As she passed Tane’s room, one of the maids left with a basket of wood and fire-lighting materials. Kett paused. “Is he awake?”
The maid nodded and curtseyed. “Yes, my lady.”
Kett tapped on Tane’s door, intending to ask if he’d escorted Giselle home last night, and planning to rip him a new one if he hadn’t. She knocked then pushed the door open.
“Are you- Oh.”
A sudden flurry of movement didn’t quite manage to disguise Giselle as she ducked under the covers, and Tane tried to look innocent despite the girl-shaped bump next to him.
“Morning,” Kett said, and while her mouth was still, she knew Tane could see the laughter in her eyes. “Morning, Giselle.”
Sheepishly, the girl peeped out, her face pink, and gave a rather unconvincing smile.
“Look, I just wanted to check Giselle got home okay last night,” Kett said, trying not to smile, “but clearly it’s a moot point. See you at breakfast.”
She nodded to them both and turned to go, and Tane said, “Wait.”
She turned back, brows raised.
“Listen, Willifus is a cock and we all hate him, but his father’s really important in Elvyrn politics and-”
“Tane, you know nothing bores me as much as politics,” Kett said. “Well, maybe shopping.”
Giselle looked aghast but Tane patted her hand and said, “The thing is, we had to invite him. And now Lord d’Athinisha’s going to be absolutely incandescent that someone beat up his beloved son…”
Someone, Kett noted.
“But I’m going to talk to Dad and to Uncle Talis, tell them why you did it.”
“I don’t reckon Talis is particularly on my side,” Kett said, wincing as she recalled a couple of instances in her youth when she’d set out to humiliate the king just because she could. Her father hadn’t protected her then. No one had.
“Are you kidding? Kett, you remember the queen, right? She was a bloody lunatic, everyone says, but he adored her. Can’t stand vapid women, Dad always says. He thinks you’re brilliant.”
“The king thinks I’m brilliant,” Kett said flatly, not believing it for a second.
“He’ll think you’re even more brilliant when I tell him you saved Giselle’s life.”
“I really don’t think they were gonna kill her,” Kett said, flustered.
“They weren’t inviting me to a tea party either,” Giselle said. Her eyes were huge and solemn as she regarded Kett. “Kett, I…”
Kett shrugged, embarrassed.
“I wish I was as brave as you,” Giselle said.
“Yeah, well. There’s a thin line between being brave and being a bloody idiot,” Kett said. “Get Tane to teach you how to defend yourself, yeah?”
She backed out, feeling awkward, and walked past Eithne’s room. Her sharp hearing picked up a male voice from within.
Kett smiled, wondering if her father knew that only one of his offspring had spent the night alone.
Although she wouldn’t put it past Beyla to have hidden a man in the wardrobe.
Passing a window, she caught sight of the snowy garden and decided to change her shape inside, before the cold air froze her bare skin. She rolled her clothes into a bundle and changed into a large dog with thick fur, and was almost to the stairs when Bael’s scent came to her. It was an intriguing mix of candied fruits, molten metal and winter ice. Hurriedly, she dropped her clothes and shoved them under a nearby table, then wagged her tail cheerfully as he rounded the corner.
Bael made that clicking noise people make with dogs, and she trotted over happily.
“Hey, Kett,” he said, and she froze for a second, horrified. How did he know? Could he smell her? Who’d told him?
But then he reached out and scratched her ears, saying, “Oh, you’ve lost your collar. I’ll tell the girls, shall I?”
He thought she was Kett II. Relief flooded Kett and she wagged her tail harder. Bael chuckled and stroked the top of her head, which felt way better than it ought to have.
“You’re a beauty, aren’t you, sweetheart? Not that you’d be anything else with a name like that.”
So saying, he chucked her under the chin and walked away, leaving Kett mildly stunned.
Chapter Eleven
Bael had woken alone, which was annoying, but he figured it was about time for breakfast so he got dressed and made his way downstairs in the hopes of finding someone who could tell him which of the many, many rooms of Nuala’s house breakfast might be served in.
Stopping to say hello to the leggy black hound Eithne had introduced him to last night as Kett II, he loped down the stairs, smiling to himself. He wondered if the real Kett knew she had a bitch named after her, and whether she cared. She probably didn’t. Kett didn’t seem to care much what people thought of her.
Except that she did, really. She cared very much that people saw her as someone who didn’t care. That they thought she was reckless, angry, violent, insane-but not smart, warm and vulnerable.
Her family saw it, or at least some of it. It was one of the reasons Bael liked them. Her siblings might be in awe of her-as they should, because she’s awesome-but they were proud of her. Last night he’d heard Beyla telling her friends about Kett’s dragons, huge pride in her voice.
He trailed around the house for a while, checking out the now-spotless ballroom and looking out fondly over the terrace where Kett had completely nailed those three asshole kids. What a gorgeous girl she really was. Strong, brave, loyal, smart and impossible to break. She rescued silly girls from stupid boys and wrestled dragons with equal aplomb. She was an absolute miracle in bed. And she looked really, really hot in a dress.
He had absolutely no idea how he was going to explain her presence to Albhar-or vice versa-but right then he didn’t really care.
The sun was up, the air was clear, he’d found his mate and she was really, truly perfect for him.
Inside, his nose led him to a salon decorated with roses and full of people serving themselves breakfast, only about half of whom he recognized. Kett was there, looking delicious and smelling-different, slightly, although he couldn’t put his finger on it.
No, it wasn’t her scent, it was something else. There was something different about her. Last night Verrick had told him a few things about Kett, but they’d been whispered like legends. That once Kett had been married, but her husband cheated on her so she stabbed him with a kitchen knife. That she’d been flogged in the army, hard enough to kill a normal person, but she’d survived. That she had once been killed and brought back to life again.
Verrick had even, wide-eyed, related the story of the sabertooth tiger, which had given Bael pause. If that one was true, what about the rest? Had his mate really done all those things?
Those scars on her back. Someone had flogged her, hard enough to kill.
Her prickly self-defensiveness. Someone had hurt her, badly enough for it to still smart.
If she hadn’t already stabbed the bastard, I’d do it myself.
He smiled at her and she scowled at him.
“Morning, gorgeous,” he said, sweeping her to him by the waist and planting a big kiss on her mouth.
“Bugger off,” she said, yanking herself away and grabbing the coffeepot, her expression telling him that if he tried that again she’d pour its contents all over him.
Bael grinned and turned away to get his own breakfast.
Kett picked a seat between Beyla and Nuala, deliberately it seemed, so Bael sat down opposite her, all the better to enjoy the view. Unlike her elegant stepmother and sister, she attacked her food, stabbing it with her fork and hacking away with her knife. She attacked everything, he realized-food, men, opinions, life in general. It was as if she had a grudge against the entire world. It wasn’t something he expected to find sexy, but with Kett, he was finding everything sexy.