“And Bash isn’t my…my young man,” I say. I dare a glance at him, but he’s staring at the table, color high on his cheeks. I presume this entire experience is as excruciating for him as it is for the rest of us. “Even if he were, I’m twenty-two years old. I’m more than able to separate my private feelings for a person from my understanding of my royal duties. And my feelings about them.” Surely my parents have faith enough in my reasonably good sense to know I’d never make a life-altering statement likeI don’t want to do it anymoreabout my entire existence simply because of another person?
“Tanadelle, I really do feel we should continue this discussionwithout your associates here,” Mother says, setting her teacup down.
They can’t leave. I need them here, in part because I’m terrified that if my parents get me alone, I’ll back down, agree to some compromise. Here, in my bookshop, with people I care about beside me, I feel I might have a chance to make my parents understand. My friends believe in me. They make me believe in myself.
“They stay,” I say again.
Mother sighs. “You should know, then, that we’ve done some research into your young man,” she says, and my heart sinks. Of course I’d mentioned him in my official letters to Honeyrose; I’d said there was a cursed sailor in town and asked for a book on water magic. “There are some things you should know.”
I glance at Bash and then back to my mother. What could she possibly say? It wouldn’t change the fact that I’m in love with him, which is the only bit that matters. “All right,” I say.
“Don’t tell me he’s not a real pirate,” Sasha gasps.
“He’s a pirate?” my father says, leaning forward to peer at Bash. “I thought he was a sailor!”
“Darling,” Mother says, sounding exasperated. “Justlookat him. Have you ever set eyes on a sailor who dressed like that?”
“Ah yes. Quite so,” my father says, subsiding.
Amaritha giggles.
“Well,” Honey says, shuffling a sheaf of papers on the table in front of her. Oh, by the great green dragon, she has adossier. How did I not notice it earlier? Dread builds inside me.
“First off, he’s a real pirate. Or was.”
“Thank thegods. Barn Pirate forever,” Amaritha whispers.
“Not a pirate captain?” Sasha guesses.
“No, he was a captain.”
“I mean, was he abadcaptain?”
“I suppose it depends what you mean by bad,” Honey says, in that maddening way of hers. A smile quirks her lips. I realize she’s enjoying herself, and feel a little of my tension ease. Whatever she’s learned about him, it’s not going to betooterrible, if she’s smiling. I hope.
“Bad like a bad guy. A villain.”
“No again. He seems like he was fairly neutral for a pirate captain, actually,” Honey says. “More of the ‘searching for buried treasure’ and ‘scrapping with other pirates’ line than the ‘pillage and murder’ line.”
I sigh, quietly. At least he was telling the truth about that.
“Maybe he wasn’t agoodpirate captain,” Amaritha suggests. “Like, his ship was dirty and his crew hated him.”
“Again, no,” Honey says. I glance at Bash again. By the gods, he looks like he’s sinking down in his seat. Like he’s…embarrassed. “His crew were very fond of him, and his ship was reputed to be very clean, and remarkably free of scurvy.”
“Do get on with it, Honeyrose,” Mother says.
“It’s his curse,” she explains. “When you asked for the book of water magic, and mentioned he had an unusually powerful fear of water, something to do with a sea witch…well, I started to do some digging, mostly to assuage my own curiosity.”
“Heiscursed, isn’t he?” I say. I can’t help myself. The wild seawater-salt scent of him; what else could that be? Why else would he be here, the farthest point from the sea in the entire country?
“He is,” Honey says, her tone even. I suppose that’s a relief. I never got the sense of Bash as a liar—mostly because he never said anything sincere, except for once or twice, and those momentsfeltverytrue—and it’d be beyond awful to think I’d fallen in love with a sham.
“I don’t understand,” I say. “You’ve satisfied yourself that he’s everything he says he is. He’s not even a particularly villainous pirate.” That bit’s a relief, though I’d never really seriously considered that he might be. “Then what am I meant to be shocked and appalled by?”
“I looked into his curse, mostly out of curiosity.” She pauses.
Honey doesn’t do it often, but she does occasionally indulge her need to make dramatic pronouncements, and it seems that this is one of those moments.
