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Evemer shifted, lacing his fingers with Kadou’s again. “We’re not telling anyone for a little while.”
“About that.” Kadou chewed his lip. “I don’t want you to feel like I’m keeping you secret.”
Evemer gave him a flat look. “Is it a secret if it’s nobody’s business?”
“It will become their business as soon as Zeliha figures out that I’m refusing all the suitors she’s offering me. I have to say it out loud, all right? So I know that you know: It’s not that I wouldn’t fight for you. I fully expect I will have to, sooner or later.”
“I was the one who suggested it,” Evemer said, frowning. “It’s my own plan.”
“Yes, I know.” He turned and tucked his face against Evemer’s neck. “I want to have you all to myself for a little while too. Put off the fuss, because therewillbe fuss no matter how we play it. I’m just . . . starting to think about logistics.” He sighed heavily, hot breath gusting against Evemer’s skin.
“Leave logistics to me. I’ll handle the scheduling of the watches. I’ll be at your side as much as you want.”
“You’ll take days off now and then, won’t you?” Kadou asked warily. “You shouldn’t live in my pocket all the time. It’s not healthy.”
“I’ll take one day a week to visit my mother.”
“Defineday.”
“Twelve hours, dawn to dusk.”
“All the kahyalar get twenty-four,” Kadou said firmly. “Dawn to dawn. Don’t neglect her. And . . . really, give people a chance to notice that sometimes you sleep somewhere besides my chambers.”
“They won’t think anything of it. It’ll take them at least a month to wrap their heads around the idea that I’d even think of doing something like this.”
Kadou laughed under his breath. “Something like me,” he mumbled into Evemer’s collar.
Evemer snorted, and continued, “We’d have a different approach if the goal was to permanently hide this. As it is, we might as well let them gradually get accustomed to the idea. Tadek noticed fast, but he’s right up close and he’s sharper than most people anyway. They’ll see first that I am excessively devoted to you. Then, they’ll wonder about me. Then they’ll develop theories. By the time they start looking for concrete evidence, we will be ready to start letting them find some.”
“I should tell Zeliha at some point,” Kadou said in a small voice. “And Eozena. Not right away, but . . . Well, before they hear it from someone else. And you should tell your—your mother.”
“Agreed.” He didn’t know whether to be elated or apprehensive of that, and he set it aside for later.
“What do you think Zeliha will . . . do?”
“In her role as your sister, I expect she will be bewildered and surprised at the very least, and then she will jump upon the opportunity to tease you. As Her Majesty . . . In the very worst case scenario, she might temporarily kick us out of the capital. You’ve taken away one of the game pieces in her long-term strategy, and that may be troublesome. But we haven’t broken any laws. We’ve simply . . . not done what we were supposed to. There will be consequences, but they’ll all be about reputation. Public opinion.”
“Right. Yes.” Kadou took a breath. “The court. The ministers.” More grimly, “The kahyalar. The populace.”
Evemer frowned at the grass. A thought was blooming in his mind, and though it was a necessary shape, it was . . . objectionable. He mentally hauled himself out of the languorous pool of bliss, a full thirteen minutes earlier than he’d intended, and resigned himself to the realities of the situation. He’d wanted a few quiet months, the two of them answering to no one but each other, but . . . “No honeymoon after all,” he muttered. “Straight to work.”
“Hmm?” Kadou raised his head. “What do you mean?”
Evemer took a deep breath. “I’m Damat Evemer Hoskadem Mahisti-es Bey Effendi, Prince of Arast, Duke-Consort of Altinbasi-ili, Lord-Consort of Sirya and Nadirintepe, and Warden-Consort of the Northern Marches. My husband is second in line to the throne. I’m going to have to learn politics.” He tsked. “I thought I’d have another twenty or thirty years of preparation before I got government office.”
Kadou stared at him for a long moment and shook his head. “Should have known what you were getting yourself into.”
“I intend to be good at it. It’s my job now.”
“Better you than me. What haven’t you prepared for?”
“I know very little about land management or what the industries of your holdings are.”
“Mostly agriculture. One or two gold mines. Shipbuilding in Altinbasi-ili. Forestry in the Northern Marches.”
Evemer nodded and filed this away. “And I’ll need advice when it comes to courtiers and ministers. I’ll need introductions, and I’ll have to . . .” He pursed his lips. “I’ll have to becometalkative.”
“What? You mean you’ll expand your vocabulary beyond flatly saying ‘My lord’ or ‘Commander’ when people say something you don’t agree with?” Kadou bit his lip on a smile. “You know, Tadek’s good at all those things. You could let him be friends with you, pick up his tricks.”
