Taro shrugged, unconcerned. “I don’t know yet. No flaming bushes on my property so far. Maybe it’s not time to know yet.”
Rafe smiled at Leah. “Maybe it’s you,” he suggested. “It would fit with the poetry of the selection process.”
Leah felt herself recoil. “Me! I don’t think so.”
“Why not?” Virrie said. “You’re a purebred Frothen girl.”
“I’ve crossed every inch of Taro’s estate, including that spot that he’s talking about, and nothing ever burst into bloom just because I walked by.”
“Maybe the elements just weren’t ready yet,” Josetta said. Her blue eyes were sparkling; she was finding this very entertaining for a girl who, from all accounts, had felt overwhelming relief when she learned she was not going to inherit a crown. “Maybe they didn’t think you were ready yet. But things have changed. You’ve been gone for five years, and you return just as the aging prime starts to decline—”
“I’m not that old.”
“And when you visit the torz property, suddenly every tree and rosebush goes wild—”
“Even though it’s the dead of winter,” Rafe added.
“It could happen,” Taro said. “Maybe Leah should come back with me when I leave Chialto.”
“I don’t think I’d make a very good prime,” Leah said.
“You wouldn’t think Kayle would, either,” Virrie pointed out. “But, in fact, in some ways he’s spectacular.”
“It is very unsettling, though,” Rafe agreed. “Suddenly finding out that you have a heritage you never knew about.” He was fingering his right ear, and for the first time Leah noticed that it had been mutilated in a deliberate and oddly beautiful way—cut into five triangular points, each decorated with a small hoop earring. When he realized she was trying not to stare, he smiled and said, “A souvenir of my Berringey birthright. I usually wear my hair in such a way that you can’t see it.”
“It’s quite impressive.”
“I’ll tell you the story sometime,” he said. “But here’s what I want to say. When you suddenly discover that you have a wholly unsuspected heritage, it makes you reassess everything you ever thought or felt in your entire life. And it makes you reconsider where your sense of self-worth comes from. Are you a valuable person because of what you do, what you achieve, who you’re kind to, who you protect? Or are you a valuable person simply because of the blood that runs through your veins?”
“Can’t you be both?” Virrie said.
“Maybe,” Rafe said. “But I’ve never thought anyone could ever be valuable just because of bloodlines. You have to do something worthwhile, too.”
“Being a prime seems pretty worthwhile,” Virrie said with a smile.
“But I’m not a prime,” Leah insisted.
Taro seemed intrigued by the possibility. “Like I said,” he repeated, “maybe you should come back with me for a visit.”
Mally looked up at that. This whole time she’d sat quietly by Taro, eating her food and playing with her sketches. “Could I come, too?” she asked.
Virrie looked dismayed. “Don’t you like Chialto? I thought you were having a good time.”
Mally nodded. “I’m having a very good time. But I’m worried about Natalie. Maybe she misses me.”
“Do you miss her?” Leah asked quietly.
“A little bit.”
“Maybe she could come here for a visit,” Leah offered.
“Not a bad idea,” Taro said. “Romelle could probably use a break. I’ll suggest it when I get back.” He glanced at Leah. “Though I still think you should come with me to the estate sometime.”
Leah produced a strangled laugh. “To see if I’m prime? I’m never coming home with you if that’s the reason.”
Taro was smiling. “Well, we’ll see.”
Josetta picked up the meat platter and handed it to Virrie. “Come on, everybody, eat up. We don’t want anything to go to waste.”
• • •
After the meal, Mally took Leah on a tour of the house, which was full of quirky nooks and charming surprises. The best room was the lounge that Darien had had built for Zoe, a place full of huge windows, soft furniture, and a circular fountain that ringed the whole room like a bubbling brook.
“It’s Zoe’s favorite spot in the city, as you might imagine,” said Josetta, who had accompanied them. “Though I almost like her aunt Saronne’s place better.”
“What’s special there?”
“She has an indoor pool that looks like a tiny lake you might find somewhere in the wild. The water is surrounded by rocks and plants and the whole space is enclosed with glass, so you can use it year-round. That’s where I learned to swim.”
Leah shook her head. “Coru folk. They do go to extremes.”
Josetta looked over her shoulder. “Well, Taro isn’t much better. He hates coming to Chialto. Everyone thinks it’s because he doesn’t like the politicking, but I think it’s because he can’t stand being so far from the land. He never bothers trying to explain it to Darien, but Zoe understands.”
Leah nodded. “When I lived with Taro and Virrie, he was never so happy as when he was outside, kneeling in the garden or simply walking around the property. I used to think that, if he could do it, he’d plant his feet in the soil and simply sink into the earth—just let it absorb him.”
Mally had taken a seat on a little bridge that arched over the fountain, and she was dangling her bare toes into the water. “Maybe that’s what he’ll do when he wants to die,” she said.
“Mally!” Leah exclaimed. “What a sad thought!”
Mally shrugged. “I don’t think Taro would be sad.”
Josetta smiled at Leah. “I think she’s right.”
Leah held her hands up. “I can’t think of a world without Taro. So no more of that talk.”
Josetta swept an arm out to include the whole house. “Do you like it? There’s plenty of room.”
“Plenty of room for—?” Suddenly she remembered that afternoon at the palace, the day she’d first met her daughter. Darien had suggested that Leah could take up residence in his house along with Virrie and Mally. “For me?”
“Exactly! We’d love to have you.”
Leah fixed her eyes on Mally and thought about it. She had been panicked—terrified, actually—when Darien first suggested it, but now the arrangement had a definite appeal. She would be able to see her daughter every day, casually, intimately, easily. Mally would get used to her, maybe even grow to love her, without any awkwardness or anxiety. But Leah would fall even deeper into Darien’s debt, would be adhering even more closely to whatever script he’d laid out for her life. And she’d lose her independence, not a small consideration for a woman who’d been on her own for five years. She could not, for instance, easily bring a lover back to this house—
What lover? she thought, forcing her thoughts to pull up short. You want to trust Chandran, but he is still a cipher. He is still the man who murdered his wife. He should not be the reason you turn away from something you want with all your heart.
“I can see you have some reservations,” Josetta said as Leah remained silent. “I have to tell you, I usually do everything I can to avoid falling in with Darien’s schemes! He’s so sure of himself and he’s so often right that sometimes I’ll refuse him just to be spiteful. He can bring out my most stubborn side. But in this case, I think Darien’s plan has many advantages.”
Leah frowned at her. “I can’t remember,” she said slowly. “Do you know—my situation?”
Josetta nodded seriously. “Virrie told me,” she said. “Not Darien or Zoe.”
“So the idea is attractive for many reasons. But I’m not sure—”
“Well, keep two things in mind,” Josetta said. “One, it’s a big house and it’s a shame for it to stand half empty, staffed with servan
ts. That’s how Darien convinced me to move here in the first place, because he knows how much I hate things to go to waste! And two—” She spread her hands and smiled. “If you don’t like it, you can always move out again. Just pack your things and go.”
“That’s an excellent point.”
“And three,” Josetta went on in an innocent voice, “you can always invite your friends here to visit.”
“Friends?”
Josetta couldn’t hold back a smile. “That Zoe did tell me. Annova told her.”
Leah covered her face with her hand. She’d forgotten what it was like to be talked about, even by people she liked. Gossip was the primary occupation of the Five Families, of course, but this had been so fast. “It’s a really complicated story,” she said, dropping her hand.
“And you don’t have to tell me—or Zoe or anyone. I just wanted to make the point that living here wouldn’t mean—well. You know.”
Leah laughed. “You’re the most unconventional princess!”
Josetta beamed. “I know. I try to be. Corene is such a hellion, but she’s far more proper than I am.”
They turned to go and Josetta tapped Mally’s shoulder as they approached her. “Come on, little girl, almost time for you to go to bed.”
Mally held her hands up, and the two women hauled her to her feet. She didn’t let go, so the three of them squeezed through the doorway together and continued down the hallway still handfast. Leah thought she had never felt anything so small and perfect against her palm.
“Have you heard from Corene?” she asked, to keep herself from getting overemotional.
“Oh yes. Letters on an erratic basis, full of Melissande and the queen and Foley and all these other people I don’t know. She appears to be having a wonderful time. As well as winning her father some friends at court, so that pleases him greatly.”
“I’m glad. I didn’t know Corene that well, but I thought she was so—” Leah wasn’t sure how to describe the redheaded princess. “I thought that if she had the desire and the skill to do something, she would be almost unstoppable,” she said at last. “She just hadn’t figured out yet what she wanted.”
“Exactly right. Leaving Welce was probably the smartest thing she ever did for herself.” Josetta sighed. “But I miss her.”
Isn’t that the best thing any of us can hope for? Leah wondered. That someone will miss us when we’re not around?
Virrie and Rafe were still in the dining room when they returned. “Taro had to go outside and find a patch of dirt to stand in,” Virrie said. “He’ll be back in to say good night.”
Mally dropped Josetta’s hand but held on to Leah’s and swung around to face her. “Are you going to come live here?” she asked.
Leah’s heart managed one painful bound and then stopped beating altogether. “Do you think that’s a good idea?” she asked.
Mally nodded. “It’s very nice here,” she said. “I think you’d like it.”
“Maybe,” Leah said, wrinkling her nose. “I’ve lived alone a long time.”
“But you don’t have to do that anymore,” Mally said.
“Living alone isn’t natural for a torz girl,” Virrie said. “Elay, maybe, but not torz.”
“I never had a chance to live by myself,” Josetta said wistfully. “I think it sounds wonderful.”
“Hey,” Rafe protested.
She smiled at him. “Well, now I don’t want to.”
Mally was still looking up at Leah. “Do you want to?”
It took supreme effort to look down into those solemn eyes and not start crying. “I don’t,” she said, her voice just above a whisper. “I want to live here. With all of you.”
• • •
So that would be a big change in a lifetime of big changes, but Leah was so busy she hardly had time to savor it. Things were so demanding at the shop for the next few days that she couldn’t even think about packing her belongings and relocating. She would wait until firstday, when the whole world came to a brief halt. And then she would go live with her daughter.
It was the most exhilarating, frightening thing she had ever anticipated.
Chandran approved. She hadn’t been sure exactly what to tell him—how to tell him—so she waited until Annova volunteered to fetch lunch and they were briefly alone in the shop.
“It’s an excellent plan,” he said immediately.
“I’ll get to see Mally every day. I can hardly believe it. But I—well, I won’t have as much freedom. People will know where I am all the time, and I—”
He smiled. “That is a good thing,” he assured her. “I think it has been too long since there was someone who would know by morning if you had not survived the night.”
Who will know if you have survived the night? she wanted to ask. Who has known for the past fifteen years? You’ve been on your own longer than I have. She was beginning to think that was what had drawn them together in the first place. A longing for connection between two isolated people who were not, by nature, creatures of solitude.
“But I still want— It is important to me— There are still things I need to learn about you,” she floundered.
He nodded. “Good. We will proceed, just in a somewhat adjusted fashion.”
“Lately it seems my life is nothing but adjustments.”
“Life usually is.”
Darien supplied a car and driver to help Leah make the transition from her rented room to his elegant house. She wouldn’t have said that she had too many possessions, but it still took Leah, Yori, and Rafe multiple trips to transfer all her belongings to the elaymotive.
“This is the best part,” Rafe said when they pulled up in front of the house late in the afternoon. “Darien’s excellent servants can carry everything inside.”
The elaymotive was speedily unpacked, but Leah stopped Yori before she drove away. “Would you be free next firstday to take me to the harbor?” she asked. “I need to make another buying trip.”
Yori nodded. “The regent says I’m always free to take you where you need to go.”
“Really? Then is there somewhere you would like to go? Because I would instantly find in myself an intense desire to visit that place.”
Yori laughed and climbed back into the smoker car. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
Mally was waiting just inside the door. “I’ve picked your room,” she said. “But Virrie says you can have a different one if you don’t like it.”
Is it close to yours? “Let me see what my options are,” Leah answered. “I’m sure I’ll like anything.”
It turned out that the second story of the house had originally been intended for family members, and the third story for guests; even today, Rafe and Josetta had rooms on the second level, while Virrie and Mally were a floor above. The suite Mally had chosen for Leah was also on the third floor, on the opposite end of the hallway from the rooms that housed the other two. It was full of light, decorated in white and green, and overlooked a small garden that was almost completely dead at this time of year.
“Because you’re torz,” Mally explained. “You need to see the land, even when it’s not very pretty.”
Leah sank to the cushion of the window seat, and Mally climbed up beside her. “So do you, for the same reason.”
“I keep some in my room.”
“Land? Dirt?”
“Rocks. It’s almost the same thing.”
Mally stayed with her while Leah unpacked her bags and even offered an opinion, when asked, about what clothes Leah should change into for dinner.
“It’s a special meal,” she explained. “We’re having company.”
“Really? Who?”
“Nelson and Beccan and Rhan.”
Leah felt a jolt of panic shiver down her bones. “The Ardelays. Really,” she managed to say. “I wonder whose idea
that was?”
“Taro wanted to see Nelson,” Mally said.
That made sense. The two primes weren’t often in the same city. “We do want to dress up for Nelson,” Leah said. “Come on. Let’s go find something pretty for you. Shall I fix your hair?”
“Can you braid it?”
“With ribbons.”
“Then yes, please.”
In a half hour, Mally and Leah were both suitably attired and heading downstairs for the evening meal. Even from the second-story landing, Leah could hear voices and laughter drifting up from the main floor. She tried to ease back her tension.
Mally patted her on the wrist. “It will be fine,” she said.
The child was practically a mind reader. That’s certainly a sweela trait. She has her grandfather’s sensitivity to other people’s moods. “Sometimes I get nervous when I have to make conversation with a lot of people,” Leah said.
“Virrie says nobody else has to talk when Nelson’s here,” Mally said.
That made Leah laugh so hard she was still smiling when they entered the dining room.
“Mally!” Nelson roared and charged across the room to sweep her up in a tight embrace.
“Don’t terrify the poor child,” protested Beccan, who was trailing after him. She smiled at Mally over Nelson’s shoulder. “Hello, there. We’re so happy to see you again.”
Mally, looking anything but terrified, laughed down at Beccan. “He’s silly,” she said.
“He is,” Beccan agreed.
Rhan strolled up to join them, and suddenly they were a little family group, standing together casually. Mother, father, daughter, grandparents. Leah felt her breath turn to cinders in her throat.
“When my brother and I were little, my father would throw us into the air and catch us again,” Rhan told Mally. He reached a hand up to her and she solemnly shook it. “My mother was always afraid he’d drop us, but he never did. It was the most fun ever. Saddest day of my life was when he told me I was too big to toss around.”
“I don’t want to be thrown in the air,” Mally said.
“What if I twirl you around instead?” Nelson asked, holding her away from his body as he began spinning in circles. Mally’s infectious laugh rang out; now everyone else in the little family group was smiling.