west. Time stopped as he pressed against the glass, searching without knowing what he looked for.
There was a slight noise from his sisters’ bedroom. At first he ignored it; then, with a spike of cold fear, he realized he was supposed to be alone. He turned and saw a shadow, cast from his sisters’ window, on the floor of the parlor-the outline of someone climbing through the window. He snatched up the fireplace poker, hefting it high, and edged sideways toward the bellpull.
The path to the bellpull, however, took him in front of the bedroom door. He saw, for the first time, that it was a boy climbing through the window. Jerin froze, confused.
The boy looked about sixteen, with dirty blond hair and square, plain features. While cut from fine cloth, his light woolen kilt of green was gathered high about his waist with a horse-blanket pin. One knee bled slightly, while the other sported a scab from previous outings. He started at seeing Jerin, his green eyes going wide in surprise. “Oh! There you are! You gave me a start! Quick, hide me!”
Jerin considered. If a strange woman appeared in his quarters, he knew what to do: flee, fight, or shout for help. But what about a strange man? The boy seemed to lack any malice, and Jerin hadn’t seen another man outside his family since the harvest fair. “Um, you can hide in-in my room.”
The boy needed no further directions. He beamed a happy “Thanks!” and darted off to Jerin’s bedroom. Jerin returned the poker to the fireplace and followed, still confused but now unalarmed.
“What are you running from?” Jerin asked.
“My sisters. Stupid rules. Complete and total boredom.” The boy threw himself onto Jerin’s bed. “ ‘Sit up straight. Smile. Don’t sit with your legs open. Don’t slouch. Don’t talk. Don’t think.’ I’m bored, and lonely, and’now I’m whining. Sorry.”
“I don’t mind,” Jerin said. “I didn’t know there was another man in the palace.”
“We got in last night. The Queens invited us to stay. I think to give you someone to show you the ropes without getting your sisters’ hackles raised. But, of course, every time I asked when we were going to meet, it’s ‘later,’ and ‘in good time’ and ‘when there’s time.’ All I have is time! I’ve been sitting sewing wedding linens all morning, with tiny invisible stitches, and no one even offered for me yet.”
“And vou are?”
“Cullen Moorland.” A brilliant smile. “I’m the Queens’ nephew.”
Jerin considered what he knew of the royal family. “I didn’t think the Queens had a brother.”
Cullen laughed. “You don’t know who I am? I’m hurt! But I forgive you, since you don’t know better.
My mothers are-were sisters to the Queens’ consort, the princesses’ father. We’re old blood, very tah, tah and all that, but we didn’t have much clout until the royal wedding brought us up in the world. Got anything to eat?”
“We could ring for tea,” Jerin stated, and then marveled at how naturally it came to him, as if he always had tea delivered at the ring of a bellpull.
“Then they’ll know I’m here.”
“And you shouldn’t be?”
“Oh, it’s just that it’s more fun them not knowing. It makes being here feel like I’m doing what I shouldn’t be doing.” Cullen took a deep breath. “The air even smells better when I decide where to be.”
“You could stay in here when the tray comes.”
Cullen flashed another brilliant smile. “You’re a great gun! Ring away.”
Jerin went back to the parlor and pulled the bell cord. A tap on the door announced a Barnes sister.
Jerin unbarred the door and asked for a tea tray, adding that he felt very hungry, and that his sisters might return in time to join him, so could she make it a generous tray with at least four sets of cups? The Barnes youngest nodded, impassive as always. Was she totally unaware of Cullen, or was she humoring Jerin like a child?
When Jerin returned to his bedroom, he found Cullen kneeling beside the nightstand, jiggling the open drawer.
“This is the best suite in the palace.” Cullen lifted out the drawer and set it on the bed. “We usually have it when we stay here. It put my sisters’ noses out of joint to find you were put up here instead. I don’t know why- we’ve had to give it up before. A case of speaking before thinking, to be sure.”
Cullen reached into the empty drawer hole and fished out a bundle of papers. “My secret stash. Look at these.”
Still kneeling beside the bed, he untied the bundle and spread seven tintypes out onto the bedspread.
Jerin looked at the pictures, then looked quickly away, blushing. “Where did you get those?”
“Lylia gave them to me. Of course my sisters would have a fit if they knew she was corrupting me.”
Jerrin frowned. He thought at first Lylia was one of Cullen’s sisters, but now it didn’t sound like it. Who else would have access to a noble male? A servant? “Who’s Lylia?”
“Gosh, you are an innocent! My cousin, Her Royal Highness, Lylia.” Cullen rooted two cigars out of his bundle and handed one to Jerin. “She doesn’t see the point of keeping boys ignorant. Accident of birth does not make us less human or less intelligent. We’ve got a vow that whichever of us has sex first, we’ll tell the other everything. One time”-he dropped his voice to a whisper-“we practiced kissing.” He shrugged, propping one elbow on the bed and resting his chin in the palm. “But it was like kissing your sister. Well, your own sister. I’m sure kissing your sister wouldn’t be the same.”
Kissing Lylia’s sister certainly hadn’t been the same. Jerin picked up one of the tintypes and found himself burning with embarrassment. He had done the pictured act with Ren.
Cullen put a finger on the top of the picture and tipped it down so he could see. “I always wonder why you would want to put your mouth there.”
Luckily, there was a knock on the door. Cullen dived down behind the bed. Jerin dashed toward the door, slammed to a stop halfway, ran back, and swept the pictures from the bed to snow down on Cullen. He ran back and jerked the door open. The Barnes sister stood with the tea cart.
It wasn’t until Jerin barred the door after the Barnes had left that he realized that he had the cigar still in hand. He collapsed into the chair beside the cart, giggling. “You can come out.”
Cullen peeked over the edge of the bed. “What are you laughing about?”
Jerin waved the cigar. “I forgot about this.”
Cullen laughed and vanished behind the bed. “One last thing.” He popped up holding a bottle. “Wine!”
“Lylia?”
Cullen nodded, breaking the seal. “A truer cousin is not to be found.” He produced a cork puller and fumbled through the opening of the bottle. He made a show of splashing wine into the dainty teacups. “A toast! To Lylia!”
“Lylia.” Jerin picked up the cup and raised it high.
“And to our friendship, may our sisters allow it to prosper!”
The tea had come with sandwiches of roast turkey with spiced mustard, slices of chilled cucumber in a dill vinaigrette, and raspberry tarts.
They talked as they ate, sounding out each other. They compared sisters first. Cullen had far fewer in number, partly due to an outbreak of yellow fever. His father, a young brother-in-law, and five out of ten elder sisters died then. His middle sisters died in the same blast that killed the princesses. His youngest sisters ranged from late teens to early twenties, making Cullen the baby of the Moorland family.
“Actually, I was born after my father died,” Cullen admitted. “My mothers married him in the olden days, when men were only thirteen when they wed, something they thank the gods about every chance they get, since he died so young. Personally, I’m glad I didn’t have to act the blood stallion at thirteen.
What?”
Jerin had bitten his tongue on the news that his Mother Elder would also bear a child after his father had died. It would be unlucky to talk about that before the baby was born. Cullen still looked at him, so he volunteered a different family secret. “I have three younger brothers.”
Cullen’s eyes went wide. “You’re joshing! Four boys?”
Jerin nodded, slightly embarrassed by Cullen’s impressed reaction. He, himself, had done nothing toward the feat except be born.
“What’s it like.” Cullen asked, “having other men in the house?”
Jerin had never considered this. “It’s-nice. A lot of time, it’s no different than having girls around. Well, at
