IT WAS LESS THAN TEN MINUTES AFTER HALT RETURNED TO their guest rooms when Kane knocked at the door.
“The Commandant is free now,” he said. “He asks if you’ll join him in his office.”
Halt and Pauline followed the young Ranger as he led them down several levels to the administration section of the keep tower. The higher levels were given over to accommodation and suites.
Gilan’s office in the keep tower was light and breezy, with the shutters thrown wide-open to admit the fresh air. Rangers hated to be cooped up, Pauline knew. Although sometimes their love of fresh air could be a little extreme. Fresh air was all very well. Fresh, cold air was something else. But she was aware of this trait and so she had worn a warm stole over her gown.
Gilan greeted Halt and Pauline happily, embracing them both and accepting a kiss on the cheek from Pauline. She regarded him fondly. She couldn’t help thinking of Halt’s two former apprentices as surrogate sons.
She noted that his normally cheerful face carried a few more lines than it had when she had last seen him. The burden of responsibility, she thought.
Unlike Halt and Will, Gilan had remained clean shaven. It gave him a youthful look that was at odds with his senior position in the kingdom.
“Gilan,” she said, “you’re looking well.” And apart from those wrinkles, he was.
He smiled at her. “And you grow more beautiful every day, Pauline,” he replied.
“What about me?” Halt said, with mock severity. “Do I grow more
handsome every day? More impressive, perhaps?”
Gilan eyed him critically, his head to one side. Then he announced his verdict.
“Scruffier,” he said.
Halt raised his eyebrows. “‘Scruffier’?” he demanded.
Gilan nodded. “I’m not sure if you’re aware of recent advances in technology, Halt,” he said. “But there’s a wonderful new invention called scissors. People use them for trimming beards and hair.”
“Why?”
Gilan appealed to Pauline. “Still using his saxe knife to do his barbering, is he?”
Pauline nodded, slipping her hand inside her husband’s arm. “Unless I can catch him at it,” she admitted. Halt regarded them both with a withering look.
They both refused to wither, so he abandoned the expression.
“You show a fine lack of respect for your former mentor,” he told Gilan.
The younger man shrugged. “It goes with my exalted position as your commander.”
“Not mine,” Halt said. “I’ve retired.”
“So I can expect little in the way of deference from you?” Gilan grinned.
“No. I’ll show proper deference . . . the day you train your horse to fly backward around the castle’s turrets.”
Pauline knew that these good-natured insults could continue for some time. She decided to interrupt the flow.
“What did you want to see us about, Gil? Are you planning to steal my husband away?” she asked.
Gilan had been on the point of delivering another carefully composed insult to his former teacher. Her direct question caught him off balance.
“What? Oh . . . no. Far from it. I wanted to talk to you. Both of you.”
Pauline indicated a low table, with four comfortable chairs set around it, arranged by the fireplace. “Then shall we sit and talk?” she suggested.
But Gilan demurred. “Not here. I want to talk to you two, and to Cassandra and Horace. They’re expecting us in the royal apartments.”
As Commandant of the Rangers, Gilan could summon Halt and Pauline to Araluen. But he could hardly do the same to the Princess Regent and her consort, old friends or not. He led the way to the door, held it open for Halt and Pauline, then led the way to the stairs.
“Upstairs . . . downstairs . . . upstairs again. Do you have any pity for my
creaking old bones?” Halt complained.
Gilan was walking briskly toward one of the spiraling staircases that led to the upper levels. “Not a bit,” he tossed cheerfully over his shoulder.
Horace and Cassandra were waiting in the living room of the royal suite.
Gilan tapped at the door, and when he heard Cassandra’s response, he opened the door and ushered his two companions inside.
As they entered, Cassandra rose from her seat and moved to embrace them both.
“It’s so good to see you!” she exclaimed. She could not have meant it more. The responsibility of running the kingdom was a heavy burden, and Halt and Pauline were more than friends. They were lifelong supporters. Halt, in particular, had spent many years as her adviser and protector in dangerous situations, from Skandia to the mountains of Nihon-Ja.
Horace waited until his wife had welcomed them, then embraced them both in his turn. Halt studied him carefully.
“How’s life in Castle Araluen?” he asked. Horace’s honest face looked a little rueful.
“It’s fine,” he said. “But I miss the old days.”
“You mean the old days when you could sneak off with this rascal to all corners of the earth and avoid responsibility?” his wife put in.
“Exactly,” Horace said in a tone so heartfelt that they all laughed.
Halt turned his gaze on the princess. “I seem to remember you doing a certain amount of sneaking off yourself.”
She waved a hand in a negative gesture. “Let’s not discuss that now,” she said.
There was a light tap on the door that led to Madelyn’s rooms.
“Come in,” Cassandra called, and the door opened to admit the young princess.
“Halt. Lady Pauline. How wonderful to see you.”
Madelyn hesitated for a second, then, seeming to come to a decision, crossed the room and embraced them both. While she was hugging Pauline, Halt happened to glance at her parents. As he did, he sensed the unmistakable tension in the room. Cassandra, who had never been able to hide her feelings from Halt, had a slight frown, and Horace was looking decidedly uncomfortable. Madelyn stepped back from hugging Pauline and nodded a greeting to Gilan.
Horace cleared his throat awkwardly. “Very well, Madelyn,” he said.
“You’ve said your hellos. Now off you go.” He gestured toward the door leading to her apartment. Maddie smiled at the new arrivals, and retraced her steps.
“We’ll talk later,” Halt called after her. He had an easy relationship with Maddie and had served as her confidant many times in the past. She gave him a sad little smile.
“Of course,” she said, and closed the door.
Halt looked curiously at his two old friends. “Trouble in paradise?” he said gently.
Cassandra gave an annoyed shrug. “Oh, she’s just so exasperating, Halt!”
she said. “She’s headstrong and irresponsible, and so infuriating. And if you try to speak to her about it, she huffs and sighs and rolls her eyes so that you simply want to strangle her!”
Halt rubbed his beard thoughtfully. “Sounds serious,” he said. “Huffing and sighing and eye rolling, you say? I’ve never heard of a teenage girl behaving like that.”
“You can joke about it, Halt,” Horace put in. “You don’t have to put up with it. She’s had Cassandra worried sick. She sneaks off into the forest at the dead of night, alone. We’ve restricted her to her quarters for two weeks.
Maybe that will teach her a lesson.”
Halt’s expression told his old friend that he doubted it. A headstrong girl like Maddie would only become more stubborn with that sort of restriction.
Horace saw the skeptical expression and felt he had to add more. “She’s taking risks and she just assumes she can take care of herself. That forest can be dangerous!”
“But basically, she’s a sensible girl, isn’t she?” Halt asked. “And I imagine she could look after herself. She’s good with a saxe. I taught her, after all. And I hear she’s pretty good with that sling of hers.”
“Who told you that?” Cassandra said sharply. Halt spread his hands in a defensive gesture.
“Your father might have mentioned it. I was chatting with him an hour ago.”
“Father talks too much,” Cassandra said, a scowl crossing her face.
Halt smiled tolerantly at her. Over the years, he’d learned that parents tended to be the toughest critics of their own children. Grandparents and uncles—and he classed himself as an honorary uncle to Maddie—tended to see the fuller picture and to be able to discount any minor aberrations in
behavior, gauging them against the child’s overall reasonable nature.
Pauline knew it too. But she also knew that nothing could be more annoying to parents than an outsider telling them that an errant child wasn’t anywhere near as bad as they were making out.
“Perhaps it’s none of our business, Halt . . . ,” she began.
“No. It’s all right,” Cassandra said.
“What does she do in the forest?” Halt asked her.
“She tracks animals. And she hunts.”
“Is she any good?”
Cassandra shrugged uncertainly. Horace answered before he could stop to think.
“Apparently yes. She never comes back empty-handed. But she gives the game to the castle guards.”
Cassandra looked at him. “How do you know that?” she demanded.
Horace looked confused. He dropped his gaze from hers. “I . . . er . . . I may have heard some of the guards discussing it.”
“And you didn’t choose to share this with me?”
“I didn’t think there was any point. I knew you’d just get angry about it.”
“And you were right! If you’d seen your way to—”
Pauline clapped her hands sharply. It was a measure of her personality and self-confidence that she would call the Princess Regent to order in such a peremptory fashion. And a measure of Cassandra’s regard for the tall, blond Courier that she would accept such brusqueness.
“Horace! Cassandra! That’s enough!” They both stopped and looked at Pauline, and she continued in a milder tone. “You’re not the first parents to be driven crazy by a teenage daughter. And you won’t be the last. It’s difficult, I know. But don’t let it become too big a thing. Keep it in perspective. You need to maintain a united front, not bicker among yourselves.”
The two looked meekly down at their shoes. Halt smiled to himself again.
They looked like naughty children rebuked by a stern parent.
“And it seems to me,” Halt said, “she’s not the first princess to go off in the woods at night looking for adventure.”
Cassandra screwed up her lip. “Oh, don’t you start.”
“Basically Maddie’s a good kid,” he continued. “She’s smart and brave and resourceful. Because that’s the way you’ve raised her.”
“Well,” said Gilan, a little impatiently, “if that’s settled for the moment,
perhaps we could discuss the reason I asked to see you all.”
They turned to face him, wondering what he was going to say. They didn’t have long to wait.
“It’s Will,” he said. “I’m very worried about him.”
