“Well, since we are alone, I will call you Laera, if you will allow me the rare privilege,” he said.
“I do allow it,” she replied with a smile. “It would be nice if you could see me as a woman and not only as a princess of the royal house.”
It was difficult not to see her as a woman, Aedan thought, with her dark hair hanging loose and billowing in the breeze, which also plastered the thin material of her nightgown against her body. She looked altogether too much like a woman and not enough like a princess. Self-consciously, and reluctantly, Aedan averted his gaze and looked out to sea.
“A storm is coming,” he said uneasily.
She came up beside him and rested her arms on the parapet wall. “I love summer storms,” she said. “The way the sheet lightning lights up the whole sky, the way the thunder rolls, as if the gods were playing at ninepins, the way the rain comes down so hard and fast and leaves everything smelling so fresh and clean. I love walking in the rain, don’t you?”
He glanced at her. The wind was blowing her long, raven tresses back from her face as she inhaled deeply, taking in the moisture-laden sea air. Aedan could not help noticing the way her chest rose and fell with her breaths. She was leaning forward against the wall, and her posture accentuated her breasts, which threatened to tumble out of her low-cut nightgown. She glanced at him, and he quickly looked away. Had she caught him staring? Aedan felt himself blushing and turned his head so she wouldn’t see.
It wasn’t all that long ago that Laera was a gangly, coltish little girl, proud and haughty, with legs too long for her torso, but since she turned fifteen, she had begun to blossom and seemed to become more beautiful with each passing year. Her once reed-thin figure now possessed lush curves, of which Aedan was all too uncomfortably aware with her standing so close, barefoot and wearing nothing but a sheer white nightgown.
It struck him that they really shouldn’t be alone like this, especially with her being dressed the way she was. Or barely dressed, he thought. She was promised to Lord Arwyn, after all, and if someone saw the two of them together in such circumstances, it could easily be misinterpreted. It wasn’t right.
“Well… I think perhaps I should be going,” he said, rather awkwardly.
“No, stay awhile,” she said, reaching out and putting her hand on his arm. Her touch lingered. “We never have a chance to talk anymore. Why is that?”
Aedan’s lips felt very dry. He moistened them. Did she feel completely unselfconscious standing before him in her nightclothes? “I suppose we never talk because I am usually kept busy with Prince Michael, and you are kept busy with …” He actually had no idea how she spent her days. “… whatever it is a princess does,” he finished lamely.
“Learning courtly graces, sewing and embroidering, dancing, riding, lessons on the lute … all those things meant to prepare a girl to be a noble’s wife. I am sure you would find it all quite boring. I know I do.”
“We could trade,” Aedan offered with a smile. “Then I could learn to sew and play the lute while you could spend the day reenacting the Battle of Mount Deismaar with Prince Michael and his little friends.”
“No, thank you, very much,” she said, making a face. “I concede you have the worse of it. I cannot imagine how you stand it. Michael is an absolutely horrid child. It must be awfully trying for you.”
“Oh, it’s not really so bad,” said Aedan, though privately, he could not agree with her more. “It is good training for my future role as royal chamberlain. It teaches discipline and patience.”
“It must,” said Laera. “I don’t know how you can put up with him. He may be my brother, but he is an insufferable little monster. When I heard that Corwin knocked him senseless, I thought it was just what he deserved. To tell the truth, I wish I’d done it myself.”
“That was entirely my fault,” Aedan said. “I should have prevented it, but I fear I was not quick enough.”
Laera smiled. “Yes, I heard that Lady Ariel slowed you down a bit.”
Aedan blushed again. Damn that Ariel. The story must be all over the castle by now and everyone was probably having a good laugh at his expense. “Yes, well, that was my fault, too. I wasn’t paying attention. I was trying to keep an eye on Prince Michael, and she managed to get in a lucky blow. I really should have known better. She always comes after me during the games. She knows that I won’t strike her, so she takes advantage.”
Laera smiled again. “That isn’t why she does it.”
“Oh? Why, then?”
Laera chuckled. “You mean you don’t know?”
He frowned and shook his head. “No. What other reason could there be?”
“She is in love with you.”
“What? Ariel? Oh, that’s absurd!”
“It’s true, you know.”
“But she’s just a child!”
“A child on the verge of becoming a young woman,” Laera said. “In many ways, a girl of twelve is more mature than a boy of the same age. She is certainly old enough to feel romantic inclinations. And among the peasantry, it is not at all uncommon for girls to marry at her age and start having children soon afterward.”
“Well, among the common folk, marrying young is often a necessity,” said Aedan. “They are poor and need more children to help them work the fields. Besides, they age quickly from their toil. It is hardly the same sort of thing. I am much too old for Ariel.”
“I was only a year older than Ariel is now when I was promised to Lord Arwyn, and he is more than twice my age,” said Laera.
“That is hardly the same thing,” Aedan replied. “You are of the royal house, and your betrothal was arranged to cement a political alliance. Besides, you did not marry at thirteen. You were merely promised. You shall be a grown woman when you take your wedding vows.”
“I am already a grown woman, as you have surely noticed,” she replied with a mocking little smile.
Aedan flushed with embarrassment and silently cursed himself. She had caught him staring, after all.
“It will not be long before Ariel grows into a woman, too,” Laera continued. “And there is much less of an age difference between the two of you than there is between Lord Arwyn and myself. In only a few years, she will not seem too young for you.” She sighed and looked off into the distance. “Whereas Lord Arwyn….” She sighed again. “I think I understand now how my mother must have felt when she was promised to my father.”
“I was told that women find Lord Arwyn handsome,” Aedan said.
Laera shrugged. “Perhaps, if they like that brutish sort. But he seems very coarse to me. He’s like a great big bear, with those large eyebrows and that great, thick, bushy beard. I’ll bet he’s hairy all over.” She grimaced with distaste. “The thought of him lying on top of me makes me shudder.”
Aedan was dumbstruck at her remarks. He would never have imagined that a woman could talk that way, especially a princess of the royal house. He could not think how to respond.
“Do I shock you?” she asked, seeing his dismayed expression.
“I…uh … well … I have never heard women speak of such things before,” he said, feeling flustered.
She cocked her head, curiously. “You think we are so very different? You think that only men think about such things? Would you wish to lie with a woman whom you found repulsive?”
“We, uh … we really should not be speaking of such matters,” he said awkwardly.
“Why not?”