The Zenda Vendetta (TimeWars 4)

“You do not look ill to me,” she said. “Perhaps you were ill and are just now beginning to r

ecover.”

“Recover? From what?”

“Perhaps from growing pains?”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” said Finn. Not too much at once, he thought. Let’s have a little of the “old” Rudolf. “What would you know about growing up? You’re still a child yourself.”

“Am I?” she said. “When was the last time you took a good look?”

Finn gave her an appraising glance, half-humorously, then made his face grow a bit more serious. “Come to think of it, I may have judged a bit hastily.” He grinned. “A dowager you’re not, but neither are you a child. Kings marry little girls upon occasion, but it appears that this king will marry one that’s grown.”

Her gaze held his for a moment, then slid away. “I had wondered if you had come to speak of that,” she said.

“So does half the kingdom wonder, by all accounts,” said Finn, gloomily. “To tell the truth, I am loathe to set the date just yet.”

“I see,” she said, softly, looking down.

“No, Flavia, I don’t think you do. We have known each other all our lives, yet if we were to wed now, each of us would be marrying a stranger.”

She glanced back at him abruptly.

“I mean, what do you know of me, really? You know something of my actions, but what do you know of my thoughts? For that matter, what do I know of you? Royal marriages are seldom made of love, I know, but why should a king or a queen be denied what even the lowliest peasant can enjoy, the security of being able to wed someone that they know and care for?”

“Care for?” Flavia said, uncertainly.

“Well,” Finn said, looking away, “in your case, that may not apply. Oh, I know that you care for me as your king, but I do not delude myself that you care for me as a man. I have given you no reason to. Nor can I care for you as a woman. How can I care for someone I have never taken the trouble to know?”

Flavia looked at him intently. “Rudolf… am I to take it that you are-” she became a little flustered. “Are you proposing to court me?”

Finn pretended to look embarrassed. He did not have to pretend too hard. “It does seem rather ridiculous, does it not?”

She shook her head, which he saw out of the corner of his eye, but he acted as though he had not noticed.

“Here we are, already betrothed, with the entire kingdom knowing we shall wed, and I come to you like some stammering suitor. I should have thought to bring flowers, I suppose.” “Flowers? From you?”

“Why not? I can give flowers if I choose to! Is that so very foolish? You find it amusing?”

“No. No, I find it…” she shrugged, at a loss for words. “I don’t know. Remarkable, I suppose. Somehow, I cannot picture you bringing flowers. Rudolf, what is this? What’s gotten into you?”

Finn stood up, irately. “Damned if I know,” he said. “I feel like a complete fool.”

“You are not sounding like a fool,” she said. “But, Lord knows, you do not sound like yourself.”

For a moment, Finn took that literally and wondered if his mimicry was slipping, then he realized that it wasn’t what she meant. She stood up and came to stand by his side, putting a hand on his arm and turning him slightly so that she could look into his eyes.

“What is it?” she said. “Is this some sort of joke? Have you come to play a prank on me, the way you did when we were children? Are you having second thoughts about the wedding now that you are king? Is that what this is? You propose to court me so that at some time during…” Her voice trailed off and she frowned.

“What?” said Finn.

She stood back from him a moment, then came up close to him again. “Have you grown?”

Oh-oh, thought Finn. Get her off this tack, but fast!

“Grown? What are you talking about? How could I have grown? I was speaking seriously and you decide to address yourself to the question of my height? If you don’t want to discuss this, why then, say so! Don’t attempt to change the subject!”

She squeezed his upper arm where her hand had rested. “And your arm is larger, too,” she said. “It was not so firm or large when we danced together at the last ball. You’ve been training?”