Miss Moony would like to dedicate this chapter to Elfsquire90 for being the 100th reviewer.

Miss Moony would also like to thank Kaaera, Iian Feuerfalke, Bambolieblue, Morgan Fate, jtaandlca, The Incredible Emo Kid, magewhisperer, Clair-a-net, epobbp and On top of cloud 9 for reviewing.

To magewhisperer: (Cackles) Yes. Most definitely, he is.

To Iian Feuerfalke: Thank-you for actually responding to that, and you needn't worry; Linnet is going to be somewhere in between a major and minor character (that's okay, right?), but she'll probably have disappeared by the end of the fic (I think – I've been toying with several different outcomes recently, though). And, well, yes, this is Alex/Alanna. Glad to know there's more than one fan out there (or two, I guess, since SoHo Chick is probably also a fan, considering her fic, Chain Reaction, and the rewrite of it she's doing, Soul of a Lioness. Have you read them? They're amazing).

To Clair-a-net: Yes, he thinks there's something between Ralon and Alanna, but I'm not exactly sure what that something is. As for his distance: one word – denial.

To Bambolieblue: Thom's around, somewhere, just not in that scene. I don't find it particularly realistic that he, being that he's nothing like the book-Alanna where it matters, would have the same friends as she did. And Alex? Yes, indeed.

To On top of cloud 9: No, Alex was Lord Imrah's squire, Roger doesn't hate Alanna because he doesn't know enough about her, and I haven't decided whether Alex is going to try to kill her, yet. That's all the questions, right?

To epobbp: No, not really.

To Morgan Fate: I greatly admire your ability to write one word that many times without smashing your computer in frustration.

------- I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good -------

Chapter 10

When she was fifteen, Alanna stopped writing to Thom. Since her trip to Corus, she'd known that he wouldn't be able to reply to any of her letters until Duke Roger had stopped watching him, and that wasn't likely to be happening at any point in the near future.

Her news, she decided, would have to wait for another year – until she herself came to Court to find a husband. And for that, she knew that Lord Arthur had been considering drawing up a contract to betroth her to Ralon of Malven, after seeing the way that the two of them had acted together, but all that had gone down the drain when he'd been killed by the Chamber of the Ordeal, shortly after she'd returned to the convent.

'You okay?' Linnet asked, and Alanna came back to the present with a jolt. Linnet's younger sister, Jane, looked at her curiously and then handed her the dish she'd been passing around – Haddock brought in from Lake Naxen, which was renowned for its wondrous variety of different fishes.

Seated around the table with Alanna were Linnet's entire remaining family – In order of age: Horace, Linnet herself, Jane, the twins Robert and Bruce and six-year-old Hugo, whom everyone called Bluey for reasons unknown to Alanna. Horace's daughter Julia was held in Linnet's arms, fussing slightly as her aunt tried to lull her to sleep: Julia's mother, like Linnet's, had died in childbirth.

'I'm fine,' Alanna replied. 'Just thinking.'

'Dangerous,' Linnet teased, her eyes sparkling in amusement, surprising the quasi-friend that she had in Alanna. Horace frowned, and she silenced herself.

A loud bell rang in the village, signifying the hour, and it startled Julia out of her brief doze. Linnet winced and then rocked her gently as she screamed in protest.

'I should be getting back to the convent now,' Alanna said, her ears ringing.

Linnet half-smiled and nodded distractedly, and so she left the large family to eat the rest of their meal without her.

-------

When it was nearing the end of the year, Alanna was shipped off to Queenscove, to attend Duke Baird's wedding.

After a bumpy ride, she was greeted by Lord Arthur, who insisted that she be "Sir Alexander's" partner at the dance that would be held in celebration. Grudgingly, she agreed, and Alex looked at her with that same unreadable expression on his face that he seemed to be wearing every time he'd seen her in the last year or so.

It was really getting quite irritating, she thought, no longer being able to tell exactly what he was thinking just by looking at his expression, though she supposed that it was mainly because they'd spent so long apart.

Unsurprisingly, after Lord Arthur and Alex had disappeared to Gods-know-where, she was approached by Thom. 'Greetings, sister, dearest,' he said with a flourish, grinning, and she rolled her eyes and resisted the urge to hug him. 'It is good to see you.'

Looking more serious, he said, 'I must talk to you, after the wedding. There have been some… developments on the issue I talked with you about last year.'

Nodding anxiously, Alanna agreed to meet him in private, as soon as she could get away from Alex at the ball.

Which was easier said than done. Apparently, he had been told to stay with her the whole night, and so she finally managed to slip away, feeling slightly guilty, when he went to fetch her a drink.

'Duke Roger's asked me to be his squire,' Thom told her. 'I'm the worst in my year at most of the work we do, but he probably asked because of my Gift.'

'What did you say?' Alanna asked, hoping that he'd refused, and that someone else would be willing to take Thom on instead.

He shrugged. 'I said I'd think about it. And I am – there would definitely be advantages to being his squire.'

Disbelieving, Alanna demanded, 'Like what?'

'The Gift training, for one. And the fact that I'd be able to get close to him. Find out what he's up to.'

'But we already know that, don't we? He's after the throne.'

Nodding, Thom replied, 'But we don't know his precise plans, or when he's going to act. I can find out those things – he's already told me some things, and I'm not even his squire yet. For instance, did you know that he was considering taking Alex as his squire? He said that he'd decided that he would, but he took too long deciding, and Lord Imrah got there first.'

'That's hardly anything that's going to help us expose him,' Alanna told her brother doubtfully.

He rolled his eyes. 'But it's a start.'