Page 61 of The Duke and the Disciple

“Hadden?” Aesylt frowned in confusion.

“Much has changed since we last broke bread, Aesylt.” Felice, Rustan’s wife, rose and brushed kisses along both of Aesylt’s cheeks. Her golden curls were piled high and tight against her narrow, comely face. “Hadden is my son. He’s two.”

“You have another son, my lady?” Aesylt asked as she dipped into a perfunctory bow. Had she been so wrapped up in her own world that she’d missed the announcement?

Felice shot an icy look at Pieter, still smiling at Aesylt. “Needs must,” she said tersely. “Shall we break our fast?”

Aesylt caught Nyssa smiling at her from the other side of the table as they all took their seats, and she smiled back, stunned to see how much her childhood playmate had matured. She had been around six or seven when Aesylt had seen her last, and now was staring down womanhood. Her cheeks bloomed with radiance, her dress cut less modestly now that she was on the marriage market. Even her buoyant blonde waves had been styled with drawing attention in mind. There was no negotiation prize with more bargaining power in the north than a Dereham bride.

Aesylt waited as the table was laden with several generous trays of bread, jam, and fruit. A heady aroma arrived with a smaller tray, comprised of meat shaped into small disks. Swine, she thought, breathing deep, trying to remember the last time they’d eaten meat during morning meal in the Cross.

“Lady Dereham, Lady Nyssa, it’s lovely to see you both again,” Rahn said as he spooned steaming food onto his plate. “We will try not to be an imposition while we’re here.”

“Most of our guests want something material from us. Money. Land.” Felice smiled at the attendant who poured her port wine. “Your only requirement is a safe place to conduct research, which makes you a far more intriguing visitor than we’ve had in some time.”

“I’m not surprised, Aesylt, not at all,” Nyssa said, her hands flitting about in exuberant passes. “You were always so curious about everything. Just like Pieter.” Her smile faded.

Rustan cleared his throat and dug into his pork. “Tell us about this research. Steward Wynter said you’re working on a compendium for the realm?”

Aesylt exchanged a glance with Rahn. He started to speak but then stopped himself when he saw she was. She did the same, until they both sputtered into awkward laughs. “It’s Imryll’s passion,” she said, smiling in Imryll’s direction. “She’s been kind enough to invite us into it.”

“Ah, yes, she’s told us all about it. How as soon as the Reliquary caught wind of it, they stepped in and took charge. How unsurprising that the crown darlings would take without restraint,” Felice said. She tapped her spoon against the air. “You’re charting the stars, Pieter said?”

“That’s right,” Aesylt said carefully. “We’ve been working on it for months, and once the observatory in the Cross is ready, we’ll be able to do so much more. We believe that understanding the stars in our sky will answer many other questions about our world, previously unknown to us.”

“Fascinating,” Pieter said, leaning in and dropping an elbow onto the table. “For once, I agree with Nyssa. I’m not surprised at all to see you walk this path.”

“Well, what else is she supposed to do, with her brother being so obstinate about betrothing her?” Nyssa quipped. “A woman must pass her hours in some usefulness. Thank the Guardians the scholar came along.”

“Aesylt is an excellent scholar in her own right.” Rahn fingered his mug of ale. “I don’t know that I could do this without her.”

Aesylt felt herself flush. “Scholar Tindahl came to the Cross with years of instructive experience. We’re fortunate to have him.”

“Well surely, anyone could stare at stars and write what they see,” Nyssa said, suddenly dour. Aesylt had been watching her watch Rahn for the past few minutes.

“With all the two of you seem to have in common, it’s a wonder Steward Wynter has not made a more formal match,” Rustan said through a mouthful of food. His next words were unintelligible.

“Perhaps because she’d be marrying up more levels than is acceptable,” Nyssa muttered with an impudent lift of her brows.

Aesylt lowered her fork and stared at her old friend in disbelief. Nyssa’s eyes were the same, her face more mature and angular, but she’d aged into a person who was only a shadow of the sweet girl Aesylt had played with and shared childish secrets with.

“He’s considerably older, dear,” Felice stated. “Though, I suppose that was true of us, wasn’t it, Rustan? But your father was relentless.”

“Mine?” Rustan directed a skeptical look at his plate. “This is your second trip here, and this time you must tell us about Duncarrow, Scholar. Is it as debaucherous and bloody as the rumors say? And you must be old enough to remember where you came from before that, yes?”

Aesylt tensed on Rahn’s behalf. She answered for him without thinking. “Rumors are far less interesting than reality, my lord. This is why I’m so curious about what Pieter has been up to these years.”

Pieter dabbed his face with his napkin. His nostrils flared, but it was the only evidence he was disturbed by the question. “I’ve been away studying. It began as a short expedition with my childhood scholar, and over time, I decided I rather liked it.”

“More than us,” Nyssa said with a pout. She slid her spoon across her plate without collecting anything.

“Never.” Pieter grinned.

“Were that true, you’d have bothered to visit us more than twice.” Felice sipped her port. “And I would not, at the ripe age of fifty, have an almost-two-year-old son I now have to groom to take his father’s place. Pray your father does not spend his promise early, or I’ll be ruling the Northerlands myself until Hadden comes of age. Guardians deliver us all.”

“Fel,” Rustan cautioned with a tight head shake.

The years since Aesylt had last been to Wulfsgate came into sharp relief. Pieter had defected in favor of his studies, Felice had birthed a replacement heir, and the weight of both loomed impossibly heavy over a family that had once been so close, even loving. “Well, perhaps we can... discuss the nature of your studies another time,” Aesylt said.

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