Chapter 4

"Do you want help with anything else?" Tamlin washed his hands in the kitchen sink.

"Not really, it's just marinate now, I'll take it from here. Excuse me." Katherine danced around the table to get to the other side of him, even though there was enough space for her to pass behind him "Thank you for helping with dinner."

"No problem." He mumbled.

The weather had grown colder as they settled in their odd new routine. Katherine didn't seem as scared of him now, but he had gotten used to keeping his voice low and his movements soft around her.

"Well, will you look at this?" Allie strode in from the greenhouse, with a tiny sprout of some plant in a pot in her hands.

Katherine arched her eyebrows.

"How?" She marvelled, washing her hands and taking the potted plant from Allie´s hands.

Allie looked up at him with a smile.

"Come see."

"What is it?" He tried to puzzle why ever would they be so happy at a tiny sprout.

"The tomatoes you've planted." Allie answered, as Katherine turned the pot one way and then the other to have a better look at the plant.

"Nice." He didn't know what else to say. There was clearly something he was missing there. For the former head of an agricultural court, he was dreadfully ignorant of crops.

"Very nice indeed." Katherine agreed, and, for once, there wasn't that edge to her voice, she was entirely consumed by analysing that tiny little shite of a plant "Here." she handed him the pot as if he would know what to do about that.

"Well, that settles it then. Tamlin is on greenhouse duty from now on."

"Allie!" Katherine reprimanded, shooting him a careful glance.

"It's all right." He felt terribly stupid holding that pot.

"What? I'm pawning your work off on Tamlin now." Allie mercifully took the plant from his hand and went back out, and he followed her to escape Katherine´s unsettling gaze.

"What's the matter with the plant?" He asked, once they were safely out of earshot from the kitchen.

Tamlin didn't mind Allie knowing how stupid he was, but Katherine had that unnerving smirk and that way of arching only one of her eyebrows as if she was wondering how ever such an ass had managed to hold the High Lord crown so long.

"The tomatoes shouldn't sprout for another week at least." She explained "But the ones you've planted all did."

"Huh." He nodded noticing that there were some more pots with sprouts in the greenhouse.

"Thank you for that, Tamlin." Allie beamed at him.

"It was nothing." He mumbled.

But at dinner, he couldn't stop thinking about it. At over five hundred, one would think he would have learned all that he could do, but, somehow, he had never stumbled upon that until now. It made sense, he was the High Lord of Spring, after all. Had been. So of course he would have a talent for… gardening?

He looked down at his hands, holding the cutlery. Up until now, he had mainly killed things, as had his father and his brothers, and all of their family who knew how many generations back. But they were the lords of Spring, so it made sense for them to create life. It made more sense than anything.

"Would you like something else, Tamlin? I can make you an omelette." Katherine offered.

"The chicken is fine, thank you." He took a bite off the warm chicken.

"More potatoes?" Allie raised the bowl.

Those two would stop at nothing to make him as fat as a bear. The thought was somehow amusing.

"I'm fine." He reassured her, taking a forkful of chicken and mashed potatoes.

How odd it was, that other power, so long forgotten within the shape-shifting and the glamouring of his bloodline. Of course they would have it, if any court in Prythian were to have it it would be Spring. Why had they forgotten all about it then? He had never even heard it being mentioned.

The High Lord was chewing on his lip, a book forgotten on his lap. He did that a lot, Katherine had gotten used to his brooding moods, which usually had Allie sitting by his side and working silently, but that night was different. Even though he seemed lost in thought, he wasn't brooding. It had to be better, hadn't it? He wasn't as likely to fall into a temper then, was he?

Still, she kept close watch on him, over the dress she was making.

By getting those early tomato sprouts, Lord Tamlin had given them a chance at having the first tomatoes of spring, which meant they would be sold at a higher price and with no competition for at least a week before the other farmers could get theirs. If all the crops he planted did that well, the profit off them would surpass the expense of feeding him for a few weeks. How long would he stay? Until the end of winter, at most. He surely had somewhere else to be?

"That's very pretty." He complimented Allie´s embroidery, which she had just finished and was holding up to analyse.

"Thank you." Allie smiled, handing the shirt over to him for a better look "It's going to go finely with that dress mum is making."

The High Lord ran his finger over the blackwork pattern.

"Do you make all of your clothes?"

Katherine felt the caustic answer on the tip of her tongue. Yes, for they were farmers and they had been rather poor ever since Kiril died in the war. But of course she would never say it aloud.

"Of course, my mother makes such beautiful dresses, why would I ever spend money on a dressmaker?" Allie laughed lightly, and a touch of embarrassment crossed Lord Tamlin´s face. He must have understood then, because he didn't insist on the subject.

Allie had stopped growing now, but the previous years had forced her to sell most of her beloved jewels, and she couldn't even recall the last cup of coffee she had. A quick projection in her head indicated that there would be no coffee for her that year, no matter how well the crops did, so she was resigned with that.

"Oh, it's snowing!" Allie jumped up from Kiril´s armchair, delighted at the white flakes dancing by the window.

Lord Tamlin looked up from the book he had been blindly staring at, openly brooding now, and Katherine worried that maybe the weather could set his temper off. It was such a stupid thing, but who knew? Perhaps he was that volatile?

"Tamlin, do you know how to make mulled wine?" Allie turned to him expectingly, and that brought the High Lord out of his brooding and back into a neutral mood.

"I do."

"Would you mind terribly?" She pleaded, making those calf eyes she could make so well.

"Allie, you're exploiting our guest." Katherine said, merely because she thought she was expected to, and Lord Tamlin shrugged.

"It's no problem, really."

"See?" Allie triumphed, leading the High Lord to the kitchen.

Katherine stayed behind, working in the sitting room and listening to Allie´s happy chatter and Lord Tamlin´s quiet responses. Allie had a way with him, as she had a way with everyone. Perhaps it was the Elliots blood? Marguerite was charming like that, even though Kiril had been way more withdrawn. But Marguerite was an exception, rather than the rule. Angeline had been a cold snobby bitch.

Her stream of thought was interrupted by a pale hand lowering a glass of mulled wine right in front of her.

"Thank you."

"It's nothing." The High Lord sat down by the fire.

"Why do you sit on the floor?"

She should have bit her tongue. Would he take that as an offence? Would it affect his mood?

"I like the fire." He shrugged, taking a sip of his mulled wine.

It was different from what she was used to, and it tasted fresh and warming at the same time. Perhaps it was the ginger.

"This is very good. Where did you learn to make it?"

Lord Tamlin looked at her and his shoulders relaxed a bit. Why was he always so tense? It wasn't as if she could turn into a monster and murder his family in the blink of an eye.

"In the war band. There was a lad from Niort who made it exquisitely."

"It's very fine indeed." Allie agreed.

"I'm glad you like it." The High Lord gave Allie a shadow of a smile, before turning back to hiding his thoughts behind the pages of that sugary romance.

Tamlin sipped at his mulled wine, looking at the faded wallpaper under the window. The sitting room was an ordinary family room, of a decent size but made smaller from the amount of stuff crammed into it. There were shelves of books and sewing apparel, two armchairs and a couch, all in faded floral patterns, the overlap of rugs he was now sitting on, flattened by time, a fireplace big enough to roast some birds, and Allie´s piano, that she would play every now and then when he was in the stables, to keep him company.

In the very first day on his staying there with them, he had decided to forsake the armchair for the floor, since it would make him look smaller. Now he thought it just made him look stupid, specially when Katherine looked at him like that. That female was utterly unnerving, always on point, like a fretting hind, always looking at him with that inquisitive stare.

If it had been before, he would have already snapped at her that he wasn't going to kill anyone, and to leave him be and stop looking at him like that, but he knew better now. Snapping at her would only further convince her that he was unstable and untrustworthy.

And wasn't he?

Not now. That was before.

"What are you sewing?" He felt stupid as soon as the words left his mouth. Allie had already said that it was a dress.

"It's a working dress, for Allie. See?" She unfolded the skirt for him to have a better look. It was greyish blue, plain but handsomely made.

Tamlin extended his hand and felt the fabric between his index and thumb.

"Very nice."

As if he had any idea of what he was doing.

"Isn't it?" That seemed to cheer Katherine up a bit "Not too stiff, and it's good quality, bound to last for a good time. Lucas Garmin saved it for me."

"Lucas Garmin is the cloth merchant?" He had no interest in that information other than keeping Katherine distracted.

"Cloth, lace, some pelts and leathers too." She looked at him for a moment, but it was interest, not that glare "Do you have anything warmer than that?" She pointed at the tunic he was wearing.

"Not here."

Katherine chewed on her cheek.

"We should make haste to get you something then, I won't have you freezing when the cold strikes."

He hadn't thought of that. It was growing so cold already, it would be a dreadful winter. As the beast he was never cold, but as high-fae it was bound to be awfully uncomfortable.

"We can use the wool off that old dress that doesn't fit me anymore." Allie suggested.

"The colour…?" Katherine frowned.

"I don't want to be any more work for you." He started, but Katherine just waved her hand dismissively.

"It's going to be dreadful work to thaw you, you're the size of a wardrobe." She froze in place and put her hands to her mouth "Mother dearest, I'm sorry."

Tamlin laughed. He truly, really laughed like he hadn't in years. It almost felt strange, but that was exactly the sort of thoughtless shit he himself would have said.

He tried to regain his composure but as soon as he drew a breath Allie looked straight into his eyes and the both of them burst into laughter again.

"I'm sorry, I have no idea why I said that." Katherine mumbled, flustered, and he had to concentrate in order not to start laughing again.

She could have killed the two of them out of her inability to think before she spoke, but luckily the High Lord took it in good sport.

She had never seen him laughing, and now she wondered if perhaps she hadn't been a bit too harsh in her judgement of him. He had, after all, been a good and just ruler for many years before it all went to hell. Maybe being Under the Mountain had broken him, as it had so many. It didn't excuse anything, but maybe it explained it.

The dress was brought down for him to approve of the colour, a deep earthy rose, and she was relieved when the High Lord deemed it much satisfactory, for they had no way of affording something new for him. Allie set to undo the dress so that the wool could be reused, and Katherine set to work again, quicker, in order to finish Allie´s dress as soon as possible and start working on a tunic for him.

"Roll the wool for me, please?"

"Sure."

What would Kiril have thought of that? Lord Tamlin himself, sitting at Allie´s feet, rolling up the wool from the dress she was unwinding. But it was Grandpa´s voice that she could hear in her mind.

"You're doing good, Katarina."

He had brought a young male home once, who had escaped from a Hybernian ship. Something about debts and servitude, she couldn't quite recall it, but grandpa Titian had fed the male, got him new clothes and let him stay and earn his keep on the farm, and that was the story of Argeon, their friend and one of the best cheesemakers in the farm, who had died alongside Grandpa, for rebelling against Amarantha.

But Argeon had only been a frightened and traumatized male, it wasn't the same, not the same at all. That was the High Lord of Spring at her daughter´s feet, the dangerous, volatile High Lord of Spring. What would happen if they crossed him? If anything put him in a bad mood?

She looked up from the work and stole a glance at him. What then? They didn't stand a chance.

He caught her looking and gave her a tentative smile, and she made an effort to smile back at him. That couldn't last long. It would be for one season at most, and then he would be well fed and feeling better, and he would go back to whatever he had been doing for the past seven years. Maybe he would stop by once in a while for a cup of tea, but that would be it. The peak of winter was coming, it wouldn't be long now.

"Is that book yours?" The High Lord indicated the book he had been holding without reading all night long.

"It was already here when I moved in." She would never read such garbage, it was most likely Angeline´s "I think it belonged to my mother by grace."

Lord Tamlin nodded.

"It's a nice book."

If she had any doubt he hadn't been reading it, it would have vanished now.

"Mum would rather enjoy some hearty dose of courtly intrigue and backstabbing." Allie mumbled, pulling on the thread, and he scoffed.

"I've had my fill of that already."

Katherine bet he did. How old was he? About five hundred? Even she would be sick to the core after five hundred years of intrigue and backstabbing.

"Is The Alliance like that?" Lord Tamlin asked quietly as if he feared she would take offence.

"Wherever there's power…" Katherine gestured with her hand, unsure of what to say.

If she spoke ill of The Alliance she would sound like a traitor and a hypocrite, but if she defended it he may be offended.

"It's a pity. I hoped you'd do better."

Did he? Did he really?

"There are good folks and bad folks in The Alliance, as there were in the old regime." Allie spoke bluntly.

"As there are everywhere." The High Lord agreed, chewing on his lip.

Katherine tried to detect some shade of anger in his voice or his demeanour, but there was only the usual sadness.

"Oh, that's delightful!" Katherine shuddered with joy over her tea.

"Isn't it?" Marguerite endorsed "New Hope should make a gift to the newlyweds."

"This is not the old regime!" Daphne reprimanded "But I knew you'd be happy to hear the news, aunt Kate."

"Very much, darling, very much." Katherine sipped the pipping hot tea. She couldn't keep the smile from her face when she pictured Thomas Merel´s reaction to his daughter Lucille eloping with a captain of Summer "May the Cauldron grant them many children." Preferably with that gorgeous earthen skin of Summer.

"Feeling romantic today?" Marguerite teased.

"I am a romantic!" Katherine defended, and Allie laughed disloyally "Are they planning on leaving for Summer? Do you know that?"

"I don't know." Marguerite frowned.

The Alliance didn't have many spies, and so they had to grasp at straws for any information that could indicate a change of heart from either Summer or Autumn. Were the Summer soldiers going back home? Were there any more Autumn soldiers at the border? They had lived like that for years now, and the Mother only knew how much longer they would have to.

"Any news from Him?"

Katherine marvelled at how candidly Allie could pose that question, when the both of them knew well enough that the High Lord was in the guest room upstairs, probably brooding now.

"Nothing new." Marguerite shook her head "He must be hibernating in The Manor or something."

"Does He? Hibernate I mean?" Katherine frowned.

"A carnivore that large in winter? Probably." Marguerite stated matter-of-factly.

Did everyone just see him as an animal now? Katherine frowned down at her tea. She herself had believed there was nothing left of him but that beast.

But did it hibernate?

The idea made her want to laugh for a second before it made her shiver. Perhaps if he spent long enough in the beast form he would have to hibernate. Otherwise what would he eat? If that was true, it meant he would be extremely vulnerable for anyone who wanted to rush the succession. Spring may have been a hairsbreadth from civil war all those years.

"What about Autumn?" Allie inquired.

"Same as it was. Still staring at us from across the border, may the Mother freeze their- They're not doing anything before springtime. Speaking of, Calanmai will be held at the Lord Mayor's farm this year."

"Oh, the power is really going to your head." Katherine teased.

"Never give an Elliot an ounce of power, we go quite mad with it." Marguerite laughed.

"Aren't you going to be at the Town Fire?"

As Lord Mayor, it would fall to Jules to preside over the celebrations.

"Jules is going to, but he'll come home after midnight."

Katherine nodded in solidarity. The Town Fire was not as wild as some, but it was more than she wanted to endure, and she only attended out of obligation in the years of her term.

"And what are the First Lady´s orders?"

"You must attend." Marguerite stated "And drink a lot."

"I shall comply." Katherine bowed her head.

Calanmai at the Wyatts´ was a tame celebration. There was a shameful lot of drinking, music and dancing, and then some of the married couples would vanish and the others would be left to more drinking and singing and dancing and playing darts or other drunken games until dawn or until the drink finally took it´s toll on them. It was safe enough that even Allie had started attending when she came of age.

"I'm glad to hear it."

Having shared the gossip and the chicken pie they had come to share, Marguerite and Daphne didn't stay for much longer. Once they had said goodbye on the path leading down to the road and before Allie could shout to the High Lord that it was safe to come down, Katherine turned to her daughter.

"You don't need to keep an eye on me. Have I ever broken my word?"

Allie frowned at her.

"I wanted to find out what aunt Maggie knows."

"About?"

"Tamlin, Summer, Autumn, whatever might be of importance. I trust you, mum."

Katherine sighed. It wasn't like she hadn't thought of trying to convey a message to The Alliance through Marguerite, if there was one thing her sacred word was worth breaking for it was Allie´s safety, but just to think of it felt wrong.

The High Lord had been with them for a while now, and all along he had been perfectly harmless. More so, he had been taking up more work in the farm, caring for the greenhouse alongside them, chopping wood for the oven and the fireplace, doing the slaughtering and preparing the meat for their meals. Anything they asked of him, he would do in a heartbeat, or ask how to if he didn't know. For a lordling, he surely wasn't as avert to work as she would have assumed.

The sound of chatter and laughter downstairs had Tamlin feeling terribly lonely. He had spent years roaming the woods more dead than alive, not hearing a single word from another faerie, but once he had started living with the Elliots he had quickly gotten used to their company, and he now resented the guests that had parted him from them for the afternoon.

A light knock on the door brought his attention back from the love story he had been occupying his mind with. There was silence downstairs.

"Come in." Tamlin sat up on the bed, letting go of the book.

Allie strode in, carrying a tray with a plate and a big slice of chicken pie.

"Do you hibernate?"

What?

"Hibernate?"

Where did she get that from?

"If you spend enough time as the beast?" Allie placed the tray on his bed "To save energy and all that."

"I'm familiar with the concept of hibernation." He took a forkful of chicken pie, not knowing whether to laugh or to feel offended "And I don't."

"Thank the Mother." Allie sighed, pulling the chair from his desk and crossing her arms on the back as she sat down.

"Why the question?"

Allie crossed her arms tighter.

"It would make you too vulnerable."

He had never thought of that, but of course, if he needed to hibernate it would leave him extremely vulnerable to whomever might have a score to settle with him, which was all of his court and some of the others. The thought didn't bring him the hope it would have once.

"You worry too much." He ate another bite of pie, not knowing what else to say.

"Of course I worry about you, you're my friend."

She was too good a friend to one who deserved none at all. But he was grateful for that.

"So, what are the news?"

"Oh, you won't believe." Allie sighed joyfully "Do you remember Thomas Merel? The Lord Mayor of Springville?"

"The prejudiced prick." Tamlin recalled.

"That very one. His daughter has eloped with a Summer captain!" Allie giggled.

"Oh, glorious." He washed down the chicken pie with cool water "I hope she has a dozen children by him."

"Mum expressed the very same sentiment." Allie laughed.

"One would think we'd be past that by now." Tamlin forced himself to swallow down a raisin without chewing. He hated them with a passion, but his mother had taught him better than to pick at his food.

Allie had told him that Thomas Merel had remarked on the colour of the Summer-Spring children skin, and, even though he had thought it was an absurd preoccupation, it wasn't until he met Katherine that he had understood why that specific piece of stupidity from Merel had stuck with Allie.

"There's always an idiot." Allie shrugged.

"Unfortunately." He agreed "Speaking of, anything from Beron?"

"Not a peep."

"I don't expect he'll do anything in winter." He nodded "Tarquin is still holding strong?"

"As far as we know." Allie reported diligently, while Tamlin washed down a raisin he had inadvertently chewed.

Things couldn't go on like that indefinitely. The Alliance had to amass strength way quicker than it had been doing, they couldn't count on Tarquin's forces forever. They had been there for years now, they may need to leave any time. How had he let it get that far?

But he wouldn't allow a single autumnian who wasn't Lucien to step foot in his court. He would rather disembowel each of Beron´s soldiers and use their intestines to mark the border. Or maybe there would be too many of them, and he would finally meet the end he had been wishing for so long. He would finally be redeemed if he went down fighting for his court, they would have to forgive him then, wouldn't they?

He only wished for it not to be just now, while Allie still needed him. It couldn't take long now, soon everything would be well, and she would have no need of him anymore, and then finally…

The thought brought a smile to his face.