Read Online Roberson, Jennifer - Cheysuli 05 by A Pride of Princes (v1.0) - Free Book Online Page A

favorite—son.
"How like him."
                Corin swore again as he wrestled
with the recalcitrant boot. "Keely—come and help me with this."
                She swept across the room, shaking
her head, and bent to catch the heel and toe of the brown boot in both hands.
Only then did he realize she wore a rich copper-colored gown of silk and velvet
instead of customary leathers; her tawny hair was braided Cheysuli fashion,
pinned against her head and all achime with golden bells, A topaz and garnet
torque clasped a slender, elegant neck.
                Keely grunted, tugging on the boot,
then caught his eye. Instantly color flared in her face. "Must you stare,
too?" She was clearly annoyed as well as flustered. "Deirdre
insisted—she said I could not attend the banquet in leggings and jerkin."
                "Well, no," he agreed.
"Keely—" He grinned, shrugged, laughed aloud. "So much for the
independent rujholla I know so well."
                “Ku'reshtin" she muttered,
tugging on the boot again. "They will have you bathed and oiled and
perfumed before you know it, and where will you be then?"
                His mouth twisted in a grimace of
disgust. "No," he said. "I am banished to my chamber."
                The boot came off. Keely straightened
stiffly, gaping at him as she clutched the leather in both hands. "What?
You—banished? Who has banished you?"
                "The only one who can," he
answered wryly.
                "He did not." The bells
chimed as she shook her head in disbelief. "Why?"
                "I am in disgrace."
                "Because of the tavern
brawl?"
                "Aye. He was—less than pleased."
Corin sighed. "He has every right to be, I think. We did bruise Reynald's
pride a little." He smiled. "We bruised it a lot."
                "Reynald deserves it," she
said flatly, bending to remove his other boot. "Einar as well—do you know
I have to be his partner at the banquet?” In disgust she jerked on the boot,
which elicited a curse from Corin because it jarred his wrist. "Let him
have Maeve, if he requires a princess to prop up his foreign pride."
                "I think his pride will be
propped up enough when he sees three empty chairs," Corin muttered.
"He will know why, and doubtless he will gloat."
                "Then I will see to it he
cannot," Keely said firmly. A final twist freed his foot. She dropped the
boot to the floor and sat down at his right side, leaving his other to Kiri.
"Let me see your wrist."
                He held out his arm. Keely carefully
peeled the sleeve of the velvet doublet and the silken undersleeve back, baring
the swollen wrist. Her fingers were gentle but matter-of-fact; like a warrior,
she had little patience with injuries.
                "Not broken," she said,
after a moment, and pushed the arm away.
                Corin scowled. "And will you be
so solicitous with Sean, when you are wed?"
                "Sean will take me as he finds
me; he is not marrying a nursemaid," she said darkly. Then she made fists
of her hands and banged the air with them. "Oh, gods, Corin, I have no
wish to go to Erinn! I have no wish to be cheysula to some Erinnish island
princeling!"
                "Aye, well, our jehan pays
little enough mind to what we do and do not want," her brother said
grimly. "I said I had no desire to go to Atvia, and he said it was my
choice if I went, or remained here and became a dispossessed, disinherited
son."
                Keely's mouth twisted in disgust.
"But if Brennan were to ask. . . ."
                "He has no need to ask; Homana
will be his. He goes nowhere." Corin sighed and rose to undo the
fastenings of his ruined doublet. After a moment of struggling with his left
hand, he appealed to Keely once again. As she clucked her