She gave me a quizzical look. “Are you still going down to Buckkeep Town?”
“Yes. I have other business down there.”
“Such as?”
“Hap.”
“He’s in Buckkeep Town? I thought he would have stayed at your cabin.”
So Starling did not know everything that Chade knew. That was a small comfort. “No. Part of my reason for returning to Buckkeep, a large part of it, was to make it possible for Hap to get a good apprenticeship. He’s apprenticed to Gindast.”
“Is he? And is he doing well?”
By all the gods, I longed to lie to her and tell her that he was excelling. “It hasn’t been easy for him to adapt to city life,” I hedged. “But I think he is beginning to master it now.”
“I shall have to go by and see him. Gindast is a great admirer of mine. My expressing an interest in Hap cannot hurt him there.” There was an innocence to her assumption of fame and importance that made it impossible for me to take offense at it. Then she paused abruptly, and, as if the thought surprised her, asked, “The boy is not still angry with me, is he?”
She gave injury so carelessly; perhaps she expected others to forgive it as easily. Perhaps that was the curse of a minstrel’s tongue; to be gifted at wounding with words. At my hesitation, she filled in, “He is still angry, isn’t he?”
“I really have no idea,” I said hastily. “You did injure his feelings rather deeply. But he’s had so much on his mind, as I have, also. I’ve never discussed it with him.”
“Well. I suppose I must make amends with him, then. If I get a chance, I’ll steal him for an afternoon. I know Gindast will let me have him. I’ll take him out for a fine meal and show him the parts of Buckkeep Town an apprentice isn’t likely to see. Don’t frown like that. Hap’s just a boy; I’ll soon soothe his ruffled feathers. Now, as you say, I must be hastening along. Fitz, I’m glad things are better between us. I’ve missed you.”
“I’ve missed you, too,” I said, abandoning all attempts at honesty. I wondered how Hap would react to her invitation, and if she would even recognize how much he had grown and changed. In truth, I wished she would just leave him alone, but I didn’t know how to ask that without offending her again. Evidently Chade wanted her well disposed toward me. I’d corner him on the whys of that later. For now, I gave her an assist into her saddle, and smiled up at her as she looked down on me. When her smile answered me, I discovered that, yes, I had missed her. And that I preferred this to her festering anger at me. Then she nearly ruined it by quirking the smile to a grin and saying, “So. Tell me true and take the sting from my last insult to you. Does Lord Golden prefer boys to girls? Is that why the ladies have had so little success with him?”
I managed to hold my smile in place. “So far as I know, he prefers to sleep alone. For all the wild flirtations I’ve witnessed, I’ve never had to shake anyone out of his sheets in the morning.” I paused, then added in a lower voice, hating myself, “I suspect the man is extremely discreet. I’m just his bodyguard, Starling. You can’t expect me to know all his secrets.”
“Oh,” she replied, clearly disappointed at my lack of gossip. Minstrels are ever hungry for scraps of scandal. She had often told me that the best songs are found at the end of a trail of rumors. I thought she would ride off, but she surprised me again. “Well, then. And yourself, these days?”
I sighed heavily. “I’ve been emulating my master. I sleep alone, thank you.”
“You don’t have to,” she offered, one eyebrow lifting archly.
“Starling,” I warned her.
“Oh, very well,” she laughed, and I saw that in some strange way my answer had reassured her. She had not been replaced. In refusing her offer, I forced myself to go without. I supposed that pleased her. She blew me a kiss as she rode off. I shook my head as I watched her go and then resumed my trudge down the hill.
A few minutes later, Civil Bresinga passed me, headed toward Buckkeep Town at a good clip despite the steep and snowy road. He did not slow his horse and scarcely gave me a glance. I doubt that he recognized me or would have cared if he did. But he rode gloveless and bareheaded, his cloak fluttering behind him, as if he had left the castle in a very great hurry. Did it have something to do with the Prince refusing to ride out with him this morning? Did he have to notify someone of a failed plan? I muttered a curse to myself and hurried after him through the snow, but he was already out of sight.
