In Which Neilor Learns a New Smile

March 17, 1180

"Well," groaned Tivie as she finished her resigned descent from the second floor, "I'm pretty much grounded forever."

Huh. From the shocking lack of noise over the course of the hour Tivie and her mother had spent up there, Neilor wouldn't have guessed Lady Danthia would have been so angry. Then again, perhaps it was possible to discipline without resorting to screams and curses? He couldn't say. He didn't recall his own mother ever disciplining him, shouting or otherwise. No matter what he did, she could never be bothered.

Lady Viridis pulled herself to her feet, and for that, Neilor was relieved. It was hardly as if they had been talking. What would there have been to talk about, after all? Her willing marriage to a noted flight risk? His deflowering of her stepdaughter? Surely there was no point. He didn't dislike Lady Viridis, nor did she dislike him, and the best way from keeping things that way--so they'd both figured, it seemed--was to remain politely aloof.

Not that Lady Viridis was the person who most concerned Neilor just then--or that Neilor was the person who most concerned Lady Viridis. "You're all right, though?"

Tivie nodded. "Yes. Mother always gives her reasoning."

"Whether she needs to or not, I see." Her stepmother shot Neilor a glance and he made a point to not notice; she'd resolved similarly as she walked past, trailing skirts brushing against the hardwood. "I suppose it's getting close to lunch. I suppose I ought to tell the cook we have two more guests."

She left without a verbal response from either of them. Perhaps Tivie too had decided that silence was the best approach. "This is embarrassing."

"What? Being scolded?"

"No." She strode over the couch and sat down in Lady Viridis's vacant spot, snickering in spite of the immediate past. "I've been scolded hundreds of times. Never while you were in the same building, though."

"I didn't hear a thing."

"Maybe not, but you still knew what was going on, didn't you?" The side of her slippered foot tapped against his leg. "Just from your understanding of normal punishments for wayward young adults?"

Oh, there were so many things he could say to that! "I'm not sure I have the best idea of what 'normal' is."

"Who does? But I guess if that's the case, this could be as normal as it ever gets." She grabbed him by the wrist and lifted his arm pulling herself beneath it. He took care to drop it gently as she let go. "Thank you, again. This didn't turn out like I'd planned, but I think I got what I was looking for."

Neilor smiled. He didn't smile all that often--not for anyone who wasn't Landus, or Ellona or her children--but Tivie seemed to be well on her way into that exclusive set. Possibly an even more exclusive one; if the unpracticed muscles of her mouth had anything to say about it, the smiles he gave Tivie were a new stretch entirely. "Glad to hear it."

A pair of firm, moist lips caught him on the jawbone, not particularly fussed about the scruff of his stubble. "Just to make us even, though, you let me know if you ever get the urge to chase your feelings through three different countries and I'll be glad to come with."

Chasing feelings. He didn't think he'd ever chased a feeling in his life before now. To chase them would require letting them escape, and his heart was as fortified and well-guarded as any other prison. So he figured, at least. "I'll get back to you on that."

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