course, now it almost made sense, having had sex with her, he was kind of her lover, right? If she wanted him to be. Not that he could do anything about it at the moment, which sucked. A lot. As soon as he settled she touched his right arm and looked past him.
“I hope this is all right? Trice suggested it… If it's a problem we can fix it, but it would take some doing to save face.”
He followed her gaze to the seat next to him, making him suspect the worst.
It was just Maria Ward though, with her Count on the other side. A little louder than he intended he spoke to the Queen.
“Oh, good. Maria, Marvin and I are good friends now.” The words came out quickly and half the table looked at him. He just meant that they were friends, forgetting that “good friends” meant more in the Capital than in Two Bends. There it told people that you'd back up someone totally. Here it had a different flavor. It kind of said they were lovers.
Eep!
Worse he couldn't explain or take it back, not without humbling them again. The Queen smiled at him and seemed happy about what he'd said though.
“Oh, wonderful! So good to set all that behind us then. Are you staying with Tor and Alissa then for Postern?”
It was the Count that answered, smiling openly, teeth shining a bright white against his dark skin.
“We were thinking of asking Tor down to our celebration actually. Alissa too of course. In fact, everyone is invited.” He glanced around the table, still smiling. Very few smiled back.
That could happen when you had recently declared war on a whole country, even if they had taken it back within a month. Inside two weeks actually. It was a mistake.
From across the table Rolph smiled and shook his head.
“Sorry Marvin, we can't ask anyone to miss the biggest Postern celebration in history. I suggest we get Tor to set up a few more houses and invite your people up here. With the availability of civilian transport now, we should probably set up more than a few places for all our friends that will want to visit. Lets actually register for this though, instead of the traditional procession of Kings week. Noram day was awful this last time.” He sounded so happy a pleasant buzz went up around the table.
Tor turned to Maria and smiled a bit, trying to look cheery instead of just exhausted. Her eyes looked worried for some reason. It was so frustrating not reading people on the field level. How was he supposed to know what the problem was. He couldn't ask, not here.
“Not to… be a pain Maria, but would you help us with this? The planning for it and all? I can't do it alone at all and really, it's important. Now more than ever. Please?” He wheedled a little, which got her to blush and duck her head.
“Honored. Who else is working on it?” Her voice was meek. Almost subservient.
Gods and monkeys it was hard to tell what she was thinking at all. He didn't let himself shrug, turning to look at Connie instead. She generally knew this stuff better than he did.
“Um, your majesty?” It was his turn to sound meek.
“Well, alright, since you're asking…” She winked, a playful thing that got a laugh from the whole table, the room having gone silent to listen.
“I'll be helping you Maria, and will volunteer my family, if they aren't otherwise occupied. Anyone else want to lend a hand? It's quite rewarding really…”
For a long moment the room went silent, finally a single voice from the far side of the table, the very end, spoke with a familiar tone.
“I think I might be available to lend a hand.” Burks Lairdgren said, sounding pleased enough about the whole thing.
Chapter Sixteen
That actually got about five more responses from around the length of the table. After all, if the royal family and that weirdo Lairdgren were going to be working with the Ward bitch, then why not? It would be interesting if nothing else, right? They collected Countess Ross, Ursala and to Tor’s amusement, Abbie, who smiled brightly about it.
Countess Thorgood had enough control not to grind her teeth at the table. It was clearly taking effort though.
Tor bowed his head and committed all the names to memory. Then he spoke to the Queen quietly. “Sorry, I ended up accidentally turning this towards business. Do you have plans for the water garden this year?”
That, as quiet as it was, got everyone to move back to polite dinner conversation as if he'd scolded them instead of whispering the words. The food was incredible, as always, though he just couldn't eat it all. Not more than a few bites of each thing. He tried, it was just too much still. After desert, a lovely dish that had flaming berries with brandy, which he didn't touch at all. He was a bit surprised when Sandra, down the table, looked at him and quickly followed suit. Builders didn't drink alcohol, but that wasn't why he wasn't having his, he was just too full.
Count Morris and a beautiful looking woman of about forty, tall and lithe, sat near her, the resemblance was more than passing of course, her parents after all. Sandra sat straight and made small talk with the people around her, not looking overly unhappy even. Of course, she'd said that her father didn't get along with her, but that didn't mean they'd fight at a dinner at the King’s table.
When the meal broke up Tor floated over, getting even more strange looks from the room. He knew he looked odd, but really, he couldn't sit any more, the sores just wouldn't allow it. It was this or stand and he really didn't think that would work for more than a few minutes, so Not-flyer it was.
He tried to start things on a positive at least, “Count Morris, so nice to see you again. I haven't forgotten-”
“Master Tor! Wonderful to see you, I wanted to thank you for the timely delivery of devices. I hope that sending the payment to your residence here was sufficient? Countess Printer wasn't certain when she made the delivery…”
Tor put it together, so didn't feel too silly at least. The Countess had “borrowed” a few million gold worth of his property, the King said she could keep it, but had to pay for it. It was a lot and since it turned out that she didn't have to destroy Count Ward after all, for the death of her husband at least, it seemed she'd decided to spread the pain of that judgment out a little.
Good. Tor had completely forgotten about it until he saw the Count.
“Oh, that sounds fine, thank you. I haven't been to my own house for a while though. I was planning on staying there tonight. Do you have rooms?” He addressed this to the Count, who nodded.
“Yes, the Queen saw to that for us. Sandra…” The man looked slightly worried at least, which Tor took as a good sign.
Tor nodded to the girl.
“Is part of my working group, so stays with me. In fact, we're using my residence as headquarters when not up at Lairdgren, on breaks and so on. She'll be needed there a lot, since the students are, well, students, but on holidays and breaks we should all be around here, if not needed on other tasks around the kingdom.” It was all kinds of pushy, but she really was needed for duties with the crown.
Shrugging Tor said that out loud too, including that he knew he was being bossy. Her parents should be proud. He was after all.
The Count wasn't though. He just frowned and shook his head.
“I do appreciate your humoring her, but really her efforts at building haven't amounted to much have they? Her single building project so far is a children's toy. Barely an amusement even. I suppose it's as good a hobby as stitchery or perhaps horsemanship, but she should be out looking for a husband of good birth, don't you think?”
Right, Tor had forgotten what an over bearing jerk the man could be. After a few second Tor just shrugged and turned to his colleague’s mother.
