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Vidanric passed Savona, whispering, “Plan B. Notice I was gone?”
“I’m not drunk. Not a-tall. Why, I can prove it! I’ll get a bottle and down it right here!”
“Tell me again about Meliara. How very like her mother she sounds!”
“when Vidanric and Russav were nearly murdered while traveling”
“I will make certain she does not get killed. I promise, mother.”
“why, she’ll fling herself in your arms for joy.” He saluted Vidanric.
“Vidanric ran across the conservatory and down the hall. He didn’t want her to arrive alone, he wanted her to be comfortable”
He had asked Bran on the ride, “Do you think she would like this? Like that?”
“how cute she looks in that overlarge Renselaeus tunic—-stop that!”
out came yet another inanity: “Would you like to sit down?”
“send someone for Branaric, who (blast his lazy soul) ought to have been there”
“The only way he could have been more wrong would be if she’d taken bow in hands and shot everyone”
“did not add that he liked that—when he wasn’t dodging lightning”
“Vidanric’s next surprise was Meliara in a gown. She did indeed have a figure—he looked away.”
“weakened the backs of his knees”
“He took a long soak in the hot bath while reading”
“Few people achieve so precious a luxury as an honest friend. For kings it is an especial rarity.”
“If you do gain—let us say—her friendship, you will know that it would be for you yourself”
“I believe this is all I need.”
“Ah,” said the prince. “Ah.”
“he couldn’t help an inward laugh at the way his Rider captains all leaned in to hear him”
“Vidanric sighed, enjoying then letting go the image of himself being perceived as a mighty sorcerer-king”
“Vidanric fought back a sneeze (they made his ears hurt)”
“He knew it was Meliara. He seemed to have developed a lamentable knack that way, sensing her proximity”
“Meliara. How Russav would laugh”
“he could give her jewels, and safety. He could give her friends. He could even give her a mother, by sharing his own”
“But the truth was, he knew that Meliara wouldn’t take any gift, no matter how much she might want, simply because he was the giver”
“That is, until last year, when a small, determined countess crashed her way into his carefully constructed existence”
“whack! Down she’d smash it again”
“Now he had to go through with it. Ah, well, what’s another candlestick thrown at his head?”
Candlestick, meet heart. “A kiss.”
“Vidanric recognized with a deep sense of gratitude—that she didn’t see Nee clap her hand over her mouth to keep from laughing”
“Bran lost control and whooped in helpless hilarity. Nee promptly began scolding him”
“Between bands of rain he read through the dispatches—he’d learned the art of reading on the fly”
“to get her to just see him?”
“bone-deep conviction: she would never have accepted that wager from Galdran”
“like you’re a midden pile waiting for a wand, and you almost walk into a door”
“Vidanric—” Savona mocked.
“Or what, smitten-boy?”
“you’re smitten with a scrap of a girl who has the fashion sense of a tree”
“He stopped to get in a good long gloat, and gloated even more loudly when he saw the telltale red along Danric’s fine cheekbones”
“that girl is just as smitten with you, but she doesn’t even know it.”
“Oh, ha ha, this is the funniest thing to happen to this sorry, sodden court for years”
“what I do, what I wear, she hates the ground where my shadow touches.”
“I have the edge on the female mind. That girl is smitten. She’s so smitten she doesn’t even see the rest of the boys”
“Russav glanced up—straight into the Renselaeus dead fish eye. He relented.”
“she was too busy sneaking peeks past my elbow in order to see where you were”
“I’ll eat my hat. I’ll eat your hat, which has more lace on it.”
“Russav had to turn his face away to hide his laughter when Meliara stuck out her hand”
“He smiled at her, trying to reassure her”
“her expressive face seemed to glow, that probably had first enchanted his sober cousin. Poor Danric”
“he not only knew it by heart, he could describe the swoop and swirl of the letters”
“He was dressed magnificently, his dark eyes wide with fury, lips white”
“imagining her small fingers brushing over the paper in the same place. Perhaps here she’d grinned”
“She saw only the words of an anonymous friend. A new beginning, an unexpected gift: let the courtship begin.”
“He dashed past her, knocking her and the cup out of the way”
“Guards,” Vidanric called as he lunged through to the front and swiped the wine.
“rode a short figure swathed in Vidanric’s old military cloak”
“he had never seen any sight more dear”
“betrayed how much she had been studying the shapes and shades of his own voice”
“You had it made. But now it’s mine.”
“he closed his arms around her, enfolding her rumpled, rain-dampened form”
“she flung her arms around his neck and yanked him down”
“The high windows glimmered with light filtered through a lacery of leaves”
“He reached her in three steps, and they clung together”
“leaving the two staring up at a goldenwood tree, silent and beautiful, in the shattered throne room”
