Golden Fool by Hobb Robin Page A

at Buckkeep. I wanted to settle more firmly into my role as Tom Badgerlock before I had any more chance confrontations with folk who might recall me from the past. There would be many of them at the betrothal ceremony tonight. “But I wish to point out to my prince that even if I am present, conversing with you will be out of the question. Nor should you take any sort of an interest in me that might call undue attention to our connection.”
    “I’m not a fool!” he retorted, very close to anger at my indirect refusal. “I simply would like to have you there. To know I had one friend in the crowd of those watching me being sacrificed.”
    “I think you are being overly dramatic,” I said quietly. I tried not to let it sound like an insult. “Recall that your mother will be there. And Chade. And Lord Golden. All people with your best interests at heart.”
    He reddened a bit as he glanced at Lord Golden. “I do not discount your value as a friend, Lord Golden. Forgive me if my words were ill considered. As for my mother and Lord Chade, they are, like me, obliged to duty before love. They want what is best for me, that is true, but the largest facet of that is always what is best for my reign. They see the well-being of the Six Duchies as intrinsic to my own well-being.” He looked suddenly weary. “And when I disagree, they say that when I have been King for a time, I will understand that what they obliged me to do was actually in my own best interests as well. That ruling a country that is prosperous and at peace will bring me far more satisfaction over the years than the choosing of my own bride.”
    We rode for a time in silence. When Lord Golden broke the quiet, his voice was reluctant. “My prince, I fear the sun does not wait for us. It is time to turn back toward Buckkeep Castle.”
    “I know,” Dutiful replied dully. “I know.”
    I knew they were the wrong words to offer as comfort even as I said them, but the customs of society dictate strongly to all of us. I tried to make him content with what he must face. “Elliania does not seem such a terrible choice for a bride. Young as she is, she is still lovely, with the potential for true beauty as she matures. Chade speaks of her as a queen in the bud and seems well pleased with the match the Outislanders have offered us.”
    “Oh, she is that,” Dutiful agreed as he turned his gray. Myblack snorted as the other horse cut her path and seemed reluctant to turn and follow him. The hills and a longer gallop enticed her. “She is a queen before she is a child or a woman. She has not said one incorrect word to me. Nor one word that might betray what goes on behind those bright black eyes. She offered me her gift quite correctly, a chain of silver fitted with the yellow diamonds of her land. I must wear it tonight. To her I gave the gift my mother and Chade had selected, a coronet of silver set with one hundred sapphires. The stones are small, but my mother favored their intricate patterning over larger gems. The Narcheska curtsied as she took it and told me in measured words how lovely she found it. Yet I could not help but notice how general her thanks were. She spoke of ‘my generous gift,’ never once saying a word on the designs or that she liked sapphires. It was as if she had memorized a speech that would suffice for any gift we gave her, and then recited it faultlessly.”
    I was almost certain that was exactly what she had done. Yet I did not feel it was right to fault her for that. She was, after all, only eleven years old, with as little say in these proceedings as our prince had. I said as much to the Prince.
    “I know, I know,” he conceded tiredly. “Yet I tried to meet her eyes, and to let her see something of who I am. When first she stood beside me, Badgerlock, my heart truly went out to her. She seemed so young and small, and such a foreigner in our court. I felt for her as I would for any child snatched away from her home and forced to