Chapter 11

After about an hour of chaperoning Jo and Crovell, Joey had come to take over. Duke half suspected their father hadn't trusted him to keep an eye on them, but Duke wasn't going to let it bother him too much. Arriving back in the Northern Palace, he made his way towards the bedroom he shared with Catilin. He hadn't told her he was going anywhere and the walk back from the Southern Palace had added another fifty minutes onto his time away from her. He was secretly hoping she hadn't noticed his absence, although he wasn't totally sure why.

When he arrived in their room, he instantly spotted her sitting on their bed, with a book the size of a milk crate open in front of her. Her face was furrowed in deep concentration, as she carefully traced her finger down along the page she was reading. Closing the door gently behind him, he placed his back against it and silently watched her.

'Kay Kay missed you at bedtime,' her voice gave away almost no emotion or tone.

'Is it really that late?' Lightly he tapped his fingers against the wood of the door, knowing it would force her gaze up towards him. 'I'll go check in on her in a few then.'

'Where were you?' As predicted her gaze rose to meet his.

'Crovell came to see me.'

'And, of course, you just had to go off with him, did you?' There was something slightly dangerous in the tone of her voice, something which edged towards one of her episodes.

'I'm his Daiosen,' his voice was as weak as his reply, 'I didn't have a choice.'

'You don't want a choice you mean?' Her gaze lowered back towards the book she was reading from. 'You've given them your approval, haven't you?'

He didn't reply, instead he gave a heavy sigh and rested his head back against the door behind him. For a few moments there was silence.

'It's not easy, you know,' her voice broke through the still air around them, 'knowing my husband is in love with a sister loving seventeen year old with a god complex.'

'I'm not in love with him.'

'Aren't you?'

'I'm no more in love with him, then you are with Ahna.'

Silence returned to them for a few moments. Then Duke slowly shuffled his way towards the foot of the bed and leant against one of the four poster styled bed posts.

'You know I'm not in love with him Catilin,' his voice was light and soft. 'You're just upset because I gave them my blessing knowing how dead set against it you were. You think I didn't take your feelings about it on board. But I did.'

'You still placed him above me though, didn't you?'

'It's not like you've never put anyone above me,' he pressed his lips together. 'It's not like in all the years I've known you I've become the person you trust above everyone else. I know you've kept secrets from me Catilin. I know you've denied me things. But I also know you've had your reasons and I've never doubted your feelings for me no matter what you've done.'

'You're not being fair.'

'I know I'm not, but you've got to understand Cat, I do love you. I love you more than I love anyone else in this world. But since the moment he was born Crovell has had some kind of power over me.'

'Are you saying he forced you into giving them your blessing?'

'I don't know,' he lowered his head, 'maybe.'

'It would make sense if he did,' her voice was quiet and almost child-like, 'it wouldn't be so bad then; you wouldn't have betrayed me.'

'I can't tell you how it was one way or the other Catilin. And I'm not going to lie to make you feel better.'

'It's okay,' she sighed, her gaze rising up to meet his, 'I'll just believe what I want to believe. We both know that I will anyway.'

Silently he nodded and sat down on the edge of the bed. It wasn't often he got adult level conversation from Catilin for more than a few minutes, but something told him she wasn't about to revert to her normal child-like idiosyncrasies any time soon. So when she pushed the book she was reading towards him and turned it round to face him he knew he was right.

'All of them.'

'What,' he couldn't help but frown.

'Remember you asked me how many gay Ashmars had heirs. Well I can tell you now; it was all of them. I thought it might have been, but I knew you wouldn't believe me unless I could prove it and prove how,' she nodded towards the book, 'now I can; the answers right there.'

'It is?' He stared down at the book, his mild confusion making it impossible for him to really concentrate on what it said.

'Yes it is. But don't you see, it's the answer to a lot more than that too,' there was a level of excitement in her voice which could only mean she'd gotten an unshakable idea into her head, 'because all the head houses are descended from that line.'

'Line?'

'Yes,' she pointed frantically at something on the page he was meant to be looking at, 'don't you see? Anyone that has claim to that line can take advantage of its legacy. Don't you get it? Gay Ashmars have always had heirs. The chain… my line has never been broken because of sexual preference. And this is why. This is the start of it all. Don't you see that?'

'I…'

'Duke look, look.'

Sighing heavily, he put all his mentally energy into reading the pages in front of him. It took him a few moments to complete, but once he had his eyes simply rose gravely up to study her expression. The wideness of her eyes and the jittering fidget to her body, accompanied by the way she'd gone from being mad at him to desperate for him to share in her excitement told him her sanity was about as stable as ever. And that meant she was being serious about this.

'Well?'

'Don't you think our son has been traumatised enough without springing this on him now?' Duke swallowed hard. 'And isn't he a little too young to…'

'Oh I'm not going to tell him about this until he's a little older,' she stared at him as though she'd clearly been thinking about things like that. 'But that doesn't mean I don't want to use this information to help someone else we know. To make sure another line has heirs.'

For a moment he stared at her in confusion. Then a slow wave of realisation rolled over him.

'You want Arados to be your guinea pig?'

'Arados isn't a guinea pig he's a wolf,' she looked confused for a moment, 'and this will benefit him too, I know it.'

'Shouldn't Arados be the one to decide what is and isn't to his own benefit?'

'Of course, that's why I'm going to talk to him about it as soon as I can.'

'Talk to him about it or talk him into it?' Duke studied her for a moment.

'I'm not going to do anything without his permission,' she rolled her eyes, 'that wouldn't be fair. And anyway I know he'll want to.'

'Okay,' he sighed, knowing full well she'd do it with or without his support, 'but I'll be the one talking to Arados about it.'

'Sure,' she grinned at him, 'if that's what you want.'