"I was hoping for a little more privacy than a few yards."
I smiled at her, no pouting, no pretense. "You've shown that you're willing to persuade me with magic. It would be stupid of me to trust you completely."
The pout vanished, replaced by thin, almost angry lips. "You've proven you can best me at magic, Meredith. I am not so stupid as to try my luck for a second time."
Again, I was pretty certain that I had not bested Maeve at magic. It was more that she'd thrown her magic in my metaphysical face and my natural abilities had been awakened. It hadn't been deliberate on my part; in fact, I wasn't 100 percent certain that I could have duplicated it if I'd tried. But Maeve believed that I could do it at will, and I wasn't going to dissuade her. Let her believe that I was wonderfully powerful, and paranoid. Because I wasn't going anywhere completely out of sight of the men. Powerful and paranoid -- it was a recipe for royalty.
"My guards can sit in the shade while we talk out here. That is as much privacy as I'm willing to give you, even for girl talk."
"You don't trust me," she said.
"Why should I?"
She smiled. "You shouldn't. You most certainly shouldn't." She shook her head and sipped her rum, then gazed at me over the rim of her glass. "You've refused all refreshment. You fear poison or magic."
I nodded.
She laughed, a delighted burst of sound. I'd heard that selfsame laugh on the movie screen more than once. "I give you my most solemn oath nothing here shall harm you a-purpose."
Adding that last bit was nicely tricky. It meant that if I did come to harm, it wouldn't be her fault, but it also meant that I could come to harm. I had to smile. Such double-talk was so much a part of the court, where your word of honor was something you'd fight to the death to defend.
"I want your word of honor that no thing, no person, no animal, no being of any kind will harm me while I am here."
The pout was back. "Now, Meredith. Such a solemn oath? I will give my word to protect your safety to the best of my ability."
I shook my head. "Your word that no thing, no person, no animal, no being of any kind will harm me."
"While you are here," she added.
I nodded. "While I am here."
"If you had left that last little bit off, I'd have been responsible for you always, everywhere you go." She shivered, and I don't think it was pretense. "You go to the Unseelie Court, and that is not a place I would wish to have to guarantee your safety."
"Everyone seems to feel that way, Maeve. Don't feel bad."
She frowned, and again I think it was real. "I do not feel bad, Meredith. It is not within my purview to guard your safety within those dark, shadowed corridors."
I shrugged. "There is light and laughter within the darkling throng, just as there is darkness and sorrow among the glittering throng."
"I will not believe that the Unseelie Court holds the joyous wonders that await one at the Seelie Court."
I looked over my shoulder at Doyle and Frost. I made it a long look, then turned slowly back to Maeve, allowing their beauty to fill my eyes. "Oh, I don't know, Maeve, there are joys to be had at the dark court."
"I have heard tales of the debauchery that exists at Queen Andais's court."
That made me laugh. "You have lived too long among the humans if you say debauchery with such distaste. The joys of the flesh are a blessing to be shared, not a curse to be guarded against."
"As your wayward guard and my sweet Marie should know." She looked past me, smiling. Rhys and Marie were walking toward us. Rhys's white curls fell free to his waist again. His boyishly handsome face was its usual clean-shaven self. The pearl-studded eye patch was back in place. He was smiling, pleased with himself to the point of nearly laughing, as if he knew some new joke.
Marie trailed behind him. Her hair was a little less than perfect, and her white shirt was untucked. But she didn't look happy.
If Maeve's hint was true, then Marie would be smiling. Rhys had his faults, but not putting a smile on a girl's face was not one of them. You couldn't really take him as seriously in, or out of, bed as some of the other guards, but he was a lot of fun in bed.
I found myself frowning again. If he had done something sexual with Marie, how did I feel about that? He was, after all, mine. Exclusively mine, according to the queen.
I tried to be hurt, jealous, or even miffed that he might have been playing slap and tickle with Marie, and I just wasn't. Maybe it was because I was sleeping with the other men. Maybe to be truly jealous you have to have some pretense of monogamy. I didn't know why, but it simply didn't bother me. If he'd had intercourse with her, that would bother me, because I was the one that we needed pregnant, not some assistant to some star. Other than that, I didn't seem to care.
Rhys dropped to one knee in front of me, which crowded Kitto a little; but the fact that he was willing to touch the little goblin was actually a very good sign. He raised my hand to his lips, grinning.