It fit. It certainly fit. Untried, sheltered, accustomed to flattery but not to the kind of practiced seducer Norris was, she would be easy prey for a man of Norris’ experience—or one coached by him.
And Selenay, alone in all of the Court, was the only young woman who would have been sheltered from such men. There was the irony; if she had spent any time among her peers, she would have seen attractive young men use their looks in such an unattractive way—and young women do the same.
Or—perhaps not. She had been the Heir, and even in the Court, that might have protected her.
Odd as it might seem, the cads in Court circles saved their wiles for two sorts of women—the lower-class girls that they seduced and abandoned, and the unattractive, wealthy ones they seduced and wedded and abandoned on their estates in the country, while they came back to Court to enjoy themselves unencumbered by the inconvenient wife. They wouldn’t have dared to use those ploys on Selenay.
Still, she had been sheltered in another way. From the time she had been Chosen, she had been at the Collegium, and not the Court. She never saw the intrigues among her peers, because she was among another set of “peers” for whom intrigue was simply out of the question. Even when the occasion had called for it, she hadn’t spend much time socially in Court circles, she spent her social time among Heralds. Or at least, she had until she’d become Queen.
But there should have been one creature above all who would have—or should have—realized what was happening before this. And even if she hadn’t been able to stop it, she should have been able to warn the rest of them!
:Kantor,: he called.
:I follow you,: his Companion replied. :I hope you don’t mind; you jarred me awake and I just followed your thought.:
Once he would have been angry; not now. Now, in fact, he was grateful. Kantor had become the perfect partner, in a way; the shield-brother, the man you could depend on to fall in at your side and match you, move for move.
:That’s the way it’s supposed to work.:
Well, he could see that. Clearly, it didn’t always.
:You’re thinking Selenay and Caryo.: There was a moment of hesitation. :You can’t understand why Caryo didn’t nip this in the bud, especially since she doesn’t much like Prince Karath. And why she didn’t realize how far things had gotten.:
:Exactly,: Alberich replied.
:You and I are—exceedingly compatible now. We are about the same age, with similar experience. Selenay and Caryo—aren’t. I mean, they’re compatible, but their experiences are vastly different.:
Alberich blinked in surprise. That hadn’t occurred to him as a possibility.
:Think of Caryo as a maiden aunt, or a virginal, scholarly sister who is much, much older than Selenay. She’s—well, to be honest, she’s rather sexless. Kindhearted and stalwart, protective absolutely, ready to comfort when Selenay is hurt or angry, but as thick as two short planks when it comes to romance and especially sex.:
Oh. . . . This was beginning to make him feel a little ill.
:Caryo is the sort of person whose shoulder you cry on when your father dies, the wise and clever person you could ask for help with political and administrative problems. Not the person you go to when you’re mooncalfing over a boy. And as for sexual attraction—you’d be horribly embarrassed even to hint that you had such a thing to her, because she would be horribly embarrassed if you brought it up.:
Now, suddenly, it all made sense. Terrible sense.
At least, insofar as he understood young women, and insofar as Caryo being in the dark about all this right along with everyone else. :Dear God. . . : he replied, aghast. :We’ve all been blindsided.:
:Our own damned fault,: Kantor agreed. :We, the Companions, should have known. We know Caryo better than anyone but Selenay—and she was exactly the right Companion for a girl who was bound and determined not to think too hard about anything that wasn’t involved in being the Heir and a Herald. If Sendar was still alive—:
:If Sendar was alive, he’d have sent the boy packing, after making him look ridiculous and unpalatable in Selenay’s eyes first. That’s the only way to handle such things.: Alberich was at least on surer ground there; as an officer, he’d had to break up many an ill-timed romance.
:But with Selenay alone, we didn’t think about how Caryo should change, and you Heralds didn’t think that Selenay would find herself looking for something outside of her duties.:
:We were fools,: Alberich said flatly. :She was clearly drowning in duty and we thought a festival or two would be enough.:
:Blind-sided. And there is only one way to deal with it, and that is to go along with it, just as Talamir said last night. Yes, even if it turns out that this Rethwellan princeling is a rounder and a cad who has been studying how to seduce our Queen.:
The very thought made him angry, made him want to get hold of the blackguard and beat him with the flat of his sword—but Kantor was right. And Talamir was right. Hadn’t he just been watching plays all this winter and spring that proved that very point? The best way to get a young woman set on a particular young man, and vice versa, was to oppose the match. The only way to separate her from someone who was not good for her was to be reserved on the subject of the young man, while being supportive of her. Then, when things began to go wrong, and only then, did you make it clear that you were “on her side.” The only difference between a cliche and a truism was the skill and intricacy with which the latter was presented. And, unfortunately, Norris was a much better actor than the tawdry plays he presented for the common folk would have suggested. If he was, indeed, coaching the Prince—
:Have you talked with Caryo about this?: he asked his Companion, as he rolled over on his back and stared up at the ceiling.
:Not yet. Right now she’s very hurt that Selenay didn’t even hint of this to her. And, frankly, angry with herself for not seeing it. And she should be:.
Well, he wasn’t going to be the one to say anything, but Kantor was right. In retrospect, Selenay had virtually handed everyone a map to her feelings with that masque, and all anyone had thought, if they’d thought at all, was how clever she was to have devised something that would entertain and honor all at the same time. Kantor was right; in this case, Caryo had been as thick as two short planks. And so had they.
:Least said, soonest mended,: the Companion said philosophically. :I am keeping my thoughts to myself until Caryo is ready to talk to the rest of us. But I think that where Selenay is concerned, our voices must be raised in a song with but a single refrain—: