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"Yes, I really believe that."And I can accept the difference.
A sheen of tears brightened her eyes as she smiled. "Then let's do it. Let's get married. Today."
Now!Excitement, fierce in its intensity, flooded through him before common sense intervened. He rested his forehead against hers and forced himself to consider the ramifications of following desire.
"We can't." He pulled back enough to see the uncertainty, and a hint of hurt, on her face. "Sweetheart, there's nothing I'd like better than to marry you today, but we can't."
"Why not?"
He sighed. "For one thing, the coven and the boyos would never forgive me if they weren't invited to your wedding."Her wedding. Things were still too shaky between him and the rest of the humans who had made up her First Circle that they would give a damn whether or not they came tohis wedding. "If we're going to avoid hurt feelings, we have to have a formal wedding. That means sending out invitations, talking to Mrs. Beale about preparing a wedding feast for the guests. It will take a few weeks." And the Darkness only knew what other rumors might be spread about him in that time.
Jaenelle echoed his sigh. "You're right. But…"
The look on her face made him giddy… and a bit terrified.
"We could have a private wedding today, just for us, and then have a formal wedding in a few weeks," she said.
"You mean a secret wedding?"Yes! But common sense, which he was really beginning to resent, intruded once more. "There isn't a Priestess in Kaeleer who would be willing to marry us in secret and risk the wrath of the Queens who rule Kaeleer…not to mention Lucivar and Saetan."
She took his face in her hands. "Daemon," she said, her voice full of laughter, "I've just discovered something about you. As much as you know and as much as you've experienced, you can still be naive about some things."
His mouth hung open, and no brilliantly phrased words came out.
After giving him a smacking kiss on the forehead, Jaenelle got out of bed and headed for the adjoining bathroom. "If we leave within the hour, we can get there by this afternoon."
"Where?"
"Since we'll have to rent a Coach here in Amdarh to ride the Winds to the Hall, contact Ladvarian and tell him to have one of our private Coaches ready so we aren't home long enough for anyone to ask questions. And tell him not to bring anyone except Kaelas."
"Why do we have to bringhim ?" Daemon grumbled as he got out of bed and slipped on a robe.
Jaenelle paused at the bathroom door. "Daemon? Where are you planning to sleep for the next decade?"
Hell's fire. "Fine. All right. I'll tell the Sceltie to bring the cat."
She just smiled and closed the bathroom door.
Great. Wonderful,Daemon thought as he left their room to use the bathroom down the hall. She had a point about placating those two. If Ladvarian's feelings were hurt by being excluded, the Sceltie could make his life very difficult. And Kaelas had a few points of his own. They were called teeth and claws. Pissing off an Arcerian cat who was a Red-Jeweled Warlord Prince and who already resented that a human male was claiming a piece of Jaenelle's bed wasn't the best way to begin his new position as a husband.
As he adjusted the water in the shower, he contacted Ladvarian on a psychic spear thread and delivered Jaenelle's instructions…and felt grateful the dog didn't ask any questions since he didn't have any answers.
That done, he stepped into the shower and quickly washed while he considered if he was amused or insulted by Jaenelle's "discovery."
Growing up under Dorothea's control had stripped him of innocence at a very early age, and there was little, if anything, of a twisted, vile nature that he hadn't experienced. The Darkness only knew all that he'd done, but one thing he knew with absolute certainty: He wasnot naive.
2
Surreal stared at Helton. "They left?"
"Immediately after breakfast," Helton replied.
"Did Prince Sadi say where he and Lady Angelline were going?" Lucivar asked.
"He did not, Prince Yaslana. Nor did he leave instructions on how to reach him. He did say he and the Lady would be returning, but he did not say when."
Surreal blew out a breath and looked at Lucivar, who shrugged.
"Would you like some breakfast?" Helton asked. "Or perhaps coffee served in the sitting room?"
"Coffee's fine," Surreal said. She walked into the sitting room and waited until Lucivar closed the door before she kicked a footstool.
"You pissed off about something, or are you reacting to this room?" Lucivar asked, moving around the room as if he were looking for a trap he knew was there but couldn't see.
"What about the room?" she snapped.
"The hot anger still lingering in it." Lucivar studied a spot on the carpet. "The cold rage underneath the anger."
Surreal stopped her own prowling to see what had caught his attention. "Where's the chair?"
"What?"
"There was a stuffed chair in that spot. At least, there was when I was here this winter to do some shopping forWinsol."
Lucivar crouched, his hand moving slowly just above the carpet. Then he pulled a sliver of wood out of the carpet and held it up.
He didn't have to say anything.
She closed her eyes. "Mother Night, Lucivar. Did I do something stupid by coaxing Jaenelle into coming to Amdarh?"
Rising, he tossed the sliver into the fireplace. "You didn't know about the rumors."
"Where do you think they've gone?"
Lucivar turned slowly. His Ebon-gray Jewel glowed. He paused, then clearly broke whatever link he'd been trying to make. "Daemon's not responding, but he's west of here. Heading for the Hall, I think."
Daemon was the only person Surreal knew who could make Lucivar wary. That Sadi wouldn't respond to his brother made her nervous.
A light knock on the door preceded Helton, who brought in the tray that held a dish of pastries as well as the coffee. It would have been natural, even expected, for one of them to ask him about the chair's absence.
Neither of them asked. They kept silent until Helton left the room.
Then Lucivar sighed and raked his fingers through his hair. "What are you planning to do?"
Surreal poured coffee for both of them. "I'll stay here for a few days, do some shopping, see if I hear anything interesting. What about you?"
"I think I'd better go to the Keep and inform the family patriarch about what's happening," Lucivar replied, taking his cup of coffee.
