“That’s not the discussion I expected to walk in on.” She stepped forward and hugged him.
The two military police looked like they wanted to object to all these people coming close, but Trip didn’t give them a chance to. He wrapped his arms around Rysha and kissed her.
“Oh dear, not this again,” another woman’s voice came from down the hall.
He broke the kiss, his smile faltering when he saw Aunt Tadelay approaching. She wore a prim black and blue dress and a matching blue hat with an ostrich plume stuck in the band, and her lips were pressed together in a thin line of disapproval.
“I promise we won’t get naked and have sex here, Aunt,” Rysha said, clasping Trip’s hands.
Trip hadn’t expected such bluntness from her, at least not with her aunt, and watched the woman’s face warily.
“I certainly hope not,” Aunt Tadelay said. “Public displays of affection make those around you uncomfortable and are completely unseemly, especially for proper noble women.”
“There’s a woman who’s unlikely to kiss my balls,” Leftie muttered from behind Trip.
“It’s good to see you.” Trip squeezed Rysha’s hands and did his best to ignore Leftie. And the aunt.
“I came to offer support. And…” Rysha leaned around him to peer into the room. “Have you seen Lord Lockvale yet?”
Something about her tone made Trip believe she didn’t expect to see the man. Had something happened? He was debating on poking into her surface thoughts when General Zirkander spoke.
“Haven’t seen much of anyone yet. No judge, no witnesses for the opposition, no opposition. Could it have to do with King Angulus’s recent announcement?”
Rysha grinned, as if she knew exactly what he meant. Trip hadn’t paid attention to the newspapers this morning, but he looked now since Zirkander waved the front page in his direction.
“The engagement?” Trip asked, remembering Zirkander’s words from the night before. “Is that truly something that would affect this?” He waved toward the room.
Even though Zirkander had suggested it would, Trip hadn’t truly believed it.
That’s because you’re an unworldly youth who has no idea what the ramifications of a royal marriage are in the city where the king lives, Jaxi informed him. In the entire country. All of Iskandia will be abuzz about this today. Even if he weren’t marrying a commoner and a female soldier—that is entirely unprecedented, you understand—it would be huge news. But this addendum makes it absolutely scintillating to the masses.
“Trip?” Rysha nudged him. Had she said his name more than once?
“Sorry, Jaxi is educating me.”
“Ah. Have you missed her mentorship since she’s gone back to Sardelle?”
Sardelle, who was paying attention to Trip, now too, quirked her eyebrows.
“That’s perhaps not a question I should answer when she’s in the room.”
“Oh?” Rysha asked. “Afraid she’ll fry your balls?”
“Yes. And mine have a much lower melting point than Leftie’s.”
Aunt Tadelay, who was pushing her way into the room, threw him a startled look. Leftie grinned at Trip and winked at her.
“Heathens,” she muttered and stepped inside. She looked at the empty dais and the empty seats behind the railing. “I came here to publicly shame Lord Lockvale for his heinous attempt to acquire our property, and he’s not here. Nor are any of his cronies.”
Trip looked at Rysha, surprised. She must have been responsible for her aunt showing up, but how had she ever talked the woman into coming to speak against Trip’s accuser?
Rysha was looking at her aunt instead of at him. “Not here? That’s so odd. Perhaps someone took your advice last night, Aunt.”
Tadelay adjusted her hat as she turned to regard her niece. “Did someone? I hope my advice was followed in a dignified manner appropriate for a noble woman.”
“Mostly dignified, yes. Pressure was used rather than threats. Though there was a sword fight…”
Trip started to grasp what they were talking about since distinct imagery drifted to the surface of their minds as they spoke. He shouldn’t have been telepathically eavesdropping, but with the women standing so close, and with his curiosity brimming over, it was hard not to.
“So long as it was a dignified sword fight,” Aunt Tadelay said. “Did your dragon assist you?”
“She did come along, but incineration wasn’t required, so she mostly sat on the table and looked fierce.”
Aunt Tadelay curled a lip. “On the table, dear? Where people eat?”
“She changed into a tiger first.”
“I’m not sure that’s any less unsanitary.”
Rysha turned her smile toward Trip again. “I can explain later,” she said, though he sensed a hesitancy from her, as if she didn’t want to explain. Or didn’t want him to know that she’d stepped in on his behalf to solve his problem for him? That did not bother him whatsoever.
I think I got the gist, he whispered into her mind and hugged her again. He refrained from kissing her since so many eyes were upon them, but he did rest his forehead against hers.
Aunt Tadelay issued a distressed sound. “So much public affection.”
Thank you, Trip told Rysha, ignoring everyone else.
It was the least I could do after you stepped in to help my family. I’m not positive they deserved your help, but I do appreciate it. One day, I hope they’ll come around and realize that you’re a wonderful man.
I was thinking of building them a coffee maker.
She grinned and swatted his chest. That could do it.
“If Major Kaika can get a king, I don’t see why a captain couldn’t get a princess,” Pimples said from the end of the row of seats.
“You’re not still pining after that Cofah princess, are you?” Duck asked him.
“We write letters to each other. And I sent her a fancy design for a bookcase that frames her reading nook in the palace. She invited me to come to Cofahre, but I told her I’d be shot on sight there and invited her to come here instead. I told her I’d build us a treehouse full of bookcases.”
“You think she’s going to leave a palace for a treehouse? Did an otter fall on your head?”
“She likes treehouses. She told me so.”
“Uh huh.”
“Clear the way,” the military police said, abruptly pushing people away from the doorway, then snapping to attention as a colonel in a dress uniform strode in. His name tag read: Srandark.
Trip didn’t recognize the name. Hadn’t a lieutenant been assigned to him? Or maybe this was the judge?
Srandark pinned Trip with a cool gaze, and Trip’s hope that the rest of the world would forget about his inquest disappeared. Not only had someone remembered, but that someone looked dyspeptic. Before the officer said a word, he reminded Trip of his old squadron commander, Colonel Anchor.
“Don’t witches salute when a superior officer walks into the room?” the colonel demanded.
Trip whipped up a salute, feeling foolish for the lapse in courtesy—it ought to have been automatic after all these years in the army—but he’d been distracted. And distressed.