meant he was a giant down there as well. Tor had always wondered if that was a big part of how come his friend was so comfortable with himself. Not just the size of his… manliness, but his overall size and everything coming together so well for him?
Sara was pretty, in a thin way, with more curve to her hip than he’d have though and a patch of blond hair between her legs that he’d heard legends about back home, on women in general, not about her in particular, but had never actually witnessed for himself. Ursala caught him looking and winked. So Tor looked at her for a moment too, smiling shyly. She was built a little stouter maybe, but everything on her was a size up from Sara, taller by a half foot, wider hips and a much bigger bust line. The biggest difference that he could tell was that her nipples were large and brown to Sara’s smaller pink ones.
Realizing that he was about to embarrass himself with a physical reaction in front of everyone he decided to climb into the tub quickly. It wasn’t so much that he wanted to hide, as that he desperately and completely had no clue what would be considered proper in this context to these people. Should he just ask? Or maybe ask if it was all right to ask?
It quickly became a moot point, because Sara ended up being seated directly across from him and after two minutes of small talk, she blurted out something that was about the last thing the whole world he would have expected. Well, the last thing would be that she was actually a man, since he knew first hand now that she couldn’t be.
What she said was definitely right up there thought.
“My family started the rumors in Galasia that you were a troll or a bad man that had to be begged to save them.” She looked ready to cry, and then the tears came. At least she was quieter about it than Trice or her mother had been. Not that he was knocking his other friends, he half scolded himself, but it was true. If there had to be crying, Sara’s way won hands down. She continued without too many sobs at least.
“It was because… because you spurned our offer of marriage. I told them it didn’t matter, but they were all angry at you for a long time, so some of them made up those stories, it wasn’t Heather or Kris, I promise. I… I’m sorry.”
Tor looked at her for a minute. God, of course. It was right there in the rules of how to be polite at that level of society and he’d gotten it totally wrong. He was… a Doretta.
“Sara… I’m so sorry! I really and truly thought that you were all just teasing me about that back then. I mean, why would you marry me? I’d just had it pointed out not, was it two hours before that, Rolph? That I was too low class for Ursala, so when your people, your mother and brother started in on it, I figured, you know, it was just having fun with the bumpkin time… you know? That’s why I ended the joke like I did. You remember? When I put my hand out flat on the table? Gah. You people don’t do that… If I’d have realized at the time I would have jumped at the chance, even if it meant pulling you out from under Rolph to do it.” He would have too. Trice was his friend, but so was Sara and in a lot of ways the blond girl had always been gentler with him, which mattered in the greater scheme of things.
Ursala and Rolph busted up laughing joined after a second by Sara, still crying. It made for an awkward hiccupping sound.
Tor blushed. This had been a joke, and he’d fallen for it? He felt a little stupid and started to close down, so that he wouldn’t burst into tears in front of everyone like a baby. Ursala at least explained why they were laughing which made him feel a little better once he got it.
“Pull her out from under him? Oh, that’s funny…” She wiped at her eyes a little.
Sara tilted her head down a little and shook it slowly.
“No, not that, we all got that you weren’t taking it seriously then, or even that you might be putting us off, but just didn’t want to be rude. Calling yourself a troll like that… well, “you’re too good for me” is an excellent way to stop someone from pursuing you, very polite even in a way, taking the blame for why it wouldn’t work, but I told them that you just were a little down on yourself. I just didn’t know why back then.
“Then Rolph said we had to go through his mother, so we sent off the papers on it that night. It was accepted at the gate but then we never heard back from you at all, and you never mentioned it to me. Not even a note about it, or a go between, if you couldn’t bear to do it yourself. Then, you know, a week later, well two weeks, but it felt almost instant and you were getting together with Trice. She’s my best friend, so I made myself let it go, even if it hurt a little. But my family didn’t. I figured you just didn’t like me that way, so, you know, I tried to hide it. Or, well, I did kind of sleep with Rolph on the beach trip and I… I thought you might be mad about that. You’re rules, the ones from Two Bends are just so different than ours.”
Ah. That had been why they’d been afraid the sweet fried corn cakes were poisoned? But, he’d never heard of a marriage proposal at all until the one from Meredith Sorvee. What, he wondered out loud, had happened?
Rolph ducked his head under the water, and came up grinning; it was a guilty seeming look somehow. Not just a little either.
“Um, well, this is awkward isn’t it? You see, I kind of had the gate guards pull anything that came from Debri house, you know, just in case it was a love letter or something I wouldn’t want my mother to read in public. Aaaand long story short, I didn’t open my mail until the night before we left to go back to school, I figured, you know, if Tor already had something arranged, then it was a moot point…”
Tor started to get mad, but then busted out laughing instead, and covered his face with both hands. Of course that would happen. Well, he certainly would have married Sara, he would now, except that Varley got there first, but until the wedding took place he wasn’t going to count on that one either. The options for a Princess were too great, and face it, he told them all, Princess Veronica was very good looking. Plus she had that rumored chance with Varro the Gardener.
The odds of her sticking with the engagement had to be less than certain.
“I don’t know Tor. Karina is scrambling to find a husband now, because of this. She has to get married first by tradition, if possible, and she doesn’t really like the one my parents have arranged for her. Count Peterson? He’s the one in charge of the flying school and that department?”
“Oh… Yes, he seems nice… but, um, intense looking. As in scary. Well, I’m sure something will turn up. She’s cute too and has that whole Princess thing going for her. I’m… I don’t want to sound backwards, but I still have some problems with the “everyone has lovers” thing. I still feel like Rolph’s going to come hack me up one night over Ursala as it is, you know?”
“What?” Rolph burst out, smiling and calmly interested, not angry, as far as Tor could see.
“You two? That great Tor. I mean if there are two people I want to see happy you know?”
Ursala chuckled.
“Oh, well, don’t get too excited yet, we’re going slowly. Both recovering still. But there will definitely be more going on, I’ll just have to alternate nights with Sara. Well, I guess I can put up with a little future hubby action on those nights, if you can stand it.”
Everyone laughed, including Tor. This he got, was a joke.
Except it wasn’t.
Later that night he made a light on the focus stone, which took him about ten minutes longer than on copper, and a deeper working state, but captured a nice clean field. One that he knew would last for a long time. Things on stone did after all. Sara came over to his bed to look at it and then hit the lights. She turned the focus stone light on and off, then asked Tor to turn his shield off. When he did she turned the light in her hands off and let her lips gently meet his. He figured that she’d kiss him, maybe a couple of times, then call it a night. Instead she lay next to him and kept kissing for a long time, finally her hands started exploring his body.
She assured him when they were done that nothing they’d done had been sex. Which thanks to Ursala, he already knew. But all of it was fun, if a little confusing. She kissed him for a while longer and then went to find her own bed. It had been interesting to say the least. He kind of wondered if it was a onetime thing, like maybe she was proving a point or something. Then he decided to try not to worry about it and just enjoy what there was. That there was a trick or set-up in it was kind of implied, right? After all, he was involved. It was probably just a joke or a weird kind of high society teasing he didn’t understand. No big thing.
After all, the next day he had to work on making enough copies of shields, flyers and weapons to outfit a small army, just in case they had to take on County Ward head on. Plus the King’s army needed more of everything. It wasn’t going to be fun, but if he started early enough, maybe a good start could be made. Copying was so boring though. What if he increased the number of devices per batch? Ten was supposed to be near the top of what could be done, but then most people took a lot longer trying to get even those finished well. What if he just did more?
