If I’m more beautiful with a smile, his has a similar effect. He looked less royal, less threatening. Dressed casually, hair damp from washing or a swim, Vanni d’Abella appears more like a Voyager than a Southerner today.
“I’ve many skills, my lady. Stealth is just one of them.”
He sits in the same place as before, after unsheathing his sword and placing it next to him. The vulnerability he’s showing me does not go unnoticed. He’s far enough away that we are not touching, but close enough for me to smell his scent. A pleasant one, though pleasant is not the word I would use for him, precisely.
Striking.
Intent.
Very handsome.
Lord d’Abella must be quite popular with the ladies at court.
“You wished me to instruct you on our ways,” I say. “But it seems my counsel is not necessary. Already I hear your name whispered throughout the village.”
“Whispered by your intended?”
Since all spoke of Vanni’s victories, including his match against Agnar, who is considered our finest swordsman, save Kipp, I have no need to ask where he got that information.
“Agnar wishes it were so,” I say, annoyed. “He should not have said that to you.” I’d told myself he’d moved on, but clearly we were due another conversation.
“So ’tis not true?”
I do not mistake his tone this time. Nor the firm eye contact he’s making, which I’m unwilling to break.
Oh, this man is dangerous to me.
I knew it from the very start, yet here I am anyway. A moth to a flame.
“Nay, not at all. Agnar is a friend, nothing more.”
I could not presume to guess his thoughts on what passes between us then, an unspoken awareness that my body refuses to refute.
But his question prompts one of my own, for I’ve treated many whose only affliction is a willingness to warm marital beds other than their own.
“What of you? Are you not promised?”
His laugh is quick, harsh.
“Nay. Nor will I ever be.”
I wet my lips, which are suddenly dry as stone.
“So says the man who has acquired the services of a Garra.”
Vanni’s eyes crinkle at the corners. “Marriage is very different than . . .” He stumbles.
“Sex. You may say the word. ’Tis not blasphemy to my ears.”
His amusement only grows.
“Forgive me, Aedre. I’m unaccustomed to speaking with a woman so openly.”
“A Garra,” I correct him. “My mother and grandmother, and theirs before them, have taught me there is no shame in the very act which ensures our continued survival as a people.”
He considers my words. “Then you know marriage is not necessary for sexual relations. But you also know that my . . . affliction was a pretense for these meetings.”
I nod, for I know it well. “Why do you not plan to marry? Will it not be necessary to carry on your name?”
He shrugs, unconcerned. “My name will mean little if our kingdom does not remain secure. My duty is to the king.”
A loud clap of water against the cliffs captures our attention. A storm is coming.
“So you will never marry?”
His answer is immediate. “I do not plan to do so.”
Why does his answer annoy me so? I decide the wording is what grates on me, not the sentiment, so I say, “The heart does not plan. Love does not adhere to one’s will.”
Vanni looks to the sky and breathes in. The air is more pungent, the winds changing.
“When do you think the storm will arrive?” he asks.
So he will ignore my words about love, ones I should never have uttered. He is a noble. Of course he does not believe in love. Southerners marry for advantage, believing matters of the heart mean very little.
But our traditions are different.
“Soon,” I say.
“I would ask questions of you today. Two, if I may. In exchange, I will grant you answers to two of your own.”
His words startle me. Two questions of me. Aye, I would agree to that.
“Very well.”
“You said you were raised here, in Murwood, with Aldwine. What do you know of him?”
I’ve thought much about this, and while I’d never give away Kipp’s secrets, it’s obvious Vanni already knows about his parentage. Kipp bears no love for the father who cast him aside.
Though King Galfrid has never sent his own Curia here before. That the second-highest-ranking man from court should come . . .
And yet, I cannot outright say what I know, if only because I promised Kipp I’d never speak of it. So I settle for a vague answer.
“I know everything there is to know. We are quite close.”
His eyes widen. “Close?”
I realize he mistook my meaning. For some reason, I feel the need to correct him. “Our parents enjoyed a friendship that saw Kipp and I raised akin to brother and sister.”
“You meet with me to protect him?” he correctly guesses, and I add shrewd to the ever-growing list of Vanni’s traits.
He speaks into the silence that follows his question. “You know of his father?”
“I do.”
“Not the mercenary.”
“Nay, not the mercenary.” I pause. “But the very man you serve.”
His shoulders rise and fall, and for a horrifying moment, I wonder if I’ve misjudged the situation entirely. If he didn’t know. If he was sent out here unwittingly, like the others, to check on Kipp. How could I blurt out one of my most precious secrets as if it were nothing?
“Aldwine has never told anyone before. Rumor of it would have spread far and wide.”
I could weep with relief. “And he’s told no one now, except my family. Kipp does not recognize the king as his father.”
To clear up his confusion, I condemn myself even further. “As I said, his mother and my family were quite close. In town, none other than my grandmother, my father, and me know of Kipp’s true origin.”
He allowed me two questions, but I need only one.
“What do you want of him?”
Vanni considers what to tell me. So I share another secret.
“I have been taught not to trust those in power, and you, the king’s Curia
