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January 17, 1198
"...I didn't write to him."
That was all Cladelia's brother had to say to her as he left their father's study. Nothing about whether she'd been eavesdropping, or why she'd lingered if she wasn't listening, not even a warning not to mention this to anyone. Given that, the appropriate response--and about all she could muster--was an awkward nod before Koradril hurried off in search of anything else to think about.
She still couldn't quite believe her luck. When she'd given her mumbled confession, the young baron hadn't yelled or gasped or stormed out. No--he'd blinked, and then stared for a couple seconds.
Then he'd laughed. And after a startled minute, her father had started laughing too. Cladelia hadn't dared join in herself, but she'd managed a grin at one point, and that had spurred the baron's laughter further. Then, he'd insisted on seeing Koradril to continue on with his own subsequent joke, which was to act as if the first joke had worked.
Cladelia had no idea what to make of that. She didn't think she felt bad for her brother, but the whole thing was a bit... hazy. Almost a drunkenness in itself--though unlike the letter, she couldn't blame it on the wine.
"Well, that was fun," the baron proclaimed from the study as soon as Koradril would have been out of earshot. "How did he look?"
Cladelia shrugged as she crossed the doorway and joined him. "Confused, I suppose?"
"Excellent. It's been a while since I've gotten to chew anyone out. I'll feed him some explanation when I see him next, but I believe I'll keep him thinking I'm angry with him for a day or two." He smirked. "Thank you for this. I'd forgotten how much fun this sort of prank could be."
Thank you. That couldn't have been right.
"You know, I did just make you return early from your break for a stupid reason in spite of the fact that we've never met." How he'd forgotten that fact the second he'd learned of it, she couldn't have guessed. "You must be at least somewhat angry with me. Or at least... irked."
The young baron shrugged. "Perhaps I should be, but my mother never seems to know what to do with herself when I'm home and she's not taking care of my shire herself; an early departure was probably the best belated Christmas gift I could have given her."
"That seems like an odd reason not to be annoyed, at least for your own sake."
"Who needs a reason not to be annoyed? It's not as if there's nothing I could fill the next few weeks with; I do have many friends and relatives out here. I just hope nothing you heard of me gave you the impression that I was the sort of man who knocked up his female peers without thought."
"I suppose all I could think in my drunken state was that Koradril had mentioned you two going to a brothel."
"I'll admit to paying the occasional willing woman for her services, but I have no intention of leading on a woman who might expect an emotional commitment. Not unless I'm sure I can deliver that emotional commitment, at least," he added with a slight blush, freckles still apparent in spite of the pink. "I suppose that when I got the letter, I thought some unfortunate acquaintance of mine needed a husband and picked me in a moment of panic. I did plan to help where I could, but the child, had there been one, couldn't have been mine."
"Well... it's sweet that you planned to help, in any case." Having grown up with her mother's midwifery horror stories, Cladelia knew many men didn't bother even when they were the ones responsible! "At least let me make it up to you before term resumes. We'll have you for supper or something; you name the dish, and I'll make sure it's served."
"I may have to take you up on that offer--though Koradril will no doubt be furious at the sight of me once he knows the truth."
"If he bans you from supper, and you're willing to wait a few months, then I'll treat you at the pub on campus some time; I'll be starting there in the summer."
"I'm glad to hear that our educational timelines will have some overlap." He took her by the hand and kissed it, causing a sudden unsteadiness in her knees. "I told my lady sister I'd join her and my nephew for lunch, but alas, I can't promise you'll be rid of me for long."
This man ought to have been furious with her. Instead, he was flirting. How charmingly unusual. How unusually charming.
"I suppose I can live with that."
NEXT CHAPTER:
January 17, 1198
"My God! I don't think I've seen much of you since you were a little ankle-biter--and now you're a baron, of all things." Tarien chuckled to himself, but noted the slight roll of his sister's grandson's eyes. It had been so long since anyone had cooed over how big he'd gotten that he'd forgotten how annoying it could be; Arkon, as any young man his age, would prefer to be addressed as an adult. "Anyway, what are you doing in Naroni a good few weeks before your studies resume? Surely you wouldn't have come all this way to pay your silly old uncle a call."
"Not to insult your company, Uncle, but it's true that I'm here on other business. Is Koradril here?"
"Koradril? He should be. At least, if he's left, no one's told me." Not that Tarien minded, usually--if no one told him, after all, then he could safely plead ignorance in the event of any trouble. But Arkon surely hadn't come all this way for nothing. "I hope he hasn't roped you into any of his shenanigans."
"Not exactly, no." Arkon sighed, drumming his fingers against his hip. "He alerted me to a misunderstanding that I need to get straightened out, but certain details are best left vague in writing. I need him to fill me in in person; I'm surprised he didn't tell you to expect me, actually."
"I can't recall him mentioning you, no." Not in the context of a January visit, anyway. "Must be a fairly private matter."
"Somewhat, but not to the point where he'd need to hide the fact that I was coming. Besides, I don't expect to suffer much; it seems I've been mistaken for someone else, or have been intended to take the fall, but I'll work something out with the involved parties."
Tarien frowned. What sort of accusations would bring a young baron to a neighboring kingdom so suddenly? Surely not the sort of accusations Koradril could have known about, unless he was a much better actor than Tarien could have guessed; the boy had been his same carefree, unfiltered self for the entire duration of his break. "Hmm. Well, best of luck to you there, though I can't say that Koradril has given any indication of anything amiss."
"Really?" Arkon arched his brows, lips pursed. "That's odd. It's not often that Koradril makes an effort to keep his thoughts from breaching his mouth."
"You needn't tell me! The whole kingdom knows half of his early adventures in masturbation, and it's his own damn fault."
"Most of campus knows of his current adventures, given how he insists on keeping his windows open." Arkon smirked, but composed himself at the sight of someone over Tarien's shoulder. "Oh. I suppose we'll resume this particular discussion later, Uncle."
"The discussion of my brother's obsession with his own penis, you mean?" Cladelia, with all the directness one could expect of a daughter of Arydath. Many a father would have been mortified at his daughter's unabashed mouthing of the word 'penis', but listening to Arydath's tales of midwifery all these years, he'd come to realize that sheltering young women did more harm than good. "No need to present any illusion on my part; Koradril slept in the room next to mine around the time he realized it did more than just piss, and the walls aren't as thick as I would have preferred."
Rather than gasp in shock, Arkon chuckled--though, from what Tarien recalled, Arkon's mother Riona wasn't the most bashful of women herself. His sister Nata, here in Naroni as Renata's stepson's widow, surely could have made her fair share of sailors blush.
"Arkon, this is Cladelia--my youngest. Cladelia, this is my great-nephew Arkon, Baron of Rexus."
He turned his head just in time to see his daughter blink. "The baron?"
"I'm still not used to people calling me that, to be honest." Arkon shot her a grin about a half-second longer than Tarien would have preferred boys grin at his sixteen-year-old daughter, but managed to wrangle his mouth back to neutral. "Do you by any chance know why your brother might have written to me, recommending that I come at once?"
Cladelia blinked again--rather unlike her usual spontaneous, confident self. "Cladelia?"
"Um..." Her hand reached to her mouth in some girlhood reflex of nail-biting, eyes darting to the ceiling rather than either of the men in front of her. "About that... I, uh..."
NEXT CHAPTER:
June 13, 1188
"Grandmama!"
Riona looked up from her bed and returned the sunny smile in front of her. Arkon was her great-grandson--her daughter Renata's grandson, through her daughter Riona--but 'Great-grandmother' had always been such a mouthful, so 'Grandmama' did the trick for most of her children's children's children. In particular, Riona enjoyed hearing it from Arkon's lips. She loved... well, most of her descendents. But of this generation, Arkon was a particular favorite, though she wouldn't dream of telling any of the others. She wasn't quite sure why, but at the same time, he'd never done anything that ought to have eliminated him as a favorite. Her husband's preference for Koradril's Danthia was infinitely more baffling.
But she wouldn't waste any more thoughts in her last days on that dreadful young woman than she had to. Arkon was here, his bright grin a welcome contrast from the somber faces she'd grown used to seeing over the past while. He was plenty old enough to understand that her remaining hours had likely dwindled into double digits, but he had an innate wisdom about him that steered him more toward enjoying the time that was left than dreading the end. Riona, never having been so attuned to life's dilemmas herself, appreciated it. "Ah, my boy! I was hoping I'd see you today."
"Might I sit with you a while?"
"I'd enjoy that very much."
Arkon stepped around the foot of the bed, through the narrow gap between the footboard and that garish canopy Laralita had once insisted on gifting them. Ten might have been a little old for cuddles with one's great-grandmother, but it was sweet of Arkon to make one last exception for her. "That's what I told Grandpapa you'd say! He said I shouldn't pester you."
"Nonsense! When you go, you'll have to tell your grandpapa that the surest way to pester me these days is to chase away my guests." Well, for old Searle, she supposed it was technically the second surest. At least it had been a while since the first had been an issue. She may have been the one dying, but at least the various parts of her body were all shutting down at the same rate.
"I will. But first I want to tell you something." Arkon seated himself on the side of her bed, drumming on the mattress with a moment's pause. "Well... ask you something, I mean."
"I do prefer being asked to being told." Riona winked. Precious few men were willing to ask a woman anything. It was a delight to think that her favorite great-grandson was one of them.
"All right. Well..." He slung his legs onto the bed, lips pursed as he fumbled for the right words. "I hope it will be a long time before this happens, but you know that I'm going to be Baron of Rexus after my father, right?"
"I'm familiar with the concept." The poor boy flinched; Riona smirked to reassure him. "What about it?"
"Well, I'm a Tamrion. And my father's a Tamrion, and same with my grandfather. But my grandmother was a Callcevern, like you."
"She was. Her father was my brother." And not that she'd had anything against Secundus, but such a pity that the laws at the time had bestowed the barony to the son-in-law rather than the daughter when Marsden had passed! "A pity she didn't live to see you grow up. Tivalia was a lovely woman. She would have a adored you."
And a pity that old Riona would end up being the last Callcevern rather than her sweet niece.
"So Rexus is Callcevern territory. But it's ruled by Tamrions now, and I don't think my father or grandfather ever felt quite right about that. And I don't either." His mouth made an awkward transition from frown to grin. "So, I talked to my parents, and they said that if it was all right with you..."
"I could maybe give my children the Callcevern name?"
She may not have quite been able to place it before. Now, though, Riona had quite the justification in her preference for young Arkon.
Quite the justification indeed. "I would be honored."
NEXT CHAPTER:
