Page 26

Ren had finally heard from Empress Sera that she’d send a teacher, so today, Luca had to prepare for said teacher. Right now he sat at his desk writing yet another report on how all the interns were doing fine—except Petar. Since Luca was the one who saw the Scovian students the most, he’d taken on the duty of writing a short paragraph on how each of them was doing so the teacher could more quickly catch up on arrival. His secretary, Watanabe, spell-checked it for him.

There was a lot of spell-checking.

But Luca’s writing was improving! Two birds, one stone.

He’d put off Petar’s until the last, because frankly, he didn’t know how to write it without involving a lot of swearing. Petar wasn’t even trying to work, or learn the language, or any of it. He’d been here two weeks—one week of work, supposedly—and had nothing to show for it. Clearly, his entire goal in coming here was Noe. Luca was quickly losing patience with the idiot. He was loud, in-your-face obnoxious, and completely incapable of compromise. He hadn’t yet crossed the line, but there had been many arguments. Sho had promised if Petar took even a single swing at Noe, they could ship him home, but Petar seemed aware of the rule because he hadn’t broken it. If he wasn’t Noe’s brother, Luca would have thrown him into the ocean already and let fate take care of him.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t do that.

Oh, but the temptation.

The door opened and Ewan strolled in without a care on his craggy face. “Me’lord.”

“Ewan.” He stared at the man he’d known since they were both in diapers and couldn’t help but complain. “If I asked ye to disappear that fuckin’ moron, could ye do it without paintin’ us as suspects?”

Ewan’s eyes lit up. “Can I?”

So it wasn’t just Luca’s patience running thin. Good to know. “No, although I’m tempted.”

“Why be ye suggestin’ things that make me happy only to take them away again? Ye be a not nice man.”

“I was hoping to be talked out of it, but I forgot who I was talking to.”

“Ye were askin’ me to provide common sense? Me?”

“Shit. Things are more fucked than I realized if I’m using you as a guiding light.”

“Please don’t. The responsibility will go right to me head and then where will we be?” Ewan looked serious for a split second before he tacked on, “Although at the rate things are goin’, it’ll be Noe himself who’ll throw Petar into the drink. He’s right pissed at his brother.”

Luca knew this painfully well. Noe kept him updated on the many arguments he had with his brother. It was part of why Luca wanted to step in and somehow solve this. He’d promised he wouldn’t unless Petar crossed the line, but his own patience with the situation was dying a quick death. He didn’t like seeing Noe heartsore and frustrated.

“Petar aside, came up to tell ye Lady Elsbet’s here.”

For a full two seconds those words didn’t make any sense. They rattled around in Luca’s head like a spoon in an empty bucket, noisy nonsense. Then they abruptly did make sense and he was out of his chair, reaching for his jacket hanging on the hook near the door. “Here, here?”

“Arrived at the docks an hour or so ago. Took her a while to figure out where one of us was, but Caedmon spotted her and took her to yer ryokan. Figured she’d need a room, leastways.”

What the hell was his cousin doing here?

To Watanabe, Luca said, “I probably won’t be back until this afternoon.”

“Understood, O’ Broín-sama.”

Luca put some pep into his step as he beelined for the ryokan. Ewan kept stride with him, despite the man being shorter in the legs, but Luca didn’t need him for this. “Go back to ‘assisting’ Noe. And if Petar starts yelling at him again, just punch him in the mouth.”

Ewan cackled. “Now that ye shouldn’t have said.”

Maybe not, but Luca didn’t correct himself as Ewan took the next split in the road to the right. Maybe if the young lout lost a few teeth, he’d shut up at the very least.

In any case, Luca had a bigger mystery to solve. Namely, why his cousin was here when he hadn’t had a word of warning to expect her.

The ryokan wasn’t far, fortunately, and he reached the main lobby in minutes. He barely had the door open when he spotted his quarry, who stood at the counter in all her travel glory.

Elsbet looked nothing like Luca. She was as fair as he was dark, with carrot-red hair in a twist at the back of her head, her freckled skin a touch pink from the cold. Her bone structure was strong, which made her striking instead of conventionally pretty. Upon his entrance, she lit up with a pleased smile.

“Luca! There you are.”

“What I want to know is, why are you here?” Luca quickly toed off his boots before advancing on her, scooping her up in a strong hug. It had been nearly a year since they’d seen each other, and she was a favorite cousin. He was happy to see her; it felt like she took his worries right off his shoulders for a moment. “I’m surprised your parents let you come.”

“Oh, they don’t know I’m here,” she answered brightly, hugging him back.

Now why didn’t that surprise him? “Running from another marriage prospect?”

She sank back on her heels and rolled her bluebonnet eyes. “Man smells like shit. Literally. It’s obvious he doesn’t wipe his own ass. Plus he’s shorter than me. I can’t do short men, I just can’t.”

For a woman, she was unusually tall, so it was a point of contention for her.

Still, that didn’t explain… “So why are you here ?”

She beamed up at him. “Because you’re my favorite.”

“And no one will think you’ll run to me?”

“No one will think I’ll run this far, at least. I heard about the upcoming exchange student program. I’ll stay here and learn the language and become a translator. That’ll work, won’t it?”

“Can I shelve your question until later, after I’ve talked the possibility over with other people? Because I can’t make that judgment call alone.”

“Fine by me. Caedmon arranged a room for me here. He said you were staying here with”—she gave a dramatic pause and eyed him—“your fiancé. What fiancé?”

Right, this would be news to her. Luca glanced at the clock on the wall, realized he was meant to meet Noe for lunch in a half hour, and made a snap decision. “Want to meet him?”

She blinked, blinked again, then blurted out, “ Him ?!”

“Yes, him. Want to meet him?” He held his breath, watching her reaction carefully. Would she be all right with this…?

“Oh gods above, do I ever,” Elsbet breathed, a delighted smile taking over her face. “Is he cute?”

“You want to freshen up before we go, or—”

“I’m fine, I’m fine, and answer the damn question!”

“Let’s walk and talk. I’m meeting him for lunch and can explain on the way.”

They both put on shoes and left the ryokan, the delay giving Luca enough time to put his thoughts in order. Elsbet wasn’t much behind in terms of understanding the situation, as he had confided his plan to her in a letter. He’d not received her reply, but he was sure she’d be fine with it. Which she clearly was, otherwise she wouldn’t be smiling at him or have come at all.

He was, in a word, relieved.

Elsbet linked arms with him, letting him escort her. “Start from the beginning. I did get your letter, the one you sent me about possibly trying for a husband, but it read like desperation to me.”

“Oh, it was. I’ll say so without shame. When I landed here, I spoke with both Sho and his husband, Brahms—you know, the two generals I served up here with during the war—and they both encouraged me to try for it. Then Sho introduced me to any like-minded man he knew of, which included my now fiancé, Noe Keller. It was a bit of a rough start, no lie, as I wasn’t sure what all I’d be comfortable offering a man in a marriage. Noe was steadfast in helping and advising me, and I realized at some point I could trust him.”

“Very important in a marriage,” Elsbet agreed with a nod. “I’m being nosy asking this, but is this marriage platonic or…?”

Luca snorted. “No. Not in the least. Which surprised me too, but I do very much enjoy making love with him, and our sex life is quite healthy. Really, if I had known I would enjoy it this much, I would have tried it years ago.”

“Ha! I never suspected you would join that side, but I’m glad your plan is working.”

With that, the last of his reservations fell away. El had never been bigoted toward same-sex couples before, but sometimes it was different when it was one of your own. He felt heartened by her acceptance. “Me too. Personal aspect aside, Noe is very much the partner I need moving forward. He’s the main structural engineer here—”

Elsbet pursed her lips in a soundless whistle.

“—handpicked by Princess Alexandria of Scovia herself, so you can tell how smart he is. Plus he’s levelheaded, uses common sense, and has a patient personality. Literally all the characteristics a good lord needs. I’m damn lucky he liked me enough to flirt with me first.”

“Oh, he chased you?”

“Well, chasing is probably the wrong word, but he definitely let me know he was interested.”

“And you were smart enough to capitalize on the opportunity?”

“Something like that.” Since Elsbet was someone else whom he trusted implicitly, he felt it only fair to warn her. “There’s a little trouble here at the moment because of Noe’s brother, who came over on an internship. He’s very against Noe liking men and is unfortunately very vocal about it. I already gave Ewan permission to punch Petar in the mouth if he started yelling at Noe again.”

“Ouch. He’s that bad? Noe won’t do anything?”

“He’ll argue back, but he’s just not the contentious sort.”

Elsbet pondered his statement while they turned a corner, heading more into the restaurant row. “So you’re saying if Petar starts in on him, I need to punch him.”

“Punch away, Cousin.” She had a strong right hook, so Luca was fairly sure she’d win any fight started. Honestly, he couldn’t wait to have her meet Noe. She’d be firmly in his corner, and it would be a delight to introduce him to the one relative between them who they could love and depend on.

“That I shall.” She bounced once in place, grin stretched from ear to ear. “I’m so delighted you found someone. Also jealous.”

“I promise to introduce you to some good men while we’re here. Maybe you’ll get lucky too.”

She wagged a finger at him. “I’m holding you to that.”

Noe had chosen an udon shop for lunch today, which was more than fine by Luca, as udon was both hot and filling. Since they were a little early for the lunch hour, the restaurant was mostly empty, with potbelly stoves in the corners to keep the winter cold at bay. To his surprise, Noe was already there, slumped over at one of the tables. He sensed when Luca approached and looked up, a smile on his face that faltered into confusion.

That initial impression of exhaustion and heartache was enough to tell Luca that, once again, Petar had been a little shit this morning. Something he’d deal with after lunch. Right now, he wanted to introduce two of his favorite people to each other.

“Noe, come, meet El. Elsbet O’ Broín is my cousin, father’s side. El, Noe Keller, my soon-to-be husband.”

She swept Noe up in a quick hug before bouncing back. “Please call me El, too, and I cannot wait to get to know you better. Luca’s my favorite cousin. He told me of his crazy plan, and I’m relieved to see he found you.”

Noe straightened out of his funk, his usual good cheer and smile coming back. Having one person so obviously happy for him did something to restore his mood. “Thank you, El. This means a lot. Please, sit, join us for lunch. I didn’t know you were coming?”

“No one did,” she said with a shrug. Then frowned at Noe before demanding of Luca, “How come you get the cute husband and I got the icky one?”

Luca busted out laughing.

“I’m serious, look how cute he is! If I’d been in your shoes, I’d have proposed too! Meanwhile, I’m introduced to men who won’t maintain even basic hygiene. Did I offend my parents somehow?”

He did see her point and realized that under her teasing, she was rather miffed, as she should be. “Again, I promise to introduce you to better men.”

“I’m holding you to it. Clearly, Scovia produces better quality men. I want in.” She maneuvered her skirts so she could sit at the table without too much trouble, then batted her lashes at Noe in mock charm. “Noe, cousin to be, let’s swap stories. I’ll tell you all about how I had to leave in the dead of night to avoid a man who can’t wipe his own ass—”

Noe winced. “Surely you exaggerate.”

“I wish, but no. I’ll tell you the story, and you tell me how you and Luca became engaged to each other. I need a good success story to go by and I’m very curious. All he said was you made it clear you were interested in him and he capitalized on it, which doesn’t give me much in the way of details. I don’t even know how the proposal went.”

“Oh. Um…” Noe sent a panicked look at Luca.

Very well able to interpret that look, because Elsbet knew Luca well, her eyes cut to him in accusation. “You. What did you do?”

“May have proposed in the onsen with us both starkers?”

She slapped his chest in rebuke. “Without even rings?!”

“Forgot them,” he admitted cheerfully.

“I expect you to up your romanticism from now on. Noe deserves better. For shame, Luca.”

“Yes, m’lady, I’m sorry,” Luca said, still laughing on the inside. Elsbet clearly enjoyed this whole situation far too much.

Rolling those big blue eyes of hers, she focused on Noe again. “I apologize for him, but tell me the story. Now I really want to know.”

Noe seemed to realize she was teasing and relaxed another notch. “Um, well, it sort of started out with a drunken kiss. I got a bit sloshed one night, you see—”

Luca let them talk, content to place an order for food and listen. He hoped Noe and Elsbet would forge a good relationship and felt like he was seeing the beginnings of it right now.

Hopefully Elsbet had left a note for her family, though. It’d be awkward if they believed her kidnapped. Maybe he should check on that later.