“What are you doing?” Lord Nam barked as his technical brother-in-law stopped in front of Tam, wearing his usual shit-eating grin.

“Taking in the sights!” Oscar Harris called breezily over his shoulder. “I haven’t seen this fine fellow in what feels like years! Goodness! Do you know the commotion you have caused?” The Daxarian duke bopped Tam on the head with his sheathed blade, his hazel eyes glittering with fun.

Eli was staring skeptically at the shorter man in his early fifties with white, curly hair, a slight paunch in the middle, wearing the most ridiculous set of mismatching clothes she had ever seen in her life. He wore mustard yellow baggy pants, with a bright red and blue striped shirt, that for some odd reason had small bells sewn on the lapels.

Was he an idiot?

“You know this man?” Marigold wondered in domineering tones as she overcame her earlier alarm. Her vulturish gaze locked back on Tam with newfound agitation.

Lord Harris didn’t shift his attention from Tam an inch.“Oh, yes. I’ve known this dear man since he was a babe. Glad to see you’ve gotten into a bit of trouble! I was worried you’d miss out on life the way you always kept to yourself.”

“My sister lived enough for fifty people,” Tam managed while staring dazedly at the nobleman who had dubbed himself Tam and Kat’s godfather long ago.

“Nonsense! She’s as docile as a newborn lamb!”

The absurdity and strangeness of the situation was still baffling Tam’s senses to the point where he couldn’t even laugh at such an outrageous statement.

Though knowing Oscar Harris’s antics, the man was most likely sincere.

“What… Are you doing here…?” Tam asked faintly.

“Ah. Well, our dear former king made a special request of me to accompany a few important family members to Zinfera seeing as I have my own dear relations here, don’t I, Marigold?”

“You… You… Stop being aggravating and tell me who this person is!” Marigold all but shrieked before addressing their armed entourage. “Take them!”

Duke Harris held up his hand, making it so that the forty armed men around them only took a single step.

“Dear, darling, sister. That would be the stupidest thing in the world you could do. Do you really have no idea who this is?” Lord Harris pointed at Tam while casting a beaming smile at Marigold.

“No, because you won’t tell me!”

“Really? You don’t see the familiar resemblance he has to some of your favorite people in the world?” Lord Harris taunted joyfully.

The look on both Marigold and Geun Nam’s face almost succeeded in making Tam laugh.

Lord Harris truly did love enraging his half sister, and in that moment, Tam was enjoying it quite a bit as well.

The Daxarian duke turned back to Tam, then looked down at Eli.

“I take it you are my niece? Elisara? Ah… That’s why you avoided me like the plague back in Daxaria! No one knew who you were, and there was a possibility I would’ve recognized you. And here I’d felt bad that my godson’s new assistant was too terrified to meet me, but now it makes all the sense in the world!”

“I beg your pardon, did you say godson?” Marigold interrupted, her eyes wild as she bent forward to try and listen to what Lord Harris was saying.

“Ssh. I’m catching up with my beloved niece who you heartlessly abandoned. You wench. Anyway!” Lord Harris regarded Tam again, then dropped his eyes to the seven year old boy holding both Eli and his hands.

“Aah… Ooh. Uh… Tam. I did not think I’d have a whole lot of fun on this trip, but I have to offer you my heartfelt thanks in advance. I think I was woefully wrong. Who is this young chap who just so happens to look just like you, hm?” Lord Harris batted his eyelashes at Tam expectantly.

Tam swallowed with difficulty.

Of all the things he had anticipated doing that day…

Officially revealing he had an illegitimate son to Lord Oscar Harris was not one of them.

“He’s… Mine.”

“Aah! I see, I see. Yes. Well. Trouble I’m having with that is, last I saw you, say… What? Two months ago? Three, perhaps? You not only were unmarried, but you didn’t have any children to speak of.”

“He… tracked me down on the ship with a letter from a former…” Tam trailed off and cleared his throat.

Even the infamously flippant Lord Haris’s eyebrows shot upward. “Oh. Oh my. Oh… Oh, this is. By. The. Gods. Your father will– No! No, it is your mother! She will be the one to kill you! I’ve always suspected she was capable of outrageously awful things!”

Tam winced then looked down at his son who looked ten different levels of confused. “Luca… This is… Duke Oscar Harris. He is a very good friend of our family.”

“Oscar! What in the Gods is happening?!” Marigold exploded and stormed forward. Eli backed away from her and wrapped her arm protectively around Luca’s shoulders.

Lord Harris shot Tam a wry look over the move. “It’s always the quiet ones that surprise people the most…” he murmured before holding an arm to stop his sister from advancing any closer.

Marigold was practically frothing at the mouth. “Are you jesting about things again? Trying to catch them off guard? If so, stop this! We need to-”

“Woman!” Lord Harris cut off Marigold’s tirade. “Show some respect! You’re looking at the future duke of the Ashowan duchy, brother to the queen of Daxaria, and… Probably your son-in-law? I’m lost on the state of your relationship. We’ll talk in a moment,” Lord Harris added to Tam and Eli at the end.

Lord Nam drew closer as well, his eyes bulging as he looked at Lord Oscar Harris, then at Tam in disbelief. “What?”

“Come now, I know you’re not deaf. You run from my bells every morning when I try to join you for coffee. You hear me just fine. This is Lord Tamlin Ashowan!” Lord Harris swung back to address Tam who was starting to feel a bit queasy. “By the Gods everyone is worried about you! And here you are galavanting around Zinfera on a backpacking trip with your new paramor, your son, and… I’m sorry, who are you?” Oscar squinted at Jeong, having finally noticed him standing just behind Tam and Eli.

Jeong looked at Tam, who gave his head a shake.

“From an important family I take it? Don’t want to be associated with whatever disaster this,” Lord Harris waved his hand vaguely around Tam’s face. “Has most likely caused?”

“Lord Harris. I wasn’t supposed to let anyone know that I-”

“Dear boy,” Lord Harris cut Tam off and reached up to clap a hand on his shoulder. “This kingdom, and everywhere else for that matter, is in utter chaos. The fact that you’re suddenly here is not even going to stick out in anyone’s memory.”

“I doubt that very much,” Tam responded weakly.

“You…” Marigold Nam’s weak voice drew everyone’s attention once more. “You are… The son… The…”

“--The future duke of the Ashowan house and also viscount of the Jenoure house. That’s right. He is. He is also a member of the Coven of Wittica, and last I heard, Elisara is under his protection, yes?”

Tam somehow remembered how to nod.

“Wonderful. Happy for you both. However, that also means,” Lord Harris looked back at his sister, “that unless everyone here wants to make an enemy of the Coven of Wittica, the Ashowan family, plus the king and queen of Daxaria (which, you know, it’s somewhat a packaged deal if you make an enemy of monarchs, their kingdom is involved, too), we should all conduct ourselves very nicely.”

Silence hung heavily over everyone.

Lord Harris kept looking back and forth between everyone involved, still grinning, and his bells jingling with every turn of his head.

“If… If you are… an Ashowan boy… Then you must be a Ryu boy,” Marigold nodded in Jeong’s direction, but he didn’t move an inch.

“You will still have to go to the palace, and see-” Lord Nam started to say, but Lord Harris turned around shaking his head.

“Mm. No, no. We are going to have a lovely luncheon right here. And I am going to have a nice, long, uninterrupted chat with my godson, and I will decide from there where he goes.”

Lord Harris then made a shooing gesture with his hands, and Tam watched as Lord Nam’s teeth clenched. “He tried to kill me.”

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“You did kind of start it,” Lord Harris tilted his head side-to-side.

“He should have identified-”

“By the Gods, shut up. Go away. You’re amazingly lucky all he did was give you a break from breathing! I’ve seen this man with a sword! He once beat the Troivackian king in a duel!”

That claim to fame was not at all true, but Tam didn’t see the point in saying otherwise just then.

Incredibly, the Zinferan nobleman did close his mouth.

Geun Nam cast one last scathing look at Eli, a look she met head on, and then he rounded back toward the carriage while gently tapping Marigold’s shoulder to make her follow him.

Once they were out of ear shot, Lord Harris let out a whoosh of air. “Gods. I’m sorry, Elisara. Marigold really is a cow. I should’ve figured out how to adopt you ages ago!”

Oddly enough, this sentiment brought another wave of tears to Eli’s eyes. “Thank you.”

“Harris?” Tam called out, summoning the duke’s attention to him again.

“Hm?”

“I have never been so happy to hear you talk so much.”

The duke’s unbearably sunny smile returned. “That’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me. I will tell your father all about it, too! Assuming my sister doesn’t kill me in my sleep while I’m here.”

Tam glanced at Marigold Nam, and he sincerely doubted that she would be docile with her brother after being publicly humiliated.

“So, Tam, care to tell me what you’ve been up to?” Lord Harris started bouncing on the balls of his feet.

“Er… Well… I was supposed to–”

“I know what you were supposed to do, but what did you actually do?”

“Got an army after Eli and I and uncovered deep corruption in the Coven of Giong.”

“Hm. Okay. So it wasn’t all fun and games. I take it the ‘devil’ rumors have something to do with you as well?”

“That would be correct.”

“Mm-hm… Mm-hm… Okay. Men! Set up a table for me and my godson! And please pour four goblets of wine!” Lord Harris hollered over the crowd that was gathering as confusion and uncertainty only continued to rise.

“Harris?” Tam cleared his throat. “Harris, they are probably going to alert Soo Hebin I’m here. It’ll be problematic. Especially with Eli.”

“Very true. But you’re an Ashowan! You’ll figure it out! Besides, this outcome is probably better than you doing whatever it was you were thinking of doing before I revealed myself.”

Tam wasn’t sure about that, but he didn’t say so as he watched three servants that lightened themselves from the carriage and start to set up the table that Lord Harris had requested.

Eli tugged on Tam’s sleeve, her gaze intent on the back of Lord Harris’s head as he started asking what sort of libations had been brought along. “Are you sure we can trust him?”

“Completely. He owes my family a lot,” Tam confirmed. “Are you alright?”

Eli’s watery gaze turned up to him. “I think so… Though we need a new plan now. My parents aren’t going to sit still.”

“Excuse me?”

Tam and Eli jumped.

Sua had appeared in the doorway, her wrinkled face shadowed with a frown. “What is the meaning of this?”

“Ah…” Tam winced at the mess of people loitering in front of the cottage. “It seems… As though… We might need the use of your front lawn for a little while more. Apologies, Sua.”

The woman’s mouth pursed and Tam couldn’t blame her.

Clearing his throat, Tam held up a finger then walked over to Lord Harris who was pulling out golden goblets from a mahogany box. “Do you have any coin on you, Harris? The owners of this land are a bit… Concerned.”

Lord Harris’s mouth quirked upward ruefully. “Of course! And don’t worry! I will only charge a modest interest rate to my only godson.”

Tam sighed, but didn’t argue as the man reached into his oversized pants and withdrew three silver coins.

Bobbing his head in thanks, Tam returned to Sua and Hajung and handed them the coins.

Looking only slightly mollified, Sua gave Tam a lingering skeptical look, then turned back into the cottage with her husband, and closed the door.

Evidently they were going to be taking the day off from work what with all of the strange people milling about their property.

By the time he was returning to Lord Harris, he found Eli and Jeong already taking a seat as he gestured them into the folded out chairs.

Luca sat a short ways away with one of his geography books, though Tam could tell by the way his eyes were darting nervously at the armed men, he wasn’t doing much actual studying.

“Now, then, dear Tam,” Lord Harris started while uncorking a wine bottle that Tam could tell was outrageously expensive. “Tell me, are you aware that in light of the first witch having escaped from her cell in Troivack, that your sister and mother are now here in Zinfera?”

All color drained from Tam’s face. “I was not.”

“Makes sense. Don’t you feel better about having to go to the palace now?”

“Not really.”

Lord Harris’s hazel eyes drifted upward in confusion, until his gaze slid over to Luca sitting on his own on the lush grass. “Ah.”

“Kat is going to assume he’s the devil,” Tam explained.

Lord Harris tilted his head as he finished topping up Jeong’s cup. “Possibly. But he does look incredibly like you, and he doesn’t seem like the source of all evil. He’s reading that book upside down.”

Eli straightened in her seat instantly. “Luca! Chapter four! And turn the book around!”

Lord Harris’s eyebrows shot up at the mothering tone that exploded from his niece, then he proceeded to watch as Luca nodded hastily and turned the book in his hands right side up.

The duke leaned his elbows onto the table. “Yes… I’m really not feeling all that threatened by him.”

Tam couldn’t help it, he smiled at Eli over the appraisal of Luca, who blushed as a result.

“He is smart. He’s just struggling with reading! I thought geography would be a bit easier for him because of the maps,” Eli defended.

Lord Harris held up his hands with a knowing look on his face. “I didn’t say a thing. Anyway. Tam, Elisara, and… You…?” Lord Harris raised an eyebrow in Jeong’s direction, but he didn’t receive a response. “We have a problem.”

“We have more than just one,” Tam pointed out glibly.

“We have a more immediate problem,” Lord Harris clarified while lowering his voice even more. “Please tell me you actually married my niece.”

Tam looked at Eli, a mixture of guilt and uncertainty in his eyes.

“Shit.” Lord Harris sighed regretfully. “I can’t protect her as easily without her being tied more… in depth to you. Soo Hebin can deny her involvement in Eli’s abduction, and as a princess, regardless of her next move as an heir, she needs to go to the palace. As your wife, that’s a whole other matter.”

Tam saw the outright panic in Eli’s eyes, but luckily, so did Lord Harris.

“So… Here is what I’m going to propose to the two of you.” He leaned in closer and made his voice so soft that it was almost drowned out by the Tinoo Ocean’s waves lapping at the beach. “You have informed me you had a whirlwind romance, and got married in Junya. There will be an investigation on this claim, but while that happens… Go get yourselves actually married. And I will sing my ignorance of anything to anyone who will listen to it.”

Tam grimaced. “Eli doesn’t want to marry me, Harris, and I promised my father I wouldn’t get married like my sister did without him present.”

“I think your father would acknowledge these are not our usual circumstances,” Lord Harris pointed out before turning to Eli. “And you, dear Elisara, I am sorry for all you have suffered and endured. For being jerked around and trampled. No one deserves what you’ve had to put up with, and I do say that from some measure of experience.”

It was the first time that day that Jeong, Tam, and Eli could tell he was being utterly serious.

“However, if you are getting out of this kingdom safely and alive? Marrying Tam is the best option for you. Yes, you are under Tam’s protection as his assistant, so they won’t put you in that cage. But once Tam goes to the palace there are a lot of larger powers that will be sure to separate you. With Katarina Reyes here, it doesn’t matter if you were a princess as long as you are married to her brother, because then you are the next duchess of the Ashowan household, and with the marriage, you become an automatic citizen of Daxaria. Our queen will therefore have every legal tool at her disposal of keeping you safe.”

Eli swallowed with difficulty.

Tam could see the hesitation in her eyes, and hated it.

He hated how she was once again being forced into something.

He hated even more that it was something that tainted their relationship.

Things had been proceeding perfectly well. Slowly, yes. And sure they talked about their future children… But talking and teasing in the happy early days of a relationship was very different from going and getting actually married.

But Harris wasn’t wrong.

And Eli knew it too.

So she lowered her chin, and with a croak said, “Alright.”