Heroes Return (33 page)

I would have never suspected the Dowager of having friends. Allies, maybe, but not friends.

“And, of course, as my son is a Source, I’ve had particular interest in the workings of the Triple S. My friends and other acquaintances know this, so they relay to me everything they hear. I believe I know more about all that the Triple S does than any Triple S member. Most of you pay little attention to each other.”

That was a chilling idea, that someone outside the Triple S would have a more accurate view of us than we did ourselves. Someone like the Dowager. And I couldn’t even disagree with what she was saying. I, for one, had lost touch with most of the people with whom I went to school.

“I have to confess a secret, my dear.” And she leaned slightly forward, as though she were really afraid of being overheard. “When I learned my son had been bonded to a member of the merchant class, I truly feared that I would be hearing too much from your family seeking connections and favors.” I opened my mouth to object—my family were not social scroungers—but she spoke before I could. “I heard nothing at all. But you must forgive me, for all my life I have been surrounded by people who were interested only in alliances and negotiations and benefits. It was strange to come across a whole family of those who cared nothing for such things.”

I wouldn’t have said my family cared nothing for such things. They were, after all, a normal merchant family. My parents considered alliances and benefits when it came to my brothers and my sister. However, I was not part of the family business. It had probably never occurred to them to seek benefits through me.

“Everything I have heard of you is that you are a decent, honorable person, and a worthy Shield for any Source. I admit I have had difficulty believing such salutations, but I assure you that believing such is what I have come to do.”

Thank you, and I don’t believe you, not for a moment.

And I was realizing Taro had inherited more than his looks from his mother. They could leap from one topic of conversation to another with equal dizzying ease.

“However, I have heard other things as well. How disappointed you were when Shintaro first Chose you.”

How the hell did she know that? I hadn’t told anyone, and it hadn’t been long before it wasn’t even true anymore.

“And that his lifestyle, his gambling and his intimate exploits embarrassed you.”

“Taro has never embarrassed me,” I objected.

“You don’t need to defend him to me, Dunleavy. I know my son.”

“On the contrary, I don’t believe you know him at all.”

Her expression became serious, and I thought I would be blasted with a more characteristic insult. Instead, she said, “I don’t blame you for feeling that way. I have not always known best how to talk to my son. But you have never seen us interact alone. Can you concede that Shintaro behaves differently when you’re in the room?”

“I don’t know why he would.”

“My dear, your opinion means a great deal to him.”

“As his does to me.”

“Does it? I know he is very upset about you spending so much time with the academic, and yet you continue to do so.”

He wasn’t very upset. Kind of irritated maybe. That was no reason not to talk to Reid whenever I felt like it. And that didn’t mean I didn’t value his opinion. It just meant I wasn’t letting him control me. And I was sure he didn’t want to, even when I annoyed him.

“Don’t misunderstand me. There is nothing wrong with what you are doing, but you can understand why he’s upset. He does not have the finest mind, and you choose to spend all your time with a man who lives by his intelligence.”

Taro couldn’t possibly feel that way.

Could he?

There was nothing wrong with Taro’s mind, damn it. Just because he didn’t spend all his time reading didn’t mean he wasn’t smart.

“You’re not happy in Flown Raven,” said the Dowager. “I can see it. So can many others. And you must be aware that the reason you’re here is because the Emperor feels this is the best place for Shintaro.”

Actually, I doubted very much that the Emperor cared at all for what was best for Taro.

And all right, so I wasn’t overjoyed to be in Flown Raven, but that didn’t mean I was miserable. What was she seeing? Did other people see it, too?

“There is reason to believe that Taro will spend the rest of his life here,” the Dowager said.

What a horrifying thought. “It is the custom to be transferred every few years.”

“I have reason to believe Shintaro will be treated differently from other Sources. After all, it is not Triple S custom to post their members in their places of birth, is it?”

Why did she have reason to believe any of this? Where was she getting this information?

And was she really intimating that the Emperor would be messing Taro about indefinitely? What the hell had Taro done to deserve that?

“Now, be honest. It is not your desire to spend the rest of your life in Flown Raven, is it?”

“No.” I saw nothing wrong with admitting that. “But it isn’t Taro’s, either.”

She sighed. “I fear Taro won’t often be given the freedom of doing what he wishes. It is the nature of the position he was born to.”

“He was born to be a second child.” And you treated him like trash.

“It is more complicated than that. He has captured the interest of the Emperor.”

And whose fault was that? If she hadn’t gone running to the Emperor to try to get Taro’s title back, the Emperor would have never known Taro existed. “He belongs to the Triple S.”

“The Triple S has ceded authority over Shintaro to the Emperor.”

That was not what their letters suggested. “I think they might be surprised to learn that.”

“They allowed the Emperor to transfer you here, did they not?”

I didn’t think “allowed” was quite the right term. It was more likely that they had been so appalled by the Emperor’s audacity that they hadn’t known how to react. I got that way when people were spectacularly rude to me.

“I fear that Shintaro will be in a position of service to the Emperor for the rest of his life. But you needn’t be. You can seek separation, just as LeBarr and Taroque were granted.”

“We don’t have anything like their reasons.” If that had ever actually happened. Was there a way to find out? If secrecy was a requirement, no one would tell.

Except Aryne. She was at the Source Academy. She’d know if LeBarr was there. I’d have to write to her.

“That doesn’t matter. Once a thing is done a first time, it is far easier to arrange matters to have it done subsequent times.”

I didn’t want to be a part of that. If people knew they could leave their partners, they’d never put any real effort into working with them. We didn’t always get to like the people we worked with. “I have no interest in being separated from Taro.”

“Because you’re in love with him.”

“Because he’s my Source.” That mattered more than everything else.

“You don’t wish to be free of his burdens to the Emperor? Of his irrational possessiveness? Of his philandering ways?”

“Taro doesn’t philander anymore.”

She frowned in sympathy, and she lightly touched the back of my hand. “You don’t really believe that, do you? You are not so naive?”

“Taro has told me so, and I believe him.”

“My dear, there are rumors.”

“Like the rumors that had me sleeping with Academic Reid?” The rumors she’d been spreading?

She drew back. “I do apologize. I was so worried for him. I know now that I had no reason to be.”

“You have no reason to be worried for me, either.” And she wasn’t, of course. She was merely trying to separate us. And why was that?

“I just want you to think about the possibilities. How much easier your life would be, if you didn’t have Shintaro’s burdens to deal with.”

Really, I didn’t know what to say. She was acting so warm and friendly and I didn’t know how to respond to it. The one thing that was certain was that I wasn’t going to let her think she’d won me over. If there was any hint I might for a moment consider leaving Taro, she would run to him and tell him, and wouldn’t that be a fine mess? “I’m quite happy with Taro, and I wouldn’t dream of asking to be separated from him, even if such a thing were possible. So while I thank you for your concern, it is entirely misplaced.” Just shut up, already.

“You just think about it,” she said.

That was my cue to leave. I was happy to do so. The Dowager’s pleasant demeanor made my spine twitch.

The first thing I did was hunt for Taro. I wanted to talk to him before his mother had a chance to fill his head with lies. He proved to be harder to find than I expected. He was not gambling with off-duty members of the staff, and no one could recall seeing him recently. After an hour or so of searching, I gave up and went back to our suite.

I was really surprised to find the woman in our bed. I stopped in the doorway between our sitting room and the bedchamber, blinking. Was I in the right place?

She turned over, and I saw it was Simone. I should have known from the hair.

She sat up, the blankets falling from her naked torso. “Oh,” she said, her eyes carefully widened. “Taro said you’d be in the library all day.”

So she was supposed to convince me she and Taro had been indulging in secret assignations. “Lords,” I muttered. “Are you a rotten actress.”

“I’m terribly sorry. I didn’t want you to find out this way.”

“So you’re going to follow your script no matter what I say?” I looked for Simone’s clothes. She could cover up those breasts anytime.

She raised her knees, resting her arms on them. She smiled, a pretty little smile, and she seemed to gleam in the soft afternoon light. I could see why someone would find her alluring, graceful in her nudity.

Still, a really bad liar.

“I can understand why you don’t want to accept what you see.”

“I see nothing to worry about. It seems to me people can wander around this house at will.”

“My dear, it was bound to happen sooner or later. Taro is a charming fellow with a voracious appetite.”

I crossed my arms as I thought about her little display. “How did the Dowager convince you to do this? Surely it’s beneath your dignity. It’s like something the saucy maid would do in a comedy.”

She flushed. She didn’t like that.

“What are you supposed to get out of this? Even if it worked, do you want Karish for yourself? Why? He will never be the Duke of Westsea. It can’t be done now.”

She smiled again, and I could see she thought I had gone too far in my attempt to demonstrate her foolishness. “Shields never really learn about the world the rest of us live in,” she said. “And why should you? You have important things to think about. All about how the world moves and how to keep everything stable. But Shields are known for being ignorant about how people move, and people can’t be kept stable.”

“Seriously, you’re wasting your time. I don’t know you. Why would I take your word over his?”

She pressed on with her prepared argument. “He is an accomplished lover, isn’t he? So creative.”

I rolled my eyes and pulled the bellpull. “Anyone would be able to guess that.”

“He doesn’t use his hands a great deal, though, does he? He seems to prefer his mouth.”

That was true. It had, however, been equally true of other lovers I had had. Maybe that was just a male thing. “Mm.”

“And that roll he does with his tongue.”

Still didn’t believe her. “What roll is that, precisely?”

“Perhaps he doesn’t perform the same way with you.”

“And perhaps we’ve reached the limit of what you’re prepared to describe.” She wasn’t at all convincing. If Taro were to take up with someone, that someone wouldn’t be the sort to show up in his bed naked for the purpose of making his life difficult. He had too much sense for that. And too much taste.

Really, I should start locking the door when I left the suite. “Do be comfortable,” I told her, and when Lila came to our suite I ordered some coffee, settling in on one of the chairs in the sitting room to read a melodramatic novel.

I was curious to see how long she would wait in there. Maybe I hadn’t been the original target. Perhaps she had really thought I would be in the library all day. Perhaps her original plan had been to have Taro walk in on her, and she would seduce him.

Either way, her plan had been very clumsily executed. Did she and the Dowager really think we were that stupid, that easily convinced of the outrageous?

So now the Dowager was working on separating us. Not just sundering our personal relationship. She wanted me gone, physically gone, and she was going to ludicrous lengths to accomplish that. Why? And why now?

In time, Simone appeared in the doorway to the bedchamber. Dressed, thank Zaire. She had a bitter, twisted look on her pretty face. “You’re a fool,” she said.

“I’m not the one lying about naked in a stranger’s bed,” I pointed out.

“You don’t understand our world. Shintaro’s world.”

“Your world never included Karish. He was excluded as a child.” Oops, had she known that? I hated the thought of giving away Taro’s secrets. “Most of his life has been spent as a Source.” There, that covered me.

“And yet he has not completely left our world behind. You can hear it in his voice. See it in his mannerisms. He’s still High Landed.”

That was true. He still had a bit of the aristocratic accent, and he still sometimes moved as though he had a wooden rod tied up his back. “And if you ask him, he’ll call himself a Source.”

“And as a Source, he’ll protect his own home. It’s natural.”

Just what did that have to do with trying to seduce him away from me?

Our door was thrown open. It was Taro. His eyes looked a little wild.

“What the hell are you doing here?” he roared at Simone.