Kestrel frequently had to remind herself that Arin knew her language as well as she did his. Sometimes, when she caught a glimpse of him listening to an absurd dinner conversation, she wondered how he had mastered Valorian so completely. Few slaves did.
Not long after her second game of Bite and Sting with Arin, they went to Jess’s home.
“Kestrel!” Jess embraced her. “You’ve neglected us.”
Jess waited for an explanation, but when Kestrel mentally sifted through her reasons—the strategy lessons with her father, hours of practice at piano, and two Bite and Sting games that took up much more time in her mind than they had actual hours—she said only, “Well, I’m here now.”
“And ready with an apology. If not, I shall take my revenge on you.”
“Oh?” Kestrel followed Jess into the parlor, listening to Arin’s footsteps behind them soften as he moved from the marble hallway to the carpeted floor. “Should I be afraid?”
“Yes. If you don’t beg my forgiveness, I won’t go with you to the dressmaker’s to order gowns for the governor’s Firstwinter ball.”
Kestrel laughed. “The first day of winter is ages away.”
“But your apology, I hope, isn’t.”
“I am very, very sorry, Jess.”
“Good.” Jess’s brown eyes glittered with mirth. “I forgive you, on the condition that you let me choose your gown.”
Kestrel gave her a helpless look. She glanced at Arin, who was standing against the wall. Though his expression was bland, she had the impression he was laughing at her.
“You dress too modestly, Kestrel.” When Kestrel began to protest, Jess caught one of her hands with both of hers and shook it. “There. It is agreed. It is done. A Valorian honors her word.”
Kestrel sank onto a sofa next to Jess, admitting defeat.
“Ronan will be sorry to have missed you,” Jess said.
“He is out?”
“He is visiting Lady Faris’s household.”
Kestrel lifted one brow. “Then I am sure her charms will soothe any regret he might have in missing me.”
“Don’t tell me that you’re jealous. You know what Ronan feels for you.”
Kestrel became acutely conscious of Arin’s presence in the room. She glanced at him, expecting the bored expression he usually wore in Jess’s company. It wasn’t there. He seemed oddly intent. “You may go,” she told him.
It looked like he might disobey. Then he spun on his heel and strode from the room.
When the door had shut behind him, Kestrel told Jess, “Ronan and I are friends.”
Jess huffed with impatience.
“And there is only one reason young men of his set visit Lady Faris,” Kestrel continued, thinking of Faris’s baby and his dimpled smile. She considered the possibility that the child was Ronan’s. This didn’t trouble her—which did trouble her. Shouldn’t she care? Didn’t she welcome Ronan’s attention? Yet the idea that he had fathered a child skimmed the surface of her mind and slipped in quietly, without a splash or gulp or quiver.
Well, if the baby was his, he had been conceived more than a year ago. And if Ronan was with Faris now, what promise was there between him and Kestrel?
“Faris is notorious,” she told Jess. “Plus, her husband is in the capital.”
“Young men visit her because her husband is one of the most influential men in the city, and they hope Faris will help them become senators.”
“What price do you think she makes them pay?”
Jess looked scandalized.
“Why would Ronan mind paying?” Kestrel said. “Faris is beautiful.”
“He would never.”
“Jess, if you think you can convince me that Ronan is an innocent who has never been with a woman, you are mistaken.”
“If you think Ronan would prefer Faris over you, you are mad.” Jess shook her head. “All he wants is a sign of your affection. He has given you plenty.”
“Meaningless compliments.”
“You don’t want to see it. Don’t you think he is handsome?”
Kestrel couldn’t deny that Ronan was everything she might hope. He cut a fine figure. He was witty, good-natured. And he didn’t mind her music.
Jess said, “Wouldn’t you like for us to be sisters?”
Kestrel reached for one of Jess’s many shining, pale braids. She slipped it out of the girl’s upswept arrangement, then tucked it back in. “We already are.”
“Real sisters.”
“Yes,” Kestrel said in a low voice. “I would like that.” She had always wanted to be part of Jess’s family, ever since she had been a child. Jess had the perfect older brother and indulgent parents.