Chapter 1

Anslee is knocked up and happier than a hog in a mud wallow. She said that the baby would be a boy, and she was going to name him Henry Jorst Douglas, unless I had a big objection. Hell, what is there to object to? She can call him anything she wants to, as long as it is legal and not insulting. She wants to call him "Henry J," and I can put up with that as long as the kid can. Her father, Jorst, is also pleased by the name, so it is a win-win situation as far as I am concerned.

I did ask her what would she do if the baby turned out to be a girl. She "humphed" at me as if I had a lot of nerve to doubt her. Dammit, I do not care if it is a boy or a girl—I will love either one just the same, though it will be fun to have a son to pal around with. Anslee claimed that Horurie women always knew the gender of an unborn child, so there was nothing to discuss. Well, I was old enough to know what was good for me, so I shut up.

I was now deeply into my covert job as bodyguard and troubleshooter for King Haran, so I had to do a lot of traveling. Anslee made a lot of the initial trips with me, but she decided to stay home after she started to bulge in the belly department. Wearing nothing but a g-string of bright yellow did tend to emphasize her pregnancy, and it made sword fighting a bit awkward, so she decided to remain at home until the baby was delivered.

That was going to be five months of hell for her because she was such an active woman and dearly loved to exercise with her sword. She was as good as me with her sword, though I was stronger. Anslee had a hell of a lot more practice with using her sword, and she had killed more men than I had with a sword, but she was afraid to risk her unborn child just for her own amusement. Now that was a woman with a remarkable amount of good sense!

Of course, the day she told me about being knocked up, the word was all over the mansion, and I was congratulated by every servant and soldier whom I met. It was nice to know that we had such a congenial group gathered around us. Sure, every person on the estate was sworn to protect Anslee and me with their lives, but it was a great relief to know that these people really meant it.

Naturally, as soon as Anslee made it official, Jorst called the king and used their special code to tell him about her pregnancy. King Haran was especially relieved because it now gave me a direct heir who was third in line to be king. I was second and Jorst was the one I laughingly called "the crown prince." Jorst was a little upset when he first heard me say that, but now he just laughs along with the rest of us.

Horurie has some strange customs when it comes to inheritance of the crown. (See "Faceoff, Book 1" for details.) Only in Horurie could I, Henry Douglas, known locally as Sir Hank, have come to be in line for the throne just because I married an in-law of the king. Oh, well, I can live with it if they can. I am a life-long Democrat in all forms of the word, but I can go along with local custom if it lets me marry a woman as wonderful as my wife. On top of that, I am amazed that such good luck could happen to a bounty hunter from 1870s Texas.

It was only a couple of days later that a servant came running to me to say that Sir Jorst requested my company in his office. Uh-oh, I knew that meant some kind of trouble. Phrased that way, I knew that King Haran was on the line waiting to talk with me, and I had better get my ass in gear. I rushed to Jorst's office and sat down at the special communicator that had recently been installed.

The moment that I was in place, King Haran said, "Ah, Hank, as prompt as usual. You cannot understand how much I appreciate that. Good morning to you."

"Good morning, Your Majesty. I am always glad to talk to you. What can I do for you today?"

"Ha, it does seem that I only call you when there is trouble afoot, doesn't it? Well, this is one of those times when there could be big trouble or the whole thing could be a big false alarm. Honestly, though, I kind of doubt the chance of it being a false alarm.

"One of the owners of a large estate in the north had decided that he deserves to be more of a force in his neighborhood. Therefore, he has started recruiting all of the mercenaries that he can find, and is starting to lean unpleasantly on his neighbors. So far, Sir Bornly has done nothing that I can spank him for, but he is certainly causing other people in his vicinity to feel some pressure. Sir Bornly should know that there is no way that I will let him take over more territory by force of arms, but there is nothing I can do about outright purchases of property nor of transfers because of marriage.

"You must know by now that we do not limit the number of wives that a man can have, nor, for that matter, the number of husbands that a woman is limited to. I could not care less how many wives Sir Bornly is foolish enough to acquire, but I am concerned at the amount of property that he could acquire as a result of taking over the property of a new wife. The whole situation is very unstable according to my intelligence people, and they are starting to worry.

"There is a large area near Sir Bornly's estate that is wild and undeveloped. If he just wanted more land, he could move into there, and he would be cheered as a public spirited citizen if he could eliminate some of the more dangerous animals that inhabit that wild land. About the only use it serves is as a hunting ground for bored knights who have too much time on their hands. Your excuse for visiting the area would be to hunt in the wild country. You could even ask Sir Bornly for accommodations while you are there. He should be pleased to have you considering the fact that you are so close to becoming king yourself."

"Yes, Sir, Your Majesty. I will get right on it. I may even be able to leave this afternoon."

"Ah, that's the spirit. Thank you and good luck. I'll see you in a few weeks. Goodbye."

With that, the king cut the connection and I was left staring at a blank communicator. Jorst laughed and said, "Well, that is one of the perks of being king." I grinned and agreed with him.

I went to find Anslee and tell her of this new assignment from the king. She was not happy that I was leaving, but she fully understood how much trouble Sir Bornly could cause if he was allowed to proceed unchecked. Therefore, she did not begrudge me going, but she did comment that she wished that she could go along for the chance to hunt in the wild country. Dammit, that woman could scare the hell out of me! All I needed was to be working on an assignment for King Haran while my wife wandered around in such a dangerous place. I got out of there as fast as I could before she decided that she could go with me after all.

I put servants to gathering the things I needed to take with me, but I paid personal attention to my weapons. Of course, I was taking my sword, shield, and fighting knife, but I was also taking my Winchester, my shotgun, and my two revolvers. These revolvers were two of the latest advances from the king's armory. I had arrived in Horurie with two LeMat revolvers that had created quite a stir among the locals. They had pistols, but they were all single shot and difficult to use.

My LeMats were such an advance in the art of pistol making that I had let the R&D (Research and Development) people borrow one to examine. During the course of events, they had made some improvements, primarily in the nature of converting the revolver to double-action and improving the shotgun part of the weapon. It still had the nine chambers in the cylinder, but it was now possible to load all nine of them without the danger of an accidental weapon discharge. Both the cylinder and the shotgun used cartridges, and that made both of them very quick to reload.

I was ready to leave just after lunch, so I took off in my special flier before Anslee had a change of heart. Normally, flying to Sir Bornly's estate would have taken two days in a common civilian flier, I was able to make the trip in only four hours in the special one supplied to me by the king. The flier was also equipped with a hidden Gatling gun that I could use to great advantage against both air and ground targets.