“I can think of plenty of reasons, starting with the fact that weinvadedthem this winter. We may not hold grudges against the people we’re hired to fight, but that doesn’t mean those people don’t hold grudges against us.”
That was certainly possible, but... “I don’t get that sense at all. Not even from King Wynter. Calberna is a better ally than enemy, and he knows it.”
“So maybe it wasn’t the family. Maybe it was someone who doesn’t want you to wed any of them. Don’t forget we never found the woman who usedsusirenathat first night. Maybe she did something to you.” Ari gripped the back of the chair and stared at Dilys with a look of dawning suspicion. “The pirates... do you think they could have planted a spellcaster here to keep you from wedding a weatherwitch to use against them? Our trip has been planned for months, and our purpose in coming here has been no secret. They’ve got to know that wedding you to a Season will give us a powerful weapon to use against them.”
Dilys thought about it briefly, but shook his head. “I wouldn’t put it past them, but every move they’ve made against us has been direct and obvious and brutal. This is far too subtle for them... and not nearly bloody enough.” He sighed and threaded his fingers through the ropes of his hair. “Honestly? I’m beginning to think I’m doing this to myself. Maybe I’m not as ready for marriage as I thought. Maybe the part of me that belonged to Nyamialine is still not ready to let another woman into my heart, so I’m sabotaging my chances to wed a Season. Or maybe I’m so used to women who would be mine for the asking that the only one I find truly interesting is the one who doesn’t want me.”
“First of all, winning over a woman just to prove you can make her want you is the sort of shallow challenge that onlyoulanimen enjoy. It’s definitely not your style. As for Nyamialine...” Ari’s voice grew soft. “My sister loved you very much. Had she lived, your bond would have been unbreakable. As true a mating as ever there was. But you were still both children when she died. The love you shared, the bonds you forged, were those of friendship and affection, not the deep bonds oflianatoakua. She would not want you to live your life alone. She wouldn’t want that for any of us.”
“I know that.” In fact, now that he’d suggested out loud that he might still be harboring some sort of connection to her, he realized that those once-strong ties had been completely severed. No part of them remained. How could they, when his inexplicable attraction to Gabriella Coruscate had infiltrated every part of his being?
Ari rocked back a little. “So,” he asked, “what are you going to do? Are you going to court Summer and see where it goes?”
At that suggestion, Dilys gave a humorless laugh. “How do you suggest I do that? The few times I’ve actually gotten within twenty yards of her, she starts shaking like I’m a hungry tiger and she’s a defenseless rabbit I’ve decided to eat for snack. She’d probably scream and faint if I showed the slightest hint of desire for her.” A desire which, after the constant erotic dreams he’d been having about her, he’d be hard-pressed not to reveal.
“She handles herself around Ryll and I just fine.”
There it was again. That instant aggression. “Do me a favor, Ari. Don’t keep bringing that up.” He held up a hand, showing the tips of his partially unsheathed battle claws. “I’m serious. No joking around. Because whatever is making me think she’s the only one I should be courting doesn’t have a sense of humor when it comes to you two cozying up to her.”
Ari raised his open palms in surrender. “I won’t say another word about it. I swear.”
“Thanks.”
“You know what I think?”
There was a look on Ari’s face that made Dilys wary. “Whaaat?” he replied slowly, drawing out the word.
“I think that if you are still feeling that strongly about Summer Coruscate—and if you’re sure your feelings aren’t the work of some spellcaster—that you’re doing disservice to yourself and all the Seasons—including Summer—if you don’t pursue her.”
“Have you not been listening? She. Doesn’t. Want. Me. And she’s not the one I was sent here to wed anyway.”
“Farkwho you were sent here to wed. If your instincts are telling you beyond a shadow of a doubt that Summer Coruscate is the one for you, then I say listen to them. As for her not wanting you... in my experience—which, in all modesty, when it comes to courting women, far exceeds your own—when a woman runs from a potential husband as hard as Summer Coruscate has been running from you, it isn’t him she’s running from. And it isn’t because she doesn’t want him.” He raised his brows.
“You’re saying you think she’s more interested me than she’s letting on.”
“I may have seen her looking at you a time or two when she thought no one was watching... and she wasn’t acting like she didn’t enjoy the view.”
Was it possible? “Even if that’s true, I already told Ryll he should feel free to court Summer himself.”
“Seriously?” Ari looked pointedly at Dilys’s hands, where his battle claws were already extending at the mere thought of Ryll pursuing Summer. “Like that is ever going to happen.”
Dilys curled his fingers into fists. Strangely—or perhaps not so strangely—hearing Ari scoff at the idea of him or Ryll even considering a romantic interest in Summer relieved all sorts of tension and aggression inside him. His claws were already retracting—and not because he was forcing them.
“So, it’s settled then.” Ari got up, spun his chair around and put it back in its place. “Tonight, you are going to spend the evening with Summer Coruscate, and you are going to court her. And you aren’t going to take no for an answer. Agreed?”
Dilys hesitated. He’d never pursued an unwilling woman. He’d never had to. But Ari was right, if everything in him was saying Summer was the one, he was being an idiot tying himself into knots trying to ignore his instincts.
“Agreed,” he said.
“Good. And if she tries to run, Ryll and I will be there to cut off her escape and drive her back your way.”
“For goddess’s sake, Ari, it’s a courtship, not a hunt.”
“Ah. That, my dear cousin, may be the real root of your problem. You think a courtship and a hunt are two separate things.” Ari grinned, showing gleaming white teeth with battle fangs fully extended. “They’re not.”
“You’re doing fine, Lily.” Gabriella encouraged the young Summerlander as Lily stumbled over a word in the book she was learning to read. “Just sound it out.” With Gabriella doing her best to avoid the Calbernans staying at the palace, she had been staying late at the school every night, sewing the historical costumes for the children and tutoring Lily in reading and writing.
“No, not a long A.” Gabriella corrected as Lily mispronounced the word again. “This one makes the short A sound, like ‘cat’ and ‘hat.’”
