3. A Warm Season #4
“So. Ellor’s adame, huh?” Noble asked, leaning over the back of the chair next to Aria. He never would have bet on Aria taking on such a role. Not after his attitude on their disastrous carriage ride. Aria seemed opposed to sex in general, and now he did it for work.
Well, maybe. Noble eyed him, taking in his new, more mature appearance—trim waist, delicate hands, milk-white skin. If he knew Ellor, he knew they were lovers.
Aria sighed when he met eyes with Noble, and said, “Goodness.”
Noble chuckled as he rounded around the train seat and said, “This taken?” Aria's lips thinned, but he was too polite to lie.
He shook his head no. Morgan, standing at the door to the car, rolled his eyes.
He crossed his arms over his chest and went back to surveying the other passengers—of which there were only three.
It'd be a pretty quiet trip, unless Noble made his own noise.
“I'm surprised. I did not recognize you at first.”
Aria sighed and waved a hand—the novel he held floated before him and snapped shut with a bookmark magically dropping into place.
The book dropped it upon the tray table, and Aria shifted in his seat to face Noble straight-on.
“Five years was long ago. Many things have changed about us both, no doubt.”
“Not a bard, then, are you?”
“I am. I'm traveling to Sallansa for work, in fact.”
“Ah. Me too.” Aria looked skeptical, and Noble laughed. “What? I am. You're thinking, what job could he have? But I started one, in earnest, last month. I've got to go to Sallansa for some of the paperwork. And keys. There are always more keys to collect.”
“What sort of work are you doing?” Aria asked.
“Earl to one of my family's estates. The one closest to New Hieroph, thank Elys. I won't have to go far to manage everything, and I can still live in the city. I'll be picking investments, managing funds. Hiring those under the family employ. Landlording. That sort of thing.”
Aria furrowed his brow, thinking. “Isn't that job for married nobles?”
“Quite right. You remembered.”
Aria scoffed and said, “You act as if I'm an idiot.”
“No, no. If my memory serves, you're sharp as a note. It was annoying how bright you were.” Aria's little pink mouth frowned, and he looked as if he meant to argue, but Noble said, “You're right, though. My title comes from marriage.” Noble held up his hand, wedding ring snug on his ring finger.
The band was thin, silver, and had a small V engraved upon the top.
Aria gaped and grabbed Noble's hand, pulling it close to his face, as if the ring might be an illusion that vanished if he examined it for long enough.
“You? You're married? To one woman?” Aria's hands were cool and soft, buzzing with the natural magic that flowed within him.
They were small, too, and suddenly Noble was transported to the first time they touched.
Noble had shown Aria how warm he ran, and Aria held him this same way.
Noble cleared his throat in an attempt to clear his mind. “Yes. Her name is Virginia Espot. We've been wed a month now.”
“Congratulations,” said Aria, releasing his hand. His smile hesitated before blooming over his face. “Really. I wasn't sure you would be capable of love.”
Noble said, bristling, “Well, that's quite the impression you had. I sometimes feel as if I've got too much love to give.”
“Yes, I'm sure,” Aria chuckled. “Still. I'm happy you found your wife.”
Noble exhaled and said, “I am as well. Courting women—going on proper dates, to all these soirees—it gets exhausting. It's no wonder many titled men don't often have careers early in their life. We've not got the time.”
“I've managed to find someone, and I work every day, usually,” said Aria. “Perhaps the men of your ilk simply haven't the fortitude.”
Noble threw his head back, laughing. “Your insults always sting in a way I'm not accustomed to. How could I have forgotten that?” How could he have forgotten him?
Aria shifted uncomfortably in his seat and said, “I'm sorry. You're right. That was not kind.”
“No, no, you're right.” Noble shifted an arm along the back of the seats, caging Aria in, because it was his turn to inquire about his new life, five years later.
“You'd know better than most, would you not?
You're employed by Duke Ellor.” Noble tried to recall if Ellor had been at his nuptials.
He was most definitely invited—the Abantes were old friends.
But Noble had been incredibly drunk, and had a hard time tearing his eyes off Virginia's gauzy, golden gown, and the many solid gold flowers that she'd worn in her thick brown hair.
It was possible he would have crossed paths with Ellor and not noticed.
But it seemed impossible he would have crossed paths with Aria and not noticed.
“How long have you been working as his adame?”
Aria hummed in thought. “Since late spring. Three months as of last week.”
“I'm surprised I've not seen you and Ellor out and about, then. At balls…” At his wedding.
Ellor had been there, hadn't he? Noble remembered a flash of red hair on the ballroom floor, and a flash of blonde—but not Aria blonde.
It'd been a woman. Ellor had danced with a woman. Well, perhaps that was part of Aria’s agreement.
Adame often remained silent and dutiful on the side of a husband and wife.
Aria once wished for real love, though. Some small part of Noble’s heart tightened at the thought.
Aria's face remained completely impassive, but his skin grew flushed. “Ellor isn't like most dukes. He doesn't often go to those soirees. He's better things to do with his time. He’ll take me to one eventually, I’m sure, when he can’t get out of an invitation.”
Noble snorted. “Oh, I'm sure.” Then he was wrong. It hadn't been Ellor. Perhaps Noble saw his elder brother—he'd the same red hair.
“It's true. He's incredibly generous.” Aria sat straight, and pointed down his hand in a list. “He singlehandedly funds the children's theater league in New Hieroph.
He supplies housing to any youths aspiring for bardic careers, if they've been orphaned.
He's an avid supporter of the arts. He's the highest-paying patron of my guild, The Bardic Post. And he does employ me, yes, but he loves me, too.”
“He's such a giver,” Noble said, and he did his best to keep the sarcasm from his voice. He must be wrong about them, about Ellor. Aria seemed so sure.
Aria's blush deepened as he said, “He cares for me. I wouldn't be riding in this car if he'd not bought this ticket.”
“That is a kindness.” The train wasn't cheap—not in this particular car, anyway.
“We're in love,” Aria said, a little more quietly, looking down at his hands. A small smile teased his mouth.
“In love? This early on?”
“How long before you said 'I love you' to Virginia?” Aria folded his hands together and returned his pretty blue eyes to Noble's face.
Noble realized he'd walked into a trap of his own making. “Well, that's a little different.”
“Oh? How long?”
Noble bit his lip, trying to withhold a grin, and failed. “Our second date.”
Aria threw up his hands. “See.”
“I said, it's different.”
“In what way?”
“We were making love, and she did this thing—"
Aria put both hands over his ears, and closed his eyes tightly, and said, “No.”
Noble burst into laughter loud enough that the other patrons in the car turned to look. “Sorry. Sorry.” Perhaps some things would never change. Noble delighted in Aria’s red-flushed face. “What I mean is that I didn't mean it when I said it then. But I meant it maybe six months later. I proposed.”
Aria lowered his hands and sighed. “Well. Good for you.”
Noble let it go. Aria would know better than him if Ellor’s feelings were true.
The countryside outside the train window shifted to a smaller village—one of the hamlets outside Sallansa he'd visited as a kid.
Noble sank comfortably into his seat, drinking in the view. “The train is quite the work of magic, isn't it? So fast.”
Aria looked out the same window, and placed his chin upon his hand as he stared into the autumnal red-orange-brown of the hamlet's trees.
“It's nice. But I did think about requesting a carriage.
My old one. I've seen it sitting in the back of the livery I sold it to all those years ago. I thought maybe…” Aria trailed off.
Noble raised an eyebrow. “You didn't want to take the train?” A carriage would take an entire day to reach Sallansa. The train could do it in hours.
“Oh, no. I like the train. What's there to not like?” Aria swept a hand around them, and Noble had to agree.
Black velvet covered every surface of the interior except for the tray tables resting before each seat, which were made of gleaming dark oak.
The car itself moved smoothly, swaying only around the turns, and the oval windows revealed the rapidly passing kingdom like unique, framed art.
“Then why fund your coach down to Sallansa?”
“I sort of hoped I could see the girls again. The mares?” Aria's face reflected in the window, a lovely and sad ghost. “I've not seen them since I sold them, but I assumed the attendant has them at a ranch outside the city, and could bring them into the city for this trek. Do you remember them?”
Noble blinked a few times. “Of course I remember them. Lima. Pinto.”
“Beans,” Aria chuckled. “Well, you forgot me. It's not unreasonable to think you'd forget them.”
“I've not forgotten them, Aria. I see them every time I visit my family's estate.” Noble shrugged and said, “I bought them. From the livery. About a week after we arrived.”
Aria turned to Noble, a polite smile frozen upon his face. The shock was evident in the pinching of his brows, the tight line of his lips. He finally said, “What?”