Chapter 85: Homeward

Chapter 85: Chapter 85: Homeward

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The courtyard buzzed with activity.

Servants moved between carriages.

Luggage was loaded.

Horses stamped against the stone.

Guards checked equipment one final time before departure.

The hunting retreat was officially over.

Marian stood beside her carriage and watched the chaos unfold around her.

Everything appeared perfectly ordinary.

Which felt strange.

Because nothing about the last three days had been ordinary.

The realization made her chest tighten.

Three days.

Only three days.

Yet somehow the woman arriving at the hunting lodge and the woman leaving it felt like two entirely different people.

"Lady Marian."

Her heart immediately betrayed her.

Marian turned.

Cassian approached across the courtyard.

Not secretly.

Not quietly.

Not attempting to hide.

Simply walking toward her as any duke might approach any noble lady.

Perfectly proper.

Perfectly respectable.

Yet Marian still became aware of every servant within twenty feet.

Which was ridiculous.

Entirely ridiculous.

She was twenty years old.

Not sixteen.

"Your Grace."

She dipped her head.

Then immediately regretted it.

Because somehow she had managed to sound nervous.

Cassian’s eyes softened.

Only slightly.

Enough for her to notice.

Not enough for anyone else.

"I wanted to wish you a safe journey."

The corners of Marian’s mouth twitched upward.

Safe journey.

The words should have been ordinary.

Instead they felt strangely meaningful.

After all, they had already survived the dangerous part.

Storms.

The forest.

The lodge.

The confession.

Adrian.

Somehow the road back to the capital felt far more dangerous than any of those things.

"You as well."

For a moment neither moved.

Neither seemed eager to end the conversation.

Unfortunately, propriety existed.

A terrible invention.

Then Cassian stepped back.

A gentleman.

A duke.

A man behaving exactly as society demanded.

And somehow Marian found that disappointing.

Just a little.

"Until we reach the capital."

The words were simple.

Yet Marian immediately understood.

Not goodbye.

Not farewell.

Not see you someday.

Until then.

A certainty.

A promise.

Something warm settled inside her chest.

Before she could stop herself, she smiled.

A real smile.

The kind she hadn’t even realized was appearing.

Cassian noticed.

Of course he noticed.

Something flickered across his expression.

Small.

Warm.

Gone almost immediately.

Then he bowed.

Turned.

And walked away.

Leaving Marian standing beside her carriage.

Feeling absurdly happy.

And slightly ridiculous.

Mostly ridiculous.

Unfortunately, the two feelings were becoming increasingly difficult to separate.

Not far away, Adrian watched the exchange.

The conversation had been perfectly proper.

There was nothing anyone could criticize.

Nothing inappropriate.

Nothing scandalous.

A duke wishing a lady safe travels.

That was all.

Yet Adrian’s jaw tightened.

Barely.

Imperceptibly.

Because he saw the smile.

He saw the way Marian looked at Cassian.

The way her expression softened.

The way she seemed happier than she had been all morning.

And something inside him twisted sharply.

Not because he didn’t understand what he was seeing.

Because he understood it too well.

Or perhaps because he refused to.

Three days.

Three days.

The thought irritated him all over again.

Three days in a forest.

Three days isolated from the rest of the world.

Three days of fear.

Of uncertainty.

Of dependency.

People became attached under those circumstances.

That wasn’t unusual.

That wasn’t love.

At least Adrian refused to believe it was.

Because the alternative was unacceptable.

Eighteen years.

Against three days.

No.

The equation did not make sense.

It was absurd.

And Adrian had never been particularly fond of absurdity.

"Your Highness?"

A servant’s voice broke his thoughts.

Adrian glanced up.

The carriage was ready.

"Let’s go."

His voice was calm.

Controlled.

Nothing betrayed the turmoil beneath it.

The convoy departed shortly afterward.

Marian lasted exactly twenty minutes before she started smiling again.

She didn’t mean to.

It simply happened.

One moment she was staring out the carriage window.

The next she remembered:

Until we reach the capital.

And there it was again.

The smile.

Marian immediately covered her face.

This was becoming a problem.

A serious problem.

The carriage rattled along the road.

Outside, the countryside passed by.

Fields.

Villages.

Travelers.

Ordinary things.

Inside, Marian’s thoughts were considerably less orderly.

Cassian.

Adrian.

Her father.

The engagement.

The capital.

The future.

Everything seemed tangled together.

The happiness remained.

Bright.

Warm.

Impossible to ignore.

Yet anxiety sat right beside it.

Because reality hadn’t disappeared.

Adrian still didn’t agree.

That fact remained unchanged.

The capital still awaited.

That fact remained unchanged too.

Her father would ask questions.

Many questions.

Some of which she wasn’t entirely certain how to answer.

Marian groaned and leaned her head against the window.

Life had become complicated.

Again.

Though if she was being honest, her life had always been complicated.

The only difference was that now she knew who she wanted standing beside her.

The realization made her smile again.

Then panic.

Then smile.

Then panic.

The cycle continued for most of the journey.

Several carriages ahead, Cassian sat alone.

His thoughts were significantly less chaotic.

Not necessarily happier.

Simply more organized.

The capital.

The Imperial Family.

House Valmort.

The Emperor.

Adrian.

Particularly Adrian.

Cassian closed his eyes briefly.

The confrontation replayed itself.

Not the words.

The certainty behind them.

I don’t agree.

Cassian believed him.

Entirely.

That was the problem.

Adrian wasn’t making threats.

He wasn’t issuing commands.

He wasn’t acting emotionally.

He was acting like a man who had reached a conclusion.

Those men were always dangerous.

Especially when they happened to be the future Emperor.

Cassian exhaled slowly.

Outside, the road stretched toward the capital.

Toward the battle waiting there.

For years he had drifted through life accepting what was placed before him.

Duty.

Responsibility.

War.

Politics.

Titles.

Expectations.

Now, for the first time in a very long while, there was something he actively wanted.

Something worth fighting for.

The realization steadied him.

Whatever happened next—

He would not retreat.

Adrian spent most of the journey staring out the window.

The passing scenery barely registered.

His thoughts remained elsewhere.

Marian.

Cassian.

The hunting lodge.

Three days.

Always three days.

The number refused to leave him alone.

Because every road eventually led back to the same question.

How?

How had they arrived here?

Marian had loved him.

Of that much Adrian had never doubted.

Not once.

Not in eighteen years.

Then somehow everything changed.

Three days.

No.

He still refused to believe it was that simple.

Perhaps Marian believed she was happy.

Perhaps she genuinely believed she loved Cassian.

Perhaps she believed she knew exactly what she wanted.

Adrian leaned back against the carriage seat.

His expression remained calm.

Unreadable.

But beneath that calm sat a conviction that refused to disappear.

She was wrong.

Not maliciously.

Not foolishly.

Simply wrong.

And until Adrian was absolutely certain otherwise—

He had no intention of letting her throw away eighteen years.

Hours later, Marian looked up from the carriage window and froze.

The capital had appeared.

At first she saw only the distant walls.

Then the towers.

Then the familiar silhouette of the Imperial Palace rising above the city.

Home.

The word should have felt comforting.

Instead it made her stomach tighten.

Slowly, the city grew larger.

Closer.

More real.

The roads became crowded.

Traffic increased.

Travelers filled the highway leading toward the gates.

The closer they came, the quieter Marian became.

Because the capital meant reality.

No forests.

No storms.

No isolation.

No opportunities to hide.

Everything waiting for them was inside those walls.

The engagement.

Her father.

Adrian.

The Imperial Family.

The future.

Marian stared at the city.

And for the first time since leaving the hunting lodge, she understood something.

Choosing Cassian had not been the difficult part.

The difficult part was waiting for her beyond those gates.

The capital walls loomed ahead.

Unmoving.

Unavoidable.

And as the convoy continued toward them, Marian could not shake the feeling that they were riding straight toward a storm.