The wind teases Zerah’s hair as she purses her lips together, studying me. “I like you more.” She leans close. “I especially like the way you dress now. It’s much simpler.”
I run my fingers against my silk gown.
“Nobody needs to wear enough jewels to buy a small city.”
“Perhaps not,” I say with a smile.
She pulls me into the courtyard and to the bench, where I had found her a few days ago. As she settles next to me, she speaks. “Mother thinks you are odd, but I don’t.”
I stay quiet, allowing Zerah to speak.
“Then again, Mother thinks everyone is odd. She thinks Aleksander is odd because he refuses to marry. Jude is odd because he would rather stay in Karra than visit us. Mother says that too…a lot.”
“Why does she think I’m odd?” I ask after a moment.
“Because you don’t seem keen on giving Jasce an heir.”
I sigh.
“I know.” Zerah throws her hands wide. “Mother thinks our only duty is to give men babies. I loathe the idea of only being good for one thing. I enjoy reading, archery, and breeding war horses. Why should I be stuck in a house with some bastard and forced to give him an army of children?”
I open my mouth to reply, but she keeps talking.
“Though, you should probably give Jasce at least one child, so Mother will leave Darhavva. You wouldn’t have to deal with her lectures anymore. I wouldn’t either. I cannot wait until she leaves.” The wind ruffles the hem of Zerah’s cotehardie as she continues. “You should hurry, or she won’t leave, and she’ll force me to marry some obtuse, arrogant bastard.”
Zerah continues. “Jasce is a bastard too, but he’s the best of them.”
Jasceisa bastard—a bastard that stuck his tongue in my mouth.
Andyouliked it.
“Them?” I ask, needing to distract myself from my thoughts.
She nods her head. “Jasce is the best of them. Better than Father, Aleksander, Jude, and Reeve.”
“Your brothers,” I say, even though I’m fully aware of their names.
She nods.
“So…” Zerah pats my leg, “…are you going to hurry and help rid us of my disapproving mother?”
“Yes,” I say, even though I still have no intentions of allowing Jasce to bed me. But Zerah doesn’t have to know that. None of them do.
“Oh, thank Olah.” Dramatically, Zerah clutches her hands to her chest. “I was beginning to fear she’d never leave.” A smile spreads across Zerah’s mouth as she leans close to me. “Jasce will be relieved when he finds out he doesn’t need to go on so many cold swims.”
“Why would he swim in a cold lake when we have heated baths?”
Zerah’s eyes widen as she stares at me like I asked her to jump from the top of the castle walls.
“What did I say?” I scrub my hands against my gown.
“Are you just being facetious? You do know why he takes those swims?”
I shake my head.
She pats my leg again. “Because of you, you goose.”
“But I would never tell him to swim in a cold lake.”
