Free Web NovelChapter 101: Chapter 101 A very weird suggestion
_Author’s POV_
The room was quieter after Rowena left.
Larry had always preferred quiet. Thirty-one years of royal service had given him an appreciation for the absence of noise that most people who hadn’t done the job didn’t fully understand. Quiet meant nothing was going wrong. Quiet was, in Larry’s professional experience, deeply underrated.
He sat in his chair near the door and reviewed the morning in his head.
Ezekiel was looking at the ceiling now that Pierre had left. He looked bored and absolutely hated Larry at this moment for being the most boring person in his life..
“She’s remarkable,” Larry suddenly commented, as if reading Ezekiel’s mind.
Ezekiel turned to give him a side eye before nodding. “She is.” freewёbnoνel.com
“The Ashthorne name carries a great deal of history,” Larry said. “Her father’s reputation in the region was significant before his death. Everything suggests she has continued that in her own direction.”
“She pulled me out of a maintenance channel,” Ezekiel said. “Without knowing who I was. She paid the hospital bill before she knew who I was.” He paused. “That’s not remarkable. That’s something else.” He said honestly and truly, he was impressed.
Larry folded his hands in his lap. “About the Alpha King.”
Ezekiel looked at him again.
“I don’t think there’s anything informal between them,” Larry said. “I’ve been watching the regional reports since we arrived in the city and the situation appears to be ongoing but undefined. She hasn’t accepted anything from him publicly.” He paused.
“She was at the Ebonmoon Packhouse last night,” Ezekiel rolled his eyes. “Pierre mentioned it.”
“Yes,” Larry agreed. “And she came here this morning.” He kept his voice even, trying to prove a point that still left Pierre confused. “My point is that the situation is not settled. Whatever is between them is not concluded.”
Ezekiel looked at the ceiling again.
“Why exactly are you bringing this up?” he asked.
Larry was quiet for a moment, then:
“I want to say something and I want you to hear it before you respond,” he said.
Ezekiel turned his head to look at him with the specific expression he wore when Larry was about to say something he already suspected he wasn’t going to like. He had been wearing that expression since he was fourteen years old and it had never changed.
“She would make an exceptional match,” Larry blurted. “For you. Personally and politically.”
The room went quiet.
“She’s the head of a family with a historic name and a growing regional influence,” Larry continued. “She’s intelligent and capable and she handles difficult situations with a steadiness that most people twice her age don’t have. She has the Alpha King’s attention, which means she has the region’s attention, and she has earned it through her own actions rather than through position or inheritance.” He paused. “And she has the Ashthorne name. Your father has had warm feelings about the Ashthorne family for years. Since before Lord Smith died. You know this.”
Ezekiel had gone still, not even knowing what to think anymore.
Larry knew that stillness. He had been watching it for years.
“He liked Smith Ashthorne,” Ezekiel confirmed quietly. freewёbnoνel.com
“He respected him enormously,” Larry nodded. “One of the few men outside the Sunridge territory your father has ever spoken about with genuine admiration.” He looked at Ezekiel carefully. “If you came home with Smith Ashthorne’s daughter, the woman who has been rebuilding that family with her own hands, who dissolved a bad marriage through proper legal channels and has the Alpha King’s personal interest—” He stopped. “Your father would not be displeased. That is the most certain thing I can tell you about a man who is uncertain about almost everything you do.”
The word almost landed gently but it landed.
Ezekiel knew what it was referencing and Larry knew that he knew.
The relationship between Ezekiel and his father was the long complicated history of a man who loved his son and understood almost nothing about him, and a son who wanted his father’s approval more than he was comfortable admitting to anyone including himself. Ezekiel performed not caring about it. He performed it convincingly enough that most people believed it.
Larry had never believed it.
“He thinks I’m a disappointment,” Ezekiel said. Not with bitterness, just factually.
“He thinks your choices are difficult to explain to people he respects,” Larry corrected. “That’s different from thinking you’re a disappointment. Your father is a man who measures things by how they appear to other people he considers important. It is not the most nuanced measuring system but it is consistent.” He paused. “Rowena Ashthorne would appear very well.”
Ezekiel looked at his hands.
He thought about her. The way she had walked into the room that morning without any performance of what she expected to find, just present and direct and offering to stay with the same simplicity she would have offered anything. The way she had said it doesn’t change anything about his title.
He thought about what it would mean to bring someone like that home.
He thought about his father’s face.
“She might not want to be with me,” he said.
“She might not,” Larry agreed. “But you could try. You have time. You’re here for at least another week before you’re well enough to travel and she has indicated she’ll visit. Also, since she’s been hunting for a husband, remember the banquet?”
Ezekiel sighed and ran a hand through his hair.
Indeed, someone like Rowena would greatly help him fix his life and also make his father happy. That was killing two birds with one stone.
He also understood people weren’t getting married for love in this generation anymore. They were marrying for politics and power now.
And since one thing Ezekiel wished for in life, if he was honest about it, was to stand in front of his father and see something other than the particular expression his father wore when he was constructing a response that was not quite criticism but was adjacent to it.
He would consider it.
He was still considering it when Pierre’s face suddenly appeared in his thinking.
Not because he had summoned it. Something had shifted significantly in his head the moment he set eyes on Pierre. There was something about him that attracted him. And he couldn’t explain it.
The thought of even having anything to do with Rowena brought a bitter taste to his soul.
But again, his father hated his ways, the things he did at his clubs with men. His father was ashamed for it.
So he couldn’t act on his feelings. Was it even feelings? Nah, it definitely wasn’t.
“Larry,” he finally called out after a long time of silence.
“Yes.”
“Go get me something to eat,” he said. “The hospital food is terrible and I’ve been very patient about it.”
Larry stood up immediately, grateful for a practical task. He was tired of sitting in one position with the tablet only.
“And Larry.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“Thank you,” Ezekiel said. “For the conversation. I’ll think about it.”
Larry nodded once and left.
