CHAPTER 817: A LOST STEWARD (PART ONE)

Once again, a lull fell over the conversation as everyone returned to their meals while they struggled to digest what Ashlynn had just revealed to them.

For the moment, Ashlynn was content to sit back and observe. She had planted all of the seeds she needed to. Other than Sir Carwyn’s surrender, no decisions would be made tonight. Liam Dunn couldn’t accept Ashlynn’s offer on his father’s behalf, even if he wanted to. Similarly, nothing Hugo had to say would change the fate of Hanrahan Barony, as those promises had been made to Dame Sybyll long ago.

In the end, however, it was Hugo who broke the silence.

"Lady Ashlynn," Hugo said as he set down his utensils. Everything the famed Master Georg had served was more extraordinary than the last, but Hugo found that his appetite had left him as he grappled with the question before him. "I, I have a question. It may be impertinent but, I hope you won’t object."

"I’m not a tyrant, Sir Hugo," Ashlynn said gently. "You saw how far over the line Sir Rain was willing to charge. I doubt you would be so foolish. So please, if you have a question, just ask."

"Thank you," he said, drawing up what courage he’d managed to scrape together and sitting up as straight as he could. "My Lady, I know that my life belongs to my cousin Sybyll," he began slowly. "But if she spares my life, what happens to me then?"

"Your life belongs to Dame Sybyll because Nyri promised her that she could exterminate the usurper’s bloodline to the last drop," Ashlynn said, startling Sir Carwyn and drawing a frown from Liam in the process. "But you aren’t Ian Hanrahan’s heir, or even his legitimate child. So Dame Sybyll has very little reason to claim your life."

"But if she’s going to rule over Hanrahan Barony in this new kingdom of yours," Liam said cautiously. "Hugo is a threat to her rule. He’s the son of Ian Hanrahan and even if Dame Sybyll kills her cousin, people who support the old Baron may rally around his sons if either of them are still alive."

"But I don’t want to rule!" Hugo protested. "I didn’t want it when Father summoned me back home in case Bastian didn’t recover and I don’t want it now. I especially don’t want to fight my cousin Sybyll," he said with a pale faced look of absolute terror at the idea. "I don’t want to be trouble to anyone just because my father, he..."

It was hard for Hugo to put it into words. Just because his father had taken a fancy to a chambermaid and bedded her in a drunken bout of lust, Hugo had spent his entire life living in the shadow of his birth. He had been sent away from his home as a young child to preserve his father’s dignity, then hauled back when his father needed a spare heir.

Later, he’d been shoved into Owain’s service in order to remove any doubts that the Hanrahan Barony would pass to Bastian when the time came. And now, after all that, he’d been told that his life might be forfeit because of someone else’s vengeance against a grandfather he’d never known and a father who used him as a convenient tool. Bitter didn’t begin to describe how he felt about the fate he’d been consigned to because of his father’s actions.

"So what do you desire?" Ashlynn asked gently as she reached across the table to put a reassuring hand on Hugo’s. She knew the pressure on him had been immense even before she married Owain and the current chain of events began to unfold, but Hugo had done something that gave her hope in the abused steward.

He referred to Dame Sybyll as his cousin. Even knowing that she was a vampire, one who had slaughtered countless soldiers in the War of Inches and in the years since then, to say nothing of the men she’d killed before Nyrielle found her. And yet, Hugo was still willing to acknowledge her as his kin. That alone meant something to Ashlynn.

"Everyone I have spoken with about you says that you’re a man who thinks before he acts and that you pay attention to even the smallest details," she said, praising the scholarly steward. "I doubt that you haven’t considered all of the reasons that Dame Sybyll should desire your death, so let’s assume for a moment that she ignores those reasons anyway and spares your life."

"What would you desire then, Sir Hugo?" Ashlynn asked. "What is it you want if she lets you live?"

"If you succeed," Hugo said, swallowing down the knot that tried to form around his tongue as he spoke. "And if my cousin succeeds, then I have no place left to go. I can’t return to Hanrahan or it would be just like Lord Liam said. I’d become a rallying point for anger and opposition, even if I didn’t want to. People would die for supporting me..."

"They wouldn’t be supporting you," Ashlynn corrected. "Not really. They’d just be using your name and your identity as a shield to hide behind and a banner to rally people with. They wouldn’t be serving your goals, but their own."

"I know that, but it doesn’t matter," Hugo said with a heavy sigh. "If I’m there, then I create a shield and a banner for them to use. If I’m not, they have to make their decisions on their own, and if they rebel, it has nothing to do with me."

"But if I have no place at home," Hugo continued as he gave vent to his frustrations. "I can’t return to Lothian City either. I’m sworn to your husband, my Lady, and in a way, I suppose I’m sworn to you as well," he said with a complicated look on his face.

"I, I thought I had been serving you all this time already," he said awkwardly. "I sent many things to the Summer Villa for you in the hopes that it would make your life there better. I just didn’t realize that the person I was helping in the Villa wasn’t the real Ashlynn Blackwell."

"I’ve spoken with Samira about the things you sent her," Ashlynn said, startling the hawk-nosed steward. "Don’t look so surprised. The Summer Villa fell shortly after dawn this morning. She and I had several hours to speak on our way back to the Vale. Some of the gifts you sent her in Owain’s name were quite extravagant," she said with a wry smile. "How is it that you got him to spend so much on a common serving woman who was pretending to be me?"

"Ah, that," Hugo said as a blush spread across his cheeks and he looked momentarily sheepish. "I managed Lord Owain’s accounts very carefully. There are dozens of things he needed to spend his money on, and that includes gifts for other noblemen, laborers’ wages on his farms, maintenance on his own wardrobe..."

"So you hid the expenses from him in your bookkeeping?" Liam said incredulously. "I’m amazed he didn’t think you were keeping a mistress! What would you do if he found out how much you were spending?"

"But, but I wasn’t hiding anything!" Hugo protested. "It was all right there in the ledgers. If he ever inspected them, it would have been obvious. I clearly noted down ’Lady Ashlynn’s Wardrobe’ or ’Gift for Lady Ashlynn’ every time I made a purchase. I’d even begun collecting items for the child I thought was about to be born," he added defensively. "It’s all right there in the ledgers..."

"But Owain can’t be bothered to inspect them," Ashlynn said with a heavy sigh. "Because that’s the work of a steward or a merchant, and it’s beneath the notice of a true knight and lord. Is that right?"

"It, it is, my lady," Hugo said. "But, I’m good at my work and I know it must be done and done well," he continued. "So, even though it’s impertinent to do so, I wanted to ask if I can enter your service. Or, rather, if I can remain in your service after you deal with Lord Owain," he said as he stood from his chair in order to kneel at Ashlynn’s feet.

"My lady, I know that it’s twisting my oath to claim to serve you already," he said as he lowered his head, too frightened of what he might see in her eyes if he met her gaze. "And I know how you feel about traitors. My request is selfish and self-serving, but I promise you, I will serve you just as well as I served the imposter in the Summer Villa, if not better. All I ask for is the chance."