He tightened his hand over hers. “I’m a Knight of Valor. Let me help you. It’s what we do.”
“I’m asking for your help. I understand if it’s more than you want to give, but I need to be certain my grandfather can’t easily get to the people that depend on me. I have to protect them.” She wrapped her other hand over his. “I can be a bit shocking, allowing people to call me by my first name and not always dressing as society dictates, but it wouldn’t be so bad being married to me.”
He swallowed back the lump in his throat so he could speak. “Not at all.”
“Then read the papers and say yes.”
She leaned forward, the velvet of her cloak brushing his skin and the heat of her sinking through his armor. The scent of wild roses and sunshine filled him. She smelled just like she had at the orphanage.
“I need your help, Sir Matthias.”
Her words whispered over his flesh, and he responded in entirely inappropriate ways.
“Please say you’ll read the papers. That you’ll at least consider my offer.”
Before he could stop himself, he nodded.
A genuine smile curved her lush lips, and she leaned forward and touched them to his cheek. “I look forward to your answer.”
The scent of her still teased him as she stepped back, drew up the hood of her cloak, and left the sanctuary with him still holding the papers.
Matthias watched her leave, then fell to his knees before Dracor’s altar.
This time, his prayers came quickly and easily.
Chapter 4
The candles had burned low, and Matthias was still kneeling before the Dragon God’s altar when footsteps had him lifting his head.
“Late even for you.” Sir Leopold raised a shaggy steel-grey brow.
Matthias glanced back at the High Knight. While age had thickened his middle, he was still tall and broad. And one of the best trainers of Knights in all Tamryn. “What brings you here this time of night?”
“Back from a call.” Sir Leopold knelt before the altar, said a prayer, then seated himself in the front pew. “Whatcha got in your hands?”
Matthias glanced at the papers Miss Darrington had given him. “A marriage proposal of sorts.”
“Sure you get a half-dozen of those a week.”
“You’re the second person who’s said something like that to me today. I don’t even have time to see ladies socially.”
Leopold chuckled. “You don’t get it, which is probably why they like you so much.”
“You’re not helping.”
“Wasn’t trying to. Who proposed to you?”
“Miss Sapphire Darrington.”
Leopold leaned back in the pew. “That’s the girl you were sweet on, wasn’t it?”
Matthias opened his mouth, then remembered his vow to never lie. He turned back to the altar.
Dropping his hands to his knees, Sir Leopold studied Matthias. “When you changed your volunteer schedule at the orphanage, I figured she’d broken it off with you.”
“There was never anything to break off. She’s a wealthy noblewoman, and I’m-”
“A Knight of Valor and officer of the Dragon Church. Didn’t take her for a classist fool.”
Matthias focused on the alabaster altar. “I changed my schedule when I found out who she was.”
“Didn’t take you for a classist fool, either.”
Matthias lifted his shoulders.
“Doesn’t explain why she wants to marry you now.”
“She offered me a rich settlement if I marry her and stay married to her for at least four years.”
Sir Leopold raised a brow, and Matthias handed him the papers. The High Knight took his time reading through them, then nodded. “Whoever wrote these up is mighty good. No way you can go after her fortune if you sign these.”
“I’m not after her fortune, and the settlement is more money than I can imagine.”
“So why’s she looking to pay you to marry her? Pretty girl, good head on her shoulders, and heir to stupid amounts of money. She shouldn’t need this to get a husband.”
“Her grandfather arranged a marriage for her to Lord Geoffrey Musgrave, Earl of Castlerock.”
Sir Leopold snorted. “Girl’s got sense to avoid that snake.”
“He’s titled and well-connected. She said she needs a love match to convince people that’s why she wouldn’t marry him.”
“She said that, huh?”
“Miss Darrington seems to think people will believe she could be in love me.”
“Maybe she could pull that off.” A half-smile tugged on Leopold’s lips. “With the way you moon over her, it won’t be hard for people to think you’re in love with her.”
Sir Matthias rubbed the back of his neck as heat crept up it. Maybe he mooned a little, and of course Sir Leopold would point it out. Not that any of it mattered.
“It’s wrong,” Sir Matthias said. “I’ve been praying all night to find a way to help her and keep my vows to Dracor.”
“Dracor doesn’t care if you marry and have a family. Might even prefer it. The Church does.”
“But the marriage would be a lie. Knights don’t lie.”
“Knights don’t lie, but I don’t see why the marriage would be.”
“We don’t love each other.”
Sir Leopold chuckled. “You’ve been around Sir Marcus and Lady Brelynn too long. Not all marriages are about love. Will you take care of her, see to her best interests and those of the people that rely on her?”
“Of course.”
“That’s a better reason than most have to marry someone.”
“It is?”
“I sometimes forget you weren’t raised in Aerius. Whadya think Lord Musgrave would do with all her money? You know that’s why he’s marrying her, don’t you?”
Matthias shook his head. “She’s beautiful, smart-”
“You’re thinking with your heart again.” Sir Leopold leaned back in the pew. “Musgrave hit a hard patch a while ago and hasn’t come out of it. His late wife was an heiress, too.”
“What happened to his wife?”
“Died a couple years back. Botched robbery.”
Matthias made the symbol of the dragon over his chest. “Ever catch the culprits?”
“Yeah, but they couldn’t tie Musgrave to anything, so they faced the punishment for their crimes alone.”
“Do you think-”
“Doesn’t matter what I think. Didn’t have proof. But seems to me the lass is smart enough to know she should keep her distance from him. And smart enough to know a good, if sometimes dense, man when she meets him.”
“We barely know each other.”
“You sure about that? Seems to me you knew her pretty well when you were working together at the orphanage.” Sir Leopold stood. “Unless you don’t mind her turning to someone else for help and never knowing what coulda been. Glad Marcus wasn’t that stubborn.”
Matthias watched Sir Leopold leave and thought of Sir Marcus and his new bride. A sorceress, and an Oskelesian one at that, but he’d never seen his friend happier. Or more loved.