“He's right,” I agreed with Sebastian, although his interruption had unexplainably gotten under my skin, “we better save the good stuff for your dad.”
I linked my arm with his again, only this time it was natural. Our truce continued today and after his encouragement I felt myself relax and rest against him. Lunch, no matter how cold and aloof these people were, was going to be difficult, and even if Kiran and I were not on the same side of this war, today we were fighting the same battle.
We approached the table with effortless magnetism, as if we had rehearsed this scene a hundred times. I waited patiently for Kiran to pull out my chair, and when I sat down, he gallantly pushed me forward and then bent forward to press an intimate kiss on my earlobe. His lips lingered against my skin for a few uncomfortable moments until I placed a gentle hand against his cheek to remind him we were in the presence of others. He stood up reluctantly then, and took the seat to my left.
Once we were seated, the servants rushed forward through the open spaces of the hedges with covered silver platters and served us. Champagne was refilled for the adults who had been waiting and lunch respectfully began with Lucan's first bite and nod for everyone to join him. I pushed the salad around my cold appetizer plate, mentally hating the idea of trying to look ladylike while shoving drooping, dressing drenched lettuce into my mouth. Salad was hardly an attractive course to eat while trying to impress people.
“I trust you had a safe and pleasant trip, sister?” Lucan broke the silence first, looking at his sister with revered admiration.
“Yes, perfectly pleasant. Thank you for hosting us brother, it makes our journey so convenient.” She smiled back at her younger brother, King of the Immortals, and I wondered if I was the only one who noticed her smile not reach her eyes.
The conversation broke up then, Lucan turning specifically to Jean Cartier and entering a conversation about the game available to hunt in the mountains during this season, while Analisa turned to Bianca and whispered polite conversational pieces I imagined all royalty were capable of filling awkward silences with. I breathed a sigh of relief and sunk back into my chair a little, happy to not be the center of attention for once.
The servants returned after a while to clear our salad plates and replace them with dainty cold sandwiches. These seemed a little easier to eat while pretending to be polite and so I started to pick up a triangle stuffed with ham salad and a pickle when Kiran coughed gently to my left and I turned to him. He glanced down at his plate and when I followed his gaze I saw him cut the sandwich with a knife and fork and bring it elegantly to his mouth. I smiled with genuine gratitude, feeling incredibly foolish, following suit with the same knife and fork setting he used.
The adults continued to talk, hardly paying any attention to our side of the table. Sebastian sat to my right and I had expected him to engage me at any moment with amusing conversation but he sat stoically still watching his mother with a kind of pained nervousness on his face.
“In three seconds my father will change the subject to fishing,” Kiran leaned toward me, whispering conspiratorially. He made a show of tapping his finger on the delicate lace tablecloth counting the seconds and at the exact moment his finger hit the table a third time, his father changed the subject to the variety of stream fishing the mountains had to offer.
I suppressed a laugh, by lifting my cloth napkin and covering my mouth “How did you do that?” I whispered, leaning toward Kiran so that our bodies were now inclined toward each other.
“It's a gift,” he admitted with a gleam in his twinkling turquoise eyes. “In exactly four and a half minutes the subject will change to the expected weather for the festival and in exactly six minutes and thirty three seconds after that Uncle Jean will ask about my father's problem with the Shape-shifter infestation.”
“No way!” I gasped. “You cannot possibly know the direction of the conversation down to the second!” I leaned in even closer so that my disbelief would not be heard over the polite conversation that was happening around the rest of the table.
“Well, Ok, maybe not down to the exact second, but I swear, these two men have held the exact same conversation since before I was born and I'm starting to believe if they didn't follow this unspoken agenda, their eyeballs would burst into flames and they would fall over dead,” Kiran finished dramatically.
I couldn't stop the laughter then, so I grabbed my napkin and dipped my head down. “Is that all it would take?” I struggled to whisper against my napkin, “I might as well give it a shot!”
I opened my mouth to interrupt Lucan without any hesitation, when Kiran suddenly put his arm around my shoulders and tilted his mouth against my ear. “You wouldn't dare....” he pleaded good-humoredly and I was thankful that he knew I was joking.
“Maybe I would,” I teased. His thumb moved back and forth across my shoulder in a possessive gesture of affection and I remembered that we were supposed to be pretending to be in love.
I turned my head, trying to think of something romantic to whisper to Kiran louder than I intended to, but his eyes met mine in an intense gaze that stunned me for a moment. I racked my brain trying to decipher what he could be trying to tell me, but until that moment I thought we were flying through lunch casually in love.
“Eden, I was so happy to hear you joined Kiran in the Citadel,” Bianca's voice rang out like a bell from across the table.
I jerked my head around and sat befuddled for a moment. I was frustrated with her obvious lack of real knowledge about anything in this kingdom and still cowering beneath her stone-cold gaze, her crystal clear blue eyes scrutinizing my every breath. In an attempt to comfort me and assure his father, Kiran pulled me closer against his body, his opposite arm reaching across his chest to hold my hand and then pressed his lips against my hair in meditative stillness. All eyes turned to us and if the party around us hadn't known better we would have appeared to be an emphatically in love young couple.
“Yes, thank you,” I responded to Bianca automatically. I could not afford to ruffle Lucan's feathers and so instead of responding with sarcasm, I traced my thumb across Kiran's palm to drive in the point that I would do anything it took to keep my people safe.
“I believe I, I mean, we owe you a great deal of gratitude for the health of our son,” Bianca continued, her voice lacking the conviction a true expression of gratitude would have conveyed.
“Let us not forget who took his magic to begin with,” Lucan reprimanded loudly, interrupting Bianca before she had a chance to say more.
“Oh, but those days are behind her! Let's not hold it against her any longer!” Sebastian spoke for the first time all lunch and when he did it was with such obvious good humor that even Lucan smiled.
“Is that true?” Bianca asked. Her eyes narrowed into scrutinizing slits of distrust and I decided to try startling her into moving her conversation beyond me.
“Absolutely,” I answered, lifting my free hand to the table and dropping it loudly on to the rosewood, my cut-in-half handcuff pulled roughly against the delicate lace tablecloth and immediately removed any lasting of doubt about why those days were behind me.
Lucan gave a strained but patient smile from across the table. I drew my hand underneath, remembering Lucan's warnings to me and I exhaled the breath I hadn't realized I was holding. Kiran's hand relaxed on my shoulder just a bit and Sebastian finished moving the bite that lay idle on his fork and hung awkwardly in-between the plate and his mouth.
“Now, that we've gotten the formalities out of the way, Bianca, please tell me where my favorite niece is!” Lucan demanded in the most polished and sincere way possible, but this time the impatience flickering in his eyes was not so carefully concealed.
“Yes, Aunt Bianca, I was looking forward to catching up with Mimi, why didn't she travel with you?” Kiran agreed with his father congenially, smoothing the tense moment as Bianca tried to recover from her brother's barely concealed frustration.
“There was a special opening at the Louvre over this weekend and she decided that she simply could not miss it,” Bianca explained candidly. “That girl and her art, really, it's rather a nuisance, but dear brother, I am trying to encourage her with her talents and interests like you suggested.”
Something in Bianca's veiled way of speaking alerted my senses that she was trying desperately to keep something from her brother, but unfortunately he sensed it as well and his eyes shifted from vain concern to deathly panic and then to firm resolve in the matter of a second. Lucan's face was a storm of heavy, masculine indecision and I pressed closer to Kiran, afraid of his father's anger, but more so of his manipulation.
“Is she planning on joining us at all during the festival?” Lucan pressed. His face was calm tranquility but he sliced through his sandwich with frustrated force.
“No, I'm afraid not,” Bianca continued, turning her own attention back to her food. “Actually, if I can confide in you, dearest brother, I think she is more than interested in the Louvre, I think she is a bit sick at the idea of leaving home for the first time to attend school here.”
“Nonsense,” Lucan grumbled, although his blue eyes turned dark, “just not that long ago she was telling us how she couldn't wait to join Sebastian and Kiran at school. Isn't that right, Kiran? And this isn't half as far as Kingsley.”
“Yes, Aunt Bianca, when we were in India last December it sounded as if she couldn’t wait to join us, although now that the reality of leaving home has finally hit her, she might be less excited than she originally was. I'm sure she is nervous,” Kiran spoke pleasantly and easily appeased both sides of the argument with his casual observation. I glanced up at him in surprise, and he looked back at me, questioning my expression with his eyes. “Really, Aunt B,” Kiran continued, turning his gaze reluctantly back to his father's guests, “you're probably more hysterical about the idea of her leaving than she is!”
“Oh, I'm sure you're right,” Bianca conceded, smiling at him with genuine graciousness. “Besides, she will have you and Bastian and I suppose a mother could not ask for better spies.” She smiled then, a radiant smile that lit up her face and softened her eyes. She looked like a mother in that moment, not a princess, or a Kendrick by birth, but a mother that loved her children and wanted only what was best for them.
“And she'll have Eden,” Sebastian put in. “Mimi loves Eden. I know she is absolutely ecstatic to spend time with her.”
“Oh, I'm flattered,” I gushed, truly hoping Sebastian's words were true and that Amelia wanted to spend time with me and this wasn't just an effort to cover my aggressive personality during lunch. “Another girl will make all the difference!”
“Yes, I'm sure you'll get quite close to Amelia,” Kiran agreed, although his voice was tainted with mischief and when I turned toward him, determined to get to the bottom of it, he just shook his head and made an “I’ll tell you later” face.
“Will you bring her back personally?” Lucan addressed Bianca again. I noticed with a sort of deranged amusement that both of the spouses were conveniently ignored during a group discussion. Both Analisa and Jean Cartier sat staring off into space knowing their opinion would not be welcome no matter what the topic of conversation.