Thank goodness the King hadn’t decided that the marriage wasn’t off or something like that, trapping them both into something neither would be able to take for long. Cringing, Tor wondered for nearly the first time if he’d been being fair to Trice. Gods. What if… What if she really had just said all that for the reasons she’d told them? Would she have thrown him to the wolves as bait to flush out the people that tried to kill him? He knew she would have. If she’d have asked first, would he have told her to do it, even if it made him look bad? Of course. How could he not?
So was it fair of him to blame her for it now?
That was harder. He still hurt, but if she’d really done it for him and her family, if she was still doing it for them, then he had to change how he was thinking about her. Didn’t he? The thought was uncomfortable to say the least.
Rolph sat beside him in the back of the transport, while Godfrey sat in the front section, “piloting”. What the military man called driving a transport. They could have flown themselves, but it really was faster to ride, and this particular transport had padded seats, soft pillows all in a heavy red cloth that made it fairly comfortable. Plus it had to go back anyway, Godfrey couldn’t fly without it… which was ridiculous. He needed to have his own personal gear as soon as possible too. The man was a base commander after all.
Tor stretched a little as he sat, arms going above his head and then twisting from side to side. When he stopped the blood rushed from his head and the world got sparkly in a thousand colors for a few seconds, mainly blue and black.
They spoke about what Tor should write to Trice which according to Rolph needed to be a lot different than what he’d thought.
“No… Tor, look, if you write something snarky and sarcastic like that, of course she’d have to reject it. That might work a little, but if you really want to give her something to play off of, you need to make it seem like you really love her and abjectly apologize. Show what work you’ve done to fix yourself and really seem like you’re trying to get her back. Maybe… mention that you’d be willing to throw over Varley for her, if she’ll have you? That… We’ll if she goes after you then, that should about do it. Especially if she takes it public. I’ve been thinking about it and I kind of wonder if it will be done that way though. I mean, if you send in Collette as a go-between, and it goes directly to Trice at the Wards estate, it should only be seen by them, right? If they take it public, then when they try to kill you for her, it would be too obvious. If they’re quiet about it…”
“Are they that smart? I’d guess Trice is, but the Wards?”
“I… don’t know. Really I tend to think of Marvin Ward as a bit of a mental midget, but that may not be fair. He’s always had the looks and position to not have to try very hard and his dad didn’t really push him like my parents have me. Maria… I don’t know her hardly at all, except as the bitch that hurt my friend, and a bit from school. I really thought she was some cute scholarship girl that got in or the kid of some merchant family that just didn’t know “the rules”. It wasn’t until later that I figured out that country rules wouldn’t actually allow for things like that either. Collette Coltress isn’t like that… not that we’ve met personally.” Rolph grinned a little.
“You know, when my mom met with her to apologize, she punched her? Collette I mean, punched mom. Left a bruise on her face for a week. Told her it was one thing to snub a nobody like her, but to go after a hero like you… Well, the things she’s said about you in public match that. I know it’s been work for her to put up with Trice and Maria and the kinds of things they’ve been saying about you. She’s done it, because of orders from the King, but otherwise I don’t think she could have managed.”
Collette struck Connie over him? And more, Connie just took it? That was… odd.
“Really?” It was kind of hard to believe on half a dozen levels. Wouldn’t that have caused a war or something? An attack on the Barony of Coltress at least?
“Yeah, I know. Mom felt like it was deserved though, after what happened and took it as just punishment. That’s why she locked herself in her rooms for all those days, waiting for the bruise to heal enough to go out in public. You know, it’s a little scary, thinking about one day being King, having parents like mine as an example. I mean now, if some merchant kid ever comes and beats me down for being a jerk, I have to actually stop and think about whether I deserved it or not. Seriously, it hardly makes it worth being the heir at all.” The straight face he had held for all of ten seconds then he had to laugh, a big, joyful sound.
“Of course it didn’t hurt that Collette did it in defense of the big hero Tor. You know, I love you, and I’d die to protect you, but you could really give a guy an inferiority complex.”
Waiting for the laughter Tor wondered if he could throw one of the pillows from the seat at his large friend, but they seemed to be tied down under the seat with fairly thick brown string. Oh well, that would have been childish of him anyway. When Rolph didn’t say anything else, but kept looking at him Tor finally shrugged.
“Me give you an inferiority complex? How’s that supposed to work? You’re kind of what everyone in the world wants to be. Tall, good looking, great with people, rich and, you know, let’s not forget, heir to the kingdom. Oh and smart. You even have a great family. Women throw themselves at you, I’m sure a lot more than I realize, and probably were even when you were at school pretending to just be Rolph Merchant. Thanks for not rubbing that in by the way, but me give you an inferiority complex? Don’t make me laugh.”
Rather than laugh, his giant friend blew raspberries at him rudely. He tried for one of the pillows himself, but stopped when he noticed that they were fixed in place. He crossed his arms instead and pinned Tor with a look.
“Granted, I’ve got a few edges over Bill the tanner or Howard Turnbull, but really Tor, if you’d only done one of the things you have you’d still be famous. Make people fly? God, that alone could get you laid in any city in the world right now. There are sitting Counts that would lend you their wives just to get you to come to dinner, and a couple that would offer to do you themselves if they thought it might work. Maybe more than just a few too. And that’s just because of the devices you make.
“Look at the rest of it… Little kids stuck down in a collapsing pit and you climb in after them knowing it was collapsing. You. Personally. You didn’t try to order someone else in, or just stand and watch. Don’t think I didn’t hear that workman tell you that you could lose your foot either. You did it anyway and never even complained about the pain from the break. I would have been demanding drugs and crying into my pillow for half a month if that happened to me.
“Then with Duke Winchester, everyone else was too afraid to try and do anything, even me and the Royal Guards. You waded in and made him let Lady Priscilla go, even though I know that you fully expected to die for it. No one else got that Tor, they thought you were just being brave, doing something a little dangerous, but that you knew you could handle even with a broken leg. I saw the look on your face afterward. You handed me your shield as a sign that you were willing to go to your death for having saved her. I know you too well to not get that stuff now.”
Rolph didn’t look at him, facing forward. The only sound he made for a minute was breathing. A bit heavy, not exactly a sigh though.
“You always do the right thing, the brave thing, no matter how hard or how unfair it is that you have to do it. So yeah, inferiority complex big time. Worse, I know, somewhere inside, that in most of the cases I’m talking about I could have done the same thing, but didn’t because I was too afraid.”
“You’d have never fit in that hole.” Tor said seriously. Getting a strange look from Rolph. It was a slightly sad look, one that said he felt mocked. It wasn’t meant to be at all.