Too Happy to Be Embarrassed

In the capital, everyone with any pretensions to gentility was preparing for the last ball of the season, to be held at the Keep itself. Maids wistfully helped their mistresses into elaborate gowns. Girls prayed they could have just one dance with the handsome Heir. Pretty women urged their corsets tighter and hoped they might be noticed by the even more handsome king. And their mothers and husbands resolved to do their best to make sure neither girls nor women got their wishes.

No one was quite sure about the Heir yet. Was he the womanizer, however discreet, that his father was? Then there was this Lovers' Temple business. Yes, it was very good for the kingdom as a whole, but would one want one's daughter drawn into it? One would not, at least not if she had any chances of making a good match. Sending a child off to a Temple, any Temple, was considered upright and pious. But practically speaking, bringing secular fortune into a family was more popular than bringing spiritual fortune into a family. So for the time being, coming to the prince's notice would be thrilling for the girl, and not quite as thrilling for her family.

Among the many women who hoped to catch Harsin's eye, not to mention those who'd already caught it in a lesser way, today's gossip about the brazen Twenna Shelstone was more than just something to talk about. She was now a clear target to be hit. That she felt confident enough of her hold on the king to flaunt herself through the capital did give one pause, true. But it also weakened her position. Traditionally Tremontine royal mistresses held a very private place; to go against that tradition might very well be her downfall, depending on Harsin's temper, and that would mean a new favorite.

As for the "brazen thing" herself, she had returned to her townhouse by way of the back roads from the Lodge, which had not gone unnoticed and had led to more speculation about her possible downfall. When Elbig found her at her dressing room mirror, at first he tried to winkle out of her what had happened at the Lodge, but Twenna quickly diverted him with the news about Staghorn Hall.

"A living comes with it? But Twenna! Why do you look so glum? You've done marvelously!" said Elbig, dancing her around the little room. "How much?"

"Five thousand a year."

"Oh! Dear wife!" said Elbig, collapsing onto a chaise. "Five thousand gold? Are you serious?!"

"Completely. We are to be in it for the off-season as soon as the Neya's Day festivities are through."

"I--I'm speechless! No title?" he added. Shelstone contemplated his good fortune. "Well!" he finally said. "We'll bundle you off right after the Spectacle if it's that important to him. I suppose I can drive out from time to time to see you. As for this place--while everyone's gone for the summer, I'll find us a better house to let. We can afford it now, darling! When you come back for the season at Fall's Beginning, I'll have it furnished and staffed to a turn!"

"No, El, we both have to go. Harsin insists on it."

"He does?" blinked Elbig. "Why?"

"I'm sure I don't know," said his wife, fidgeting. She sat down next to him. "There's more. We must keep separate bedrooms from now on."

"Well, of course! We'll have space for two bedrooms apiece at Staghorn!" he laughed.

"No, I mean--we cannot share a bed again. Ever."

Elbig frowned. "What? Why?"

Twenna took his hands in desperation. "El, you must understand. I cannot lie to Harsin. He sees straight through me. He told me I was not to let you in my bed as long as he lets me in his bed. He will know if I do, I'm telling you he will know!"

Elbig jumped up from the couch and began walking back and forth in great agitation, finally wheeling on his wife. "Sees straight through you? Does he suspect something?"

"If he does, I'm sure I don't know. I know nothing, so I've told him nothing," she deflected. "When I tell the truth, he believes me."

Elbig's frown relaxed slightly. "If he suspects something, then why give you Staghorn Hall? No, I'm sure we're fine."

Twenna shrugged and picked at a loose thread in the skirt of her wrap. "He said he would continue to reward us as long as I kept him interested."

Elbig resumed his pacing. "Then you'll fucking well keep him interested."

Twenna closed her eyes and pressed her lips together. "He told me I needed to stop playing dumb. If I'm going to stop playing dumb I have to stop playing dumb everywhere. I'm not smart enough to keep one face for him and one face for everyone else." Shelstone let out an exasperated breath and returned to pacing. "I'm sorry I can't lie with you any more, El," she said meekly.

He waved a dismissive hand. "Sex is easy to find. Least of my concerns. No, you shouldn't have taken the direct route to the Lodge today, you overplayed your hand."

"I did say I didn't want to take that route," murmured Twenna. "And I'm entirely uncertain how to face everyone at the ball tonight."

"Darling," he said, pulling her up off the couch, "all you need to do is be shy and demure. Hold that beautiful head up, but don't put on any airs at all. Let your rivals underestimate you."

"But Elbig, I can't--"

He silenced her with a finger. "You're not playing dumb, you are dumb. Just remember that. Now, eat a little something and start getting ready."

When night fell, the Keep filled with light, people and music. Master Sullo had the orchestra in fine form, nodding and bobbing his shaggy black head to keep time from the piano bench while his brother's violin thrilled the dancers' hearts as much as their feet. It would be the last time the orchestra played together for three weeks; tomorrow began their annual break before the summer concert season, and they played tonight as if it were the last time any of them would see each other or their instruments ever again.

Uncharacteristically, the king and queen were dancing every set rather than watching from the dais, and were seemingly enjoying themselves. The queen was rosy-cheeked and happy, and was dancing for the first time in several spokes of the wheel. There was something protective about the way the king squired her through the forms when they partnered.

Temmin finally understood what Ellika saw in dancing. It was great fun. It made all the girls in their pretty, low-cut dresses happy, flushed and breathless, and happy, breathless girls in low-cut dresses were currently his favorite kind. He had been doing his best to dance with every single one of them when the song came to an end and there was a stir in the room. He looked up at the stairs just in time to see a stunning young woman with glossy brown hair and the most enormous blue eyes he'd ever seen descending on the arm of an unpleasantly smiling man whose exquisitely tailored clothing tried and failed to mask his doughy physique. Her astonishing eyes were downcast, but as the murmurs increased, she rose her head and looked levelly into the faces around her, a small, challenging smile on her face.

He wondered briefly what that was all about, but didn't waste too much time on it, for right on their heels were Allis and Issak; the murmuring in the room increased, but its tone was quite different. Temmin went to meet them at the bottom of the stairs.

"Your highness," said Allis with a deep curtsey, Issak mirroring her with a bow.

Temmin took a hand from each and pulled them up. Out loud, he said, "Good evening, Holy Ones," but when he kissed each of them on the cheek he whispered "H'lo! I'm so glad you're here!" to Issak and "I thought you'd never get here!" to Allis.

"Haven't you been enjoying yourself?" grinned Issak. "I thought you'd have cut a swath through the girls by now."

"Is that how you got the black eye?" said Allis.

Temmin blushed. "No, this came from a young man."

"My, we're moving fast," quipped Issak, and Temmin laughed aloud, too happy to be embarrassed.

Master Sullo quickly summed up the mood in the room and nodded to the orchestra. His brother struck up the opening chords of a tripla; Temmin and Issak quickly flanked Allis and took their places on the floor, and the rustling of silk behind him told Temmin that the dancers were ranking up behind them.

On the first turn, he saw the king further down the ranks with the queen on one side of him and Ellika on the other. His sister so resembled their mother, and his mother looked so young and merry, that Harsin looked almost as if he were dancing with twins, and Ellika was looking up at her father with adoring eyes. Balls were good things, thought Temmin happily as he bowed to the pretty red-headed girl dropping a curtsey before him, which gave him a very good look down into her very enticing breasts. Very good things indeed.

Twenna Shelstone, meanwhile, was experiencing quite a different ball. She had already been publicly cut by a few of society's brighter lights and had nearly dug her nails through her gloves into her palms to keep from crying. The men were giving her knowing looks, and before the dancing had begun again, one had even been so bold as to ask her if she were free of an afternoon.

As the throng progressed through the tripla, she came closer and closer to Harsin until finally the form tossed her into his arms. He danced with her politely, smiling and warm, and even spoke a few words to her that she didn't hear in the least; she merely smiled and nodded back.

Twenna felt the mood in the room shift. When she passed to her next partner, she was nearly shaking with relief and as the tripla ended she found Elbig and begged him to find her a glass of punch, sparkling wine, anything. She needed to calm herself down. She felt the eyes of the room re-appraising her as she walked to the terrace and sat down.

But before Elbig could return, a cool voice at her elbow spoke. "Mistress Shelstone, is it?" She turned to face a figure in severe, old-fashioned evening clothes, slender and correct, nowhere near as tall as Harsin but somehow more imposing. Iron-colored hair was pulled back into an old-fashioned club like her grandfather had worn--or was it her great-grandfather?--and the piercing eyes were gray.

"I'm afraid I haven't had the pleasure, sir," she faltered, and squeaked as the figure took her arm in an iron grip and casually walked her over the the edge of the terrace away from other ears.

"There is no need to call me 'sir.' I am the king's chief counsel. You may call me Teacher. You will be dancing with me this evening, for the rest of this set and any others that you might wish to dance. You are not to look at the king, nor are you to accept any other man's proposal to dance, including your husband's."

"I--what?" she stammered. "I don't understand."

"You made a grave misstep today, Mistress Shelstone. You cannot recover your position in society completely, but if you wish to be accepted at all you will do as I say."

"But I don't see how dancing with you will help. Shouldn't I be dancing with Mister Shelstone?"

"Mister Shelstone is not the king's representative. I am. You cannot and will not dance with the king in public, at least not as his primary partner. I have been sent as his proxy, along with his reassurances that you are still very much in his favor." The hand released its grip on her arm, and she relaxed a bit. "What's more, people know I am the king's proxy and they will understand the full import of the gesture. You will not be so foolish again, I trust?"

Twenna shook her head mutely.

"Very good, then. Shall we dance?" Without waiting for an answer, Teacher led Twenna firmly out onto the dance floor and into a circle dance, leaving Elbig with two cups of punch and a gobsmacked expression at the side of the dance floor.