In Which Thetis Takes the Honest Approach

April 11, 1182

"What do you mean you can't see it? I wake up and look in the mirror and it seems like that's all there is of my face!" Alsina's talking hands folded and expanded and fell to her sides in their frustration. "Look a little harder. Surely you see it!"

Thetis squinted, but found nothing. In truth, she hadn't expected to. "No, honey, I don't. But even if I did, you'd hardly be the first woman to find a few hairs on her chin."

"Have you ever found hairs on yours?"

She would ask that. Thetis decided to take the honest route. "Well, no..."

"See? And you're even older than me! It doesn't happen to everyone!" As if that proved a point, Alsina's form collapsed to a slouch and her face to a moping pout--never mind that Thetis had more than once seen teenage maidens who had managed to pull off more hair-prone faces. "I can't believe this. This morning, I had to steal some lather from my husband, and--"

"'Husband'? Aw, shit--did somebody else get married without telling me?"

Speaking of husbands, Thetis's had returned--and not in the happiest of moods it seemed. "Florian, are you all right?"

"Thetis, I'm never all right. But damn..." Not bothering to take off his coat, he traipsed into the sitting room and almost threw himself onto the couch. "Did you know that the baron got married again?"

Thetis blinked. Even from Florian, that was an unexpected question. "Um... yes?"

"What?" That one, even moreso. Especially since, if she'd learned to speak even passable Florian in all their years together, it didn't sound like a joke. "How did you know? Who told you?"

"You did. Remember?"

He snorted--not quite dismissive, but baffled. When had he ever been baffled? "I think I would have remembered telling you. Or hearing about it before today, for that matter."

Alsina frowned. "You didn't know before today?"

"You did?" Oh dear. "Well, who told you?"

"Nora told me. She and Severin stood witness." To Thetis's relief, Florian seemed to find this satisfactory.

A pity that Alsina hadn't finished. "But Aldhein also mentioned it."

"Aldhein knew?" Florian's mouth was wider than Thetis recalled ever seeing it. She didn't have the heart to tell him that it wasn't just Aldhein. "Who the hell told Aldhein?"

Alsina shrugged. "He said you did."

"I think I would have remembered telling Aldhein!" A little panicked, Florian swallowed. He never had enjoyed being left out of the loop--or expelled from it, apparently. "Seriously, when do you all get together and tell me you're kidding?"

"We're not kidding!" Alsina insisted.

Florian looked to Thetis for dissent, but alas, she couldn't lie to him. "Sorry, dear. It's... well, it's not exactly a secret."

"Not even close." Alsina grinned, Thetis guessed in apology, but soon her eyes perked with another interest. "Say, are they back yet? How is the baby doing?"

Not that, apparently, Florian had known about the baby either. "All right, I have to go find one other person in this kingdom who can't write a damn book about the baron's love life."

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