Naamah's Blessing

pageant on the LongestNight. Now all this attention? Please. What fourteen-year-old boy willingly devotes himself to a girl her age? He’s courting her.”
    “She’s a
child
!” I was repeating myself. “She’s four years old!”
    “And when I was five years old, I informed my mother I meant to marry the baker’s boy.” She shook her head. “If she dotes on the lad, and squeals with delight when Duc Rogier proposes a betrothal, no one will speak against it. Not if the King gives his consent to the union. Do you think he would?”
    “I don’t know,” I said. “But as Desirée’s oath-sworn protector, I would argue against it. No one knows their heart at that age.”
    “Mayhap you should speak to his majesty,” Bao suggested.
    “I wouldn’t,” Lianne countered. “Not yet. Your father’s right, there’s nothing untoward in the situation… yet. You run the risk of looking vindictive and overly suspicious.”
    “Aye,” I said slowly. “But if I wait for them to show their hand, it may be too late.” I made up my mind. “I’ll speak to him.”
    The next day, I begged an appointment with King Daniel, who heard me out patiently. When I had finished, he folded his hands on his desk. “Moirin, I have no intention of arranging a betrothal for Desirée before she comes of age.”
    A wave of relief washed over me. “You don’t?”
    “I don’t,” he said in a firm tone. “However, when that day comes, I would certainly find Tristan de Barthelme an acceptable candidate should my daughter find his suit pleasing, and I do not begrudge Duc Rogier the opportunity to allow his eldest to befriend her. Indeed, I would have thought it would please you.”
    I bit the inside of my cheek. “I am pleased to see Desirée happy, your majesty. But—”
    The King sighed. “But you suspect their motives. Ah, Moirin! This is Court; no one’s motives are entirely devoid of self-interest.” He summoned his faint smile. “Except mayhap yours, which is another reason I appointed you. Desirée is a child, let her have her happiness and bask in the boy’s attention. She’s D’Angeline, and her mother’sdaughter.” His smile turned sorrowful. “When she does come of age, she’s like to fall in love ten times over before she settles.”
    I laughed ruefully. “True.”
    He rose. “I give you my word, I’ll not see her betrothed young. And if Duc Rogier does propose it…” He hesitated. “Let us say he is not the man I took him to be, and I will feel my trust misplaced.”
    I rose, too. “I hope I am wrong, my lord.”
    “I suspect you are.” Daniel de la Courcel clasped my hand. “Nonetheless, I appreciate your concern. But I think it best you keep it to yourself rather than spread further ill will in the realm. Do not forget, all of this will change when Thierry returns in the spring.”
    My
diadh-anam
flared, reminding me that Prince Thierry’s return also meant the return of Raphael de Mereliot. Hopefully, whatever unfinished business lay between us would at last be concluded, and I would be freed from my everlasting destiny. “I look forward to it.”
    “So do I,” the King said quietly. “So do I.”
    I left the King’s presence comforted by his promise, but still uneasy with the situation. Mayhap I was being overly suspicious, my thoughts poisoned by Lianne Tremaine’s cunning mind. Mayhap I was overly naïve in the intricate ways that courtship and politics intertwined in Terre d’Ange; or mayhap simply overprotective of Jehanne’s daughter.
    I wished Jehanne would appear in my dreams once more to give me guidance, but she didn’t.
    Short winter days wore on to long winter weeks, winding slowly toward spring. I debated sharing my fears with Sister Gemma or the tutor Aimée Girard and decided against it, based on the King’s warning. During their studies together, Bao kept watch over Tristan’s dealings with Desirée.
    “He’s patient with her,” he said. “
Too
patient, at least for a boy his age. The poetess is right. It’s unnatural.”
    “And Desirée?”
    “She adores him,” Bao confirmed. “But, Moirin… what do you suppose he’s like when he’s
not
with her?”
    I was intrigued. “I could find out, couldn’t I?”
    Bao grinned. “None better!”
    Summoning the twilight, I wrapped myself in its cloak and spent a day stalking Tristan Courcel de Barthelme through the halls of the Palace.
    It wasn’t easy.
    ’Twas a tricky business at best to exist between the