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"Good morning."

Lirael gripped the door frame to the dining room as she entered seeing Nick, dressed and in the act of sitting down, to the obvious satisfaction of the sending who'd been impatiently waiting by his seat.

She bit her lip. "Hi."

The sending began setting plates down in front of Nick who, obviously still not accustomed to them muttered an awkward, "Oh... um, thank you," and "thank you, that's quite enough" when the sending had started pouring him something hot to drink. But the sending continued, the cup overflowing, "I said thank you, that's quite enough!" he half shouted, sounding somewhat alarmed.

Lirael giggled and stepped forward and the sending finally relented, opting instead to stand behind the chair at the head of the table it had pulled out and obviously intended for Lirael to sit at.

"Sorry, the sendings can be a bit... well, some are old and senile."

"I noticed," Nick said wiping off the hand that had been holding his cup with his napkin, wincing, and muttering a low, "damnit."

She smiled. "Um – mind if I join you?"

He gave her a somewhat quizzical, wry smile. "It's your house."

"Technically it's Sabriel's."

"It's your to-be house."

"Right." She blushed a little and moved to sit at the seat at the head of the table.

Lirael felt embarrassed for some reason, but Nick did not seem affected.

"Did you sleep well?" he asked.

She blushed. "After a bit."

"After a certain bothersome fellow finally stopped pestering you?" he grinned up at her.

She smiled. "You weren't bothersome. You were... nice."

The word wasn't lost on his ears. "Nice?" His grin widened.

Her smile widened as well though she couldn't help retreating behind her hair. "Yes. I – it was nice of you. I – I wanted to thank you."

He nodded still smiling, the hint of a blush creeping into his cheeks. "You're very welcome."

Nick surreptitiously studied her while they both ate, at first distracted by the way the light caught in her dark hair. He watched as she nervously parted it with her fingers, a nervous tick of hers he'd noticed on their way back to Belisaire after the ordeal with the Hrule. As he watched, her dark hair fell against the stark contrast to her pale face. He wanted to brush the lock of hair away, and he felt the need to tell her something, phrases empty of the words he couldn't place bubbling up inside him. The toast he was eating stuck in his throat. He found himself almost wishing he'd more eagerly tried his hand at romantic endeavors back in Ancelstierre. He'd had opportunities, debutantes at parties who'd tried to strike up conversation, but then he'd been far more interested in his faulty science and would tell anyone who would listen about it, a topic that often distanced himself from most everyone who'd bothered trying to talk to him in the first place. He hadn't minded then.

Before coming to the Old Kingdom he hadn't the patience or sincere desire to pursue anything. Certainly he'd met young ladies who'd sparked his interest, and the more romantic side of him had hoped to find something, particularly when he'd taken interest in a young assistant librarian he'd taken a liking to at the university in Corvere, but the idea had always come second to his schooling and he'd never bothered to think about it further. For a Sayre there was time for that sort of thing later, not to mention, when the time came for marriage, it had always been implied that the young lady would most likely be hand picked by a family member or members. Before now his lack of romantic experience had never bothered him. Now it did. He found himself wishing that he'd taken notes from Timothy Wallach who'd always been bragging about his adeptness at entertaining members of the opposite sex. Though he thought perhaps that if he had it wouldn't matter now anyway. He didn't want to make small talk and petty jokes, though he had felt sufficiently pleased with the flirting he'd pulled off the night before. But he didn't want just that. He wanted more. Lirael was more, had more to say and he had more he wanted to say to her.

So what exactly were they doing? He wondered, not for the first time. He knew that in Ancelstierre his late night visit to her room would have been deemed most inappropriate and that sex was something not talked about, but frowned upon before marriage. Not that that had happened of course, he thought, blushing inwardly, though he'd have been lying if he said he hadn't thought about making love to Lirael – more often than he ever would have honestly admitted to anyone. He knew the customs surrounding romantic affairs in Ancelstierre, particularly concerning the upper class. But what of those in the Old Kingdom? Whats more, Lirael had mentioned in passing when she'd briefly discussed her parentage that the people in the part of the Old Kingdom where she'd been raised did not traditionally marry. What if she didn't want to marry? Whats more, did he? He found himself suddenly wishing he'd paid attention to conversation in Belisairre, wondering idly if perhaps Sam or Ellimere had ever mentioned anything in relation to how their marriage customs worked. The thought of Sam brought another hot, sick concern swooping into his stomach like a firebird, and it pecked at his insides. Would Sam have anything to say on the subject? He remembered joking to Sam about wanting to see Ellimere, but that had been different. Everything had been different then, and somehow he got the feeling Sam felt more protective of Lirael, as though she were another sister. Keeping their trysts in Belisairre private had been, for Nick at least, one part avoidance of the necessary conversation with Sam that it would almost certainly invoke, and one part due to the fact that Nick hadn't been sure where the trysts were going to lead to begin with, and he'd had an inkling Lirael had felt the same in that regard. He wondered if she still did. Confused and nervous as he was, he felt as though he were coming to a conclusion. He cared for her and wanted to be with her, whatever that meant for her and her country's customs. However, the rationalist inside him felt it prudent to attempt at discovering her thoughts and feelings first before baring his heart to her.

He was so distracted by his thoughts, that when Lirael stood and announced that she was going spend a good part of the day in the library studying a few of the books there, he realized they'd both been silent nearly the entire meal.

"You're welcome to anything you'd like here," she said. "I mean, if you wanted to continue in the library or something else. You can go for a walk outside or anything you'd like. I won't be doing anything terribly interesting here for most of the day. Don't feel you need to stick around."

He nodded. "Thanks."

She made to leave and then stopped suddenly. "I will say though, if you do decide to walk the grounds, do stay away from the well. There would be vines on it. Roses. I think it's sealed but it's... dangerous. Do stay far away, and run towards the house if you catch a scent of rosemary."

He nodded again.

She smiled, nodded as well and made to leave again, this time only getting another three steps further before stopping, turning to face him and saying, "And – do be careful, wherever you decide to wander off to. I think – I think this house has other secrets. Secrets older than even Touchstone. And I don't think all of them are good."

He grinned and stood. "Ah, I see. Can't stand to be without my presence. Very well Miss Lirael. I'll be sure to check in with you every so often, just so you don't have to go so long without me. I do intend to have a look around though, if that's alright with you."

She laughed shyly. "Just be careful. I'd show you around but I'm afraid I'm going to be very busy today. Apart from trying to learn all I can I'm going to try to see if there's anything that can be brought to Belisaire, anything that would be good to have there so they can make a copy."

"Right."

"Not terribly interesting really," Lirael blabbered on, though she had no idea why she was telling him this. "But it's a bit of an old hobby of mine, cataloging books. I sort of got a knack for it when I worked in the Clayr's library. Anyway, do be careful."

And with that she finally disappeared out of the dining room, feeling somewhat embarrassed and silly for her babbling.

Nick continued to sit for a time, idly twirling his fork between his fingers, making the bit of fried egg still left on the fork waiver and dance in a half-nauseating yet somewhat amusing manner. From what he could see through the windows it appeared to be a fresh, sunny day outside and he was curious about the grounds on an island such as this. But Lirael's warning had left him somewhat frightened. Considering all she'd faced, it was obvious she wouldn't fear something to be trifled with and this thought made him uncomfortable. Remembering his blatant refusal to heed warnings about the dangers of the Old Kingdom and the havoc his disbelief had caused, he knew too that disregarding her warning now would be nothing short of idiocy. Still, he reasoned, she would not have said he was free to (carefully) wander if the place weren't mostly safe.

Finally, he decided that if he should run into something dangerous he knew where to find Lirael and, he reasoned, given her experience, she ought to know how to deal with most dangers that could possibly arise.

Standing up before he could contemplate the situation further and become further intimidated by the dangers that might lurk on the island, he exited the dining room, deciding to first explore the outside.


Author's note: sorry this chapter's so short, I've really reached a bit of a roadblock with this. I thought I'd come close to getting where I wanted to in this story but I simply don't really know how to bring the events about. Anyway, as always, reviews are awesome :)