<h4>Chapter 314: Rnd does well.</h4>


    "I am surprised Lord Benwick. You did not seem to be the suicidal type to me. I expected much more of a fight from you."


    He coughed up more blood andughed, cackles falling out of his mouth like thest cracking of a twig in a tiny fire. "You think you are smart, but you are not the smartest. Someday, somehow, someone will whisper something to you and you will do it. One thing will to two and two will lead three."


    Once again, he coughed before continuing, "Eventually you will have someone like me by your side. Maybe it will be one of those with you today or maybe it will be someone else. I don’t know who but someone will pull your strings."


    He breathed hisst and his head fell.


    Duke Thorin sniffed the air. "Do you smell that?"


    The others raised their heads and their nostrils red.


    "Fuck!" Sigrid cursed. She waved her hand once and they all vanished out of the manor,ing out a small distance beyond the wall.


    Before they could steady themselves, a loud explosion rocked the air and the earth trembled. As hot mes rose from manor and the wall came tumbling down, everyone sighed in relief for they had escaped a terrible death.


    Sigrid covered her mouth and sheughed. "That rat bastard, he had other ns it seemed."


    Mauve looked down at the body of Lord Benwick which Sigrid had somehow managed to bring out with them. She also thought back on the moment when Sigrid took them all out of the manor. Not a singlemand had fallen from her lips.


    A part of her beat nervously and awe filled her. Sigrid was truly powerful, much more than she let on. As the lights came on and people run out of their houses toe and take a look at the burning manor, they retreated into the shadows and returned to the mage estate.


    Sigrid personally set fire to Lord Benwick’s body. It was the only way she could be reassured that the man was truly dead. She did not want anything like what happened in dramas to happen. Viins often had a habit of dying and resurrecting.


    She left Veylin in the care of the Lord mage with instructions to make some changes to his physical appearance and then she and herdies-in-waiting took their carriages back to the Thorin estate.


    Almost close to the gates of the estate, they had toe to a stop because other carriages were lined up outside, leading all the way directly to the gate. They were royal carriages and outside of them, Rnd and his men were waiting. They had been there for a while.


    Sigrid knew that Rnd was there for her so she step out of the carriage. Before she reached her husband, she couldn’t help but notice one of the newer maids that worked for her family. She came to the men with a sses of lemonade, water and two cups of hot chocte coffee. She was quite brazen when she reached Rnd, offering him a seductive smile and dipping her bosom to expose the bountiful curves of her breasts. There was no mistaking what she meant.


    Sigrid scoffed. Her husband did not even need to do anything for women to throw themselves at him. He was almost the emperor now, which woman did not want him?


    And yet, she still found it revolting. The fact that they had no shame and threw themselves at a married man without feeling the slightest shame was disgusting.


    While she was waiting to see how her husband would react, Mauve and Christie walked up to her from behind. They watched in silence as she did.


    Rnd reached his hand out, ced the cup of chocte coffee back on the silver tray and gestured for Sir Samuel to get rid of the maid. The smile that had been on his face as he chatted with his brother and his men had faded. It had been reced with a look of nausea.


    Sigrid was very pleased to see that look on his face. Her lips even stretched to form a smile but it died when an errant thought crossed her mind. Perhaps her husband had ssy tastes in the women he chose to flirt with. A maid was far worse than Keeley or any other noble woman.


    "He has done well." Mauvemented.


    "He has a long way to go." Christie said.


    "Still, this shows some progress." Mauve insisted on praising Rnd.


    "Maybe because there are people around and she is a Thorin maid. Surely he would not be too stupid as to eat from the same ce where he shits." Christie said.


    They were like an angel and a devil on Sigrid’s shoulders.


    Christie turned her head to look at Mauve as she was confused. "Wait, shouldn’t it be the same ce were Sigrid, our highly respected very beautiful crown princess shits?"


    "Shush you two." She hissed at them. All this whispering was the very thing that Lord Benwick had talked about. The opinions of others which would affect her decision making.


    Sigrid was not a fool. She weed their opinions but she had no intentions of allowing anyone to lead her by the nose.


    Slowly, she walked towards Rnd. He was already waiting for her, a big grin on his handsome face. He knocked on the door of a carriage when she was close enough and a bouquet of flowers was handed to him. He took it and handed it to her.


    He bent and whispered in her ear, "Congrattions on your victory. I was not worried at all." It was a lie, he had been worried about her and he had counted the seconds until she returned.


    Rnd took Sigrid’s right hand and kissed the back. It was like the caress of a feather, simple and light.


    Sigrid drew her hand back and fought the urge to roll her eyes. "How long have you been here?"


    "I don’t know, I have not been counting. I served some soup and came here after. You on the other hand remained on the mage estate, you were seen and heard yelling at Finn and his team of menaces twice because they were distracting you and the other people in the meeting."


    He was exining to her what he had made fake Sigrid do. Rather than risk her walking around and talking to people, he locked her up in the mage tower and announced a meeting of some mages and the lord mage to discuss a new magical invention.


    "Thank you for your help." She offered him a gentle smile.


    "May I follow you inside for a more detailed conversation? Your grandmother is not too keen on letting me inside without your say so. It seems like Mauve has been doing some whispering about me."


    He looked over her shoulder at Mauve who was finally talking to a sheep faced Galen.


    Even Christie’s attention had been taken up by Orpheus Ashford, a red knight that was new to Rnd’s close circle and from the noble Ashford house. The same house that birthed rakes.


    All the women at the royal castle were already buzzing about him. It seemed Christie Shadowmere was not very resistant to his roguish charms.