Chapter 108 - What Happened

Vincent walked into the room and Delaney saw worry clear on his face. He stepped forward quickly, looking her over before pulling her into his arms and kissing her.

"The servants said you were at the castle? What happened? Why didn't you send someone for me?"

"There wasn't time," Delaney answered, her heart still racing from hiding the bottle just in time, "The Queen invited me to come to visit with her so you wouldn't have been able to stay with me anyway."

"You're my wife Delaney. I would've told her I wasn't going to leave your side again while you were at court."

"And how would that I have looked?" Delaney sighed, "You can't insult the Queen of our lands like that. Even if the King is your cousin."

Vincent frowned and rubbed the back of his neck, "It's not safe there for you. As wealthy as we are it never really was but it definitely isn't now that the line of succession has changed."

"I know. We'll see Mason this evening and leave tomorrow. Then we won't have to worry anymore."

"Alright," Vincent nodded, "So what did the Queen want to speak to you about?"

"Mostly she seemed to just want to convince me to keep Mason out of our lives. She also brought up the line of succession though and that you could be King one day or any child we have could be King. I told her I was sure that wouldn't happen and they would have a baby."

Delaney stopped there, careful not to mention the witch. The guilt of hiding something from her husband already beginning to pull at her heart.

"I feel sorry for Sophia. Ever since she was married she had this responsibility hanging over her and she can't seem to fulfill it through no fault of her own. I know the fear of not giving Daniel an heir eats away at her."

"She has a right to be worried," Delaney sighed, "Kings in the past have broken their marriage contracts if their Queen wasn't able to give them an heir fast enough. At least Daniel is patient and hasn't done that."

Vincent walked towards the couch, pulling off his shirt as he went. "He's begun getting pressure to break it. It started a few years ago. He was able to delay it for a while because of the war but now that that is over the pressure is on him from all sides to get rid of Sophia."

Delaney looked at her husband in shock, "Really? He would break their contract if they don't have a child?"

Vincent sighed, "He would see that she was married to someone else and then he would find a new wife for himself. Then they would both have a chance to have families with others. Or at least if one of them can't produce a child they wouldn't be holding back the other from having a family of their own."

She frowned as she looked at her husband, crossing her arms over her chest, "You're not just talking about the King and Queen now are you? You're talking about our marriage as well and how you still want to break our contract if we don't have a baby. You promised you wouldn't talk about that again!"

Raising his hands in surrender, Vincent nodded, "I'm sorry. Their situation is just similar to ours. You deserve a family just as much as they do."

"And we will have one," Delaney said as she walked over and sat down in her husband's lap, wrapping her arms around him, "I promise."

Vincent smiled at her before he pulled her down to kiss her. Delaney kissed him back but couldn't stop the thoughts scratching at the back of her mind. She thought of the bottle she'd hidden in the bottom of her trunk. She wouldn't use it now but if she wasn't pregnant soon she would have to. She wouldn't chance losing her husband and would use everything available to her to make sure they could stay together.

Delaney just didn't want to tell him about the potion or her dealing with witches. He wouldn't like it and he wouldn't want her to use the potion. She knew her husband and she knew he would blame himself.

Vincent swept her up in his arms and carried her to their bed. They came together and when they were done they lay together in exhaustion.

Delaney rolled onto her side and curled up against her husband. He slept with one arm tucked beneath his head and she marveled, as always, at how strong he was. Not sleepy herself, she started on a familiar routine of tracing his long, webbing of scars.

Since he was undressed, she let her hand float down to the scar on his thigh. Lazily she traced the lines as they ran upwards. Next, she moved to the puncture scar on his abdomen. The heat of the scars almost burned against her fingertips but she didn't mind. Moving from line to line, she traced them.

Her fingers followed one of the longest lines where it ran out and under his navel, only this time her finger traveled farther, moving all the way to the other side of his abdomen. She sat up and frowned. Studying the line she measured it. Laying her hand flat on his stomach she measured that the mark was now two finger widths past his navel.

Delaney swallowed hard and looked up at Vincent's face. He was turned away from her, leaving the scarred side in full view. She studied the scars there now and tried to gauge if any of them had changed. She couldn't tell. She saw his face every day so she didn't notice if the scars were growing slowly.

Maybe she couldn't tell with the others but she knew the one across his abdomen had grown. He might argue but she knew it was true. Was that one the only one that had grown or were the others as well?

The last time she'd tried to bring up his scars growing to him, Vincent had gotten very angry. She didn't want to do that again but she wanted to know if he'd noticed the marks growing. With a sigh, she moved quietly from the bed and pulled the sheets to cover her husband before she rang for Ms. Bird.

The maid came and quietly helped her get dressed in the gown she was going to wear to the castle that evening when they went to see Mason. As Ms. Bird did her hair Delaney thought over her husband's scars and injuries. He had only recently been to the doctor and the man had said nothing had changed for him. She wondered if he had seen the scars.

Not wanting to ruin their night, Delaney decided she would ask him about the scars growing later on.

By the time her husband woke up, she was already ready to leave. In a charcoal colored dress with lavender ribbons and diamonds in her hair, the finishing touch was the diamond tiara in its place again.

Vincent stretched and grinned at her. "You are such a beauty you know."

Delaney smiled at her husband lovingly, "You are very handsome."

She snacked on fresh fruits while Vincent dressed in a white shirt and breeches that matched her dress. Once he was ready he stepped to her and took her in his arms, lifting her up and spinning her around once as he kissed her. Delaney was laughing when her feet touched the ground again.

With perfect timing, as soon as Vincent was ready they looked outside and saw the royal carriage come to a stop in front of their house. There were dozens of guards around and Delaney wondered if Mason was in the carriage as well.

The footman opened the door for them and when they climbed inside Delaney saw they were alone. Vincent questioned one of the guards who answered simply that as long as they were in the city the King wanted them guarded for their safety. Vincent frowned at this but didn't say anything. He sat next to his wife in the carriage and held her hand.

"Once this is over we're leaving," Vincent said seriously as they arrived at the castle.

"Is something wrong?" Delaney asked quietly.

Vincent didn't have time to answer though. The door was thrown open and standing there with a big grin was Mason.

"Finally," he laughed, "We've been waiting for you."

"We?" Vincent asked with a frown as he got out before turning to help his wife from the carriage.

Looking up, Delaney saw the sky was turning grey and filling with clouds. She wondered nervously if it would rain.

"We," Mason chuckled, "If this is your last night here I wanted to make sure your wife saw some of the fun the King's court could offer."

"What are you talking about?" Vincent questioned, "What fun have you planned Mace?"

Delaney had an arm linked through her husband's but Mason came up to her side and looped his arm through her other. He took off then, all but dragging them behind him.

"You'll see Vince," he laughed, blue eyes sparkling with mischief, "I think it might remind you of some of the fun we had in our youth. You know, back before we worried too much about our positions and titles."

Delaney saw her husband turn pale and his expression turn to worry.

"What-what do you mean the fun we had? What times are you referring to?"

They came to a set of tall doors and Delaney tried to remember where they led from her tour of the castle. Mason let go of her and stepped in front of them, throwing his hands in the air as the servants pushed the doors open.

"And here we are!"