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A subtle emphasis on that you. Unease pricked along the back of her neck. “Are you planning something, Alie?”
The teapot began to steam; Alie pulled it off the hanger and poured hot water into a mug, not bothering with tea leaves, for bleeding cramps or otherwise. “He has a council,” she said quietly. “Even if he seems to forget. Trust that we will be weighing all our options.”
“What options?”
“There are always options.” Alie’s eyes flickered her way, peering at her through the steam of her teacup. “Just because you can’t see them doesn’t mean they aren’t there.” She paused, her next words quieter. “Have you talked to Gabe?”
The question caught Lore off guard. “That’s where I was headed when I saw you.”
Alie nodded, watching the water as it cooled. “So you haven’t really chosen between them yet.”
Talking about Gabe with Alie—talking about him in this context—made discomfort coil in Lore’s stomach, a serpent waiting to strike. She knew Alie still cared for him, but wasn’t sure exactly what it looked like. Whether it was the way Lore cared, or something softer, a leftover love that hadn’t died but wouldn’t grow again.
“I don’t want to,” Lore whispered.
Alie chewed on the corner of her lip. After a moment, she nodded.
The air sat strange. Lore shifted on the couch again. “Alie, I…” But she didn’t know how to follow that, changed direction. “You and Gabe…”
“Don’t worry about me and Gabe.” Alie watched steam rise from the lip of the teacup. “I’ll always care about him. He’ll always care about me, presumptuous though that may be to say.” Her lip quirked. “But it was never going to be him and me, Lore. Things were never going to be that simple. Not for any of us.”
She picked up the steaming cup of tea and went to open the door.
The bloodcoat stood across the hall at military attention. Alie inclined her head his direction, then turned to Lore, taking her hand and steering her over the threshold. “Thank you so much for the tea, I’m sure I’ll feel better in no t—”
But it wasn’t just Lore’s new guard at the door.
Caius stood with his hands clasped behind his back, almost the same stance the bloodcoat took. The light in the window behind him flushed his edges and made him hard to look at directly, but when he stepped forward, his expression was easy to see.
Eager.
“Alienor,” he said, ignoring Lore entirely.
Confusion creased Alie’s brow, but only for a moment. She slipped into her diplomat self as easily as a well-worn cloak. “Caius. How lovely to see you again, especially now that the court knows who you are.”
She said it playfully, but there was a splinter she couldn’t quite sand away. A place where that well-worn cloak had gone threadbare.
Caius grinned. It was not the kind that would set a person at ease. “You would never have been so fooled. You seem like someone who knows when trickery is afoot.”
Lore didn’t think she had ever heard someone use the word afoot unironically. She also couldn’t believe how easily this was going—was the whole court accepting the presence of the Kirytheans as if it were nothing? Even her guard seemed nonplussed.
Yes, she thought, answering her own question. Yes, she supposed they were. Auverraine was desperate to avoid a war and all the costs associated; this gesture of peace, strange as it seemed, would hold up the illusion that everything would be fine. And the illusion was all they needed.
Alie smiled back, but her eyes stayed shrewd. “I do admit that I didn’t quite buy your story about being a distant nephew of an ill viscount, but I can’t say I expected the truth. I suppose I should have; it’s not the first time a new acquaintance has come to me through such means.”
She threaded her arm chummily through Lore’s. There was a slight tremble in it.
“Seems more like a friend than an acquaintance,” Caius said, with another one of those sharp half smiles. “I hope it can be the same for us, in time. Bastian speaks so highly of you.”
Lore patted Alie’s arm. “Go rest, Alie,” she said, trying to sound light and breezy. “I know your time pains you.”
“Don’t let me interrupt your plans.” He was an operative for an enemy government, but at least Caius was polite. “I came to see if you would take a turn with me through the gardens, but if you’re not feeling well…”
“She isn’t.” Lore gave him a tight smile and nudged Alie back over the threshold of her apartments. “But it is so nice to see you, Caius.” Then, because she couldn’t leave well enough alone, “Bastian and I hope you’ve enjoyed what you’ve seen of Auverraine so far.”
“It’s certainly been impressive.” With one more glance at Alie, he turned the full weight of that predator smile on Lore. “And a late congratulations to you, my lady. We are all anxious to see the kind of Queen you will become.”
He inclined his head, not as deeply as one should to a lady and the future Queen, and disappeared down the stairs.
