Chapter Nine
"How are you holding up?" Avaron skipped the tea and just served Riza a glass of whiskey. She gave her young friend a critical look as Riza huddled on the leather chair by the fire. "You off duty?"
Riza nodded. She wasn't a big fan of drinking but right now she could use it. "Not well. General Householder is allowing me to continue my duties for now but I've been pulled off the forest detail, which is just not right. We've doubled the patrols in the woods, after the incident at the school and now, Roy's out there alone. Householder doesn't want to risk me getting hurt, especially if things don't go my way and I am withdrawn. The military doesn't want to explain to my uncle," she drew the word out like a curse, "why I got shot or whatever."
"Well, I can see the military's fears about that," Avaron said gently as she absently toyed with her hair. "But surely Roy isn't all alone out there?"
Riza made a face, sipping at her whiskey. "No, but you don't understand. He's a daydreamer, Avaron. If it's not alchemy, he gets distracted in a matter of moments. Roy's probably out there in the woods thinking, 'wonder if I could use this in alchemy?' And if Hughes is around, then neither of them will be thinking about anything but 'girls,' add in a little sniggering and hand gestures where appropriate and you and I can only hope we're the girls they're thinking about."
"Teenaged boys? Please, a boob bobbles by them, any boob, and that's what they're thinking about. Your Roy better not get Maes shot. I'm not done playing with him yet," Avaron said, her nose wrinkling.
"You're awful," Riza informed her, squirming on the leather chair. "At least Householder didn't tell me I couldn't see you. We're under strict orders not to have any contact with Thorne or my uncle."
"Be glad Keddrick doesn't know that or he'd be standing at the fence between our properties just to taunt you," Avaron said, her green eyes flashing.
Riza shuddered. "I've had happier thoughts."
"Shouldn't those lovely young men be here by now?" Avaron cast a glance at the mantle clock.
Riza followed her gaze. "Not yet. They're back on base by now though, but you don't know them, peacocks the both of them. Trust me, they spend a great deal of time getting their hair to look that messy. Maes will want to shave, though I've heard rumblings about him wanting to try and grow a beard…I don't think Roy shaves. He has the smoothest skin." Riza shrugged.
Avaron laughed. "Oh, your boy looks like he's made from porcelain, just like that group of Xing traders that came and talked to our fathers a couple years back, remember?"
"I still have the robe." Riza nodded. "As I remember, not a whisker among them. Roy's mom came from there. Xi-Feng, she's the one who started teaching him alchemy. I met her once when I was just a little girl. She knew my father some how. That's how Roy came to live with us later. She was so pretty. All I really remember was how bright and chaotic her clothing was and everyone staring at her."
"Everything here's too boring, witness our uniforms," Avaron interrupted. "She would have been like a peony in a bed of daises."
Riza nodded. "And I remember her exercising outside the house, these slow, beautiful movements. I thought she was a princess from a fairytale since I had never seen anyone like her. I know now that those were a type of Xing fighting move. I'd like Roy to teach me."
"There's something a girl doesn't ask a guy every day. Dear, teach me how better to kick your butt." Avaron smiled, approval for the idea written all over her face.
Riza laughed. "Well, with Roy, that might be necessary to keep him in line. A quick shot to the head to get his attention."
"I will give you jewelry if I could witness that," Avaron said, draining her whiskey glass. "I'd set you up in a house if you did it to Keddrick."
"Don't tempt me," Riza replied darkly.
The low dull thuds of the huge brass knocker on the front door cut into Avaron's reply. Avaron waved Riza down as the other girl rose. "Cynthi will let them in."
Cynthi led Roy and Maes into the parlor. The boys, as Riza predicted, were freshly groomed and out of uniform for the night. Both wore riding boots. Avaron indicated for them to sit.
"You get your horses stabled up?" she asked.
"Your groom is taking care of it. It's snowed a little again. We decided against walking," Maes replied, holding his hands towards the fire.
"We'll probably all have to be back on base in a few hours," Roy said, regret heavy in his voice. "You two okay?"
"Yes, we were just talking about your mother," Avaron said.
Roy gave them a querulous look. "My mother?"
"And her sense of fashion. We were talking clothing mostly…and her fighting style," Riza said, blushing though she wasn't sure why. "I might like to learn that provided, of course, I'm not expelled from the academy," she added bitterly.
"I'll teach you," Roy said.
"We've had Xing traders up here. I liked their silks," Avaron said then gave Riza a coquettish look. "Riza has a Xing robe."
"I know. I saw it in her closet," Roy said then blushed as Avaron's green eyes fixed on him in surprise. "She asked me to go through it and find a gown for her to wear to the ball."
"All he found were shoes and night gowns," Riza grumbled and Roy and Maes exchanged leers in remembrance.
"Are you surprised? He's male. What were you thinking?" Avaron shook her head ruefully.
"It was temporary insanity, apparently," Riza replied. "I was expecting him to act like an adult."
"I think men are powerless when confronted with nighties," Avaron said, wagging a finger at Riza.
"Roy can show her his fancy silk pj's and call it even," Maes suggested with a sly grin.
"You have silk pjs?" Avaron's feathery eyebrows climbed high.
Roy shot Maes a pinched look. "They're not pajamas. I have one set of my traditional clothing with me because when I'm lounging around, studying, they're very comfortable to wear, not that Maes would know that."
"How would I? It's not like I can borrow them." Maes waved a hand at Roy. "You're doll-sized, after all."
Riza didn't know what she and Avaron were laughing harder at; what Maes had said or the look on Roy's face.
"Oh, I want to see you in those silks sometime." Avaron managed to stifle her giggles. "You have to go back to base in a few hours? Maes, want to help me with an experiment?" Avaron got up and held out her hand.
"Experiment?"
She grabbed his hand and yanked him up. "Yes, on the power of a silky nightgown." Avaron hauled him away before he could form words. "Remember what we talked about the other day, Riza," she called back over her shoulder.
"Do I even want to know?" Roy asked.
Riza set her glass of whiskey aside. "Yes, actually you do. Come with me."
She led Roy to the guest room Avaron had given her and shut the door behind them. She hadn't actually explained to Roy that her friend was letting them use her house for illicit trysts. She wasn't sure what Roy would think of that so Riza decided to show him rather than tell. Riza pressed him back against the wall near the marble fireplace and kissed him hungrily.
"This is what you talked about?" he asked when she let him up for air.
"No, this was." Riza whispered something in his ear, laughing softly at his shocked looked. She sank to her knees, lifting his shirt to flick her tongue around the circle of his navel before she unzipped his trousers. Roy's head clunked back against the plaster as a moan escaped his lips.
Neither of them remembered to draw the heavy curtains in their haste to not lose what little time they had together. Neither saw the glint of light sparking off metal and glass from the binoculars pointing at them from the property next door.
X X X
"This is the wrong year." Keddrick's hand flashed out, catching the maid across the face. She cried out, nearly dropping the bottle of wine.
Keddrick snatched it away from her and collapsed angrily in his chair across from his father's. The maid scurried away from the den, a place the Thorne's barely tolerated a female presence. Keddrick looked at the label.
"The help gets more useless every year. I have no idea where your mother finds them," Thorne sniffed. "What has you in such a fit of temper? I'll assume it's not merely the wrong vintage of wine. I heard the tirade earlier."
Keddrick studied his father for a moment. He couldn't tell him that the girl he intended to make his own was whoring herself out to some freak of nature. Keddrick might be able to overlook such a lapse in judgment but his father couldn't. "There is someone trying to stand in my way." Keddrick rotated the bottle so the label faced his father. He tapped it. "This man's son, some half bred Squint freak."
"Oh, you mean that upstart alchemist." Thorne snorted, tapping his heavy ring on the arm of the chair. "I didn't care for that boy at all. I'm shocked General Householder puts such stock in the likes of him."
