Kushiel's Dart - Jacqueline Carey [367]
In the small hours of the morning, Ysandre and Drustan took their leave, and we followed them as far as the bedchamber, a great crowd of mixed folk, shouting out good wishes-and some bawdy ones-and pelting them with a hailstorm of petals, until they, laughing, closed the bed-chamber door and barred it, petals clinging to their hair, and Ysandre's grim Cassilines turned us away, with an especially dour look for Joscelin.
No end to the revelry, though; the Queen had bid it carry on until dawn, and I saw it through to the end, having a deep need in my soul for a joyous daybreak to cleanse away the memories of too many others.
Joscelin, too; he understood. We had had the first dance together, and we had the last. Later I would laugh to hear the forays he had endured in between, staged by D'Angeline lords and ladies curious to test the virtue of a Cassiline apostate. Then I merely rested safe in the circle of his arms, glad to be there, where neither of us ever thought to find ourselves.
And we watched the sun rise over Terre d'Ange.
The days that followed were full of activity, for there remained a great deal to be done; but my role in it, for the most part, had come to an end. When the Chancellor of the Exchequer bestowed upon me the balance of the proceeds from the sale of Delaunay's estate, I begged of him the name of a reliable agent, and made arrangements for the care and investment of my unexpected wealth.
With some portion of these funds, Joscelin spent his days making preparations for our journey to Montr?e. We would not ride alone, it seemed, for three of Phedre's Boys, among those survivors of the wounded at Troyes-le-Mont, begged leave to be dismissed from Rousse's service and enter mine.
Quintilius Rousse acceded and Ysandre agreed to the increase in Montr?e's allotment of men-at-arms, and that is how I came to acquire three Chevaliers; Remy, Ti-Philippe and Fortun. Why they persisted in their extravagant loyalty, I never understood-although Joscelin laughed and said he did-but I was glad of their presence, for I had no few trepidations regarding the welcome I would find in Montr?e.
The folk there had been loyal to Delaunay's father, the old Comte de Montr?e and, so far as I knew, to his cousin as well; Delaunay, they'd not known since his youth, and me they knew not at all. Born and bred to the Night Court, I was no blood kin of theirs. I was not even Siovalese.
On the day before our departure, I received one last surprise. A royal page came to fetch me, claiming strangers at the Palace gates were asking for me.
Joscelin came with me as I hurried through the Palace, fearful of who awaited. His face was set and grim, hands hovering over his dagger-hilts; he had leave to wear his Cassiline arms even in the presence of the Queen. It was a kindness of Ysandre's, who had seen how he felt stripped without them-and a cleverness, too, for he would ever have guarded her life as his own, or mine.
What I expected, I could not say, but we found awaiting us a young couple in simple, well-made country attire.
"My Lady de Montr?e," the young man said and bowed; his wife curtsied. His face, as he straightened, was familiar, but I was too disconcerted by the greeting to place it. "I am Purnell Friote, of Perrinwolde. This is my wife, Richeline." She bobbed another curtsy. He gave me an open grin, eyes friendly beneath a shock of brown hair. "My nephew taught you to ride a horse, do you remember? The Lady Cecilie said you might have need of a seneschal."
I did remember, with such delight that I kissed them both, to their blushing surprise. It was only then that Cecilie showed herself, smiling at the success of her venture.
"Gavin swears Purnell can do aught that he can, and twice as swiftly," she said as I took her hands in gratitude. "My Perrinwolde's grown too small to hold the expansion of the Friote clan, and you'll have need of