I exited the Great Hall as quickly as I could, my carafe still half full in my hands. Minnie gave me a dirty look as I left. I was only a few steps out when Jarion grabbed my arm. His touch gave me butterflies.

  “Ria! Where have you been?”

  His voice was den with emotion.

  “Can we move to the side? I don’t want anyone to see us,” I squeaked.

  Some of the other waiters had already seen him grab my arm. The st thing I wanted was the people in the castle gossiping about me.

  He led me to a little hallway offshoot, leading to an exit door.

  “Now tell me, Ria, where have you been? Why didn’t you come back to your room?”

  He looked me up and down with a concerned expression.

  “I was so worried about you. Were you all right?”

  “Yes, I was just fine.”

  I said it as coldly as I could, but a little tremble ced my voice.

  “Oh.”

  The corners of his mouth turned down, he looked away from me for the first time since he saw me in the Great Hall.

  “Is everything all right?”

  Cato’s voice sounded from the top of the hallway.

  He stood with both hands on his hips, and an expression of friendly concern.

  “Yes, everything is just fine, Cato,” Jarion said. “You can go back to the banquet I’ll be there soon.”

  “And you’re all right, Ria?” Cato asked politely.

  “How do you two know each other!?” Jarion asked, his eyes fshing.

  “She works around the pace,” Cato said matter-of-factly. “I mean look at her dress.”

  “Right.”

  Jarion was a little calmer now.

  He was still holding onto upper arm. He looked deep into my eyes and stroked his thumb over my dress. His warm touch sent shivers through my body as I tried to steadfastly meet his gaze.

  He leaned in to whisper in my ear. I could feel his body heat radiating off him.

  “Ria, could we meet some time again? We could talk. There must have been some misunderstanding. I thought the night we had together was wonderful, and I thought you felt the same way.”

  I blushed, thinking about the way he had felt as he pushed into me.

  “No, thank you, there was no misunderstanding,” I said coldly and tore myself away from him. “Now I have to get back to my work.”

  Cato grinned as I walked past him.

  I finished the nights work, refilling wine gsses for the entire rest of the evening. The whole time I could feel Jarion’s gaze following me across the room.

  Now that he had noticed me, I was a little bolder to look around the room. I wondered where his wife was sitting, what she looked like. I looked at the children’s table at the dais a few times. I had heard that he had two children, a daughter and a son. One of the little girls had the same striking blue eyes as him. I thought that must be her.

  Finally the night was over. My feet were killing me. I went out to where I had parked my wagon to start repcing the clean sheets with dirty undry, and it was just as I had left it, still half full of clean sheets. My work was not over yet. I wanted to cry from exhaustion.

  I opened the door again, at least it was not locked, and continued the task. My arms were already tired from carrying carafes all evening. At least the moon was almost full, and the sky was cloudless. It was not too dark for me to work.

  I heard footsteps approaching me on the gravel. Someone had decided to come help me! My heart brimmed with gratitude, and I wondered who it was. Maybe the old guard who had taken a shining to me, maybe Albera had sent someone. Then I saw the shape of the approaching figure. It was a tall man with dark curly hair. Ah damn!

  “Stay away from me,” I grunted, as I carried two sheets at a time. “I can’t be bothered with this shit tonight.”

  “Oh my, Ria. You look like a sweet girl, but you curse like a sailor.”

  It was Cato, not Jarion. I rexed a little bit.

  “What do you want, Cato?” I asked, annoyed.

  “Ria, I’m sorry to bother you, there’s just one thing I wanted to ask.”

  His voice was soft. He sounded genuinely concerned.

  “Yes, what is it?”

  “Did he hurt you? Jarion. I mean did he do something bad, because if he did I want to help.”

  I stopped.

  “No,” I sighed. “Thank you for your concern. He didn’t hurt me, personally. He cheated on his wife with me, and didn’t tell me he was married.”

  “Oh is that it,” Cato sounded cheerful now. “I knew he wouldn’t do something bad, he’s a great guy.”

  “He cheated on his wife!” I excimed.

  “Look,” Cato said, stumbling towards me.

  He was pretty drunk.

  “I’ll help you with these things while we talk. Do they just go in the closet over there?” he said, picking up a clean sheet.

  I was appalled at his bsé attitude on cheating, but I really needed help with the sheets, so I let him stay.

  “Thank you,” I mumbled. “Your Highness.”

  “You just called me Cato earlier, I heard it.”

  “It was an accident.”

  We walked between the cart and the storage space as we spoke, carrying the clean sheets in our arms. Cato’s sheets sometimes got a bit wrinkled because he moved so clumsily, but still it was worth it.

  “Anyway, I’m sure what Jarion did was really an honest mistake. He must have thought you knew he was married. You know, everyone in Medora knows who he is.”

  “It was my first day in the city,” I said. “He knew I couldn’t possibly have known that. Anyway I’m more angry on his wife’s behalf than mine! Does she know that he cheated on her?”

  “Well yes,” Cato said cheerfully. “Of course she knows. She doesn’t mind.”

  “What?” I said as I almost dropped the stack of sheets I had just topped off.

  “Yes, oh Ria. Don’t you know anything about nobility?”

  “I guess not. Do nobles not know the concept of faithfulness?”

  He ughed.

  “Sort of. Our marriages are not like common people’s Ria. I’m sure one day you’ll meet a nice man, maybe a strapping young fisherman. He will think the world of you and then ask you to marry him. For us it’s totally different. We just have to marry whoever it is politically convenient to marry at the moment. My parents met for the first time a week before their scheduled wedding day.”

  “What?” I asked.

  “Yes,” he said casually. “For my parents it worked out really well. They just happened to be a perfect match. But Jarion and his wife Elya never got on much at all. That’s a wonder considering the fact that every other woman he’s ever met loves him. Well all of them except for one, I guess.”

  He grinned at me cheekily.

  “She did what she needed to do to give him an heir, but ever since their son Marvon was born she has closed her bedroom door to him. You know, most men in the nobility take lovers at some point. It used to be that it could be punishable by death for women but my father changed the rules so that they can only lose their titles. There are a few people who are very against it, moral prudes and religious fanatics like my uncle Etus, who think it should be strictly illegal for both men and women. Realistically, that’s never going to happen.”

  “So Jarion’s wife doesn’t have any lovers at all?” I asked.

  “No. To be fair I think Jarion would let her, now that he has an heir and all. The husband is the only one who can sue a wife for infidelity. She just doesn’t seem to be very interested.”

  He picked up the st pile of clean sheets.

  “Ah, a good nights work done,” he sighed.

  “Nope!” I said. “Now we have to put the dirty undry on the cart as well.”

  “We?”

  “Yeah, come on Cato, don’t be zy,” I ughed.

  He ughed too.

  “Now be careful, you can’t talk to the other nobles like that, only me.”

  “Of course.”

  He helped me put all the dirty linens on too while we chatted. Cato could be quite pleasant when he wasn’t trying to annoy me.

  When we were done loading the wagon I went on it to drive home.

  “Where are you going?” Cato asked. “It’s much too te for a woman to be out on her own!”

  He was right. I was a little worried.

  “I have to be back at the undry before morning,” I said. “Otherwise I might lose my job.”

  “Oh, that’s no good,” he mumbled. “I guess I’ll have to come with you.”

  “What, no that’s much too much. You’ve already been so helpful.”

  “What sort of king will I be,” he said with mock grandiosity. “If I let my citizens go unprotected.”

  I ughed.

  “Anyway, I’ll go on the horse, and then I can ride back very quickly when we’re done.” He patted his pocket. “And I’ll have something to keep me warm too.”

  “Oh, great, you’re gonna get even more drunk. That will be very helpful, thank you.”

  “You’ll see, even if I’m drunk I can take on twenty sober scoundrels,” he said winking.

  He rode behind me the whole way home. I was gd of it because there were many people out that night, drinking and fighting. Although I could see Cato take a few sips out of the fsk now and again, his presence really did make me feel safe.

  I stopped him a little before we got to the undry.

  “You can go now. I’m only a couple of streets away from home, and I don’t want any of the other girls to see you and start gossiping.”

  “Of course,” he said, still sitting on his horse.

  “Thank you so much for everything tonight, Cato.”

  “I just want to say one thing,” he said earnestly. “Jarion is a good guy, and from the way he looked at you I would say he really likes you. I think you should give it another shot with him.”

  He took another swig of his fsk.

  “Now if you don’t want to, that’s fine too!” he chuckled. “The devil’s so handsome a little rejection now and then will only do him good.”

  “You say he’s handsome,” I grinned. “He looks just like you.”

  “Hmm yes I’ve heard that.”

  “Yet he sounded very offended when I suggested that you two might be brothers.”

  “Oh, yeah, that’s because we’re brothers.”

  “What?”

  Cato looked horrified.

  “I never said that! Goodbye!” he called out, as his horse bolted back into the city.

  ***

  Author’s note:

  If you’re more interested in the boys’ backstories you can check out Crown and Armour if you haven’t already. You don’t need to have read it to enjoy this book, but you could check it out after you finish all the avaible chapters of this one.

  As always likes, comments and reviews mean a lot to me. If you do one of those, thank you so much! <3