“I don’t have a staff.”
Torin said, looking down at his beer, “I was verra glad tae see yer guards, Princess. Even as they rough-handled me, my thought was ‘I am grateful that the Princess has guardsmen.’”
I furrowed my brow. “Torin, why are you being so weird?”
Torin asked, “What dost ye mean by weird?”
“Standoffish, cold, distant — I thought… I thought you would be glad to see me. It’s beenmonths.Then you waltz in here and barely talk?”
Max was looking between our faces as we spoke. Torin kept his eyes cast down. He said, “I needed tae recover and?—”
I interrupted, “What happened to you?”
“A great deal, tis nae important?—”
“It is important, tell me.”
“I had tae fight some men, I almost drowned crossin’ a river, I was assaulted by a boar...”
He faltered when I leveled my eyes.
“You didn’t come back because of a boar? This all sounds terrible but none of it is a good enough excuse.”
Max was looking back and forth.
Torin said, “Nae, truly I wanted tae give ye time tae heal?—”
My eyes went wide. “Torin, are you trying to say you stayed away forme? That makes me furious. That is not okay.”
He said, “But ye hae been reunited with yer brother, as promised.”
I said, “You did promise, you promised you would get me home, and you promised you would bring Max, you did do that.”
He raised his eyes. “And ye recovered.”
“Yes, you prayed over me and got me home and I recovered, I told you I would, and thank you. I know it was dangerous and you had things happen to you that you needed to recover from, but it still doesn’t explain why you’re being so weird.” I turned to Max. “I just met you, but did you say something to him?”
Max raised his brow. “What dost ye think I said?”
“I don’t know, did you tell him he wasn’t allowed to talk to me?”
Max said, “I simply told him he inna allowed tae hae ye. Ye are a Princess and well above him in station, besides he hasinformed me that ye hae already given yer troth tae another man.”
I raised my chin, “Not that it’s any business of yours, I literally just met you. What, are you going to tell me I can’t be with anyone that you don’t choose for me? You just come in here, a total stranger, and start to boss me around? Somehowyouget to decide who gets me and who doesn’t?”
He was beginning to smile. I finished with, “That’s not the way we do things here, Buck-o, you don’t boss me around, ever. Brother or not.”
I finished my beer.
Max had a full smile, he drank from his beer and said to Torin, “Och, she is everything ye said, beautiful and full of fire.”
Torin nodded. “She is spittin’ mad, and she likes tae spar.”
“This is absolutely unacceptable, you are acting like I’m an object. Talking about me right in front of me.”
Max leaned forward. “My apologies, Alexandria, ye are misunderstandin’ m’purpose. I hae been friends with Torin for most of m’life. He sometimes daena think things through, I am used tae sometimes bein’ his voice of reason.”
He leaned back in his seat. “Aren’t I often more reasonable than ye, Torin, my friend?”
