Page 64 of The Duke and the Disciple

Aesylt nodded, her thoughts drifting to the recent past. “Imryll, I did something I really should not have. I told Val?—”

“I know what you told him. I once did something similar, for someone I cared about.” Her gaze drifted. “What the Barynovs are doing now has nothing to do with private words exchanged between old friends. They’ve been angling for you since you were a little girl. You’re twenty now, and they see your childbearing years ticking away.”

“Oh, an old maid now, am I?”

Imryll didn’t smile. “To those who would deal with women as commodities, yes.”

“If I were already married, they’d have to drop the matter.”

Imryll gripped the babies and pitched forward.

“I wasn’t suggesting I do that.” But what was she suggesting? Why had she said it at all? Why had it even come into her head? “Only pointing out it is one way to end the matter.”

Imryll was appalled. “The Barynovs would view it as an act of war, and that’s to say nothing of how your own life would be turned upside down.”

Aesylt stood. “Forget I said anything. Sometimes I think aloud, to my detriment.” She went to Imryll and kissed her cheek, then peppered kisses atop Aleksy’s sleeping head. “I should find Scholar Tindahl. He seemed upset by the lord’s questions.”

Imryll watched her over the children’s heads. “You’re very perceptive, Aesylt. Not everyone wants their past dredged, even to satisfy the curiosity of a lord.”

Rahn stood over the desk, his hands gripping each end, the three pages of instruction notes for the curricula spread over its smooth surface. He’d been reading for the past hour, working up to how to position things to Aesylt. Striking the right balance between engaged and indifferent would become more challenging as they moved through the full suite of requisites.

The door whipped open, and Aesylt came storming in, huffing. “Of course, the very last place I look. For the love of the bloody Ancestors.”

Imagining the frustrated flush in her cheeks put a smile on his face. He turned and was rewarded with exactly that. “I can’t imagine why the homebase for our research would be the last place you’d look, Squish, but your persistence was rewarded.”

Aesylt whipped off her cloak and tossed it over the stand. “Why? Because you said you were going for a walk in the Wintergarden. With that in mind, I spent the past hour?—”

“You searched for me for an hour?” Rahn removed his spectacles.

Aesylt’s indignant glower transformed into a light pout. Her rain-soaked hair clung around her face. “I was worried about you. After Lord Dereham... Well, the man isn’t well acquainted with subtlety, is he?”

Rahn smiled to show her he was all right, wondering if he might convince himself in the doing. The questions had sent him on a tortured walk in the garden, which had made him realize what he needed most was to engross himself in something meaningful. “Every person I meet wants to know about Duncarrow. Dereham tried it on me a year ago, and I suppose he thought he might have a different outcome this time.”

“But—”

“The only stories he’s interested in aren’t mine to tell.” A half lie. Not a half-truth, for Rahn didn’t believe half-truths were anything more than tempered deceptions. “And if he wants to know about Ilynglass, well...” He shrugged.

Aesylt nodded slowly, squinting as she assessed him... the situation. “What’s on the desk?”

“The guidelines for our curricula.” He nodded behind him. “I had some thoughts on how we might proceed.”

She brightened and came toward him. “The day is yet young.”

What Rahn needed to do was learn to control the rate of his heart when she was close, but it always caught him delightfully unawares, like a breeze on a warm day. She sidled up next to him and leaned over his shoulder, near enough for him to catch the soft cherry blossom petals she must have walked through in her search for him.

He cleared his throat and tapped the first page. “There are three graduating segments, each more advanced than the last, and the rules specify we must move through one segment to reach the next.”

“I’ve read it.” Aesylt leaned closer. “We may need to revisit kissing, since we both failed at our notes last night.” She mercifully mentioned nothing about what had happened after. She stepped around him and knelt instead, reading. “The crotchety old men writing these curricula may lack in many things, but certainly not creativity,” she muttered. “I missed the part before, where there are four dozen couples doing this. That certainly makes more sense than just us.”

“Does beg the question, who are these other couples, if we’re not the ones seeking them out?” Rahn traced his finger down the page, starting at the top.

Coitus Curriculum: General Instructions

The team is expected to answer all questions about physical and emotional response, and to give especial consideration to how these answers change as they advance through each segment and sub-segment.

Each segment has specific instructions and requisites that must be met for the research to be accepted and logged into the final record.

For additional instructions and clarifications, please refer to addendum 78.

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