jealous.
She could have waited for him.
It was not long before she came back, rosy and flushed from the exercise, and he could hardly keep himself from pulling her into his arms. Being a telepath, of course, she caught the impulse to which he did not give way, and blushed, smiling a smile so radiant that he might as well have kissed her. She whispered, "What happened, Alastair?"
He said, almost whispering, "I spoke with the king, and he has promised me his aid to recover Hammer-fell." He did not mention his part of the bargain.
She cried out, sharing his joy, "Oh, how wonderful!" And all through the room heads turned to look at her. She blushed again, and laughed a little.
"Well, whatever may come of it, we have made ourselves conspicuous; thanks be to Evanda we are under my own father's roof," she said practically. "Or there would be a scandal from here to―to Hammerfell."
"Floria," he said, "surely you know that when I am restored, the first thing I shall do is to speak to your father―"
"I know it," she said, almost in a whisper, "and I am as eager for that day as you." And for just a few seconds she was in his arms, kissing his lips so lightly that a minute afterward he hardly knew if it had happened or if he had dreamed it.
She let him go and reluctantly he came back to the ordinary world.
"We had better dance," she said. "Quite enough people are looking at us already."
His doubts and qualms had evaporated; with Floria as the reward he felt ready to pledge to whatever King Aidan wanted.
"I suppose so," he said. "I do not want your brother
picking another quarrel with me; one feud at a time is enough."
"Oh, he would not; not when you are a guest beneath our father's roof," Floria assured him, but Alastair looked skeptical; he had forced a quarrel when Alastair was a guest in their father's box at the concert hall, so why not beneath his father's roof?
They moved out on the dance floor, his fingers just touching the silk at her waist.
Far to the north, Conn of Hammerfell all but cried out, disoriented. The woman's face, the touch of his hands, the warmth of her body under the silk, the almost-memory of her lips fleetingly against his own . . . he overflowed with emotion. His dream-woman again, and the blazing lights, the richly clad people whose like he had never seen . . .
what had come over him? What had happened to him, that this lovely woman
companioned him so closely now night' and day?
Alastair blinked, and Floria asked gently, "What is it?"
"I hardly know―I was dizzy for a moment," he said, "dizzied with you, no doubt―but for a moment it seemed I was far from here, in a place I have never seen."
"But you are a telepath, surely; perhaps you picked up something from someone who is to be part of your life; if not now, sometime in the future," she said.
"But I am not a telepath, not much," he said. "I have not even enough laran to be worth training, so my mother has told me―what makes you think that?"
"Your red hair; it is usually a mark of laran."
"Not in my case," he said, "for I was born a twin; and my brother, so my mother said, was the one with laran." He saw the troubled look on her face and asked, "Does it mean so much to you?"
"Only―it is one more thing we might have shared," she said, "but I love just as you are." She blushed and said, "But you must think me bold, to speak so frankly before it has been settled between our parents. . . ."
"I could never think anything but good of you," he said fervently, "and I know that my mother will welcome you as a daughter."
The music came to an end, and he said, "I should go and tell my mother of my good fortune―our good fortune. Another thing," he asked, suddenly reminded by his mention of his mother, "do you know of a good dog breeder in the city?"
"A―dog breeder?" she asked, wondering what he meant by the sudden change in direction.
"Yes; my mother's dog is very old now. I want to find her a puppy so that when Jewel goes at last
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