He rose early and made himself slow down in his ablutions after he nicked himself twice in the first minute of attempting to shave. He chided himself for being a fool after he considered dressing in his fanciest tunic.
Pelun would just think he was trying to show off again—or he might accurately guess that Tor had designs on him, and, unfortunately, that still seemed likely to send him storming off rather than get him into Tor’s bed.
A couple days ago, Tor reminded himself, the man had punched him in the face because he thought Tor had had his way with an unwilling woman. Torwasstill impressed that Pelun had put the protection of his servants over any consideration of Tor’s status… but it was a bit sobering to know that Tor had made so few inroads into Pelun’s poor impression of him.
Still, though, Pelun had learned the truth, and he was willing to meet today. Tor was going to focus only on the positive. He was also going to curtail even his reasonable encounters with people. It somehow hadn’t occurred to him that he might need to account for himself to Pelun. He wasn’t ashamed of his actions, but he could suddenly see how it didn’t lend credence to the idea that he was here intending to court someone. Now that he was finally getting to spend some time with Pelun, he really didn’t want to mess this up.
Plus, it had occurred to him that his stickler of a brother might even consider his time with Lashuna and her partner to break the “no orgy” order. Tor would be willing to argue until he was blue in the face that his one act with them didn’t resemble an orgy in the slightest, but Varex might see it differently. Tor couldn’t risk jeopardizing everything. He knew full well how his brother and Yomil would react if he tried to explain that he’d genuinely been attempting to be helpful.
Dressed, Tor managed not to spill any food on himself while he ate. He forced himself to slow down again. He was up early, and he was being ridiculous.
He headed out to the garden for a brisk walk, and it was apparently early enough that he didn’t “accidentally bump into” Larexa or Bavil. (They all just waggled their eyebrows at one another at this point. It was ridiculous.)
The goddess knew that Tor neededsomethingto be amused about.
And then he found his feet had led him all the way to the stables. Still way too early. But the good thing about stables was that there was always something to be done, and Tor was soon mucking out stalls, which at least kept him occupied.
So, it maybe wasn’t an ideal task right before he went off with the man he was trying to impress, but it was too late for that now. And this way, Tor could pretend Pelun’s reluctance was a result of the smell.
Tor smirked to himself, just imagining how Rin would tell him that he was grasping at straws.
He still felt better for having actually done some work, and it ensured that the time passed without him being really aware of it.
He straightened as he heard Pelun call out, “Is Prince Torex here yet?”
Did he sound a little hopeful, like he thought that Tor wasn’t going to show?
He tried to brush wisps of hay off himself. Yes, this was going to go great.
“Yes, Your Highness,” someone responded. “He’s been mucking out Extraordinary’s stall.”
Tor tried to appear nonchalant as Pelun appeared at the stall door. He looked suspicious. Again.
Default expression, Tor reminded himself.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“Mucking out the stall,” Tor repeated, since he didn’t have a better answer than that.
Pelun continued to look at him strangely, but Torex took the towel that one of the stable hands had ambled along to give him, and he wiped himself clean so he could pull his tunic back on.
“Why Extraordinary’s stall?” Pelun demanded.
Tor pointed towards the stable hand. “He said it was the next in need of a good cleaning. I had some time this morning.”
Because he’d been over an hour early and hadn’t wanted to admit it. He hoped that no one gave him away or mentioned the two other stalls he’d done before this.
“We’ve got Extraordinary saddled for you,” one of the hands called out, and Pelun nodded his thanks.
It took Tor a moment to process that, and then he realized that Pelun had been suspicious because Tor had been inadvertently taking care ofhishorse. And then he realized—
“You named your horseExtraordinary?”
Belatedly, he realized that this was probably a touchy topic.
The tips of Pelun’s ears went red, but he shrugged and said, “It seemed like the best idea when I was young.” He swallowed visibly. “I’d never encountered a more amazing creature.”
Aww.Tor felt his heart melt a little. Pelun wouldn’t have known, then, that he would be Unremarkable, but he’d kept the name—and the horse—and was gazing straight at Tor, just daring him to make a comment.
