Page 28 of The Lost Art of Seducing a Mage Warrior

She rolled her eyes but cuddled into the coat, which Perian considered a success.

“Next time, you should bring a blanket,” Perian suggested.

She shot him a look. “How am I supposed to sneak out with a blanket?”

Ah. Perian hadn’t given a lot of thought to why she was out here on her own. He remembered belatedly that she had said the rest of the bench was for her brother, but there was definitely no brother in evidence. Had she said that simply so he wouldn’t question why she was alone? Or was her brother not being a very good sibling?

“How old are you?” he asked.

“Old enough to find that question impertinent,” she told him in her snippiest tone, as though she was one hundred and twenty, but then they looked at one another and ended up giggling like children, which rather spoiled the effect.

“I’m twelve,” she told him when the laughter had subsided. “How old are you?”

“Twenty-two,” Perian admitted readily.

She scrunched up her nose and declared, “Old!”

He could only laugh. “Well, older than you, certainly.”

“Soold,” she told him, and they laughed again.

They continued to lie there, looking up at the clouds, something he suspected she hadn’t done a lot of before. He realized that although his coat probably helped, lying on the ground really mightn’t be good for someone who seemed a bit sickly—although there was a bit more color in her cheeks than there had been when he first arrived. Maybe eating and laughing was exactly what she’d needed.

“I could bring you a blanket next time,” Perian offered.

Renny eyed him. “Why would you do that?”

“Well,I’m not sneaking anywhere, so I can take blankets anywhere I want, can’t I? And if I happen to want to bring one out and leave it here on this bench, who’s to stop me?”

She smiled at him, bright and warm, and he couldn’t help but smile back. Did people not offer to do things for this little girl on a regular basis? He couldn’t imagine why not.

“That would be very nice,” she told him. She hesitated for another moment. “And perhaps you could bring another picnic?”

“Certainly,” Perian agreed promptly. “Tomorrow? Around one o’clock?”

Her smile widened. “I would like that.”

“Me too,” he agreed honestly.

He hadn’t expected anything like this when he’d come to stay with Brannal, and he was so glad he was getting all these different experiences.

Besides, Brannal had an entire important position that was going to take him away from Perian, and he would do well to come up with ways to pass the time. He certainly wasn’t a Mage or a Warrior, and he didn’t think he possessed any skills that would be particularly useful to anyone here in the castle—unless you wanted to have a picnic and pick animals out of the sky.

“I used to do this with my father,” Perian said softly, not sure where the words had come from.

She was silent for a moment, before offering, “My father died.”

“Mine too,” he whispered back.

“Six years ago,” she told him.

“Four.”

“It’s awful,” she said.

“You’re not wrong,” he agreed.

Her smile was small but real.

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