Trusted by Jacquelyn Frank Read Free Book Online Page B

affected, and Dakon agreed to stay behind and guide the medics. Then the women went to their horses and as a group they rode toward the manor house. The king immediately rode abreast of Sarea.
    “I wanted to take this opportunity to assure you that I am no longer angry with you,” he said.
    “I had gathered as much on my own,” she replied. “Had you been angry with me still you would have taken it out on my brother, rather than elevate him to candidate for Trusted.”
    The king gave her a hard look of surprise. “Do you truly think me that petty?” he asked.
    “I think men are used to getting what they want from women in our society. You want your women to be soft and willing and accommodating. And while I am a good daughter and a good woman, I am not the kind of accommodating you are looking for.”
    “And what is it I am looking for?” he asked with bemusement.
    “Someone who will always tell you what you want to hear, whether it is right or wrong. Someone who will say yes to you.”
    “And you will not say yes to me?” he asked.
    “I will be honest with you to a fault. I will tell you things you do not want to hear and I will say no to you when it suits me to say no.”
    “You are very strong minded for a woman,” he remarked.
    “I am. Completely unsuited to a man such as yourself. I think you prefer a more traditional woman. One who is soft and accommodating and all things good to you.”
    “You have a great many opinions on what would be best for me. First you tell me it would be best for me to mourn my beloved cousin as if he were dead. And now this.”
    “Was I wrong about the former?”
    He frowned a little. “No. You were not wrong. It was something I needed to hear. Something no one else would tell me because they were afraid of me reacting—“
    “Just as you did?”
    “Indeed,” he admitted readily, “just as I did. But I had thought my Trusted made of braver stuff than that. It took a small woman to do what needed to be done.”
    “They were no more willing to face up to him being gone than you were,” she said sympathetically. “He was Trusted. The Trusted bond is like no other. You are as more than brothers.”
    “We are. It causes an almost physical pain when one of us is hurt in some way. Would that I could have been in his mind when he died and seen who had done this to him,” Garrick said fiercely.
    “Bonds such as that are for mates alone,” Sarea remarked. “And not even always then.”
    “I believe the trumate bond which you speak of is only meant for those who are two halves of a whole that had been separated by the Joyous One and placed in two beings. When trumates find one another it is a rare and special thing. Worthy of such a bond.”
    “So you are saying you believe there is only one trumate for each of us?”
    “Yes. And we are honor bound to ourselves to find that mate.”
    “But how can we do that when women are expected to remain chaste until marriage? Are we to hope that we have selected the proper mate by chance? It is different for men. They can sample as many women as they like. But for women…we may not sample men as we like.”
    “You do not have to make love in order to feel the trumate bond,” the king said. “It is an easy thing for a couple to spend enough time together to sense if the bond exists. Lovemaking only strengths what is there more quickly.”
    “But again…you speak as if women have the freedom to choose their husbands. We women of wealth are meant to marry for political or monetary gain. I am expected to wed a wealthy landowner who will see to it my father is kept comfortable in his golden yana.”
    “Your father can keep himself in comfort by the look of your manor house.”
    “I am speaking of the principles of the thing.”
    “I know you are. And I do not think this is a perfect society.”
    “It is a society that often does not make sense.”
    “I would agree with you there,” the king said. “But it is a good society