"It's insane. Didn't your father take the Ordeal when he was seventeen?" Faleron questioned Roald when he announced that he was taking his Ordeal with his yearmates. "And you can't because the King decreed so?"
"I don't know why he did it, but I can guess," Roald admits.
"Why?"
Roald fiddled with his tunic, wondering how to phrase it. "You know Alanna was father's squire, correct?" followed by a nod. "Do you know what they… did… while they were squire and knight-master?" A nod, but this time with a bright red face. "Father doesn't want that happening and ruining Kel's reputation. He said, and I quote, 'We Conte's have a thing for warrior women. Don't shake your head, Roald! I've seen the way you look at Keladry and I will not allow that!'" Roald blushes.
Faleron snickers. "Well, it is kind of obvious. But what does that have to do with your Ordeal?"
"Father knows that, if I were a knight and Kel still didn't have a knight-master, I would take her on as my squire, which would, Father says, turn into 'what Alanna and I did when we were young'." Roald says, blushing even deeper.
"What's this about Kel, and Alanna, and the King, Roald?!" Neal barges in to be faced with a bright red Roald and a laughing Faleron.