SECRETS OF THE WIND Read Online Free PDF

him.
    “And lock the damned thing,” the queen snapped. “I would not put it past that poggleheaded son of mine to eavesdrop!”
    Chas threw aside the covers and would have stood but the queen narrowed her eyes at her.
    “And just where do you think you are going?” the queen asked.
    “It is unseemly for me to be abed in the presence of…”
    “Your employer?” the queen cut her off.
    Brought back to why she was there, Chas settled back against the head of the bed.
    “My son is a very brave man,” the queen began as she took the seat Ruan had vacated. “But he is also a stubborn man.” She lowered her voice and leaned forward. “Far too much like his father, I fear.”
    Chas smiled, but had no comment to make to that statement.
    “I have been parading females before that boy for three years now and he has disdained every last one of them,” the queen continued. “He says he will never marry but that is ridiculous and well he knows it. He is the heir-apparent and, as such, must marry and produce little Ruans to sit upon my knee. Do you not agree, Major Neff?”
    “If that is what he wants, Your Majesty,” she replied cautiously.
    “Doesn’t matter what the boy wants!” the queen disagreed. “He has obligations. He must marry and reproduce. That’s all there is to it!”
    “But he has yet to find a woman he would be comfortable with?” Chas questioned.
    The queen flung out a negligent hand. “They have all been ninnies,” she declared. “Knew them to be when I put them before him, but where was I to find the kind of woman he prefers? I certainly cannot be expected to traipse around the kingdom inspecting all the harlots that boy pumps, now can I?”
    Chas did not need to practice the art of blushing for deep color came to her cheeks at such an unseemly remark by the queen.
    “A strong woman, he tells me,” the queen went on as though she had not seen Chas’ embarrassment. “According to my son, he wants a woman who can hold her own against him in a horserace or on a chessboard. He desires one who isn’t afraid of her own shadow and has no great desire to own every gown ever created. He certainly doesn’t want one who will spend his money as though water through a sieve and neither does he want one who is so meek she can’t ask for what she wants or needs. In other words, he wants a woman who will give as good as she gets, or so he challenged me. Where was I to find such a woman, eh?”
    A shrug was all Chas could display, for she had glimpsed the merry twinkle in the Gaelachuan queen’s eye and realized the woman was baiting her.
    “And while I am guarding him, you want me to help you find such a paragon, Your Majesty?” Chas asked.
    “Oh, I’ve found her already!” the queen stated. “Had a hell of a time doing it, too!”
    “Then you want me to watch her,” Chas suggested. “To make sure she is the right mate for him.”
    “Oh, she’s the right mate, I’ve no doubt! I had the runes cast over a month ago and that is when we learned who she is. Twice more the runes were cast, but on the third casting? The third shocked even the mystic, for it told us this woman had been my son’s mate many times over the millennia. Do you understand?”
    Chas shook her head. “I know little about divination, Your Majesty, and I don’t put any store in the old ways.” She raised an eyebrow. “Does not the Caitliceachs’ hierarchy teach such things are wrong?”
    “As though we women would listen to a bunch of prattle from hateful old men who have never married nor are likely to!” the queen said, settling back in the chair. “We women hold to the old ways even while we smile and nod at the priests and pretend we accept their restrictions on our lives. What they don’t know won’t annoy us!”
    Chas smiled. “And is this woman you have found for the prince a woman who won’t buckle under to your priests?”
    “Damned right, she won’t!” the queen stated. “She’s her own woman,