“Lady Susan?” I asked, hoping my tone didn’t give away what I was truly wondering.
“Of Wynton,” Branford said. “Do you not remember? She was in our carriage between the wedding and reception.”
“Oh!” I exclaimed, suddenly remembering the lithe older woman who sat with the Duke of Wynton, whose name I also didn’t remember. “I remember her and her husband.”
“Her brother.” Branford corrected me with a smile.
“I’m sorry.”
“There is no reason for an apology,” Branford said. “I know how overwhelmed you were that night. If it makes any difference to you, I would have handled it somewhat differently in retrospect.”
I nodded, not sure what difference it would have made. The last few days had been a whirlwind in my head, and I didn’t know what to make of any of it. I wasn’t sure how it could have been much different for me. Between embarrassing Branford on multiple occasions and being completely inept in understanding what he needed from me, changing how the wedding was conducted probably would not have made much of an impact.
Branford released my hand and placed his fingertips on my jaw, turning me toward him. His lips brushed softly against my own as his eyes looked into mine. They were bright, and they sparkled when the corner of his mouth turned up. I tried to fathom how the same eyes could go from this—soft and playful—to sharp and biting as he threatened the life of the guard. When he admitted to Sunniva how important the man was to him, I didn’t understand how he could consider punishing him for following her orders.
“There is something you wish to ask me,” Branford said. He was not asking a question. I bit down on my lip and nodded slightly. “Out with it, then!”
“It is…well…” I stammered. “It is about the guard…Dunstan.”
“What of him?”
“Queen Sunniva said he was important,” I said, “in your army.”
“He is.”
“Would you have…done what you said you were going to do if he had followed us?”
“Yes.”
“But…why? If he is so valuable to you...”
“Why kill him?” The corners of Branford’s mouth turned up slightly, and his eyebrows rose. I nodded. “The usefulness of one soldier is completely outweighed by my ability to command them all. If one of them cannot follow my orders, then the potential in battle is catastrophic. They have to be able to trust my word implicitly. They have to know that I will not back down from anything I say.”
“But…you made him go against the queen’s word,” I said.
“Not exactly,” Branford said with a shrug. “I told him to discuss it with her, which he obviously did, which would give her the opportunity to rescind. Sunniva knows I am a man of my word, and she knows how valuable Dunstan is to me. She never would have sent him. She could have sent another man, who would have died in Dunstan’s stead, but she obviously saw no point to such waste.”
I blinked a few times and looked down at my hands in my lap. My chest felt tight, and I had to swallow hard before I could speak again.
“If the queen had told him to follow, he would have been obeying her.”
“Yes.”
“And still you would have…have killed him?”
“Alexandra.” Branford sighed and leaned back a little in our chair as he shook his head. He ran his hand down my back and then up again, pushing gently between my shoulder blades until my head rested against his chest. “I never make a statement I am not prepared to see through. If I had seen Dunstan at any time out in the forest today, we would not be sitting here now. We would be in the courtyard, witnessing his execution.”
“I don’t understand,” I told him. I didn’t—I didn’t understand how he could be so…callous toward someone he said was important to him. “Why would you have someone executed for such a…a little thing?”
“Going against my word is not a ‘little thing,’ Alexandra.”
“But you said he was important to you.” I was pressing, and I knew it though sitting here with him was allowing me more boldness than I would have thought. On one level, it terrified me to be asking him so many questions, but he had wanted me to do so—indeed, he had demanded it—and I didn’t want to disappoint him either. I also wanted to understand his reasons, for as incongruous as they appeared, I thought there must be merit to them.
“He’s only a soldier, Alexandra,” Branford said, his tone chastising. “I have many capable soldiers.”
My eyes narrowed, and as I felt the gentle thrumming of his heart beneath my cheek, my mind flashed to Hadley and Shelly. I wondered just how the princess regarded us as we cared for her and made sure her every command came to fruition.
“Princess Whitney has many capable handmaids,” I said quietly before I realized the words were coming from my mouth. My muscles tensed as I sat in his lap but not so much that I couldn’t feel Branford tense as well. I felt the minute increase of his heart rate underneath his shirt as he held his breath. He gripped my arm slightly before releasing me altogether.