well. Leargan had chosen his words poorly.
    The story tumbled out, Jorrin visibly relaxing more and more with every sentence. “I wouldn’t call that shaming her. She didn’t smack you or scream for you to get away from her?”
    “No. Quite the opposite. That’s why I am so ashamed of myself. Jorrin, I would have taken her, right there, in the corridor…she’s not a common whore.”
    “No, she’s not. She’s the woman that’ll be your wife. Though the time and place may have been a bit off, wanting her is not wrong. She has feelings for you, as well.”
    He shot the duke a look. “What? Do you sense something?”
    “Blessed Spirit, man. I don’t have to sense anything. Don’t you see how she looks at you? I saw it from day one. Tristan, too remarked.” Jorrin shook his head, one dark brow arched.
    Leargan’s heart pounded. Ansley might feel something for him?
    He’d said nothing to her since he’d kissed her in the corridor. He couldn’t look her in the eye.
    “Don’t you think apologizing and walking away from her, never looking back, might have hurt her some? Even if she didn’t have feelings for you, I think it would’ve had a bite…”
    “Ah, I…never thought of that.”
    Jorrin winced. “I think you owe her an explanation…or an apology…for your apology.”
    “If I hurt her, it was unintentional. She probably hates me now.”
    “Let me tell you something about women.” The duke threw an arm around Leargan’s shoulders. “We often hurt them with our inability to think of them, so my wife reminds me all the time. Think about her perspective for a moment.”
    Leargan had left her, as far as she knew, without another thought about her. Their encounter was most likely the first of that kind for her and he’d not even looked her way since.
    He’d been too absorbed with himself to even check on Ansley. She’d have no idea he’d been able to think of little else than her lips against his. How she’d