Sorry about the delay in updating—I'm busy getting ready to leave for Ireland. Thanks for all of your reviews—you make continuing the story even more fun. I'm picking up almost immediately after where Double Trouble. As always, Tortall and its denizens belong to Tamora Pierce.

"Erm, yes, I can see how my words might have been misconstrued." Neal glanced from Penelope, who raised her sword a few inches, to Dalton, who merely raised his eyebrows. There was absolutely no way he could duck between them and make a run for the door.

"You stand accused, sir, of willful deceit." If he hadn't recognized the mocking tilt to Penelope's chin, Neal might have been truly terrified.

"You deserved it," Neal told her.

"Undoubtedly, she did deserve it," said Dalton, "I, however, did not."

Neal decided to concede this point in the hopes of winning Dalton's allegiance. "Very well. You might say the confusion was halfway deliberate."

Dalton narrowed his eyes and Penelope explained, "he never does anything deliberately until after his morning tea."

"An excellent life strategy," Neal insisted. "And one you would do well to adopt."

But Dalton was not to be distracted. He used the tip of his sword to lift Neal's empty teacup by its handle and deposited it upon the cot closest to Neal's desk. "And the ulterior motive behind your half-way deliberate deceit?"

Neal sighed. "I thought I might try inciting a little chaos in the hopes of getting Kel to tell Dom something."

"What could Kel possibly…" Penelope trailed off, blinking slowly. "Oh."

"Twins?" Dalton muttered.

Neal nodded.

"Dom already knows," Dalton told him.

Penelope twitched her lips thoughtfully before nodding and finally lowering her sword just as Dom appeared in the doorway.

" Only I'm not certain how they know I know and I'm not entirely sure that I care to know."

Neal grinned sheepishly. "Well then, things have turned out nicely in the end."

"Have they?" Penelope asked, sheathing her sword and casting a menacing glance at Neal. "I wasn't aware that we had finished anything."

"Indeed," Dalton murmured cheerfully. "I would say things are just beginning." He offered his arm to Penelope and they departed without a backward glance.

Neal shook his head as he watched them go.

"I'm still not entirely sure what you did, but I'm sure you will justly deserve whatever retaliation they arrange," Dom informed him.

"But there are two of them."

"This is why it's a bad idea to interfere in married people's lives. In this case it was a particularly bad idea since George has trained Dalton and you've taught Penelope everything she knows about being devious."

"Only about 75 percent," Neal protested. "The girl has natural talent." Neal sighed. "And an impeccable sense of timing. She'll wait years if she has to and lull me into complacency before she blindsides me completely."

"That only frustrates you because you can't wait to pay her back for getting you back." Dom lifted Neal's teacup from the cot and spun the handle around his finger.

"True," Neal muttered. "Though technically this morning was my payback for her blackmail which I suppose might have been a response to the time I…"

Dom shook his head and waved at Neal as he turned to follow Penelope and Dalton.

MMMMM

Selena reacted to Kel's news with her usual cheerful composure when Kel told her after morning practice. She blinked twice and then muttered, "just don't start both their names with L—or any other letter."

"If I might offer my own opinion, lady knight," Penelope added as she emerged from the storage shed, "I would advise against rhyming names."

Kel nodded. "I'll avoid names that might give them any dangerous ideas."

"Wise," Dalton agreed. "I think their general environment is going to be inspiring enough."

Kel nodded once more, announced that she was hungry enough to eat a small pony, and departed. Selena turned to follow but Dalton grabbed her elbow.

"Might we have a word, lady squire?"

Selena blinked. Penelope opened her mouth, shut it in sudden understanding, and kissed Dalton's cheek.

"About Wyldon," Penelope clarified. "Is he well?"

MMMM

Neal managed only a few hours of herbal inventory before his next disturbance. He was just resealing a jar of bruise balm when a tremendously loud sneeze startled him into dropping it.

"I hear dere havig twids," Lord Wyldon observed through his handkerchief.

"Indeed." Neal wasn't sure which couple Wyldon was referring to and thought a neutral reply might be safest. "You appear to have a nasty head cold."

"Iddeed," Wyldon replied. Neal hadn't thought it was possible to snarl and moan at the same time.

Neal lifted his fingers to Wyldon's cheekbones and found that his sinuses were swollen with that undelightful substance, whose technical term—or so Lady Alanna had taught him—was goop. "Selena had this same cold last week," he informed Wyldon, "only she had the sense to come in before it festered into a miserable infection."

"I don't like to inconvenience healers with my own trivial discomfort."

"So you wait until you're truly miserable and hand me a tedious clean-up job."

Wyldon shrugged. "Suffering builds character."

Neal resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "In my humble opinion, sir, if you build your character up any higher, it will be in danger of collapsing under its own weight."

"Your opinions, Queenscove, are never humble and there's no excuse for your pretending otherwise." Wyldon's recently-cleared nostrils flared as he glared at Neal. "And furthermore, it was not my character I was referring to, but yours."

"You needn't trouble yourself, sir. Lady Knights Keladry and Penelope have the matter well in hand."

"I imagine they do." Wyldon nodded. "And I rather suspect Lady Alanna has made considerable contributions on that front. I ought to thank her, really."

"You are still running a fever, my lord." Neal pressed a mug of tea into his hands.

"Am I?" Wyldon muttered. "Perhaps that accounts for a few of the strange rumors I thought I've heard today. I could have sworn Selena told me that Keladry was expecting twins."

"She is," Neal muttered.

Wyldon nodded mildly. "Well, she's always insisted on working twice as hard as the rest of us." He took a sip of his tea, managing to do so—to Neal's great astonishment—without pulling a face at its bitter taste. "Passable," he muttered and continued sipping wordlessly.

This left Neal shuffling awkwardly around the infirmary looking for busywork he could use to shield himself from Wyldon's gaze. He was on the verge of praying for immediate evaporation when Wyldon grunted and set down his mug.

"I must have caught it from Selena," Wyldon muttered. "She'll have picked it up from one of the pages."

"Squires are hazardous," Neal agreed. "they bring you all sorts of trouble."

"And disrupt your comfortable long-established view of the world," Wyldon added.

"And pull terrifying stunts."

"And worry their way into your heart—tenacious creatures—and."

"And then they grow up and get married and prove themselves formidably mischievous. And you realize you can't ever be finished worrying about them."

Wyldon blinked at Neal. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves. I was only going to say that I'll miss her next year." Then he shook his head vigorously. "Dear Mithros, I must be ill if I'm waxing philosophical."

Neal merely nodded and pressed another cup of tea into his hands.

MMMMM

"That was your idea," Penelope informed Dalton as they ate a quiet dinner in their own room, "so I still have to devise my own comeuppance for him."

"But—"

"I ought to be maintaining my own separate identity—what would my aunt say—"

"You were the one who talked Selena into it," Dalton protested.

"Well, we should be supporting one another in our endeavors, and it didn't take much talking."

"True," Dalton muttered. "Perhaps we ought to count this afternoon as Selena's contribution on Mindelan's."

Penelope nodded. "One must give credit where credit is due."

MMMM

The next morning, Kel found that a scrape of parchment had been slid under her door. She smiled when she saw the writing—it was the same hand that had once accompanied gifts from her mysterious benefactor. And there were only two words: good luck.

Thanks for reading and reviewing and good luck avoiding the nasty summer cold that inspired this chapter. I'll try to post the next chapter in early August.