Renny shot him a doubtful look. “Isthatwhy you had a picnic?”
He grinned at her. “Absolutely one of the reasons.”
She rolled her eyes, but she was smiling.
The more they talked, the more she ate, and Perian was sure that would only help her recovery.
He had no idea how it happened, but he somehow ended up describing in loose detail the book that Brannal had got him. Seriously, he couldn’t actually retrace theconversation to figure out how he’d been lured into talking about a sex book to a twelve-year-old princess.
Renny was laughing. “You’re going to try a different one every day and rank it?”
“It’s a good way to learn new things, right?” he said, laughing a bit sheepishly. He thought it was very true in principle but wasn’t so sure he should have been telling any part of this to Renny.
“Certainly,” she agreed, shaking her head. “I’m not sure that other people need books.”
“Hey!” Perian protested indignantly. “We’re doing totally fine without books. We don’t needinstruction.”
She was laughing again, and Perian couldn’t help but laugh with her. Then she started laughing harder.
“Kee says he wouldn’t mind seeing this book.”
“Uh…” Perian’s mind went blank for a moment. “I’m really sorry, Kee, but I don’t think that’s a book I should bring when I’m coming to see Renny. I know she wouldn’t actually need to look at it while you and I paged through it. Which, actually, now that I think about it, sounds extremely embarrassing, but I’d do it for you.”
Perian had often felt lonely and isolated on his estate once his father died, but he hadn’t beeninvisible.Even in the midst of his grief, he’d come here to the city for some companionship from time to time.
But he was still pretty sure he needed to draw the line here. With an apologetic expression, Perian continued, “I don’t think anyone would understand why I brought that book anywhere near your sister. I wouldn’t want anyone to think something inappropriate was going on.”
Renny made a face but agreed, “He didn’t think of that. You definitely shouldn’t bring the book. Sorry, Kee. I know it’s hard to be stuck with me.”
She sucked in a breath, and Perian knew without her having to say anything that Kee was telling her not to be an idiot and that he was happy to be stuck with her.
The situation might be extremely bizarre, and they didn’t know how it had happened or what to do about it, but he was sure they all believed that if Kee wasn’t somehow stuck with her, he wouldn’t be here at all. And while Perian didn’t know if sometimes Kee maybe wished that were the case, he hoped that most of the time Kee was grateful that he was still here. There was still a chance they could figure out what had happened,that they could maybe figure out how to solve this. It wasn’t a conventional life, but it was still a life.
Talk passed to less consequential things. Perian explained his talk with their mother this morning. They tried to predict how long it would be after Renny was better before she would be allowed to go anywhere near a horse again. Mindful of what he’d promised the Queen, Perian tried to be a bit circumspect.
“Less than six years,” he said promptly.
Renny made a face. “Kee said the same thing. The two of you arenotfunny.”
Perian flashed a grin at the space at the end of the bed that he presumed was still filled with Kee. Perian was going to do everything he could to make the man feel welcome and included.
Renny really was looking better, already more animated than she’d been the day before, sitting up from her pillows sometimes to grab for a piece of food or make an animated gesture. Yesterday, he didn’t think she’d been capable of that.
He honestly believed this could be only a minor setback. Those happened. Life didn’t move forward in a straight line. They could still get through this.
The afternoon ended with Perian reading another book, although Renny requested that he please find something that wasn’t as awful as the book from yesterday.
“It sounded like it wassupposedto be interesting,” he argued.
“It wasn’t,” she said flatly.
“Well, no, not really,” he agreed. “All right, help me pick another one.”
They skewed all the way in the other direction today and went with a novel instead.
“Those arewrittento be interesting,” Renny declared. “Much better chance.”
“Let’s hope,” Perian agreed.
