The cold air flowed through the uncovered window with a vengeance at this height. Aurie had tried everything she could think of to cover it. The thin blanket she tried to wedge into the space between the wall and the frame only directed it right onto the bed beneath it. A thicker blanket that didn’t blow inward still couldn’t stop the wind from filtering through.

  She poked her head outside to see if there were shutters. There weren’t. She tried to rearrange the room so the wardrobe was in front of it—and her dress didn’t make that an easy task whatsoever, but she wouldn’t be able to change out of it for some time…that made the air follow the wall and creep up through the mattress. No wonder soldiers were always able to wake up so easily.

  If nothing else, Aurie had mused as she filled the wardrobe with her few dresses and Paladin training outfit, at least I’m not tired anymore.

  Maud’s room was across the narrow hallway from hers and—the lucky, spoiled little Princess that she was—directly over the furnace of the stables. Aurie knew her room was the same size, as was everyone’s on this floor, but it was far warmer because it had no windows, only doors. One went to Draka’s, which was beside hers on the same hall, and one to behind, which had a stairwell down to below the hall.

  Aurie didn’t know until Gerard told her that they had built the hall on piers over the lake so that they could move supplies in and out through the lake if they were ever under siege. Also, they had burrowed into the wreckage—and continue to mine deep into it—creating a tunnel system that is being bricked into a set of dungeons for much the same reason. They had plans for it to eventually reach her house and Draka’s.

  Alice and Valmond’s room was next to Aurie’s, so they could tend her and Draka at a moment’s notice. Alice, too, was complaining about the cold. Gerard said that they would have shutters placed before the end of the morning. It was Alice who argued with him for nearly an hour about Draka having his room with a window, but even Aurie couldn’t argue with his reasoning. The King and Princess’s security was paramount. Aurie having her room where it was, he said, was only because the last room on the central block was the armory and wouldn’t be ready until that night at the latest, the evening at the earliest, for sleeping.

  Once finished, the entire inner area would become the Royal Apartments. The outer rooms would become the guest and servant or staff apartments. The barracks, which was on either side of the hall and the stables, would remain so, but would become reserved for Paladinate members only. The wall tower rooms were being converted into crowded armories for the watchmen and their bunks, since not all of them will be Paladinate knights. As for those who had been of the former Baron’s Men, including Karl: they were filling the wagons with their belongings with sulking faces and sarcastic remarks to be moved.

  Half of them would go to Draka’s former house as their new garrison. There, they would begin the arduous task of building two watchtowers that would crest the hill and connect by a bridge high above the road.

  When Draka said the names of those watchtowers, without a second thought, it made both her and Maud grab him. She wanted to kiss him for it. She didn’t. Maud cried through a covered smile. One would be Alden’s Watchtower, the other would be Balor’s, and together, the garrison would forever be known as the Clevlan Towers.

  The other half would do the same on the other side of the migrant village, where they would have to build their camp from scratch. That was where Gerard was going, though he commanded both. The towers they would build there would be Greshon Tower on one side, built on newly purchased Greshon lands, and the other would be Vorner Tower, which was also purchased. Both were paid handsomely for the land. In fact, Aurie had never seen Morin and Gregor so happy in all her years. Draka had finally found a way to win their loyalty. At least one of them was married to her sister.

  Watching all the changes, within mere hours, was a sight to behold. The former Baron’s Men moved like snails across grass in comparison to their Monastic counterparts, who often sneered or merely went around them.

  Aurie found herself standing on the balcony overlooking the bailey, watching in wonder as the regular soldiers would meander to and from, one at a time, carrying their bags and crates to the oxen drawn wagon. The Paladinate wagons, in contrast, had lines of men and women—clerics and monastic knights—passing their crates, equipment, and whatever else, from one to the next, all the way to wherever it was to go, emptying theirs in minutes and moving the next into place. In the time it took the former Baron’s Men to fill a single wagon of the same size, the Paladinate soldiers of the same number were able to unload and fill more than ten of their own.

  “I’m not being difficult,” Aurie heard Alice pleading to someone behind her.

  She was fairly certain it was either Valmond or Gerard. She turned from facing the Bailey and into the hallway of the offices that were being converted into bedrooms and apartments. She was speaking with Gerard, who was silently begging Aurie to save him the moment he saw her look his way.

  “I’m merely wondering what accommodations might be provided before the Queen of Anatolia and the Holy Lands arrives. She is the most powerful sovereign in Christendom! And the most prestigious, as well,” Alice pressed. She moved to block his vision, though she kept that straight-backed, chin lifted pose of hers, “Not to mention the prior relationship with the King.”

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  “Listen, Malice,” Gerard had a hand to his temple as if he were trying to ease a headache.

  “ALICE!”

  “Poultice, whatever,” Gerard growled, “I also know Isa far better than you have any idea and I’m going to tell you that she’s well aware that any accommodation from Draka is going to be pretty minimum. She’s not expecting anything prestigious. She’ll bring her own accommodations. He’s no von Strasse and she knows that better than anyone. In fact, she loves him for it, trust me.”

  Aurie wasn’t sure if she liked how he worded that.

  “He is a king welcoming a fellow queen. Regardless of their prior acquaintances,” Alice let out a glaring breath, “there are etiquettes we follow.”

  “Lady, I am doing my best with what I have. Do you have any idea of the logistical nightmare I am in the middle of?” Gerard huffed. “I guarantee Isa won’t—”

  “Queen Isabella!”

  Gerard held up a half open fist at her as if he were trying to choke her through the air, then stormed out onto the balcony, saying as he passed Aurie, “You’re a saint for dealing with that woman for this long without murdering her.”

  Alice scoffed after him. Aurie stifled from laughing when Alice said, “That man has always been a beast. The worst sort. How he could be a Monastic Knight is beyond me. I never understood why he was hired by the von Strasse and I still question how he came into his position under our Majesty.”

  “He’s part of the same Order of Knights as the King,” Aurie shrugged at her.

  Alice turned to her with pursed brows, “Truly?”

  Aurie nodded. “He was with them when he was first found by them, if I remember correctly. Who knows, it might have been him who discovered that the King was a Paladin. So, he might be right.”

  Alice scrunched her nose in his direction with disgust and was shaken by a chill. “Deary me, I hope not. I’ve always hoped to host her. But, to prepare for it in a matter of days under these conditions?”

  Aurie turned to her and rubbed her back, “I know you’ll find a way.”

  “Do you have any suggestions, my Lady?” Alice looked desperate.

  Aurie really didn’t. All she could think was that this Isa had known Draka when he was nothing more than a simple warrior who likely slept with his horse, covered in fleas, and bathed even less often than he did when she first met the man. She had to stop herself from telling Alice to throw mud across the hall and bring the horses in there from the stables.

  “Perhaps,” Aurie winced as she struggled to think, “perhaps you should ask Adrian. He is her son, you know.”

  Alice brightened, “That’s right! I forgot!” She curtsied, “Thank you, my Lady.” And she rushed down the steps to wade through the chaos of the bailey below.

  Aurie decided to go down the stairs opposite those that Alice had rushed down.

  The market, of course, had been moved into the village square, to keep them from being in the way while not interfering with their trade. However, the shops were still open, which did surprise Aurie, but only a little. She shook her head at that. At least she won’t have to go far to get her herbs and—what is she thinking? She’ll never have to worry about that sort of thing again, will she?

  She stared at the shop door with the little bell atop it, at the painted sign swaying over the paneled windows. She regarded the blacksmith on one side of it, hammering away to the breathy huff of the forge, and the tailor shop on the other, unable to look away.

  This was her new home now. The house she had raised her family in, that her husband and children were born in, was no longer hers. Her garden would be planted and harvested by someone else next year. The bed she had shared with her husband…was a pile of hay in the woods behind the house and a folded bit of linen she kept in the wardrobe in her new room. She’ll be thrown in the rivers before she lets Balian Clevlan and his wife sleep on that mattress, now that they are finally getting the land they coveted. It was gone, all the same. Forever. They would never give it back.

  Her home was here. She was a noblewoman now. She lives in a castle. She has a Lady in Waiting. Her daughter is about to have her own Lady in Waiting, if Morin agrees. There will be servants, guards, and a court. She’ll never have to ration her food so that her little sister has a full belly. She’ll never have to worry if the winter stocks will keep so that her children won’t starve. She’ll never have to wrap her fingers because she worked them raw to keep her husband’s feet covered during the tilling season. She’ll never have to feel the sun boil her through her dress because her son is too sick to help her husband with the planting. All that was over. That life was done.

  All because Balor came home with a deer on his back from an offlander who moved into her neighbor’s house. Aurie grinned with a deep breath that stretched her corset into her bodice. And—she turned toward the door to the hall—because they all fell in love with that offlander in their own way.