Tale of Obsession: Courting Daphne Ch. 08

"It's the latter," Daphne admitted.

Leander frowned and faced her. "But Anthony doesn't trust you. I don't understand why he would work for you, especially if it means deceiving me."

"I told him the truth," Daphne said in defence. "Your best friend might not trust me -- he might even hate me -- but when I wrote to him to tell him what is going on, he had enough sense to realize that I might be right. He did not believe me right away, but he came to Northcove to investigate."

"And what has he found?"

Daphne took a deep breath before explaining, "That you have been betrayed. While you were away, Mia and other women came to me with information about your campaign. One of them told me of a disturbing thing that she heard from one of your officers. He let it slip that the Duke of Wildercross hasn't sent you any missive for quite some time.

"I know my father," she continued. "He is not the kind of man who will lose direct correspondence with anybody who serves him. Especially not if that somebody turns out to be one of the generals he employed to fight a war for him and the kingdom. Further information revealed that you only act upon orders that my father supposedly give you through General Wilson Norcross.

"That is not my father's way," Daphne said, shaking her head. "He never uses an intermediary when he orders a man. So I asked Mia and the others to find out anything they could about Norcross. One of them was able to show me a copy of the general's coat-of-arms."

"How had she managed to find that?" Leander asked.

Daphne flashed him a knowing smile, saying, "We women have our ways..."

"I see," Leander said after a while, frowning. "Go on."

"I recognized the coat-of-arms," Daphne continued. "Gabriel's father, the former Duke of Northcove, has pointed it out to me once, when he was driving my aunt and me around Elgeshore's capital, and we happened to come across a carriage bearing the symbol. The duke told us that it was a Thersalian coat-of-arms, and that whoever owns it must be a close ally of Elgeshore's king."

Leander interrupted her. "Are you sure it was Norcross's?"

Daphne nodded. "I'm positive. So, I thought, if the duke has known that, then, my father must have known that, too. Which only makes me wonder why my father would use Norcross as a go-between. It doesn't make any sense. So I did the only thing that I thought would work: I wrote to the Duke of Northcove and asked for assistance, without knowing that the old duke has already passed away and that Gabriel has taken his position."

Again, Leander's disbelief made him interrupt her. "And he helped you? Just like that? Even though you must have caused him a great deal of humiliation in the past by running away from your betrothal?"

"No," Daphne explained. "When he sent his men to your camp, he was not trying to help me. He was trying to do my father a favour. It just so happened that I could help him do that favour, so he ordered his men to bring me to his duchy."

The general asked for further clarification. "What has your father got to do with this?"

"When he lost contact with you, Papa decided to ask his friend, Gabriel's father, to find out what's going on," she answered. "The letter he sent was still addressed to the old duke, since there has been, as of yet, no news of the duke's death. Gabriel thought I would be of use to know what's keeping you from communicating with my father, so he sent men to escort me to Northcove."

"And you did not share any of these with me because...?"

At the slight accusation that tainted Leander's question, Daphne winced. Still, she decided that he would believe her when she speaks the truth. "I did not want to get you involved just in case my assumptions were wrong. It is enough that the women and I were the only ones who knew."

Leander walked away from the window, pacing the floor. "Yet you decided to tell Anthony. You even convinced him to work with you. You kept me in the dark, as if you didn't trust me enough."

"It's not like that!" Daphne complained. "I just thought that Norcross might have spies in your camp. People who are close to you, people you trust."

"Did it ever occur to you that you might have to doubt Anthony?" Leander asked, exasperated, as he walked to where Daphne was and grabbed her arms. "What if you were wrong about him and he was one of Norcross's spies in my camp?"

Daphne shook her head. "There's a reason why I chose to trust him!"

Leander turned livid. "What?"

At the face of his anger, Daphne's heart melted. It was the anger of a jealous man, and she could not help but be flattered. She touched his face gently and managed a smile. "You trust him. With that in mind, I decided to give him my trust, too."

Even though Leander frowned, Daphne knew that she was able to reassure him that he had nothing to be jealous about. Still, he asked, "What if I was wrong about trusting him?"

"You were not," she reminded him. "Besides, Anthony hates me. And that's not because he thinks I am too close to you. He hates me because he thinks I only lie to you. So I thought I could trust him to keep you safe no matter what."

Leander sighed, pulling her close to him. "He is like a brother to me."

"A trustworthy man, he is," Daphne murmured, closing her eyes. "But I'm not going to delude myself through thinking that he decided to believe me only because he thought there was something to what I was telling him. He said that he has had his suspicions for quite a while, about the loyalty of some of your men."

"Or women," Leander suggested.

Daphne nodded, remembering Sylvia. She had not seen the woman with the others. Anthony has asked around for Sylvia, too, and was told that she decided to leave the day the Black Wolves marched to Northcove.

"Leander," she said, looking up at him. "Anthony advised you to ask Norcross for reinforcements for your supposed attack on Northcove. You could wait for a whole week, two at most, but not even a shadow of his army would come near the horizon. Instead, he would send a letter to Gabriel to pledge his support for his Elgeshoran friend. If you have any doubts about my loyalty, you will only come to believe when Gabriel receives that letter."

"Who ever told you that I don't trust you?" Leander asked.

'Well, you said so earlier!' Daphne wanted to say, remembering their conversation before he seduced her and incapacitated her, but instead, she asked, "Do you?"

The general took a deep breath, stroking her face. "I admit, I had my doubts. But my greatest weakness is that I will always believe your words. Whether you deceive me or not, I will always believe you."

Daphne could only nod, closing her eyes as she leaned against Leander.

"But, you know, Daphne," the man said, "I can't believe you! How can you be so rash?"

"Rash?" she repeated, pulling away from him. "I was anything but rash! I knew what I was doing. I put a lot of thought into it."

"Still," Leander contradicted her. "What if something went wrong? What if Gabriel had been siding with Elgeshore all along?"

"Nothing went wrong," Daphne reminded him. "And Gabriel is on our side. We can't deal with what could have been when it has all been done and dealt with. Aren't you happy at all?"

Leander frowned, looking into her eyes. "I am, but, next time, Daphne, I want you to tell me everything you are planning to do. Do you hear me? Everything." When Daphne nodded, he sighed, adding, "It is my duty to protect you, little one. I don't know how I am going to face your mother or your father if ever something bad happens to you."

Upon hearing that, Daphne frowned. "Duty?"

"Yes," Leander answered, grinning, before gathering her in his arms and taking her back to the bed. "I am a man on a mission, my lady; everything that I do, I do to accomplish my task."

"You better explain to Papa why on earth you decided to turn me into a lover, when he merely ordered you to find me," she complained, watching as Leander walked back to the window to retrieve the candle. His cock was already forming a tent on his pants, which made Daphne smile. She watched it a while before saying languidly, "He is going to be so angry."

Leander cleared his throat as he returned to the bed, putting the candle on the side table. "About that anger. Are you pertaining to your father or..."

Frowning, Daphne looked at him. He grinned at her, before glancing down at the bulge in his pants. She blushed. So, he caught her staring at it, huh?

"You tell me," she answered, grinning back at him.

The general rolled on top of her, kissing the tip of her nose. "Ah, we'll see." After another kiss, however, he asked, "Do you trust me, Daphne?"

"Yes," she answered, bewildered.

"Then, trust me," he said, before blowing out the candle.

Daphne gasped as, once again, she plunged into darkness. But Leander held her, and she wrapped her arms around him. She heard his soft chuckle as he kissed her hair.

"Why are you so afraid of the dark?" he asked softly.

Finally, Daphne had to admit it. She felt her face burning as she answered, "I don't know. Childish fears, I think."

Leander was silent for a while, before he began kissing her neck. He then murmured, "Darkness can be good, little one. When your eyes can't see, your other senses become more sensitive."

As though to emphasize his point, Leander began caressing her mound.

Daphne found herself relaxing her hold on him, enjoying his touch and forgetting the darkness that enveloped them. He was right: every move seemed more sensual, more arousing, when she could not see. When all she could do was feel his gentleness, smell his aroma, taste his lips.

They made slow, passionate love -- the kind that Daphne thought only a husband and wife so in love with each other could make. The kind of carnal sharing of the body that transcended the physical aspects and reached the heart, the soul.

It was slow and sweet and beautiful -- and downright scary.