“Did you enjoy your Name Day present?” asked Lessa, face flushed as she rested her chin atop Alistar’s bare, muscular chest. Tracing circles on his left shoulder with an index finger, a momentary glint in her eyes revealed the same underlying sense of anxiety that had been creeping into her expression more and more frequently in recent months.
“What do you think?” he said playfully, raising a hand to run it through her tousled strands in an affectionate manner. “My birthday was a week ago. If I didn’t like your presents then I wouldn’t keep accepting them, would I?”
The soft sounds of birdsongs and the intermittent screeches of unseen cicadas accented the gentle backdrop, which was frequented by soothing whispers from the surrounding foliage every time a warm breeze filtered past them. They were currently lying atop a thick blanket in a discreet corner of the estate’s property, both naked and covered in sweat from nearly an hour of enthusiastic relations.
After lying together for a short while longer, Lessa eventually sat up and turned to face him in a cross-legged position. “I wish I could stay,” she sighed, “but Father wanted to attend the reception as a family.” She gave him a long, somewhat forlorn look.
Why must you look at me like that?
After stopping by at the estate for breakfast, Lessa had hinted at her desire to go riding with him and Anice, though his cousin had turned down the offer and run off with a poorly hidden frown after claiming that Caedmon needed her help with preparations for the day’s festivities. The holy delegation from Providence Region had been touring the kingdom for the past month or so, and was set to arrive in Distan sometime in the early afternoon. Because of this, a festive atmosphere had swept through the entire county, with a grand reception planned by Alder and his uncle that was already in the final stages of its organization.
“Must you go? Anice and I were going to attend with the others. You’ll be the only one not with us.”
“Even if he’s lost my love, I still need to listen to my father. Once I’m gone I’ll have no way of knowing when I’ll get the chance to see him again, and the same goes for my mother. He’s already angry enough that I left home first thing this morning.”
“If only he knew what you were up to,” Alistar teased, wishing in his heart that such was the case.
While he showed a civil face whenever he met with her family, Alistar was no longer on good terms with them. They had long since begun to suspect the relationship that had developed between him and Lessa, which her parents had taken as a slight to their reputations and an irreparable offence from one that they had believed to be a close friend to their family.
Lessa fixed him with a complicated look, complexion still flushed from their extensive exertions. “I think he knows.”
“From the rumours?”
“Apparently Priscilla bumped into Anne a while back when she was on her way home from the triplets’ house. Anne had been under the impression that you’d walked me home from the tavern, but I’d told my sister that I’d be staying the night at your place, with her.”
“The morning after Zech and them earned their copper badges?”
She nodded, both of them pausing as they recalled the night in question. Passionate and intense, it was one that Alistar would never forget.
So that’s what it was.
Anice had been acting strangely over the past few weeks and Alistar suddenly understood why. Through Lessa’s sister, she must have pieced together what had happened that night and so realized what must have been happening in recent months.
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“Father may be selfish, but he’s no fool,” she went on, resting her hands over her crotch out of modesty when she caught one of his downward glances. “He knows about us, Alistar. He knows and yet he still…”
“Don’t mind him. Just because you’re to leave soon doesn’t mean you’re to marry soon.”
“How can we be sure that Johan will do as he says, though? Edgar serves the king, not your cousin.”
“I think we can trust him.”
Several months back when Lessa had reluctantly achieved the status of a full-fledged mage, Alistar had been at his wit’s end and had decided to write to his cousin Johan about their predicament. The young man, now the acting ruler of the County of Hapselen, had promptly written back to him expressing his sympathies for the unfortunate situation and had promised to see to it that Lessa would go unbothered during her time at the arcannia. As a part of the Duchy of Vern, Hapselen was only twenty leagues from his father’s home in Valay, and both he and Lord Edgar visited the territorial capital quite often. Lord Edgar had apparently been sucking up to Johan since the latter had assumed his new position, for it seemed that the older noble had his eyes on a certain swath of land on the southern fringes of Hapselen that bordered his own holdings.
Seeing the uncertainty that refused to leave Lessa’s eyes, Alistar reached forward to grab hold of one of her hands. “Johan’s not going to give him the land, but he’ll lead the man on. He seems to know the baron fairly well, and believes that so long as he thinks there’s a chance of acquiring those holdings then he won’t be bothering you.”
“Won’t he find it strange, though? What reason does the count of Hapselen have to intervene on my behalf?”
“Don’t forget that he’s to be your brother-in-law. He said he’d simply make something up about Priscilla worrying over you being distracted from your studies by romance, and that he’ll request Lord Edgar to leave you be for the time being.”
She tried to look convinced, though her expression revealed her continued unease. Collecting herself, she said, “I’ll believe in him for now. Either way, you’d better come for me soon, okay? I’ll renounce my status if I have to, but I’ll have a hard time leaving the city if that happens. I’ll need you to bring me back.”
In the event that they had no other options, Lessa had already told him that she would renounce her noble status so as to cancel out the engagement. As the lord of a sizeable territory, Lord Edgar would never embarrass himself by taking a commoner as his wife. Still, this would take away all civil protections from her, meaning that any of his more devious relatives could harm her as they wished without fear of suffering any severe punishments. His uncle Antoine lived in Valay along with a dozen other Silverkin families, so he felt uneasy about her making such a decision in the event that he wasn’t around to seek her out afterwards.
“Good,” said Alistar, who stayed her hand when she made to retrieve her undergarments. “Don’t leave just yet. It’s such a beautiful morning, why not stay for a little longer?”
“You…you’re going to make me late.”
Giving her a light push, they settled back down atop the blanket without breaking eye contact, Alistar wearing a suggestive smile. “I think I fancy another one of your presents. Your dear father can wait a bit longer, can’t he?”
Hearing this, Lessa wrapped her arms around his head and pulled him into a long, energetic kiss, silky hair and soft skin pressing against his face. Glancing downward, her cheeks gained a bit of colour and she said, “I think he’s going to have to.” Hands trailing down his chest and midsection, her wandering grip lit a fire within his loins and he quickly began to leave a trail of kisses from her neckline to her small, rounded nipples, both indulging in the other’s touch as a steady breeze brushed past them.
This would be the twelfth time that they had made love, eight such instances having taken place in this month alone. Lessa had later admitted that the discomfort of their first time together had put her off from the idea of doing it again in the near future, which had resulted in over seven months of abstinence on both their parts.
It wasn’t until early June that they ended up getting together for a second time, when everyone had enjoyed one too many drinks at the Lawson’s tavern and he’d wound up walking Lessa home in a similar situation to their initial night of passion. Once again she had asked to stay the night at the estate, and once again he’d agreed. One thing had led to another until the end result was intercourse, though this time around she had claimed that it had apparently been an entirely different experience. Based on the sights he’d seen and the sounds that she’d made, he hadn’t doubted her words in the least.