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"Too much?" Aethra scoffed. "Do I appear to be too frail to stroll more than a few steps beyond my bed chamber?"
"Certainly not, but I don't want to tire you unnecessarily. We'll take this path to the grove. Perhaps you know something of creating dyes?"
"All there is to know. Do you plan to pull advice from my head the whole day through?"
Leda bit her lip rather than laugh at her amusing companion. "No, my lady, but I want to fully appreciate your wisdom."
Apparently placated, Aethra followed along the path. "Let's concentrate on cultivating olives for today."
"As you wish." Leda could not help but like the feisty little queen, and she understood why Helen had brought her home.
* * *
Tyndareus pulled Leda into his arms and tickled her ear with kisses. "Helen's beauty hasn't dimmed. How does she seem to you?"
Leda cuddled against his broad chest. "She's become even more fiercely independent, and yet she's quiet at times and daydreams of who knows what. Omalu stays with her, and they're as close as they've ever been. I'd wished for Helen to move beyond childish exuberance, but not in this horrible fashion."
"I'm being besieged by men who wish to take her for a wife. Whatever her mood, we should begin the courting competition. Even if she is unsettled now, and by the time the games are over and won, she should be content to have a husband."
Leda leaned back to study his expression. "We must wait, beloved, to be certain Theseus has not left her with child."
He nodded slightly. "It would be a king's babe."
"There will be no child," she stressed through clenched teeth. "Now let's find other thoughts for our evening together."
He slid his fingers through her hair to tilt her face for a kiss. "Like this?"
"Oh yes, like this." He understood nothing, but she loved him so dearly and wished an equally devoted husband for Helen. The real question remained whether Helen could become equally devoted to him.
Chapter 10
Helen rode with her brothers every morning and while her bay gelding wasn't nearly as swift, she raced them anyway. Every few days, Menelaus would appear, and she began to wonder if he weren't staying home several days in a row in a calculated attempt to make her miss him. He was as good-natured as her brothers and when her mood turned dark, he could still coax a smile from her. He had a rich rolling laugh and found her brothers' jokes endlessly amusing. Perhaps it was their company he craved rather than hers. She had thought a straightforward approach best with men, but now preferred not to inquire as to his motives.
Menelaus turned his mount to block hers, while her brothers continued on ahead.
He didn't frighten her, but she pulled back on her reins to gain space to ride around him.
"Wait," he asked. "You've been home two months. Some say your father will soon seek a husband for you. If there is to be a competition with games and races, I'll be the first to enter."
"Should I be flattered?" She whisked away an annoying fly and regarded him as openly as she always had.
The impertinent question won a small chuckle from him. "Yes, you should be enormously flattered, Helen. You should have a royal and wealthy husband, and I can provide for you very well."
She ran her hand down her mount's dark mane. "Shouldn't you be discussing this with my father rather than me?"
"He knows, and if I'm to be your choice before the games begin, you could save us all a great deal of expense and effort by declaring it now."
She dug her heels into her horse's flanks and cantered to reach her brothers. "You shouldn't have left me behind with him."
Castor wheeled his horse around. "Did he insult you?"
"Yes, but not enough to deserve punishment. Tell him I don't care who vies for me. I'm going home."
"I'll go with you," Pollux announced and followed.
Castor waited for Menelaus to reach him. "You've had your eye on Helen from the time she was a pretty child. Now you've insulted her, and she may be very slow to forgive."
"Was it wrong to say I intend to compete for her hand?"
