Love's Labor's Won (33 page)

“Us?” Alassa asked. “I don’t think so, but he is observant. He might have noticed something.”

“Probably,” Emily said. Yet again, her thoughts mocked her; in hindsight, it had been all too clear. “When’s the announcement?”

“I have to convince my father first,” Alassa said. She shook her head. “And that isn’t going to be easy.”

Emily frowned. “I thought you listed the advantages and disadvantages.”

“I did,” Alassa said. “But my father may have other ideas.”

Frieda leaned forward. “Ideas about what?”

Alassa exchanged a glance with Emily, and sighed. “Jade and I are planning to get married,” she said. “But my father may object.”

“Oh,” Frieda said.

“You’re not the only ones,” Emily said. She’d promised not to tell their parents, but she’d said nothing about her friends. “Guess who I found kissing in the library?”

“Marcellus and Fulvia,” Imaiqah said. “The way they snipe at each other, I would have thought they were lovers, once upon a time.”

Emily grimaced. Fulvia was ancient, while Marcellus was probably somewhere in his late fifties. The thought of them actually
kissing
...she shook her head, determinedly. Maybe older people could get married and do all the things that married couples did, but she didn’t want to think about it. Besides, they hated each other. If they had been somewhere else, they might well have been hurling curses rather than verbal snipes.

“No,” she said. “Markus and Melissa.”

Alassa stared at her. “Damn,” she said, finally.

She picked that up from me
, Emily thought. She’d introduced so many ideas and concepts to the Allied Lands, but she hadn’t intended to introduce swearwords too. Or at least ones that came from Earth.

“That’s so romantic,” Frieda said, her eyes going wide. “That’s...”

“You’re serious,” Imaiqah said, cutting Frieda off. “Are they really going out?”

“They were kissing,” Emily said, remembering Melissa’s swollen lips. How many times did someone have to kiss to make their lips swell? She had no idea. “They think they’re in love.”

Alassa shook her head slowly. “And to think I thought that considering Jade as a consort was likely to worry my father.”

She had a point. King Randor might object to Alassa marrying Jade...and, if he did, the whole idea would be buried. But it would be harder for Markus and Melissa to split up without heartache, now they’d moved to a physical relationship. How far had they gone together? Had they managed to find somewhere in the city they could make love without fear of detection? Or had they only just begun?

“It’s
very
romantic,” Imaiqah said. “But what concern is it of ours?”

“It’s political, not romantic,” Alassa snapped. Her face darkened. “Send them both home, Emily; you can come up with something that will serve as an excuse. You don’t want this to explode in your face.”

Imaiqah gave her a sharp look. “You’re only saying that because you don’t like Melissa.”

Alassa sneered. “Do
you
like Melissa?”

“Not really,” Imaiqah said. “But...”

“Have you forgotten,” Alassa said, “who it was who rigged the chairs so we couldn’t get up, making us late for class? Have you forgotten who managed to turn us into rats and hide us in a cage for an hour? Have you forgotten who
accidentally
stole our notes and...”

Imaiqah slapped the table. “Have
you
forgotten who it was who turned
them
into stones and left them hidden outside the school?”

Alassa frowned. “What’s your point?”

“She’s been pretty awful to us, but we’ve been pretty awful to her,” Imaiqah said. “Does that justify telling her parents and
really
screwing up her life?”

“She turned you into a cow,” Alassa snapped.

“I got better,” Imaiqah said. “And so did you. Tell me: does everything she did justify telling her parents and
really
screwing up her life?”

“No,” Emily said, before Imaiqah could repeat the question for the third time. “But there is a political implication, too.”

She sighed, and outlined the problem as she saw it. If the affair remained a secret, well and good; if it came out into the open, the two families would likely go to war. Frieda stared at her openly as she spoke, her eyes wide; the others, more practiced in controlling their expressions, kept their faces blank.

“That’s why I told you to send them away,” Alassa said, once Emily had finished. “Get the problem out of your hair before it explodes.”

“But they will want explanations,” Imaiqah said, quietly. “What will you tell their families when you send them away?”

Emily looked down at the table. What
could
she tell their families?

“I don’t know,” she mumbled. Imaiqah was right. If she sent Markus and Melissa away without explanation, Fulvia and Marcellus would be displeased. But if she came up with an excuse, it would haunt their lives until the day they died. “There’s nothing I
can
tell them.”

“I think Lady Barb would say the same,” Alassa said. “They shouldn’t be allowed to risk the lives of everyone in the castle, Emily.”

And that is what they’re doing
, Emily thought.

“If it was just Melissa, sending her home would be easy,” she said. “But I don’t hate Markus.”

Alassa lifted an eyebrow. “A secret boyfriend?”

Emily felt her cheeks heat. “He was good to me, when he didn’t have to be. I don’t think he’s a bad person.”

“He was a decent Head Boy,” Frieda agreed. “Many of us had a crush on him.”

“He could be playing games with Melissa,” Imaiqah said. “It doesn’t really matter if she loses her maidenhead to him or not, but an affair here, right under Gaius’s nose, will have repercussions for the rest of her life.”

“You’re meant to hate Romeo,” Emily muttered.

Alassa gave her a sharp look. “Pardon?”

“It’s from a play...a play where I come from,” Emily said. Maybe she could write down a few Shakespeare plays, and try and get them performed. “Two feuding families, two star-crossed lovers...and a very stupid plan to escape their fate by faking their deaths.”

“Oh,” Frieda said. “What happens?”

“They both end up dead,” Emily said.

But, when they’d been forced to study the play, one of her teachers on Earth had suggested that Romeo was meant to be the villain. He’d been a player, moving from Rosalind to Juliet, eventually deflowering Juliet to ensure she could never marry Paris. Some of the girls had objected, either because it wasn’t romantic or because it made Juliet a simple victim, but Emily had found the argument surprisingly compelling. Romeo had been driven by hormones rather than common sense. God alone knew if Romeo and Juliet would have been able to forge a life together if they’d escaped their fate.

“I don’t think either Markus or Melissa will be killing themselves,” Imaiqah said. “But really...what else can you do, but watch and wait?”

“And hope it doesn’t blow up in your face,” Alassa said.

“Their families will notice,” Frieda said, slowly. “
My
family always noticed when I was doing something wrong.”

“She has a point,” Alassa agreed. “Even in a castle, there are watching eyes.”

Emily shivered. Alassa had never really known true privacy, even if she’d regarded the servants as less than human. And it had only grown worse as she’d grown older. Alassa’s personal household, which was legally separate from King Randor’s even though it was in the same palace, consisted of servants the king had chosen personally. Emily rather doubted they kept their mistress’s secrets when their master ordered them to talk. If Alassa and Jade had kissed in the castle, word would have slipped back to the king.

She leaned forward. “How did you and Jade...do stuff without being noticed?”

Alassa colored as Imaiqah snickered. “We didn’t actually
do
much stuff,” she said. “I can’t until the wedding.”

Double standards
, Emily thought.

“But I did manage to use some magic to give us some time together,” Alassa added. “Subtle magic is quite useful for hiding things.”

“I know,” Emily said, grimly. She tapped the rune between her breasts meaningfully. “But only if the people have no protection.”

Alassa cleared her throat. “If you’re not willing to throw them both out of the castle,” she said, “you should help them.”

Imaiqah coughed. “
You
want to help
Melissa
?”

“It’s the practical solution,” Alassa said. “Look, they’re close, right? They’re already kissing, aren’t they? So they’re going to keep kissing and...going further until they either lose interest in one another, or get caught. And when they get caught, all hell is going to break loose.”

She met Emily’s eyes. “If you arrange for them to have a private room on the upper levels,” she added, “they wouldn’t be doing it in such risky places.”

Emily shook her head slowly. “And you think that will help?”

“I think they will need to make some pretty hard choices soon enough,” Alassa said, flatly. “Are they going to stay together? And if they do, what are they prepared to give up to do it?”

“You mean they’ll be kicked out of their families,” Imaiqah said.

“Precisely,” Alassa agreed. She rested her elbows on the table. “You know Countess Morin?”

Emily shook her head.

“She’s the youngest cousin of Baron Gold — the one who had his head lopped off,” Alassa said. “Somehow, she managed to avoid being married off as soon as she became old enough to be entered on the marriage market. She reached twenty-one...and then married the young man of her choosing, without bothering to get anyone’s permission to wed.”

“How romantic,” Imaiqah said.

“You keep saying that,” Emily teased.

“She wasn’t meant to do it,” Alassa snapped, glowing at them both. “As a relative of the baron, he was meant to choose her partner and the king, my father, was meant to confirm his choice. Her marriage would always be a political issue, first and foremost. She could have been married off to someone who made her family stronger. Instead, she chose her own path.”

Her face darkened. “The baron disowned her, of course,” she continued. “The husband’s family wasn’t too pleased, either. She moved from riches to...poor cloths. They eventually moved to Beneficence and made a life of their own, well away from the aristocracy. And it could easily have been a great deal worse.”

“But they were happy together,” Imaiqah said.

“I don’t know if they were or they weren’t,” Alassa said. “But at that level, marriage is never solely a union between a man and a woman. Two
families
are being united.”

“If Markus and Melissa marry,” Emily said, “will it stop their families from fighting?”

“It might,” Alassa said. “Or they might both be kicked out — or murdered — and then the fighting would go on.”

She shrugged. “Give them a room, let them get on with it...and hope it doesn’t come to light before the end of the Faire.”

Imaiqah swore. “Emily,” she said, “when
are
Melissa and Gaius meant to get married?”

“I don’t know,” Emily said. “But the Ashworth Family
did
request the Great Hall for the last night of the Faire.”

Alassa paled. “If that’s when they are going to get married,” she said, “Melissa will have to make a choice very quickly.”

Emily wished, suddenly, that Lady Barb had stayed. She could have asked the older woman’s advice. Instead, Master Grey was in charge of security...and he had ties to the Ashworth Family. If she talked to
him
about it, Fulvia would know by the end of the day, and then all hell would break loose.

And was it a coincidence
, she asked herself,
that Lady Barb had to go?

She tossed it around and around in her mind. Sergeant Miles had told her, more than once, that the more unlikely a coincidence, the less likely it
was
a coincidence. But she couldn’t see how Lady Barb’s departure tied in with Melissa and Markus’s relationship. Unless Lady Barb had seen the problem looming and decided it would make a nice test for Emily...the older woman
did
have a “sink or swim” mentality.

But it seemed unlikely. Lady Barb might test Emily, she might push her mercilessly, but she wouldn’t risk thousands of lives for a test.

“I’ll find them a room,” she decided. It would cut down the risk of the lovers being discovered before they’d made some decisions. “And don’t mention this to anyone.”

Alassa smirked. “As if I would,” she said. “I do know how to be discreet.”

“Just think of the favors she will owe you next year,” Imaiqah said. “Or what Markus will be able to do for you.”

“Or the trouble it will cause if all hell breaks loose,” Emily said. She gave Frieda a sharp look. “You too, really. Keep it a secret.”

“I will,” Frieda promised.

After breakfast, Emily went to find Bryon. A room was assigned to Markus and Melissa on the upper levels, so it should be relatively safe, but she fiddled with the wards anyway, ensuring that it should be completely secure. She just hoped it was enough to allow them to decide their future before time ran out completely.

If it isn’t
, she thought,
I will need another option
.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

T
HE NEXT FOUR DAYS PASSED RELATIVELY
smoothly, much to Emily’s surprise. Master Grey kept her informed of a constant string of small incidents at the Faire, but reassured her that such incidents were common to all such gatherings. Magicians acting out old grudges, sorcerers carrying out industrial espionage, sellers trying to undercut their rivals...as long as it didn’t lead to outright violence, it was reluctantly tolerated. Emily had her doubts, but kept them to herself.

Melissa also seemed to be keeping to herself, she noted. Emily had hoped to be able to have a discreet chat with her about Gaius and Markus, but Melissa was nowhere to be found. Emily couldn’t help wondering if Melissa was avoiding her, or if she was just spending all her time with Markus, who was keeping himself out of sight. It would be an understandable thing to do.