Chapter 691: A Long Story (Part Two)
"Nyrielle and I are betrothed."
Five simple words shocked both guild masters with a statement that defied all conventions of propriety in the Kingdom of Gaal. But when they looked at her, Ashlynn’s face held the shy smile and faint blush of a young woman who was helplessly in love. But even as she admitted to a relationship that would have been kept queit among the nobility of the kingdom, her voice was clear and pure without the slightest hint of evasion or shame.
Tiernan’s cup slipped from his numb fingers, clattering against the carriage floor before rolling underneath the seat where the swaying of the carriage tossed it back and forth in an ironic approximation of the whiplash the guild master had felt ever since entering the carriage. His mouth worked soundlessly for several moments before he managed to croak out a question.
"Betrothed? To the... to Lady Nyrielle?" He asked as he reminded himself for what felt like the dozenth time that he shouldn’t, absolutely couldn’t, refer to Ashlynn’s vampire partner as the ’Demon Lady of the Vale.’
Isabell’s reaction was entirely different as she examined Ashlynn’s face, reading the young woman’s reactions the same way she’d learned to read her younger sister Jocelynn.
"Is this another political marriage?" Isabell asked carefully, discarding the notion immediately as she saw the way Ashlynn’s expression darkened at the faintest suggestion that her union had been politically motivated.
"Or... is this love, Ashlynn?" Isabell asked as she took off her silver-rimmed spectacles to look directly into Ashlynn’s emerald eyes. "All the way out here, living among the dem, the Eldritch. Have you really found true love?"
Isabell’s question broke off suddenly, leaving the second part unsaid but it still hung in the air between the occupants of the carriage along with the heady aroma of wine and the more subtle scents of leather upholstery and freshly polished wood.
"It’s real," Ashlynn said with a gentle smile on her lips and a softness in her eyes that suggested she understood the other woman’s skepticism. "We made our announcement at the banquet last night after Sir Ollie was formally knighted. We won’t marry until we can hold a proper ceremony and I hope you’ll both attend," she said quickly.