“You like it.”
Girion’s smile won. “I do. It’s a miracle, you know. I’ve only known her for a short while, but she is... she is most companionable. She’s like no other woman I’ve ever met. All her questions are good ones. She is worried, but doesn’t back down. She would have been a good soldier.”
“You realize that such words from you are a veritable love sonnet, sire?”
“Hush.”
“I just want some credit, that is all. I found her.”
“I convinced her.”
“As if she would have dared to say no to you.”
Girion whipped his head around, eyes wide. “Cole, wait! Do you think she is only marrying me because she feared to deny me?”
“No. Jocasta isn’t like that. She would have hit you with a smoked eel and sent you out of her shop with a blizzarding wind if she didn’t want to say yes.”
“Archduke Reynard and Lady Renata of Wyndwood,” the steward boomed.
Girion jerked his attention forward and tried not to roll his eyes. “Why are they here again? They know I will see them at the wedding, and I’ve seen all too much of them already.”
“Godspeed, sire. I suggest you do what you did earlier when Bishop Stoddard started in on his lecture about sacred music for the ceremony. Think about your lovely bride.”
“How could—”
“I have known you for too long, Girion. Your face never softens. Not until after the ball. Something happened between you, and whatever it is, it is mutual.”
“Ah, Girion! I’ve come to offer my congratulations, of course, and apologies in person. My dear wife had to return to our Wyndwood estate. The other children, you know.”
“I know, and I accept both your felicitations and your regrets,” Girion said stiffly, bowing his head in acknowledgement. “I don’t wish to detain you if your little ones need you.”
“Oh, Mother will manage. She’s a very capable person.” Renata’s smile was thinly layered over a scowl on her narrow face.
“I’m pleased to hear it.”
“And of course, I bring regrets from Prince Fannar. There is a trade summit he must prepare for.”
“It was very short notice, and we don’t want a huge affair.”
“No. No, it would be in very poor taste,” Renata clucked. “Holding a ball, a banquet, and a royal wedding all in one week while your miners are freezing to death in iced-over pits. Why, just this morning, we heard of twenty families who are stranded in the northern hills, poor things, fleeing their settlement because their branch of the hot springs died.”
“Dried. Not died,” Girion corrected. “Things will flow and thaw soon. You are curiously well-informed, Lady Renata.”
“Oh, you know us. Caledon is our second home,” Reynard said with a hearty laugh. “My boy, if you will allow me to give you some advice... People aren’t sure this marriage is a wise one. Now, only a true friend would tell you so, would tell you to your face, not whisper behind your back. Some of the people are saying that you are marrying a human to leverage how bad things have gotten with an appearance of being pro-human, trying to lift an inferior people to an equal status with shifters.”
Girion’s shoulders shifted, and his eyes flashed dangerously. “Give me the names of those people, Reynard, so that I may invite them to discuss such an opinion with Jocasta and myself. Who used words like ‘inferior people’ to refer to the humans, who make up easily a third of our population?”
“Well, I couldn’t put a name to a face at the time—”
“Then tell me where you heard it. In what disgusting den of prejudice did you hear it?”
“Oh. You know. On the way over.”
“Walked, did you?” Cole murmured. “I thought you had a carriage. In that carriage, the only two talking would have been you and your daughter.”
“I will not be spoken to by a servant,” Renata hissed and turned her head.
“You will be shown to the stockade by this fine gentleman, son of my highest-ranking general and Lady Somerlynn. Cole is the Captain of the Guard, and there is no higher-ranking military position within the royal household. You are a guest. He is blood of Caledon.” Girion’s voice dropped into something savage, and he could feel his inner form working its way forward. His fingers flexed to keep in the claws. “I believe it is you who has strong feelings about a human becoming Queen of Caledon. Perhaps because you thought you would be the better choice,” he hissed, looking between his guests.
