Chapter 84 - Small Talk (1/2)

Nyla sensed the tension and looked between the two of us. ”Right, you said he was your husband. How did the two of you meet?”

Al relaxed fractionally since it had nothing to do with his role in the palace. He even managed a tiny, strained smile. ”I first saw her at the seaside dancing carelessly in the waves. Less than five minutes later, she was chewing out a doctor for administering improper first aid. That left quite an impression on me so when I saw her again at a dinner party I couldn't stop staring.”

”Yeah, it was weird,” I said, elbowing him in the ribs. Taking Nyla's lead to try and lighten the mood was the best course of action.

”Hey, at least I saved you from dancing with someone old enough to be your father,” he countered. ”I think that earned points in my favor.”

I rolled my eyes and whispered conspiratorially to my new ally. ”He introduced himself to me as Al right off the bat! Nobody does that! I was baffled enough by that to keep thinking about him after the night ended.”

It was the extremely watered down version but it was the truth. Nobility weren't the only ones to have balls around here. The merchant class and even the farmers had dances of their own to meet people and escape a little from the drudgery of their daily lives. That much information wouldn't give us away.

Nyla eyed me curiously after that. ”You didn't know his full name when you first met?”

Oops. Maybe that had been the wrong thing to say.

”No, I didn't find that out until we had met a few other times.” And he had already proposed to me. But there was no need to mention that.

”You two are interesting,” she said after a moment of silence. ”Don't you think so, Mama?”

Ayana nodded, getting emotional again. I felt sorry for her. It must be really hard meeting your long-lost nephew again and not even knowing who he is or anything about his life. I wanted to nudge Al to tell her the truth but didn't think it was my place.

What could we tell her that wouldn't give away the fact that he was royalty? Given the fact that he vanished during the raids, he had to have been taken by a noble. Knights were usually the second or third sons from noble families who weren't set to inherit titles.

Nobles led pretty cushy lives but nobody was as idle as Al and I were. At least other nobles had jobs of some sort. Even Edmund, my ridiculous brother, had his duties as a second son.

”We play a lot of card games,” I hedged. ”And go horseback riding when the weather is nice. For fun, I mean. When we have time.”