Feist, Raymond E - Riftwar Cycle 22 - King Of Foxes by Feist Raymond E

Author:Feist, Raymond E [Feist, Raymond E]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 0002246821
Publisher: Voyager
Published: 2008-11-29T05:00:00+00:00

As morning came, with the sun lingering just below the eastern horizon, Natalia stirred as Tal tried to disentangle himself from her. She woke and clutched at him. “Don’t go.”

“I must. If your brother summons me, it would be better for everyone if the page found me in my quarters.”

“Oh, bother,” she said, pouting. At times Tal thought she really was a little girl.

As he dressed she lay on her back, staring at the canopy above the bed. “I wish sometimes you were a prince or at least a powerful duke somewhere, Tal.”

“Why?”

“Because then my brother might consent to us marrying.”

Tal felt an unexpected stab in his stomach at those words. He turned and said, “Natalia . . .”

She laughed. “Don’t look so panic-stricken, Tal.” She rolled over and sat up, hugging a pillow in front of her. “I’m not in love with you.” She narrowed her eyes. “I don’t know if I could be in love with anyone. I think it’s been bred out of me. And I know you’re not in love with me. I don’t think either of us is that sort.”

“But you are great fun. If I must be married to a man I don’t love, it might as well be to one whom I enjoy. You know so many things and have done so much for a man of your few years. And I think you might be . . . I don’t know, something special.”

“You flatter me, Natalia.”

“Yes, I do, but you deserve it. You are the youngest man ever to be named Champion of the Masters’ Court—I had a clerk research it. The way you saved Kaspar from that bear. You speak many languages, know food and wine, and what else do you do? Play music?”

“Poorly,” Tal admitted as he pulled on his boots.

“What else?”

“I paint a little.”

“You must do my portrait!” she said with glee. “See, you are so many things most of the men in my life are not. You are not dull. I am never bored when you are around. Oh, do something truly great, Talwin Hawkins, so my brother will have to consent to our marriage. Go conquer a country or overthrow a dynasty for Kaspar.”

Tal laughed. The girl’s uncharacteristic romantic impulse amused him. “Your brother might consent if I could lay a nation at his feet, but short of that, I suspect we must plan on going our separate ways in the future.”

As he made ready to stand up, she lunged forward and threw her arms around his shoulders. “Not for a long time, Tal. I may not be able to love, but if I could, it is you I would love, deeply and with all my heart.”

For a brief, uncomfortable moment, Tal didn’t know what to say. He had bedded many women in his time, but he didn’t claim to understand them beyond that point. This was something he had never encountered: Natalia was unlike any woman he had known, and he wasn’t sure if she was

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