Page 97 of A Court Bright and Broken

“Shaded stars, he’ll have us both in arranged marriages by the time the Assemblage ends,” I said.

“Bite your tongue,” Pharis said in an amused tone. “One of the few privileges of being the second son is the unencumbered free will to pick myownbride. I won’t marry at all if I’m not smitten beyond all self-control.”

I laughed. “I look forward to meeting the woman who could smiteyou. Who knows? She might be under our roof at this very moment.”

Pointing at the clock, I added, “Tick tock. Better get to courting, little brother. As for me…”

I pushed back from the table as well and lifted my plate, which I’d piled high with extra food from the buffet. Raewyn would be awake by now and was probably famished.

“I think I’ll finish this in the privacy of my rooms.”

Pharis gave me an odd glance. “You’re spending a lot of time there, holed away, alone.”

Though I wasn’t in the habit of lying to my brother and best friend, I had no choice this time.

“Can you blame me?” I asked. “I found the perfect woman and fell head over heels, she disappeared without a word of explanation—and she might well have had her mind set on killing me and everyone I love. There’s also a chance she was kidnapped while I slept right next door. It’s all left me feeling a bit melancholy.”

Making my way to the breakfast room door, I assured my brother, “I just need some rest and time to recover. I can’t work on the investigation every moment of every day anyway.”

“I can,” Pharis growled. “No one threatens my family and gets away with it… no matterhowenchanting she might be.”

Chapter 25

Lavender and Lemons

Raewyn

Over the next week, I convalesced in Stellon’s private quarters, completely dependent on him for food, assistance back and forth to the bathing room, and keeping the fireplace burning.

It was driving me mad.

Not only was I certain he had better things to do than play nursemaid to a peasant girl, the care itself was starting to grate on me.

I’d never had anyone take care of my needs—well, not since I was little, before my mother had died. And I’dneverbeen waited on hand and foot. It was uncomfortable.

It felt too… good. I didn’t trust it.

And of course I couldn’t trusthim, no matter how nice he seemed. I had to keep my guard up, stay sharp, and make sure I didn’t out myself as the would-be assassin he was spending so much time and effort searching for.

Ihatedbeing so helpless, unable to feed myself, or get myself from one place to another… or draw my own bath.

Finally, one evening when I could stand it no longer, I asked him to help me arrange a bath.

“Certainly,” he said. “I would have offered earlier but I… didn’t want to offend you.”

That got an involuntary laugh out of me. “I am the one who must be offensive by this point. I’m used to bathing daily in the stream behind my house.”

“You don’t have a bathing room inside your home?” he asked in apparent surprise.

“No one does. No one I know of anyway. We all wash in the stream.”

“That must be cold,” he said.

“It is bracing,” I admit. “Particularly in winter. But we do what we must.”

“Have you never had a hot bath?” he asked.

“Never.”

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