dragon that killed my father, you see.” A thin flush mounted his cheeks. “None of them thought I could.”
“Whyever not?” The words popped out of her mouth before she could think, but she found them entirely natural. Who would believe this man incapable of doing whatever he chose to do?
The blue eyes narrowed with suspicion, but then a smile stole across his face and transformed it. She nearly caught her breath. “Thank you,” he said. “You’re not flattering me, I can tell that. You must always speak the truth to me, Sioned.”
The sound of her name on his lips was her undoing, but she had no intention of allowing him to know it. Instead she hung onto her pride, made an effort, and smiled back. “I will, if you promise me the same.” So much depended on his answer and his ability to keep that promise.
“I will, my lady. My word on it.” He touched her arm and quickly let go, startled. Touched by Fire, she thought, seeing it at last in his eyes.
“Tell me how I am to behave,” she said. “We should go back to the others and we won’t have the chance to talk until later, if at all.”
“You know castle life, I see,” he observed. “We won’t have time for ourselves unless we arrange it—and I will arrange it. But I can’t give any definite sign that I intend to marry you, and you’ll find no bridal welcome at Stronghold. I’m sorry. If it was only the two of us, I’d give you—” He broke off and color again stained his cheeks. “But we’re not private people and we never can be. Are you sure you want that kind of life?”
She hesitated, then shrugged and decided to tell the truth as she had promised. “When I was sixteen years old, I saw your face in the Fire. Lady Andrade told me then that I could change the vision if I wished. I never wanted to change it—and I never will.”
He seemed caught between a dozen conflicting emotions, as speechless now as she had been earlier. She smiled at him.
“Silly, isn’t it?” she said with another little shrug.
He swallowed, cleared his throat, and managed, “No sillier than what happened to me when Andrade showed me your face in the flames.”
To cover the emotion, she asked again, “How should I behave? Shall I pout, bear it bravely, or act as if I haven’t a thought in my head about anything at all, let alone marrying you?”
“You’d never be able to sustain that role for long,” he said with a sudden grin, then sobered. “But have you thought about it? Marrying me, I mean.”
Impulsively she dared the Fire by touching his cheek. The shock of it went through them both and she snatched her fingers away. Yet burned into her fingertips was the feel of his skin, the moistness of his sweat, the faint stubble of unshaven beard. “Answer enough?” she whispered.
“You feel it, too,” he whispered, shaken. “I couldn’t believe it when I saw you—that it could happen for me the way it did for my sister and Chay. I have to marry, I’ve always known that, and I was hoping for a pretty enough woman with at least half a brain—but looking at you—” He drew in a breath and shook his head. “I can’t expect you to understand what I’m trying to say when I’m not sure I understand it myself.”
“Oh, I understand,” she said almost ruefully. “It’s a shock to find your emotions can tell your mind to go rot, isn’t it?”
He smiled again. “Exactly. But that’s how I have to behave, as if I haven’t made up my mind about you.” He touched her shoulder and they stared at each other in silence before he removed his hand. “That kind of thing can’t happen too often, especially not in public. I’ll never be able to play my part, otherwise.”
“Perhaps I should pretend to be unsure, as well. Would that fit your plan?”
“Yes,” he decided at once. “Perfectly. Act as if you’re uncertain about marriage to me as both a man and a prince. It’ll leave you some pride, at least,” he added with a grimace. “I’ll make it up to you, Sioned, once we’re married. But that can’t happen until after the Rialla at Waes. I’ll explain everything when we can talk alone. But we have to go back now.”
“I can feel them watching us,” she agreed. As they started back, she said, “I