He turned, all that roguish arrogance evident in his smile.
“Well, enough politics for today,” Hugo declared. “Let’s enjoy our dinner and this unexpected reunion.”
To Oliver’s good fortune, not one piece of food was blackened improperly. Oliver and I tried to remain civil and responsive to questions directed at us, but Oliver, especially, found it difficult to tear his eyes, and his mouth, from the food. Honey-glazed root vegetables and spiced turnip soup. Stuffed sea turtle and crispy fish that I’d never heard of before. Our plates were never empty before the next course was served. And at the very end, a tray of desserts with cakes and meringues and tarts all baked to perfection.
As for the royal family, they were filled with patience and persistence. I wasn’t quite sure they’d ever seen two people so willing to eat every bite placed in front of them.
When coffee appeared after dinner, I felt uncomfortably wide. The new corset did not exactly allow for a second portion of glazed pipsaberry cake.
I was resisting the urge to rub my sore belly when Taelon leaned across the table. “Come with me?”
I looked around the table, embarrassed that he’d singled me out. “Pardon?”
“Take a ride with me,” he repeated. “I’ll show you the cliffs.”
I shook my head and whispered, “I can’t.”
He leaned closer. “You can.” I started to crumble. But it wasn’t until he added, “Please?” that I lost my resolve altogether.
“Alright,” I relented. “But only because if I don’t move now, I won’t be able to get up ever again.”
“Well, as long as you have a good reason.”
He pushed back in his chair and stood up. To his mother he said, “I’m going to show the Lost Princess the cliffs. Help her realize she’s at last been found.”
“For the record,” I added. “I never felt lost.”
Taelon turned to me. “But have you felt found?”
I had no reply, so instead I thanked my host and hostess for a lovely dinner and their hospitality.
Taelon walked around the table and helped me from my chair. When he’d taken my hand, he leaned in and murmured, “Tessana Allisand, welcome home.”
21
“Horseback or carriage?” Taelon asked.
I thought about going somewhere with him in the closed space of a carriage. Heat pooled in my belly. “Horseback.”
His smile turned into a victorious grin. “I remember you as an adventurer,” he said. “It is a relief to know that has not changed.”
“I’m not an adventurer,” I told him primly.
“You’re right,” he agreed. “You’re not an adventurer at all. Merely a girl who likes to see everything and do everything and experience everything. Brave enough to cross three kingdoms with nothing more than a fox cubling and a not-so-silent monk.”
I thought about protesting, but it was silly now. Instead, I gave into the smile that had been making my lips twitch and met his focused blue eyes. “Perhaps I see your point.”
He stopped and I nearly ran into him. He turned to face me with his back to the stable’s entrance and his gaze intently on mine. “You’re so much like I remember you, Tessa. It’s hard to believe that the world did not change you more.”
“I was hidden away from it,” I explained. “There was not much of the world inside the Temple.”
He shook his head and stepped forward. His hand found mine and lifted until my fingers pressed against his heart. “Maybe,” he whispered. “But you saw plenty of the world before you left it. You’ve experienced enough grief to turn the purest heart to stone. And yet you’re lovelier than any wildflower. Brighter than any sun. You are untainted by the pain in your past, and Tessa, that makes you radiant.”
“Taelon…”
“Sir?”
Both of us jumped at the groom’s voice. I bit back an indelicate curse and moved my hand from Taelon’s chest to my own.
