After dinner, Kel quietly slipped out of her group of her friends to freshen up before meeting Cleon. Stopping in the washroom, she quickly finger-combed her short locks and straightened her tunic. She figured that since she was going riding, why would she need to dress like a girl? Besides, the breeches were much more comfortable. Leaving the washroom, she was suddenly nervous. Why are you so nervous? she chided herself, and kept walking.

Entering the barn, Kel needed a few moments for her eyes to adjust to the darkness. Not seeing Cleon, she went to Peachblossom's stall, and started saddling her precious mount. They had been through a lot together, but Peachblossom, besides his temper, was, at least in Kel's opinion, the best horse in the whole King's Own, when she was a squire for Raoul. When she was finished, she still didn't see Cleon. 'Is he standing me up?' she wondered. She sat down on a bale of hay near the door to the barn, happy that it was to be a warm night.

Just then two strong arms grabbed her from behind and spun her around. Her eight years of training as a page kicked in; she quickly kneed her attacker in the groin and then waited for the next attack, but heard nothing but a male voice, gasping in pain. Looking closer, Kel was shocked, it was Cleon who had grabbed her. "God's Kel, what the hell are you doing? I didn't know you'd, injure, me like that just for greeting you. I actually wanted to do this instead," and took Kel into his arms for a passionate kiss. For the first few seconds, Kel relaxed in his grasp feeling as if she were a squire again. Then she realized what was happening and pulled away, and smacked Cleon squarely across the face, but not so hard as she would have if he'd done that initially.

"What in Mithro's name do you think you are doing?!? This is your first night married to Rosine and you come out here treating me like we were still playing knight! I don't want anything to happen to us anymore, because the truth is, I don't love you anymore!" At that, there was a shocked silence from both of them. Then Cleon sagged.

"You're right Kel. Ever since we last met before you were sent to Haven, I've felt like something was missing, and I thought that was I was missing was you, and I was right in a twisted way. I don't think that I'm in love with you anymore either. I know my life with Rosine will be less exciting," he said with a grin. "But I believe that she and I will get along very well. The thing that was bothering me the most was that you would be one of those twittering court girls that got their hackles raised whenever an object of their affections talked to another girl. I think that's part of why I loved you so much. I still DO love you now, but am willing to keep is as brotherly love. When I kissed you, it was partly because I had missed you, and partly to test myself. But I do have a confession to make..."

'Uh oh,' Kel thought, 'this can't be good.' "Well, Rosine was really bothered when I told her about us before. She was positive that we would still be going behind her back, so I told her something, to make sure that she wouldn't think that..."

"What did you say Cleon? CLEON, what did you say!?!?" Kel insisted with a dangerous edge to her voice.

"I told her that yondomorowenornealwersleepingethernicutyouoff." he finished while looking at the floor.

"Cleon, I understood not a WORD of that, now can you PLEASE pull yourself together and tell me what you did so that I can understand you?!" Kel exploded.

To Kel, Cleon was starting to look as she must when she jousted with her Lord Raoul. Cleon sighed. "Kel, I told Rosine that I caught you sleeping with Sergeant Dom, and had heard of you and Owen going at it, and told her that I never wanted anything to do with you again because of the heartache you put me through."

Kel was very glad that there was a bale of hay where it was, because her knees turned to jelly when she heard that statement. Then she got angry. "You told Rosine that I was sleeping with Dom and Owen. And then told her that you never wanted to see me again. Well, maybe I never want to see YOU again!" Kel finished with a yell, and sprinted back towards her rooms, and threw herself on her bed.