Page 21 of Winter's Fate

Perhaps not. But she’d expected a guest room, at the very least. Kat had been the one to come to her after all, not the other way around.

Still. It was not an appropriate question, and he damn well knew it. Callum could act as rough and tumble as he liked, but he’d grown up in his own palace, and he’d been chosen to lead this delegation. He knew how to speak properly, or King Hawk would not have sent him.

She regarded him coolly. “Do you interrogate all members of foreign royal families you meet, or am I receiving special treatment?”

“It might surprise you to learn that I meet very few foreign royal families. This is merely how I make conversation.”

“With those manners, it doesn’t surprise me at all that you meet very few royals.”

“If your family is any indication of the norm, then I count it a very great blessing.”

Oh, her family was anything but the norm. Laena looked ather hands. It should be gratifying, to see him reading Kat’s abhorrent behavior so thoroughly. That someone on the outside found it unacceptable. After so many years on her own, and the hatred of the villagers chipping away at what was left of her confidence, it surprised her more deeply than she would have expected.

“I was prepared for a cold reception,” she said. She might as well answer the question. “But I admit I did not expect it would be this cold.”

“You expected a cold reception, yet you journeyed here anyway. Why?”

It was easy to imagine him questioning a suspected magic user, rather than the sister of a foreign queen. She might put him off with a deflection or a lie, but he would learn the truth when she joined the traveling party at dawn. “I am to be the emissary to Aglye.”

The subtle stiffening of his posture was the only indication of his surprise. “Ah.” He paused, jaw ticking with an unspoken question. He looked into the fire while she stuffed another bite into her mouth, stifling a moan at the way the roast practically melted on her tongue. She’d save the precious dolloped cookies for last.

He cleared his throat. “What about your… you are free to be away from your own lands? For so long?”

Ah. He wanted to ask her about Ben. She could practically feel it in the air, the famed stablehand’s existence hanging between them like a wall, even if he did not know her lover’s name. Although he was rough in every way, the words did not leave his mouth.

Best to let him believe Ben was still in her life.

“I am,” she said.

He pressed a fingertip to his bottom lip. “Forgive my surprise. It’s only that…”

“That judging by my sister’s response to the fact that I wasalmost murdered, it’s surprising she would trust me with such a task?”

He inclined his head, ever so slightly.

Laena sighed. “I lost a negotiation.”

It didn’t answer his question, but he didn’t press. He hadn’t filled his glass again, though his gaze often strayed toward the bottle he’d left on the sideboard.

When she finished eating, she let her hands fall into her lap. She wanted to ask the obvious question, for no one had returned to escort her to a new room. Somehow, though, she didn’t think he would object to her staying.

It was embarrassing, truth be told. She would not have allowed such treatment for any guest, let alone the leader of an important delegation. Kat should have rushed to prepare her a room, to serve her dinner there.

But Laena could not find it in herself to regret her sister’s actions. Not when it allowed her a chance to speak with him. Merely because she was curious, of course. Interested in who he really was.

“You know,” she said, “nothing about your reputation suggests you’d be like this.”

Callum regarded her, head cocked to the side, as if he could not begin to guess what she meant. “What, handsome? Rough around the edges but in a charming sort of way?”

He was those things, and they did surprise her. Or at least the charm surprised her.

“No,” she replied. “Nice.”

He blinked. “Nice?”

She nodded. “Nice.”

He stared at her, lips parted, like he wasn’t sure if he should take it as a joke. “I don’t suspect any heart-tithers would say the same.”

---