Page 16 of Centerpiece

One hand indeed already petting the ends of the scarf, Agreeable raised his head.“You see too much.”He wasn’t complaining.

Holburn shrugged in a vaguely rueful sort of way.“And it irritates many.But not you.”He opened his mouth as if about to add something else, then paused.“You are just as pretty as a lad, you know.”

“Am I?”Agreeable was a fool but he was a happy one.“Spotted and skinny as I am?With my hair a nest for birds?”

Holburn took a deep breath.“Remi,” he said seriously, stopping again when Agreeable stared at him, thrown to hear his real name in the daylight, from someone other than his ma.“Agreeable,” he corrected himself, “will your friends come looking for you if the bailiff doesn’t find you?”

Agreeable ought to say yes with confidence.If he did that, Holburn might believe him.But Agreeable had agreed to be honest and moreover, he wanted to be.“Likely not.It wouldn’t be wise to.”

Unsurprised, Holburn nodded.“Good,” he declared, giving Agreeable a start.“The staff at my home are nearing the age where they might prefer their pensions to running such a large estate, and their number is insufficient regardless.So I will need a page of my own.The house will eventually need more, of course, but I personally will also require one.And if you were to leave this place, you would need a position, would you not?You were thinking of it last night, even if you thought such a position out of your reach.”

“What?”Agreeable continued to stare at him.“I was thinking of mucking or scrubbing.A page?In a house grand enough to have many pages?I wouldn’t know how.I’m rough as they come.Oh.”He pulled tighter on the scarf.“Do you mean in exchange for you using me some more?”It was tempting, to be sure.

“Is that what you want?”Holburn was nearly the stranger from the night before, watching Agreeable carefully and undoubtedly noting all that Agreeable did not say.But whether or not he noted it, he would expect Agreeable to say it aloud.

Agreeable put a hand to his hot cheek.“Well, I wouldn’t mind.You were quite good.”A dream Agreeable was going to carry with him for however long he had left.“But I know nothing of any of life in a big house.And servants will gossip like all people.”

“There is training and education required for any job.”Holburn waved one worry away.“If you can go from farmer, to thief, to fisherman, from lad, to lass, and back again, you can learn how to fetch and carry, and mostly stand silent and listen.Many people ignore servants and often talk freely in front of them.I’d like to know what they are saying.A page I can trust is worth a great deal to me.”

“Ah.”Agreeable chewed his bottom lip and did not object even a little when Holburn gently tugged his bottom lip from between his teeth for him.He peered up.“You need that for business and such, do you?And the rest?The other servants will learn of it sooner or later if you’re making use of me.”

“They will learn of many things, but most of them won’t care.”Holburn’s lips twitched into a full smile.“But for others, and in public, discretion—distance—and a servant’s manners would be required, yes.In private, my lovers often use my name.I prefer that.”

“Do you have many?”Agreeable heard himself asking, like someone who had entirely forgotten the danger around him.That was probably Holburn’s fault.The only danger now was Holburn, and whatever wild ideas he had that Agreeable would go along with because they had all satisfied him so far.

“Is that judgment?”Holburn asked with faint surprise.

Agreeable shook his head.“Some covetous longing now that you’ve had me and I know the pleasure offered.But it’s only right that others should know that pleasure too.As long as...when I am trained and your page, if you tire of using me, you won’t toss me from the house, will you?No.”Agreeable answered himself with a sigh.“You might send me someplace else, but you wouldn’t leave me to starve in my nice page’s clothes.”

Holburn studied him for what felt a long time, but was perhaps only a few heartbeats.“Some call me a devil, but there you are, thinking me better than most because of a few hours in my company.Faith in others, in someone, should be rewarded, or so my grandfather always taught me.Now I must save you, though Ali will tease me for it.As I suspect you will too, in time.Allow me to dress and then perhaps I can find you a cloak.Tomas might have a spare.You’ll need something with a hood until we’re out of the town.”

“Are we leaving?”Agreeable asked, not alarmed, but thinking of his ma and having no chance to get to the Count’s to tell her his fate.“To go to your home?”

“Eventually.”Holburn sighed heavily, weary again.“First, I must visit your count.I stopped here to see the market while I waited on the arrival of my wife.”He narrowed his eyes there, and though Agreeable tried to seem unbothered, he must have failed, because Holburn’s lips twitched—downward this time.“Ididmention Aliette, but perhaps I wasn’t clear.And” –he gestured with one hand, the simple ring there winking in the rising light—“farmers wouldn’t wear rings for marriages, would they?Silly of me to forget.I apologize.”

The ring was for marriages.Agreeable made sure he would remember that.If he was to work in a rich man’s household, then he would certainly encounter more married rich, and he would need to know those sorts of details.

His head swam at the idea of all he would need to learn.

“Are you sure?”he pressed.“You’re going to have to make so many allowances for me.And what of your wife?Whatever happens at your capital parties, no wife is going to allow someone like me into her home.”

“Aliette is not overly concerned with the running of a household.She has Hilde for that.”Holburn moved away, apparently to get his belt from the day before and then to find another one for Agreeable.

“I don’t understand a whit,” Agreeable admitted freely.“You seem devoted.So why isn’t she with you now?”

“She likes to travel in a carriage and I prefer to ride.”Holburn shrugged but Agreeable wasn’t sure he believed the gesture now.Not from Holburn, who was anything but careless.“And I wanted to see these lands for myself first.Something my grandfather used to do.Worrying his guards endlessly, I’m sure.”Holburn combed his curls with his fingers, then gave Agreeable a study.“But Aliette has a keen eye, and she sees what I don’t.Her opinion is better than gold.”

Agreeable bobbed his head and smiled.“It’s nice to see a man respecting his wife’s opinions and freedoms, even if you do take lovers.Although you said she is a part of that, so...so....”Agreeable lost his smile.“Are you really sure about me?I’m a hole at best, and you are very fine, and she is a jewel like you.I could be a simple page if you wish, or stay away from you in the stables or a garden.I could stay away from her as well, if I would bother her.Or should I attend to her and pretend I have never called you Holburn?I don’t want to be trouble.I never have.”

Why that should bring Holburn back to him to pet his wild hair, Agreeable didn’t know, but stood and trembled for it.

“If you mean as a page, attend her as is a page’s duty.”Holburn cupped Agreeable’s chin and considered him with entirely too much warmth and satisfaction when there were guards outside the door.“If you mean anything otherwise, attend to her as pleases you...and her.”Holburn grew thoughtful.“Do you enjoy women in that way?”

Agreeable gazed warily up at him.“Yes, but that is...only as a thought.No good lass would have anything to do with me.If there was to be a babe, they wouldn’t want to end up married to someone who has given all the lads a turn.”

Holburn scoffed.“It’s just as well.You are not meant for such a life.”

“I’m not?”Agreeable was still in Holburn’s hand.He didn’t want to move from it.

---