Page 63 of By Mistake
"Kressen is playing at servant for reasons that seem to amuse him, flitting about with trays of wine and such.Shimari I last saw fluffing his way under a table."
"A servant?"
"As I said, it seemed to amuse him greatly.I don't know how anyone hasn't noticed he's not actually employed here, but then again, I wouldn't be able to pick out all the palace staff if you had a knife to my throat, so…" He shrugged as much as the dancing would permit, then they were off in a series of turns and wide sweeps.
As the dance ended, Greivs appeared, and Andrus was swept off again."So what's it like being a noble?"he asked."Probably stranger for you to be here like this than me."
"I feel it's about the same for both of us, if in different ways," Greivs replied."It will take getting used to, though not as much as it might have otherwise as I've always been friends with Oresti, despite everything and everyone that said we shouldn't be."
"He does seem to befriend the misfits."Probably because when your life was spent solving murders, catching thieves, and helping the poor and struggling, you could not find much common ground with people who'd never struggled a day in their lives.
They bowed to each other as the dance ended, and then suddenly Andrus was swept off by a beautiful, elegant woman with gold-toned skin and shiny gold hair done up in tens of braids that were all woven together into little rosettes atop her head, set with jeweled pins and decorative flowers.Her eyes were a dark, stormy gray, and though she smiled, there was a meanness to the set of it that reminded him of all the people who had ever bullied him at market, or stood by and done nothing while he was bullied.
"Good evening?"he tried as they spun breathlessly but awkwardly about, as though she was barely remembering they were meant to be dancing."You are?"
That seemed to irritate her."You come here and can't even put names to faces?What a child."
"I was poor, starving, and spurned by all of you for a very long time, my lady.When you are struggling to have even one meal a day, you don't have a lot of time for learning the names and faces of people who made it clear they despised you.Have you ever washed dishes or hauled garbage just to be paid in a day-old loaf of bread or the stale dregs of a tea tin?I didn't think so."He stopped right there in the middle of the dance floor and pulled away."Farewell, whoever you are."He turned around and strode off, looking for a familiar face—and landed instead on a table where servants appeared to be serving drinks."Could I have a glass of the sparkling blush wine?"
"Of course, my lord."A woman poured him a glass, and he took it happily, sipping as he sought out a familiar face.
Instead, he was inundated by people clamoring for attention, spilling out names and titles he could scarcely keep up with, and asking questions that skirted the line of propriety.
Thankfully, he hadn't been enduring it long when Oresti himself appeared, people parting to let him through even as they preened and breathlessly greeted him."Here you are, beloved."He took the mostly empty glass Andrus held and replaced it with a full one.
"Are you trying to get me drunk?"Andrus asked.
Oresti chuckled."As though I need you—"
"Finish that sentence and see where you wind up sleeping tonight," Andrus cut in.Around them, everybody gawked in disbelief before a few laughed hesitantly.
Oresti only grinned in that bright, sunshine way of his that made Andrus melt."You know I like it when you threaten me, sweetheart.My sister requires our presence briefly, and then you can go back to dancing.Have you saved a dance for me?"
"Always," Andrus said softly, taking the hand offered and happily letting Oresti pull him through the crowd, ignoring the ever-present weight of eyes watching them."Who was the mean woman I stopped dancing with?Did you even see that?"
"Everyone saw that, whether they were here or not," Oresti said dryly."That was Lady Mai-Falla, only daughter and second child of the Duchess of Porren.She is unofficially betrothed to Lord Hashken, fucking an ambassador's wife, and Hashken is fucking her bastard half-sister."
Andrus wrinkled his nose."Does somebody have a chart for all of this?"
"Alina might, but she wouldn't admit to it.She likes everyone to think she effortlessly memorizes it all.She, Shimari, and Latasha are becoming fast gossip buddies."
"Oh, good, that's a wonderful idea."
"What's a wonderful idea?"Alina asked as they drew up to the dais where she and Oranti sat.
"You and Latasha becoming gossip pals with Shimari."
Alina grinned, the same sharp, mischievous smile as her brother."He's so good at getting the little details.Alas, we must focus on work right now, and the evening's objective has just arrived."
Andrus glanced subtly in the direction she indicated, where indeed, Farthing had arrived.As always, he cut a handsome figure, dressed in a green so dark it was nearly black, making his white skin almost glow, a choker of jet and emeralds around his throat, his hair pulled back into an elegant knot at the back of his head and wrapped in more emeralds.
He could have been a beautiful stranger, someone Andrus would be tempted to dance with just for the pleasure of it, if he wasn't rotten all the way to his fucking core."Bastard," he muttered quietly.
"Imprisoned bastard soon," Alina replied.
A figure appeared at Andrus's side, dressed in black pants and the white shirt trimmed in red and gold worn by the servants.Kressen, though his hair was currently a dark russet brown rather than silvery white, and his eyes a rather unremarkable brown."He looks exactly like the great grandfather who summoned me and made me kill people, made me go after the nitwit currently stealing shrimp from the buffet table."
"Nitwit?"Andrus echoed, and glanced to the buffet table in question, where sure enough, a deft little black paw peeked out to abscond with another shrimp-laden cracker.Recalling all that they'd been doing in bed earlier, cheeks heating, he said "Yes, he rather is, isn't he?I didn't think any of you bothered with food."
