The Queen's Line (Inheritance of Hunger #1) - Kathryn Moon Page 0,43
Bryony was fairly delighted to know we now had kittens and had the maid move them into the kitchens for scraps of fish and a warmer hiding place.
"You should sculpt our princess," I suggested, hoping to make up for my previous slight against the artist.
Bryony's head ducked, her cheeks flushing, and Cosmo kept his hold on her hand, his eyes drinking her up like a man who'd just discovered an oasis in the desert.
"She'd make an excellent muse," Cosmo agreed, tugging on her hand and raising it up to his lips to press a kiss to her palm.
My eyes slid to Wendell, and I was surprised to find him watching them as avidly as I had, a soft smile on his lips. For whom? The princess or the artist? Visually, I liked them both. I searched the room and found Owen fiddling with a broken lamp in the corner. He glanced up, and his own lips curled as he took in Cosmo's flirting.
If Bryony had a favorite of us, I suspected it was Owen thus far, but he didn't appear jealous. And I was…surprised to find that I wasn't bothered by Wendell's attention turned away from me either. That was good. If he and I were going to have any longevity here as Bryony's Chosen—because I had no doubt she would be making use of us, sooner or later—our own romance was going to have to be open to new members, or at least guests.
I wasn't sure about Cosmo yet, but I certainly didn't mind the idea of sharing Wendell with Bryony. Or vice versa.
"I can't think of a use for a statue of myself, but I'll help in any way I can," Bryony said, charmingly pink down to her throat now.
"Done with this," Owen called, righting the lamp against the wall and moving to join us.
"Owen, you don't have to make the repairs yourself, you know," Bryony murmured, reaching for him and enfolding herself between the two men.
He shrugged. "Seems like a waste to wait for someone else to do it when I know how. I don't mind. Come on, there's another room I want you to see," he said.
Wendell waited for me as they passed him and headed back to the dark hall.
"I can't tell if you're goading her intentionally," Wendell whispered in his slightly clunky Mennarian. He often mixed up the words from formal tongue and common when we were only speaking with one another.
"Neither can I," I answered.
I usually settled on the common tongue; the grammar was closer to Kimmerian for Wendell. Before, when I was only a Mennarian prince and Wendell was only the ambassador, we should've spoken exclusively in formal tongue, regardless of our intimacy. If one of us had been a woman, using the common tongue would've been a demonstration of our intentions to one another, but there was no allowance for relationships between men. It was a relief to finally be in an environment where none of that mattered.
"Treat the others with respect," Wendell said, even more quietly. "It's one thing to tease her, but she rises to their defense quickly and she might mistake your intent."
My back tightened at the caution, and I reined myself in before I snapped at Wendell. He wasn't wrong—I couldn't remember a time Wendell had ever been wrong—I was just notoriously irritable when corrected, the inflexibility of my own upbringing was finding its way into uncomfortable places in my personal relationships.
I nodded to Wendell, and it was worth ignoring my own discomfort for the tilt of his lips and the brush of his hand against my back. Ahead of us, Bryony leaned into Owen's side, her right hand tangled with Cosmo's left. They were so at ease with each other, and they'd only known one another for a handful of days. Wendell and I had been lovers for years, but we were so used to hiding the fact that we barely knew how to express it outside of our sex life. I reached for his hand and felt his steps falter before he squeezed tight around my fingers and granted me a shining smile. A simple offering with a powerful return. I sighed, and my tension unwound.
Owen led us through the dim halls to the back corner of the palace and into the gymnasium he and I had found the day before. It still had a stale smell to it, equipment left out to gather dust, and I was surprised by the gleeful note from Bryony.