He awoke from a dream where he'd been too far away from the Grizzly bear to stop it and she was too busy retching to defend herself, he awoke swinging his sword wildly around at a bear that was not there and sliced through one of the fancy poles of his fourposter bed before coming to a sudden and loud stop when he hit the stone wall behind him. Sparks flew and a piece of rock chipped away from a large stone.
There was a pounding at his door. "Master Ravi'en? Is everything all right?"
"I'm fine," he called out embarrassed "Bring me a coffee."
"On its way sir," the guard said. He got up and got dressed in the dim glow from around the edges of his heavy curtains that were now tilting inwards dangerously in the direction of the broken support.
A few minutes later there was a knock on the door and he said "Come in."
He finished strapping on his sword belt, then accepted the offered coffee, the guard eyeing the damaged bed wearily. "Send for the woodworker and have them remove the top half and have the decorator add thicker curtains to the windows instead."
"Yes Sir" the guard replied and ran off to run another errand.
The other guard followed him silently as he walked down the hall to his office. He got started on the small mountain of paperwork that had piled up over the week he'd been gone. At least he'd been able to accomplish more than just uncovering the mystery of his imposter. But if he was going to start spending time with her on social whatevers, he would have to find someone he could trust to help lighten the load of the paperwork.
But none of his trusted war comrades were keen on becoming his secretary, which meant he and sometimes Gilbert did it all. And here he was thinking about adding more work to his plate?
Three hours later a soft knock sounded on the door, "Come in." he called still skimming some paperwork. A minute later he signed it and added it to the done pile then looked up.
To his surprise, it was his little sister and her maidservant, the latter of which was placing dishes on the table in the middle of his large office. "What brings you here Jayla?" he asked.
She gulped then said, "You didn't have lunch, so I thought you might want a snack."
"That's very thoughtful of you, but dinner will be ready in an hour or two, and didn't you just have afternoon tea with Mother? What's this about?"
"Mother is busy drafting a demand for an investigation. Did you really like that girl?"
He blinked at her. For one he'd rarely heard her say so much in one day, for another his mother was drafting paperwork… What investigation? And why hadn't he heard about it? And why was she bringing up Lady Kassidy? And how had she come to the conclusion that he liked her when all he'd said about her was that he'd helped someone in need who had no one else at the time?
"What?" he managed. "What's going on? I feel like I'm missing something."
"The girl you danced with at the ball, the one you let see your face, and talked to for a long time. Do you like her?"
"How… how do you even know all that?" He asked baffled. If it was Gilbert they would be having some words. He'd thought he could trust him...
"Mother got another bird from her friend at the Calumes mansion, it detailed everything you did the day of the Feast."
He ran his hands over his face realizing since he hadn't been expecting company his face mask lay around his neck and his hooded cape lay over the back of his chair. Only his eye patch covered the nastier of his scars. Yet his sister looked at him with more curiosity than fear. "Is mom having her investigated just because I danced with and talked with her a little?" he asked annoyed.
"No, she's demanding an investigation into the possible attempted murder of the girl you showed interest in."
"What?!" he shouted standing up so fast his chair toppled backward and his sister cringed making him feel guilty, he shouldn't have reacted so violently in front of her…
"I'm sorry I didn't mean to scare you, are you all right? Is she alright? Did the note say anything about how she was doing? Or if she's been moved to somewhere safer?" his mind was spinning faster than his mouth could form questions.
His sister smiled brightly and he was confused again, how was this something to be happy about? Had it been a trick to see how he'd react? That was kind of low and manipulative for an eight-year-old.
"She's okay." she said beaming, "Mother is going to be overjoyed when she finds out how much you care, she was a little worried you'd get mad at her for ordering the investigation without your permission but she was afraid you'd say it's not our business or something," she said still smiling brightly at him. He couldn't remember the last time he'd seen her this happy...
He was stunned and glad she was happy but... Had he just been ousted by an eight-year-old? It wasn't like he planned to hide it per se, he would be publicly courting her after all... but he hadn't wanted to make a big thing about it. Now the whole mansion would be spreading roomers, this would be embarrassing, hell it already was. He sighed and righted his chair then sat down again.
"It was my Captain's dying wish to look after her, the thought of someone killing her right after I checked on her is just shocking," he explained. "What details do you know of what happened?" he tried to ask casually but the small smile his sister's maidservant tried to hide told him he'd failed. Maybe there was no explaining away that outburst...
"Someone sent her a tea from you, but she had only one sip then went to bed, and only had an upset stomach, but her aunt drank the tea and got supper sick," she said sounding a lot more like her old self.
"Well, she deserves it, sounds like all is well that ends well… but it might be a good idea to send a guard and poison tester to make sure no one else comes close to killing the Lady, especially if it's because of me that they targeted her."
"That's a great idea, I should go tell Mother!" she said jumping up and running out of the room. He sighed knowing dinner was going to be hell as his mother made a huge deal out of everything.
However, if it hadn't been for her birds and gossiping friends he'd have never known, and it would take days for any of his men to reach her and a lot could happen in just a few days. The poisoning must have been two or three days ago now, what if the culprit tried again? She could already be dead and just not have any word of it yet, or she could be killed before his men could get to her.
Did she just attract near-death experiences or was this one his fault? Giving so much attention to one girl when he'd refused to do so for everyone else could make some girls jealous, or one of his enemies could be trying to hurt him through her.
He was not going to sleep well tonight. He walked out of his office into what was meant to be a secretary's office that lay empty and to the hall where two guards stood on either side of the door. Hopefully, they hadn't been able to hear all that from so far away. "One of you go fetch the Captain on shift now and escort him to my office."
"Yes, My lord." they bowed and one ran off before the other finished bowing and could take the fun job. He couldn't blame them, standing outside a door for hours was ridiculously dull. Possibly worse than the paperwork he had to do, maybe he could con them into helping him just a little. If he had to have them then why not make good use of them…