I sat at that same room at the inn. The one that Jarion had brought me to on my first night in Medora. I had learned that it was called the Candlemaker Inn, because part of it used to be a candle makers business.

  I had given Izzy’s old dress to her sister, since it was no longer usable, and owned two dresses. There was my mother's beautiful red dress, and the tired green second hand one I had bought. I wore the green one as a minor form of protest. I didn’t want Jarion to have the pleasure of me looking nice.

  I sat with my arms crossed looking out at the city as he entered.

  “Ria,” his voice was deep and trembling.

  I turned around.

  He was looking more beautiful than ever. I thought he must have done it on purpose. His dark curls fell in front of his face. He wore tight bck pants and a fluffy white embroidered shirt. It fell delicately over his muscur arm, leaning against the doorway. He only wore a dark blue vest over it, which was unusually casual for a duke. Especially since he had buttoned down the front of his shirt and vest, revealing curly bck chest hair. The dark blue colour really complimented his pale eyes.

  “Hello, Jarion.”

  I tried to sound unaffected and I was pretty sure it worked.

  “Thank you so much for having lunch with me today. I’m happy to meet you again.”

  He looked at the bed and smirked.

  “Is there a reason why you chose the room where we st met?”

  “Yes,” I said coldly. “It’s because I don’t want to be seen with you in public.”

  He looked like a kicked dog.

  We both sat at the table in the room. There was already wine, fruits and nuts, and soon they would bring in our lunch. He poured us each a gss of wine.

  “So,” I said coldly as I took a sip. “You’re married.”

  “I am,” he said abashedly. “And I should have told you. It’s just that I thought you already knew.”

  “I… how should I have known?” I asked.

  “I’m sorry,” he smiled softly to himself. “I guess I’m just used to everyone always knowing who I am. Knowing everything about me.”

  He raised his eyes to meet mine.

  The servants came from the downstairs area and served us our lunch of a chicken and radish dish. One of them said something in the High Tongue, to which Jarion replied.

  “I wish I could learn that nguage,” I said more to myself than anything.

  So much information eluded me because I couldn't understand anything that those damn nobles were saying to each other.

  “I could teach you,” Jarion said amicably.

  “I guess.”

  I did need someone to teach me the High Tongue. None of the girls at the undry knew it, and clearly people in the castle knew something about Titius and Alvar. I had tried to get the servants to teach me when I was at the castle loading and unloading undry. It was hard, because the other servants didn’t really care much to do it, and even when they obliged me, I only had very little time to study.

  “Anyway,” he said. “What do you do now at the castle? Cato says that you work there, but I haven’t seen you anywhere. I’ve been looking for you.”

  I almost choked on the bite of radish I was eating.

  “I hope you haven’t been asking about me.”

  “Of course not,” he shook his head. “I know you don’t want the unnecessary attention. I’ve just been looking around.”

  “Thank you. I don’t want the attention.”

  “So will you tell me where do you work?”

  “I won’t,” I said defiantly. “It’s none of your business.”

  “Fine,” he chuckled. “So how do you like Medora?”

  We chatted while we ate. It was much too easy to forgive Jarion when he was so charming and easy going. He spoke softly and kindly, and when he made jokes I couldn't stop myself from ughing. At one point he said:

  “I’m happy we can get along again. I understand that you don’t want to be involved with me since we can’t get married, but I really hated to think you were angry at me.”

  I was gobsmacked.

  “You think I’m angry because I can’t marry you?”

  “Yes,” he looked perplexed. “Why else are you mad?”

  “Because you betrayed your wife!”

  “Oh, she doesn’t care,” he said flippantly.

  “How could she not?”

  “Do you want to ask her?”

  “What?”

  “Do you want to ask her yourself? She’s still in the castle with the kids for a few days. We can go ask her together right now.”

  “I… fine.”

  We went separately to the castle. I didn’t want anyone to know I was talking to Jarion. Maybe it was already too te, and the waitresses from the inn would tell everyone about it. There were only so many girls from the Midway Isnds in Medolina.

  Luckily the guard was away when I sneaked through the servants entrance. The guards were always very zy with that duty. However I was not as lucky when I tried to open the door.

  “Ria, hi!” a bright voice called.

  It was Petro, the stable boy.

  He was a boy of about fourteen, tall and gangly, but still having the voice of a child. He came running over to me.

  “I thought the undry was off today,” he said cheerfully.

  “Yeah, I uh, forgot something in the kitchen when I was serving at that banquet st week. I need it today, and since I was on my way down to the harbour anyway I thought I might pick it up.”

  “Oh, cool, what are you going to do at the harbour?” he asked.

  “Uhh, I have a date with a cobbler.”

  The undry storage door unlocked from the inside. Jarion had unlocked it for me, but I had asked him not to open the door, in case someone saw us together.

  “That’s weird,” Petro said. “I wonder who would open it like that.”

  “I’ll go check it out, bye!” I said as quickly as I could as I jumped in through the door and locked it behind me.

  Jarion was much closer than I had thought. Only a few steps away from the door. The undry storage was dark and quiet. We stood still for a moment.

  “All right,” he said. “I’ll take you to my room, then I’ll find Elya and bring her to you. Then it’s less likely you’ll be spotted.”

  The castle was always bustling with servants, but there were a bit fewer that day. The servants also sometimes got a free day on the st day of the week. The room Jarion stayed in was also not so far from the undry storage. Luckily no-one spotted us on our way there.

  Surprisingly it was a lot smaller than the room at the inn. There was no dining table or couch, only a bed, a wardrobe, a book case and a desk facing the window, which faced in to the city. The materials in the room however were clearly extremely luxurious. The bed had a deep blue silk bedspread and it was eborately carved out of a dark wood. The desk had golden trimmings, and there was a rge beautiful painting on the wall showing a lush vineyard.

  “It’s a bit small,” he said apologetically. “And the view is not the best. But it’s mine to use permanently. It’s never used for other guests, and that’s very convenient.”

  I grimaced at him.

  “Do you have any idea how normal people live? Do you know what a normal persons house looks like?”

  He ughed, then looked a little guilty.

  “I’m sorry, yes. You’re right. I’ll go find Elya,” he said as he slipped out of the room.

  As soon as he left I turned to the thing that had caught my eye when I entered the room. The book case. There were dozens of books on it, just sitting around. I could barely imagine how expensive they would have been.

  I walked over to them, and stroked one of the spines. It was lumpy leather. The books were bound in different colours of leather, and they were different sizes, but the only other way to differentiate them was that some of them had patterns cut into the covers. There was no belling or writing on the outside of the books.

  Some time passed, Jarion was still not back. I picked the book up and gently moved it to the desk. It had a csp on it, which I opened, and looked inside the book. The very first page was breathtaking. The book was written in the High Tongue, so I could not read it, but there were beautiful coloured images which filled the pages. One page had five women under a tree, the next had five men. The Five Fathers and Five Mothers. The gods of the Northern Continent.

  There was a map of Perova in the book. It was marked with various spots for pilgrimage, as well as the Grand Citadel. That was where the ten highest Priests and Priestesses of the religion resided, and decided on all matters pertaining to the religion.

  Carefully as I could I flipped the pages on the book. Some only had text, like our books in the Midway Isnds, but many also had these gorgeous images. I tried to read the words, to see if I could make sense of any of it, but it was hard.

  The door opened. I had forgotten where I even was.

  I stood up like a child that had been caught pying with it’s mother's jewellery.

  Jarion had entered the room with an annoyed looking woman. She was about as bnd as a royal woman could be. She wore a beautiful silk gown, but it’s grey colour was all too close to the colour of her mousy hair. Her small mouth was puckered.

  Around her neck she wore a neckce depicting two open hands, the symbol of the Fathers and Mothers.

  “Hello,” she said in Medoran with a very heavy accent. “Yes, you may sleep with my husband, but never bother me about it again.”

  Then she shot back out.

  “She’s having a bad day,” Jarion said apologetically.

  I nodded. I felt guilty. We were in the wrong for bothering the woman. But it was interesting to hear that Jarion’s wife genuinely didn’t seem to care at all. There had been no bitterness in her voice, only mild annoyance.

  “What are you looking at?” he said walking over to me at the desk.

  He stood close behind me, looking over the book I had been reading.

  I looked up guiltily.

  “I’m sorry if I wasn’t allowed to pick it up, I just really love books.”

  “Of course you’re allowed to pick it up,” he said softly. “But this one’s pretty boring, and it’s in the High Tongue, too.”

  He went over to the shelf and looked through it, running his fingers over the spines. He picked out a brown leather bound book.

  “I like this one,” he said. “It’s one of the few ones in Medoran. It’s a history of the Medoran kings. I’ve loved it ever since I was a boy.”

  He carried it over and put it on the table in front of me.

  “The illustrations are less fantastical, but I think the detail in them is better. I think the writing is great as well. It’s one of the more critical histories, so it’s impossible to get the Medoran transtion of the text outside of the castle.”

  I sat down on the desk chair and opened it up to the front page.

  “Would you like to read it yourself or should I read it for you?” he asked.

  The implication was clear. He didn’t think I could read.

  “I can read it myself,” I said coldly.

  “You know what, I think I’ll read it too,” he said smiling, pulling up a chair next to me. “It’s a good book and it’s been a while.”

  We read in the book together. He was much faster than I was. I could tell when he finished a page and started looking out of the window, or worse, looking at me. I would blush and try to speed up my reading, but I could only go so quickly. Sometimes I would have to ask him for the meaning of a word. The nguage in the book was a bit more archaic than daily speech in Medora, and I had not lived there that long. He always stopped his own reading to patiently tell me the meaning, and he never assumed I didn’t know something before I asked.

  The sun started to get a little lower in the sky. I had told my friends I would be home for dinner.

  “I should go now,” I said politely. “I live pretty far away.”

  “When can I see you again?” he asked, his eyes aglow.

  “I… don’t know, I’m very busy with work.”

  “You know you don’t have to work,” he murmured. “I could take care of you.”

  I pressed my lips together.

  “Tomorrow evening?” he asked, stroking his hand over mine.

  He looked so beautiful, and his hand was so warm.

  “I’m working six days a week,” I told him, standing up and walking to the door.

  He followed me to the door, standing in the doorway in front of me, dangerously close.

  “Then I’ll see you in a week?”

  “Should I spend all my free days on you?” I ughed.

  “We could finish the book,” he said softly. “I could teach you the High Tongue.”

  He did know what appealed to me, I could give him that much.

  “You know what, sure,” I said.

  He took my hand and pressed something into it.

  I opened my hand to find two keys inside.

  “What are they?” I asked.

  “Keys. One to the undry storage door, and the other to my room. In case you ever want to come read or…”

  “And what if I come and steal all your things?” I asked defiantly.

  “Well I guess then I’ll have to chase you down and catch you,” he murmured with a wicked glint in his eye.

  I couldn’t take it any more. I grabbed him and kissed him.