“Independent means…might be stretch,” said Rea. “But I at least don’t accept charity from anyone.”
“If you’re done with your interrogation, shall we leave?” the general asked his brother. “I believe you’re making Miss Rea uncomfortable.”
“But we just came. How can you leave so soon? Let’s do…whatever you two usually do.”
“We play chess,” said Rea.
“Just chess?”
“We talk, too.”
“About?”
“Politics,” Sebestyén interjected. “Definitely not something you’re interested in, Arnold.”
“Unfortunately, I’m not good at chess or politics,” admitted the radiant fair-haired duke. “But I can teach you a new game, Miss Rea. It’s far easier and more enjoyable than chess. It’s a card game that’s the rage in the gentlemen’s clubs in Ferosia. And unlike chess, it’s useful. If you get really good at it, you might be able to win money at gambling.”
Sebestyén’s growled. “Tell me you’re not encouraging her to gamble.”
“Why not?” Rea said just to irritate the general. He was too uptight sometimes. “I’d like to learn this new game. It sounds promising.”
“All right, learn it,” the general conceded. “But please don’t gamble with it. I’d hate for you to become a wastrel like my brother.”
“That is a horrible thing to say about your own brother,” Rea admonished.
But Arnold just laughed. “You both quarrel like a married couple, you know.”
The words didn’t seem like anything special to her, just an observation but the general pinked.
His brother laid out the cards. “Listen to me carefully. The instructions are terribly complex, after all.”
But Rea wasn’t listening to him. She was covertly stealing glances at the general trying to see if any new expressions had emerged on his face while she hadn’t been looking. She wouldn’t want to miss that. They were her pastime. The game began and quite expectedly, the general beat both her and his brother. They played another round. And another. Time flowed like the western breeze.
Without realizing, she fell in love with the way the general’s eyes watched her when she tried to bluff. She fell in love with the way he listened to her, like everything coming out of her mouth was important. She fell in love with his laughter, rarely given, but always genuine.
And gradually, she felt the scars fade one by one.
Sebestyén
“You’re in love.” Arnold’s first words as soon they left Rea’s home were so startling that they shattered Sebestyén’s focus completely. His foot slipped on the first step, and what followed was an embarrassing tumble down the small flight of stairs leading to Rea’s room. His full sleeved-shirt protected him from any bruises but nothing could protect him from Arnold’s taunting gaze. His face heated up like that of a young boy caught stealing.
“See?” Arnold raised an eyebrow. “You’re never clumsy. It must be love.”
Dusting himself off, Sebestyén turned his back to his brother. “I’m not aware that love has any relation to clumsiness.”
“Love makes people do uncharacteristic things, brother.”
“I haven’t done anything uncharacteristic.”
He propped his hands on his hips, shaking his head in disbelief. “Oh? What would you call paying regular visits to a Suveri woman then?”
“Research,” Sebestyén replied in a firm tone. “I have some ideas I wish to implement once I’m emperor. Some of them involve the Suveri.”
Arnold sighed. “You’ve always been too old for your age. Mostly, that meant you were also too smart for your age, but I see that you can be stupid, too. No man visits a woman this much unless he has a very strong desire to see her.”
Sebestyén couldn’t disagree on that point. He did have a very strong desire to see Rea. He didn’t know why, and he didn’t know if it was all right to want to see her so much, but he’d never given it that much thought.
“Arnold, what is love?” he asked. “How does one know if they’re in love? How can you be certain that I am?”
Arnold measured him with a long gaze, then skipped head of him.
“I could give you the answer,” his brother said. “But you’ll have more fun figuring it out yourself. And I’ll definitely have more fun watching you squirm and struggle as you try to decipher the mystery of love.”
6
WAVERING WINTER
Rea
Rea stared at the cozy cottage in front of her and wondered if it really was hers.
Her new home in the Crua valley occupied the same spot that her previous shack had, except it was much more Alisian in style.
It was also a much bigger space than she was used to, and on days when loneliness dug its claws into her, it seemed even vaster. She attempted to decorate every nook and cranny with dried flowers, bundles of herbs and any pretty objects she salvaged from the nearby mountains, but there simply weren’t enough knickknacks to fill a room so massive.
True to his word, the general had delivered her the new cottage on the very first day of winter, before the cold started chewing through her clothes in earnest. He never visited her there, though. Likely, he was consumed in preparing for his upcoming wedding. A wedding he hadn’t bothered to mention to her despite having ample opportunities to do so throughout the summer. Even now, Rea’s heart burned at his betrayal.
It was silly, of course, to expect so much from him. She may have developed certain…affections, though the same couldn’t be said of the general. Their positions were vastly different. He had everything to lose by falling in love with a Suveri woman and nothing to gain.
She knew that. Understood the rationality of it. Even in her most optimistic dreams, she only pictured them as nothing more than temporary lovers sharing a few passionate trysts until his duties and her family split them apart. Forever was a wish that couldn’t be granted to them, no matter how much she prayed.
His coronation opened her eyes to that reality. The grand event took place yesterday and was the cause of much fanfare. Ministers from distant lands had been invited as guests to witness the new emperor take the throne. All of Ferosia erupted in a carnival of celebration, and the joy had overwhelmed the citizens when a pretty, pale-haired woman had been introduced as the future empress.
Standing tall and proud in fine red robes, waving from the palace balcony, the general was the portrait of glory, an ethereal vision, so far above Rea in both stature and sheer presence that she wondered how she’d ever gotten close enough to speak to him.
He’d stolen her breath, her heart, even her sighs. The need to talk to him, to touch him seized her like a fever, so much so that she even considered making a scene to catch his attention. But she wouldn’t ruin his special moment to appease her selfishness. Like an unwanted shadow, she came and went. But she was content now.
She had her cottage. What more did she need? Her tribe would come for her someday. And the moments in between? She’d somehow figure out a way to make them pass.