FALL IS OFFICIALLY HERE

“Why not? He doesn’t want me here. None of them do. And I don’t want to be here, so we’re agreed.”

“Aye, but he’s got you here now. And he’s made it clear that I and the lads aren’t welcome to stay. Maybe that’s what he had in mind all along, and the Earthers just gave him a convenient excuse. Maybe he wants to keep the de Mendoza Clan Chief here in the city, far away from your own people.” He frowned. “It won’t work, lad. The Martyns could lock you away for years and we’d never forget you. You know that.”

Rhodi flashed a quick grin. “You’d never leave me locked away for years, Aidan.”

“Well, no, I wouldn’t. But I was making a point. I don’t like leaving you here on your own.”

Rhodry sighed deeply. “And I don’t like being here, but it’s not worth making a fuss over. I’ll be fine. The Guild Hall is welcoming enough and as long as I’ve got the Green, I can survive a few months of Martyn politics.”

“I could stay down in the city—”

“Go home, Aidan. No need for both of us to be miserable.” The gleam in his cousin’s eye warned him a heartbeat before he heard her voice.

“Good evening, Mr. de Mendoza.”

Rhodry gave Aidan a filthy look for not giving him more warning, then schooled his face to polite disinterest and turned on his heel to find the Sumner woman looking up at him expectantly. Not that she had to look up very far. She was tall for a woman, especially a woman on Harp. And he liked tall women. Just not this woman, he reminded himself.

“Lieutenant Sumner,” he acknowledged. “I trust you’re enjoying your evening?”

“Yes, I am,” she said, smiling. “And I trust my choice of apparel meets with your approval?”

Rhodry gave her a narrow look, noting the spark of mischief in her blue eyes. “The white is—”

“Aidan Devlin,” his cousin interrupted before Rhodry could say something indiscreet. He took Sumner’s proffered hand, but instead of shaking it, he raised it to his lips with a small bow. “A pleasure, Lieutenant.”

She laughed at his damn cousin’s antics. “Call me Amanda, please. There’s no need to be formal is there?”

“Of course not, Amanda,” Aidan assured her. “Harp is usually a very informal place, although tonight the Ardrigh and his lady seem determined to prove me wrong.”

She turned and surveyed the gathering as Rhodi had done earlier, studying her fellow fleet officers in their starched whites, the Harp officials in formal black, with the colorful ladies scattered in between. “It is all a bit stuffy, isn’t it? I’m sure you’d rather be outside. I know I would,” she muttered, then cast a glance at him over her shoulder. “I suppose you don’t go out into the forests much at night, though, do you?” she asked with what Rhodry would have sworn was wistfulness.

“No,” he said forbiddingly. “YOU don’t.”

Instead of being properly chastened, she gave him a wicked grin, then leaned over to Aidan and said confidingly, “Rhodry here is upset because I didn’t ask permission before going out into the forest today. Tell me, is he always this strict?”