“Which you don’t like?” Flor guessed, a bit of fire in his tone. “Because of whoever ‘usually’ behaves badly?” Clematis raised his head again and Flor exhaled, losing some of his visible temper. He quirked a small smile. “But then, if you thought to hide your beauty, you should not have chosen a spot in the moonlight.” He lightened his grin, made it teasing. “Perhaps a dark room? With not a single light?”
Clematis made a noise, involuntary and weak. He thought he should be frightened, but Flor was all the way across the room, and smiling just so, as if he could not believe Clematis would be surprised but that was also perfectly fine with him.
“Even with a mask, you must know you are remarkable.”
“Yes.” Clematis considered him, tense as he waited for the next, harsh words that often followed when someone’s attempted seduction did not go to plan. But he also knew Flor, and was not all that surprised when Flor did not seem even a little bit angry when his compliment was not answered with gushing delight.
“You probably hear that a lot,” Flor said thoughtfully, then smiled again, warm and easy. He was capable of such gentleness, something that would startle the many people who did not see him in private spaces. In public, he was often fierce. But this was close to how he spoke to Prince David when the Prince was troubled. “Do youwantto stay hidden in here? Because, if you would like to go out there and check off more items on your list, I could go with you. If you needed an escort, or someone to watch over you. I can be trusted. The Prince himself will vouch for me.” Flor hesitated. “It’s true that I have a temper. But I don’t hurt anyone with it except the cruel. And we shall be in plain view of practically the entire kingdom, so you can feel safe in that respect.”
Clematis gaped for several moments, while his face went hot and his heart seemed to beat wildly out of rhythm. “You have other things to do. Prince David to look out for. And that is not a gathering for someone like me.”
Flor snorted. “It’s not a gathering for anyone in their right mind, unless you are just here for food and drink. Or to dance. Which you might not care for, but there are some people who are fond of dancing,” he finished that loftily, with a sort of hopeful air that made Clematis flustered all over again.
“Oh.” Clematis was being flirted with. He was being lightly flirted with by Flor de Maga, and he had not asked Lord Hyacinth what to do in this situation, because he had not thought it would ever happen.
“Like me,” Flor added helpfully. “If you wanted to try it with someone who won’t judge you if you miss a step.”
Clematis still could not believe it. “You want to dance with me?”
His astonishment was obvious. Flor’s lips pulled down a little, unhappy and uncertain as he almost never was, before he shrugged. “Well, if you want to dance with me.”
Clematis extended his arm to offer his hand without thinking, and Flor left his place by the door to take it. Flor’s hand was warm and dry.
Flor stared at him as Clematis came to a stop, then blinked. A smile came and went on his face before he nodded once, decisively. “A dance for your list,” he said, sweetly coaxing, and led a stunned, silent Clematis out the door.
“And perhaps because we want to,” Clematis added as they neared the ballroom, but as the music and conversation grew louder, couldn’t help the small frisson of fear that made him tighten his hand.
“You belong where you decide to belong,” Flor offered fiercely, and squeezed Clematis’s hand in return. “If something or someone makes you too nervous, then do that again, hold my hand just that tightly, and I will help you. All right?”
The comfortable, the royal and the rich and the noble, the educated youths who spent afternoons reading philosophers and arguing over poverty without knowing it for themselves, they spoke that way. With fire and convictions that had never been tested. But Flor had earned his reputation as a troublemaker, and Lord Hyacinth was very fond of him, and Clematiswantedto believe him, so much.
“All right,” he agreed, almost drowned out by the noise of the ballroom. The brighter lights had him ducking back again, but Flor tugged him to the edge of the dancing and leaned in to whisper at his ear.
“You could make anyone do anything. They should be more scared of you than you of them.”
“You tease me.” Clematis clucked his tongue as he would have for Lord Hyacinth, then shot Flor a startled, embarrassed look that only made Flor laugh. “You haven’t changed,” Clematis told him, blushing at his rudeness.
Flor’s laugh became a huff. “I don’t care what they call me. It’s because I’m right and they know it, and they’re mad that David listens to me. If they don’t have the decency, or at least the sense, to manage their own interests and tenants fairly, then someone should do it for them. Do theywanttheir tenants setting fire to their manor houses? People are asking for decent homes and bread. That is barely anything! But the barons and the other lords think one of them will ‘win’ David this way, and control the throne, and save themselves from our wrath, but they are mistaken. They don’t know David, for one thing.”
Flor ranted without raising his voice, only darting glares at various figures around them, making it clear he was displeased. It was hardly the sort of “honey versus vinegar” politicking that Lord Walter might speak of that could occasionally get things done. But it also did not make Clematis anxious about anything other than what an annoyed noble might someday do to Flor in retaliation if given the chance.
“For another thing…” Flor went on, so Clematis leaned toward Flor and found it a bit harder to breathe when Flor fell silent and glanced from Clematis’s eyes to his lips.
“We don’t have to dance if you’re upset,” Clematis offered, something new and hot in his chest when Flor was slow to drag his gaze up to his eyes again.
“What?” Flor asked, the sharp edges vanishing from his tone. “I can dance and be upset at the same time. But, uh, you know, that’s not good for you.” He frowned lightly at this realization. “Itshouldbe good for you. If this evening is meant to be special. If your… if the other person who gave you the list wants it to be. Ifyouwant it to be.”
“It already is,” Clematis replied without thinking, and would have bitten his tongue for it if Flor hadn’t looked so pleased.
The current dance ended. In the background, someone was attempting to pull Prince David among the dancers. The Prince was politely refusing. Flor glanced to him and huffed, but said nothing until he turned back to Clematis. “Shall I lead?”
“Please.” Clematis was already breathless, ribs tight around his heart as he recognized the music.
Flor’s hand was steady. His stare was dark and serious until he smiled.
Then he pushed away and Clematis stepped around him to follow. Clematis was a beat behind for a moment, startled at losing the contact, but then their hands touched again, Flor’s fingers at his wrist, before Clematis turned around and Flor’s palm was against his lower back. After another step, they were apart once more.
Clematis sought him out, sliding around the nearest dancer but not smiling at her, all of his attention on Flor until they were dancing together again. Flor grinned as he took Clematis’s hand. People spun around them, distracting and close, but lost in their own dances, eyes on their own partners.
