Hearts in Cups Read Online Free Page A

"I'm going
to call for Evan now because I really do need a wash. I promise to try not to
be too late returning tonight." He briskly pulled her to her feet and
planted a kiss on her lips. "Be in my bed by the tenth bell, I should be
back by then." He swatted her bottom agreeably as she rolled her eyes and
headed for the door.

 
    Chapter 2
     
    In
her bedchamber, Hollin of Langstraad watched the sun set behind the dark
mountains. A small fire burning in the grate of the fireplace dissipated its
heat into the room as the chill of an early spring evening crept in through the
window. The room itself was spacious and comfortable, with deep-piled rugs
strewn on the floor and vivid tapestries hung on the walls to guard against the
damp as well as to beautify. An enormous four-poster bed with curtains of green
velvet embroidered with gold thread dominated the right side of the room. Large
chairs, small tables and a variety of chests, cupboards, bookshelves and
oddments were arranged in an orderly fashion throughout the bedchamber. It was
a room that combined both the luxury entitled by its occupant's station with
the simplicity of her personal tastes.
    Wearing a white silk
chemise under a plain overdress of blue-gray wool, Hollin stood with her hair
unbound before the window like a flower catching the last of the sun's rays
before the dusk. With the fading of daylight, she lit a taper from the fire and
used it to light a lamp of burnished silver on one of the tables. She ran a
slender hand through the coppery mass of hair, pulling it away from her face
and letting it fall to her waist. She picked up a glittering object from beside
the lamp and a brilliant gleam refracted from her hand, sending shafts of rubine
light dancing about the room. Her forehead creased in a frown, Hollin gazed
into the facets of the large ruby set in its ring of gold: her betrothal ring.
By this red stone her life had become entwined with a man she did not know. Two
years after the handfasting ceremony he had left the Pentarchy on an
ambassadorial expedition and was away for a long time, eventually returning
briefly only to leave again for less obvious reasons; though it was generally
rumoured that he and his father did not get along. While all this had been
happening, Hollin had been a young girl growing up in the fastness of her
family's duchy, far from Pentarin. Then, at an all too early age, she had been
forced to endure and cope with the deaths of her father and sister during an
outbreak of plague, followed by the death of her mother not many years later.
Against the tapestry of her own emotional turmoil and grief the death of King
Gwydian and the appointment of his father-in-law, Lord Percamber ap Morna, as
regent were distant events. Important no doubt, but of little immediacy to her
and her world.
    When she had come of
age and begun to take her place on the Pentacle Council, Percamber had been
regent for several years and it was generally understood, though never
mentioned, that the prince would, in his own good time, return and ascend the
throne of his House. It was only in the last year or two that disgruntlement
with the existing political situation had been heard aloud.
    Hollin lifted the great
ring aloft again, marveling at its depth and luminosity. This, it seemed to
her, was the key to her own position in the coming power struggle. And struggle
it would be, if Ian was correct in his assessment. Ian. He had been her closest
friend since childhood. He was still the only person in whom she felt complete
trust. Not for the first time she thought that it was a pity he was her first
cousin. Things might have been much simpler if he hadn't been.
    After the death of
Gwyneira, Hollin had become heir to the Duchy of Langstraad and was destined
from that time to follow in her mother's stead. In recent years most of the
Houses, Great and Minor, had turned to primogeniture to determine heirship, but
Langstraad was different. Langstraad was the oldest of the