Unbidden (The Evolution Series) Read Free Page A

servants of noblemen here for a special royal convention. Important issues were discussed and decisions announced amidst days of drinking, eating and hunting.
    David’s elder brother, Doeg, was here somewhere , though David had not had time to find him. Doeg represented their family now that their father could not travel. David had never attended such an event since he was neither important nor landed. He had no idea why Theo had asked him to come to Aix.
    David knew Theo well enough to see the news he intended to share was troubling to him . It was time to get to it.
    “Are you finally going to reveal why you summoned me to this pit of aristocratic vipers who dress nearly as badly as you?”  David’s harassment about Theo’s outfit would normally lift  ob viously dampened spirits. Not today. What answered prayer of his own would set Theo so low?  He placed his hand on a shoulder clad in cloth the shade of daffodils. “Theo. What is it?”
    “Things are complicated in the empire, with Louis being deposed and just regaining his throne from his elder sons a few weeks ago . The emperor is tense. He feels vulnerable, though he would never admit it. There are few people he trusts, but I am one of them and he wants to place similarly loyal people in geographically strategic locations to protect Alamannia.”  Theo gave David a halfhearted smile. “The emperor wishes to see you married.”
    David could only blink for a few seconds . “The emperor has talked to you about me?  About a marriage?  Why?”
    “Your intended wife comes with an estate in Francia, near the Alamannian border . He is concerned about holding Alamannia for his youngest son, Charles. Alamannia, you certainly know, was promised to one of the three sons borne by his first wife. None of them are taking this change to the succession plan lightly.”
    “So , in exchange for this marriage, I am promising what?”  David asked cautiously. At the word estate, his heart had begun to pump harder in his chest, but nothing in the empire came easily to a soldier, even a highly respected one.
    “Marry her, take ownership of her estate, make your home there, defend Louis’s interests if the older sons make it necessary.”  Theo recited these expectations flatly, nodding as though trying to make himself agree with his own words.
    “That is it?”
    “That is it.”
    David grinned at his good fortune. “Theo, this is exactly what I have been hoping for, for a year or more!  We have talked of it many times!”  He paced in a circle, unable to curb his growing excitement. “Now my father’s estate will not need to be split in half again.”  He clapped his hands together with one loud smack, causing several men below to stare up at him.
    “Glad you are pleased.”
    David slapped his friend on the back. “Pleased?  I am ecstatic, you popinjay!”  Again his teasing elicited no reaction. A frisson of unease tempered David’s excitement . “What is wrong, Theo?”  He waited for an answer that after a full minute still hadn’t come. “Is it a poor estate?”  Nothing. “Indefensible?  You and I can think through that!”  Nothing. “The lady then. Is she ugly?  Lazy?  Pockmarked?”  David laughed almost giddily. “I had hoped my wife would be pretty. In fact, I imagined picking her myself, but if the emperor wants to hand a fat estate and a lazy bride to me, so be it.”  He suddenly sobered. “She is not old, is she? Old and dried up and past breeding?“
    Theo turned on him . “You bastard. She is young and pleasing to the eye. She has grace and poise and gold to match. Her estate is rich with grapes and grain and happy fat peasants who work the land for one of her smiles. Or so I have been told.”
    David scoffed . “Such a woman does not exist.”
    Theo harrumphed as he faced the courtyard again . David considered the unexpected reaction as he rubbed the stubble on his chin. His eyebrows lifted slightly. “You know this woman,”