Cammon couldn’t help himself; he rolled his eyes. He had heard Senneth and Kirra keep up such talk for hours, discussing bloodlines and alliances with an obsessive interest. Amalie caught his expression and grinned.
“It’s very boring, isn’t it?” she said, leaning over to whisper in his ear. The others could still hear her, of course, and Valri flicked her a look of some annoyance, but the older women continued their discussion anyway. “This very topic forms the chief subject of conversation whenever I’m in the room, and I can’t bear it.”
“I would think it would interest you, if only a little,” he replied. “After all, they’re talking of the man you’re going to marry. I’d be interested if people were trying to figure out who should be my wife.”
Amalie glanced at Valri, glanced at Senneth, and stood up, pulling Cammon to his feet. “Let’s go talk of something else,” she said.
Valri briefly broke off her sentence. “Don’t leave the room,” she said.
“We won’t. Over here, Cammon, let me show you some of my treasures.”
They crossed the room to where a tall, cream-colored bookshelf held an array of boxes and bowls. Amalie pulled a box from a middle shelf. It was made of some dark and highly polished wood, and it opened when a hidden door slid out. Inside was a collection of smooth stones in a variety of muted colors, mostly blues and greens.
“Marlady Ariane Rappengrass sent these to me-aren’t they pretty?” Amalie said. “Sea glass. I was admiring a few stones that she had had made into jewelry, and she said she would send me some. I don’t think they’re very expensive, and that’s one reason I like them so much. Ariane wasn’t trying to impress me, she was just trying to please me. She was just being kind.”
“I met her last year,” he said. “I liked her.”
Amalie picked up a handful of the stones and let them trickle between her fingers, back into the box. “Many people find her terrifying. But I like her, too.” She scooped up another handful of stones and let them slowly fall. “She has a son that some people would like me to marry.”
“Darryn Rappengrass.” The handsome young marlord had crossed Cammon’s path several times when he was in company with Kirra and Senneth. Kirra was particularly fond of him. “He seems like a nice enough man, I suppose.”
Amalie dropped the last of the sea glass through her fingers, pushed the lid shut, and replaced the box on the shelf. “This little statue, it’s from Mayva Nocklyn,” Amalie said, pointing to a moping child carved in white stone. “I don’t like it much, but Milo told me it was by a famous sculptor and very expensive. If Mayva comes to visit, I’ll make sure to have it on display.”
He couldn’t tell if she wanted to change the subject or if she didn’t know how to talk about it. “It must seem very strange,” Cammon said. “To have other people making every important decision in your life. Telling you what man to marry. How to behave. What to do. All the time.”
She met his gaze. Her eyes were velvety brown, thoughtful and guileless. He wished again that he could read what went on behind them.
“They might be making plans, but that doesn’t mean I will agree to them,” she said. As always, her voice was quite soft, her words almost idle. There was no threat in them, no iron. Yet for the first time, Cammon had a flash of intuition about this girl. She could be as stubborn and unyielding as stone; she could be equally hard to wear away. “I will meet whomever they wish me to meet. I will be gracious to everyone. But if they ask me to marry someone I do not wish to marry, I will simply say no. And that means if Senneth asks me, or Valri, or my father. I will not do it.”
He felt a sudden keen admiration for this young woman who was both so important and so vulnerable. “They seem to think that both you and the realm are in danger if you do not have the right husband by your side.”
She smiled. “But I have many people I trust all around me. My uncle. The Riders. Senneth and Kirra. You, for as long as you are willing to serve. I do not feel particularly afraid.”
He wished he knew how to copy a courtier’s bow. Tayse and Justin could both give stiff little bends from the waist that looked like respect, but Cammon wanted to offer something with a bit more flourish. “Majesty, I am yours to command for as long as you need my service.”
She had turned back to the shelves and was poking around for other treasures, pushing aside vases and bowls as if seeking something hidden behind them. “And yet, you have not been to see me since we returned from Rappengrass so many months ago,” she said. “We had been such good friends, as we traveled. I was disappointed when you disappeared so completely.”
He was silent a moment, taken wholly by surprise. “I didn’t know-it seemed-you’re the princess,” he said, floundering badly. “And Senneth told me-she said I couldn’t make too much of friendships struck on the road. It wasn’t my place to come seek you out.”
She turned to look at him, her expression a little severe. “It was my place to send for you, you mean?”
“I didn’t say that,” he answered swiftly. “I didn’t want-I’m not very good at realizing where I do and don’t belong. People are always telling me that. I have a hard time keeping straight who is so important that I shouldn’t speak in front of him, and who is just a regular fellow. But even I know that a princess is not just an ordinary girl.”
She shrugged and turned her attention back to the shelves, pulling things out, looking at them, and putting them back. “I don’t know what ordinary girls are like,” she said. “I don’t think I’ve ever known one. Last year-at the balls-that was really the only time I got to know people my own age.”
“The queen isn’t much older than you are,” Cammon said, wondering what information he might glean in response to this observation. “And you seem to spend a great deal of time with her.”
Her face was in profile to him, but he could see Amalie’s slight smile. “Nothing very girlish about Valri,” she said. “I love her dearly, but she is hardly lighthearted.”
“She seems to feel that it’s important to stick close to you.”
“She does,” Amalie said, pulling down a book, studying the cover, and replacing it. “It is.”
“Why?” he asked bluntly.
She turned to face him again, smiling, but the smile was a mask. “So many reasons,” she said. “So have we settled that?”
“Settled what?”
“We are friends now? You will come to see me, and you will not wait for an invitation, and you will not give me any of these excuses about not knowing how to behave around royalty?”
He felt bewildered but exhilarated, and it was rare that Cammon was bewildered by anyone. “You might find that I am around too much-that I don’t know when I’m supposed to go away,” he replied. “You might find that I don’t know when to stop talking or when you need to be left alone.”
“I don’t mind telling you to be quiet or go away.”
He grinned. “That doesn’t sound very friendly.”
She laughed. “I will try not to be too rude, then,” she said. “At least at first. If you will promise not to stay away.”
“I can’t stay away, or haven’t they told you?” he said. “Senneth wants me to sit in on all your wooing. So I can tell who’s sincerely full of admiration for you and who has smuggled a knife in and wants to slit your throat.”
Her eyes widened and she clapped her hands to her mouth as if to push back a laugh. “No, really? I imagine that will make it even easier to get to know all the serramar who come calling. You on one side of me, Valri on the other.”
He was grinning again. “Why not have Tayse and Justin in the room while you’re at it? The whole entourage.”
She dropped her hands but she was still laughing. “Well, I suppose any man who’s willing to run that gauntlet will at least have proved he has courage. That would be something in his favor, at any rate. So are you planning to come here every day, or just on the days I’m expecting to be courted?”