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“No – well, yes.” Tessa sniffed hard, and dabbed at her eyes; blinked the tears away. “But that’s not why I’m…” She fanned at her face, and willed it to cool. Wherever she was, Amelia certainly wasn’t crying right now. Amelia wasstrong. “I feel as though I’m abandoning you,” she said. “I haven’t told you yet because I didn’t know what to say, and I never thought you’d – you’d–” Damn, the tears were coming back. “Be so understanding.” She squeezed her eyes shut tight, trying to stem the flow.

“Gods,” Revna said with a dry chuckle. “Am I really such a villainess as all that? No, no,” she said, when Tessa started to protest. “I know what you mean.” She produced an embroidered handkerchief from the pocket of her dress and passed it over. “I’ve so enjoyed your company. Enjoyed having a daughter.” Her smile went wistful. “I’ve not had one of those before, and I’ll miss you terribly. No offense to the other girls, but.” She blinked, too, and Tessa feared they’d both be crying.

But Revna being Revna, she refocused, and fixed her with a direct look. “I love you,” she said, matter-of-factly, “and I’ll worry over you as much as if you were my own, and I’ll wish you were seated beside me in the hall each day, and I’ll worry over the horrible things you’ll see out there, in the wide, mean world, and wish I could keep you from them. But that isn’t how the wide, mean world works. You’re your own woman, now, and I don’t believe in hiding the hard truths from grown women. It isn’t a holiday, it's a war. I know that you know that, but even so, it shall be harder than you’re expecting, more difficult than anything you’ve ever faced. I know that you must go, however. I know that only you can fly that beast on the battlefield, and she’s a beast our side will need.”

She reached to cup Tessa’s chin gently in her hand. “Be firm with Erik. Don’t let him browbeat you. He always sees sense in the end – we simply must alter the direction of his gaze, sometimes.”

When she smiled, Tessa smiled back.

A heavy knock sounded at the door, and Tessa jumped.

“That’ll be him.” Revna stood, and swooped down to press a kiss to her forehead. “Be firm,” she reminded. “He’s not nearly as frightening as he likes to look.”

Tessa thought a few battlefield ghosts would disagree, but she nodded, and got to her feet.

Revna gave her one last parting smile of encouragement, then turned and marched for the door. When she opened it, Erik’s black brows jumped before they notched together in a harsh frown. “What are you doing here?” he asked his sister.

Revna tipped her head back to a haughty angle. “Am I not allowed to visit my daughter-in-law? First it’s no sword practice in the yard, then no riding, and now I can’tvisit?”

Erik’s frown twitched into a more complicated shape that left Tessa biting her lip against the sudden threat of laughter. The poor man really had no idea what to make of women, did he? Thank the gods he hadn’t swallowed pride, leaned into duty, and agreed to marry her. What a cold, loveless union that would have been.

“Er…no,” he said, uncertainly.

“Quite right.” Revna gave a hard sniff, stepped around him, and strode down the hall, boots thumping softly across the flags.

Erik turned his head a moment to watch her leave, puzzlement plain on his face. Then he gave an incremental shake of his head, stepped into the room, and closed the door soundly behind him.

Tessa took a deep breath.

He smoothed his expression into something like an awkward, formal greeting, which she supposed was better than the dispassionate gaze he bestowed upon petitioners in the throne room, but not as friendly and familial as she would have liked. “Good evening.” He gave a brief dip of his head, in acknowledgement of her station as a princess.

She wanted to simply be a niece instead. But she could sense the nerves in him, see them in the way he idly played with one of his rings – the one that was a perfect match to the ring Oliver wore – before he forced his hands still at his sides.

Whenever in doubt, Tessa fell back on good manners. She gripped her skirts and bobbed a quick, but correct curtsy. “Good evening, Your Majesty.”

Erik’s frown returned, and he stepped deeper into the room, patting the air with his hand in a gesture she read as quelling. “No, no,” he said, “no need for ‘Your Majesty.’ I’m–” He hesitated, frown deepening.

“Uncle?” she suggested, and felt her face heating.

She didn’t expect his face to smooth and clear, nor for the faintest smile to lift the corners of his mouth. It transformed him completely; a smile Oliver probably knew well by this point, but which she’d only seen a handful of times.

He inclined his head, lover’s beads in his braids chiming together softly. “Yes,” he said, “I’d like that.”

The startling contrast between his stern, kingly countenance and his rare moments of softening were of the sort that could make a person terribly fond of him. Tessa had begun their relationship uncertain, but felt well on her way to that sort of fondness, now.

Oliver, obviously, was head-over-heels smitten.

She crossed to the sideboard, a new addition to her bedchamber as a married woman. She turned over a pair of silver goblets and poured wine for both of them. Two armchairs were slanted in front of the fire, and she said, “Shall we sit?”

His smile slipped away, and he was serious again. “Yes. Thank you.”

They took their seats, across from one another. Tessa crossed her legs, and smoothed her skirts, and took a bracing sip of wine.Be firm, Revna had said, and she hitched up straighter in her chair.

Opposite, Erik took a much larger swallow of wine, and then sat forward, elbows on the chair arms, staring down into his goblet, which he cradled between both large hands. Rune had large hands like that, she reflected, big, and wide-palmed, but with surprisingly elegant long fingers made pretty with the glimmer of all the rings.

He was nervous, she realized, as he continued to sit, and gaze down into his cup, tapping its side absently with the ring on his middle finger. Uncertain of how to broach the subject.

How terribly endearing.