It was improper for him to kiss her in public, despite the fact that Lore could conceivably be considered their chaperone. Caris was an adult—her birthing day had been celebrated by everyone in this very home last month—and had been for quite some time now. But propriety and the unspoken rules of manners her mother had desperately tried to teach her over the years meant Caris was considered by high society as someone who still needed social guidance.
With her newfound ancestry, that social guidance had become something of a prison, in her opinion. Being queen came with many requirements she didn’t have time for during the war efforts. What use did she have for a court when there was no palace to see them in? What use did she have for ladies-in-waiting when the social interactions had been replaced with meetings with military officers and high-ranking nobility more worried about the enemy at their borders than a ball?
But Meleri had been insistent she create a court because every Ashion ruler listed out in the royal genealogies had overseen one. It made her seem the queen, even when she didn’t quite act like one. Lore had taken up duties as Caris’ lone lady-in-waiting, which consisted of mostly continuing on as she had been. She lived in Caris’ home these days, a permanent chaperone if anyone asked, but more a friend than anything else.
Nathaniel stood outside everything these days, even as he’d made a home in her heart. Caris knew it was for everyone’s safety, including her own, but she still wished she could confide in him about the things that weighed on her. She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, listening to the quiet workings of his clockwork metal heart and the clarion crystal song, finding comfort in the way it still beat.
Nathaniel’s lips brushed over the top of her head, the ghost of a kiss she wished she could feel on her lips. “How was work, my darling?”
“Worth the effort,” Caris said as she reluctantly pulled back.
He reached up and tucked one of her curls behind her ear before touching his fingertips to the side of her face. “The duchess has the meal ready on the table if you are hungry.”
“Famished.”
She slid her hand over the bend of his elbow and let him lead her inside the home. It was warmer inside, brighter, too, with the gas lamps all turned up to their highest setting behind their clear glass coverings. A servant took her coat, and Lore’s as well, with Maurus slipping off to confer with the officer left in charge of the home’s security while he’d been gone.
Lore had been right when she said it was only a family meal, the long table set for five and no more. Meleri and Dureau were both already sitting at the table, though they stood at her entrance, a courtesy afforded her rank, when before, she would have been the one to curtsy to Meleri. Caris nodded at the show of respect, having long since given up on arguing they needn’t stand on ceremony with her.
The duchess looked well, if tired. Her hair was trending more gray than her natural pale red and had been recently cut, the shortness a style she’d worn for years. Her dress was practical but still well made, the style something Caris had seen quite a few of the nobility still in Cosian requesting their tailors and seamstresses emulate. Caris favored trousers and utilitarian blouses with corset belts over dresses, finding them less constricting for the work she had to perform. She, too, had seen others her age wearing that style more and more.
Dureau smiled at her, the young man more like a brother to her than anything else these days. He went by the moniker of Locke in the Clockwork Brigade, in charge of code work once relegated to just the cogs but now shared with the military. He, like the rest of his family, knew how to keep secrets. He’d been in Veran all last week and only recently returned, and Caris was glad to see him.
“A telegram came for you today on the private wire,” Dureau said, nodding at the folded missive near her place setting.
If it had pertained to the war effort, he would have given it to her after dinner, alone in the library where they had such conversations, while Nathaniel waited elsewhere in the estate. Which meant it was personal to her, and Caris had to refrain from immediately snatching it up. She managed to wait until Nathaniel pulled her seat out for her, and she sat before reaching for the paper. The block lettering was short, the words innocuous, but they left her feeling giddy nonetheless. “Blaine and Honovi will arrive tomorrow.”
She missed Blaine, having long since forgiven him for the secrets he’d kept where her birthright was concerned. She hadn’t seen him or his husband in months, the pair working to convince theComhairle nan Cinnidheanto give aid to Ashion. So far, even with her envoys pleading their case, the ruling body of E’ridia hadn’t budged. Caris didn’t expect the two would be arriving with good news, but it would be lovely to see them again, and she wanted another look at Blaine’s mechanical prosthetic.
Caris still felt guilty over the torture Blaine had endured when he’d been taken by Daijal during the attack on the Warden’s Island. Honovi had led the rescue of him at Foxborough last summer, and Blaine had been immediately transported back to Glencoe once he was snatched from the enemy’s hands. By the time he’d been well enough—both physically and emotionally—to travel, the winter storms had made passage over the Eastern Spine difficult and E’ridia had partially closed its borders.
They’d kept in touch by telephone and diplomatic letters and couriered the design for his mechanical prosthetic back and forth before autumn ended. No news that would endanger the war effort was ever shared, but she always cherished hearing his voice on the other end of a wire. She’d cut the first set of clarion crystals for him and only wished she could have done more, could have saved him from the horror of his brief captivity before he’d lost half his left arm.
“I’ll have the servants make up a room for them here,” Meleri said.
Caris set the telegram aside. “They can stay with me.”
Meleri pursed her lips but didn’t argue. “Very well. I’ll have my secretary retrieve their flight itinerary from the airfield in the morning. I’ll pencil in a meeting with General Votil in our schedules for two days hence.”
“They may have no news.”
“They’ll have something to report either way.” Meleri’s gaze cut to Nathaniel, her lips firming ever so slightly before she pasted on a cheerful smile. “Come now, let’s start the meal.”
The roast chicken and vegetables, fresh bread, and crisp greens were plated family-style, as was typical in Cosian households. Dureau served his mother and himself while Caris and the others filled their own plates. It was how every meal had been spent when she lived with her parents, and the ache when she thought of them remained sharp.
Conversation was light and easy. Nothing about the war was touched upon, and Meleri was too deft of a conversationalist to fall into the trap of pauses and redirects. She kept the dinner conversation going in ways Caris would have failed at. Still, the meal was delicious, and the company was good. Having Nathaniel by her side was better than any dessert, which Meleri apologized for not having.
“There’s still a sugar shortage going on for our province,” Meleri said.
Farms were fenced off and guarded areas that tended to be less than half a day’s travel from a city or town. Some of the ones that grew sugar grasses were outside Foxborough, and Daijal had burned most of those fields last autumn.
The tea that was served in place of a dessert carried its own kind of sweetness from the flowers it was made from. Caris enjoyed her cup and enjoyed the press of Nathaniel’s knee to hers beneath the table even more.
By the time the meal was over and they were ready to depart, the clock on the wall chimed a late hour indeed. Caris gave Meleri a quick hug before Nathaniel helped her into her coat. “We’ll be back tomorrow with Blaine and Honovi.”
“Of course,” Meleri said.
Maurus waited for them outside, the captain giving her a quick nod before opening up the door to the motor carriage that would take them home. Caris and Nathaniel took the back seat while Lore rode up front with Maurus.
