Page 43 of The Duke and the Disciple

He mopped his brow and tried again, but the waning sun’s glare was blinding. He debated moving his work into another room, but they’d be called to supper soon enough.

A guard opened the door. Rahn looked up and saw Teleria walk in. She closed the door and bolted it behind her.

With a defeated sigh, he set his charting aside and smiled. “Let me guess, you’re going a little mad as well?”

“A little?” Teleria made her way over. Her unusually modest skirts were bunched in her hands as though she were wearing a ballgown. She was a striking woman, a decade his senior but as beautiful and youthful as her daughter. She’d taken him under her wing when he was orphaned, but it was more like having an older sister than a mother. Over the years, that bridge shortened, until they became friends and confidants.

“Anything new?” he asked, hopeful.

“Nothing you don’t already know.” She lowered herself onto the chair opposite him. “Drazhan is still holding them back from the gates, but that doesn’t exactly inspire ease, now that we’ve seen how determined the Barynovs are.”

“Any further riots?”

“The same small pockets as before.”

Rahn nodded. “And Tas? Has she... Did she depart?”

Teleria’s cool expression soured. “About an hour past.”

“You’re still angry with her for leaving.”

Teleria arched a brow. “So were you, as I and half of Fanghelm recall.”

He hadbeenangry, but he was also the only person who knew Tasmin’s full motivations for traveling to see Lord Marius Quintus in Whitechurch. To those in Imryll’s sphere, Quintus was the man whose actions had nearly killed her, and had inadvertently led to King Torian’s demise. If Drazhan ever saw the man again, he’d breathe his last. Everyone knew it, including Quintus, who had unsurprisingly made no attempt at a persistent role in Imryll’s life.

But to Tasmin, he was a potential ally in a war far bigger than the skirmishes and threats incited by the Barynovs, one that was on hold but far from over.

The trouble was, Quintus was a mercurial, perilous man who was just as threatening when on their side as he was on the opposition. Even if he agreed to hear Tasmin’s plea, the price for his aid would be more than anyone should have to pay.

“I said what I felt I needed to say. She didn’t take my words well, and I knew she wouldn’t, but I had to try.” His eyes traveled toward the closed door, but he caught himself before Teleria could note it.

“You know people are talking about it. If you don’t want others to think you’re courting her, acting like a jealous, spurned lover in the courtyard might not be prudent.”

Rahn bristled, shifting in his chair as he again tried to ignore the strange laughter coming from the other room. “I have no control over the thoughts or suppositions of others, nor any presumption of my ability to persuade them from their chin-wagging.”

Teleria’s eyes narrowed slightly, and she turned in her chair. “Are we going to pretend you’re not solely drawn to whatever is going on in that room?”

Rahn conjured a dozen denials in the time it took Teleria to return her gaze to him, but she knew him too well. He settled on a half-truth. “I wish I’d pushed back when Imryll asked me to take over for Jasika. I’m feeling... concerned for Aesylt and her, ahem, eagerness to work on it. She’s young, unmarried?—”

“She’s only a year younger than Imryll, and the Vjestik don’t hold court over purity standards like Duncarrow does, but go on.”

He frowned in annoyance. “You’re missing my point.”

Teleria waited with a patient smile, which left him even more disassembled.

“She’s a very apt student and takes our research more seriously than anyone else in the cohort, sometimes even more than I do.” He continued with more caution, choosing each word knowing Teleria would dismember them for meaning. “And I fear she’s going forward with these experiments because she feels accountable for the future of this effort.”

Teleria uncrossed and re-crossed her legs. She cast a look at the hearth, one he recognized and had been hoping to avoid. “While she has the stubbornness of her brother, and a touch of his impulsiveness, she is more deliberate in her thoughts and actions. And I can tell you, Adrahn, that there is no affliction women despise more than being thought unable to make choices for themselves. If she and Niklaus are both consenting and in clear understanding of what they’re going to embark upon, then your worries will only breed unnecessarily. They may even compromise the work itself.”

Rahn sat back. He hadn’t considered the matter in quite those terms. It was possible Aesyltwantedto explore intimacies with her friend, in a safe and controlled environment, but the prospect left him surprisingly troubled. “I see. Thank you for that perspective.”

“Just don’t let Drazhan find out. All the man’s Vjestik sensibilities take flight when his wife and sister are concerned.” Teleria’s eyes rolled. “But if the research keeps Aesylt from running off again, I see it as a positive for all involved.”

Niklaus’s tongueslipped over hers for the seventh time. He wasn’t as smooth of a kisser as Val, but the firm tug of his hand at her lower back was oddly arousing. Each kiss had been more demanding, less clinical. She recalled the instructions on some of the more advanced levels in the prospectus, about making sure she was “ready” to receive him. With enough kisses like that, she might be, but that was a problem for another day, because he would need to leave soon.

Niklaus pulled back, swiping the back of his hand across his mouth with a broad grin. “Well, we’ve conquered the kisses, I’d say.”

Aesylt grinned through a hot flush in her face and neck. “Should we work on our notes then? While our thoughts are fresh? This is different than our usual work, when we can revisit it over and over if we forget to note something... Though, I suppose wecouldrevisit our research here as well, if we needed to, but we have so many topics to work through, we’ll never get to them if we have to keep going back to refresh our notes. I think it’s especially important to differentiate between how the first kiss felt and the last, because both are relevant, yes?” Her rambling stopped when she caught him adjusting the bulge in his trousers. She launched into a discomfited search of the room. “Where did you put the notes?”

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