Victory and Defeat: Book Five of the Restoration Series by Christopher Williams

not for one’s happiness.”
    “Marriage!” Dagan said rather loudly. “Now I understand why you two are meeting like this. If you mentioned marriage to your father, I can only imagine he forbade you from seeing this young lady again.”
    “And what if he has?” Danal asked angrily. “I don’t see how it much matters to you.”
    Dagan turned red and sucked in air. There was a scowl on his face and he looked like he was about to give Danal a tongue lashing. Luckily Cassandra spoke first.
    “Perhaps we can use this to our advantage.”
    Her words caught both Dagan and Danal by surprise; Dagan even seemed to deflate. He shook his head and asked, “What are you talking about?”
    “It seems straightforward to me,” she said, smiling sweetly at Danal. “We have Prince Danal send a message to the king that he has gotten young Julia here pregnant. I’m quite sure that will bring the king at a run.”
    Danal paled at her suggestion , but Dagan smiled wickedly. “I love it,” he said.
    “Wait!” Danal interjected. “Why would I do that? Why would I help you?”
    “We’ve already told you the reasons,” Dagan said slowly, “but there’s more to it than that. There’s something wrong in Telur. I cannot believe that Darion has been this deceived by the church; there has to be more to it.”
    Danal opened his mouth to deny Dagan’s charge, but he paused. His thoughts went back to Barrett being named Crown Prince. It hadn’t made any sense at the time and it still didn’t; he had wondered about it on several occasions. He had also been suspicious of the hunting accident that had taken the life of his older brother and the rightful heir, Prince Darius. He closed his mouth with a snap; not daring to say anything.
    Dagan didn’t say anything either, instead he grinned knowingly at the Prince.
    After a moment Danal recovered some and he looked from Dagan to Cassandra; he looked near to panic and he suddenly resembled the old prince that Dagan remembered. “You want me to tell him that tonight?”
    Suppressing a chuckle, Cassandra shook her head. “No, we’re not ready .”
    “And I don’t think we should meet him here,” Dagan said, waving his hands around at the library. “I think perhaps we should invite him tomorrow and we’ll be waiting in your quarters.”
    Danal looked like he might be sick at any moment.
    “Oh come now, Danal,” Cassandra said, “if we knew you were secretly meeting here, then surely the king knew.”
    This didn’t seem to help Danal’ s queasiness. He shook his head. “Absolutely not! If he knew we were still …” he paused and waved his hand at the blankets on the floor, “he would have put a stop to it.” He leaned back against the bookshelf and dropped his eyes to the floor.
    “No,” Dagan answered, “what he did was scare you and put a stop to any talk of marriage. I’m quite sure he doesn’t mind you and her having a bit of fun.” He tilted his head to one side and smiled wickedly at Danal, “But I’m also sure he will not appreciate that his first known grandson is a bastard.”
    Cassandra was only half-listening to Dagan taunt the prince ; she had a more worrisome question on her mind. “Will you help us, Danal?”
    The prince looked up from the floor and some of the earlier fire was back. “And your plan is to talk to him, to show him this priest? Is that all?”
    “You have our word that we will not hurt your father,” Cassandra said; she spoke slowly, putting emphasis on each word. “If the king wants to arrest us after hearing us, we won’t resist.” She absolutely meant the part about not hurting the king, but the second part, the part about not resisting, well, they would have to wait and see.
    If Danal suspected that Cassandra wasn’t being completely honest with him, he didn’t show it. After a moment he said, “All right, but we have some planning to do.”
    Dagan nodded and sighed. He hadn’t realized just how much depended on the prince