“Sure you can, left foot, there you go,” he encouraged. His dimples flashed as he smiled. “Ready to try it again?”
“Yes. No. Wait, I’m on the wrong foot!” she wailed, but they were all laughing now, and after a little skip, she was quickto catch up, sailing about in his arms with skirts fluttering and perfectly content.
She was far too familiar with him, and far too comfortable in his company. And Miche himself was worse, calling her by her first name and teasing her even with other people about. More than once, Mionet caught a flicker of trouble in Leonin’s face that meant he had noticed it, too.
Whatwasthe relationship between them, exactly?
No one wouldask,in Segoile. It was Sir Miche of Harnost. They would leap straight to one ruinous conclusion.
“And there!” Miche exclaimed as he landed her directly in front of Davi. Catching her hand, he bowed to press a kiss to the back of her knuckles, a gesture that would have been awkward from any man less infernally graceful. “You cannot complain of your pupil, Leonin. Light on her feet as anyone could ask.”
It was just poor timing that he did this as Emi was ushering a batch of farmwives through the door.
“No, I have more often complained of her partner,” Leonin replied dryly, but his eyes found Mionet’s across the room.
For heaven’s sake, they might just start assuming things inTresingale.
“Sir Miche.” With a smile fixed on her face, Mionet sidled across the room to stand beside him, speaking through her teeth. “I would like a private word with you. Tonight.”
“Would you?” His face was pleasant, but his eyes chilled.
“Yes. Please see that you will not have other company,” she said shortly, and went to wrangle the farmwives.
It was all she could do to keep from thundering warnings into the Duchess of Andelin’s innocent ears.
But it was not fair to blame her. By now there was ample evidence that Duchess Andelin had been very,verypoorly raised, without even the most rudimentary warnings a noblewoman heard from the moment she could toddle out of hermother’s line of sight. But what was Miche’s excuse? What was wrong with these idiot men? Did they really not understand how this could be perceived, or turned to the lady’s detriment?
Of course not. Because it was nevermenthat paid the price for these things.
It was wildly hypocritical and unfair, but it was innocents like Ophele that suffered the most for these scandals. And to be just, it was not only men who were immune; there were Segoile matrons who entertained a new lover every Tuesday and managed to brazen it out, and certain debutantes could sail through four engagements in a single season and come out the other side without a scratch. The stars knewMiche of Harnostwould hardly be affected by one more scandal.
But the Exile Princess, Duchess of Andelin, wife of Remin Grimjaw…
Once that wheel started turning, it wouldnever stop.
Seething, Mionet made her way to Miche’s cottage later that night, angry all over again that she must resort to subterfuge and resentful that His Grace, Remin of Andelin, hadno ideathe lengths she was going to, to look after his naïve wife.
Steeling herself, she knocked on the door.
They had parted after supper only minutes before; just long enough to ensure the servants were busy with clearing away. Firelight glowed on Miche’s face as he opened the door and stood aside.
“I knowyouare accustomed to company at night,” Mionet said scathingly, moving quickly through the door. “ButIwould like to be circumsp—what under the stars are you doing?
His fingers were working the laces of his jerkin free in a businesslike manner, baring an expanse of broad pectorals.
“You don’t want to?” he asked, lifting one blond eyebrow.
“What—you—not every woman in the world wants tosleepwith you!” Mionet spluttered, outraged.
“Oh. In my experience, they do,” he said diffidently, and sat down on the end of his bed. “What do you want, then?”
“Ironically, to beg you to be atrifleless scandalous,” she spat. “For your duchess’s sake, if not your own.”
“Since when have you cared about what’s good for her?” he retorted. “Aren’t you just trying to figure out how to use her once you get her to the capital?”
Miche was giving her too little credit. Mionet had decided long ago exactly how she could use the Exile Princess once she got her to the capital. But she was not about to tell him that.
“The trouble with men like you,” she began, “is that you never consider the damage you do to others. To Her Grace, if you are as open with your affections in public as you are in private.”
