Total pages in book: 162
Estimated words: 165618 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 828(@200wpm)___ 662(@250wpm)___ 552(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 165618 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 828(@200wpm)___ 662(@250wpm)___ 552(@300wpm)
“With due respect,” she replied, “you’re already leaning on Jorda for some of these things, and she has a busy job.”
This was true.
“May I suggest you hire within,” Mira said.
“You mean, find someone already working castle admin and appropriate them?”
“Perhaps,” she allowed. “Or a member of the castle’s servant wing. It’s my understanding it’s established they’re overstaffed. There may be those among them who have higher aspirations. Someone might appreciate the opportunity. You can train them, and I can’t speak for Jorda, but I doubt she’d mind assisting. I won’t either. Internally, and quietly, we can post the job through both arms of the castle’s organization. See what shakes out. This would mean we wouldn’t be hiring anyone new. It would simply mean someone has new duties.”
“This is a great idea,” I said.
She seemed shocked at my words.
I ignored her shock.
She could watch me all she wanted, waiting for me to make some misstep.
She’d learn.
“I’ll discuss it with Tanyn and sit with you and Jorda to devise a job description,” I went on. “Does that work for you?”
“I’ll have BR forward Jorda’s job description to you. We can start with something already drafted.”
“Great.”
“Okay then, I need to know if you’ve seen this.”
She turned to her tablet, tapped it, then handed it to me.
I expected her to show me some pic of me where I had my mouth open too far or where I looked grumpy and then give me a lecture about how to comport myself when cambeings were around.
It was not that.
It was a pic of Gayle and Cormac.
She was standing in the door of a UtiliSport, about to climb in, but she’d stopped and twisted to look up at Cormac, who was, no other way to put it, crowding her in that door like he was her personal shield. He was so close, and so big, you could barely see anything of Gayle except her shining, glorious hair and her profile. He had his hand on the top of the door and his head tipped down to look at her.
Their faces were very close.
She appeared attentive, he appeared intent.
They looked like an item.
Because they were, even if they weren’t.
The caption screamed Another One Down, and the pic had been posted earlier this morning.
“She arrived in the craft right before him at the engagement party,” Mira told me. “And that was taken outside her home this morning. As you can see, beings are putting it together.”
“They’re not being very discreet,” I mumbled.
“They’re not. Were you aware they intended to make some kind of statement?”
I handed back her tablet, shaking my head. “No. But I can comm her.”
I could.
But I already knew they weren’t making a statement.
They were just being in their own worlds, or world, seeing as they were sharing one.
“It might be good they take some of the attention off you and the king,” Mira remarked. “As it goes in the cycle, since the media don’t chew on anything too long, they like fresh meat, you two will be old news, they’ll be new. Of course, we can squeeze some pics in of you both going to the ballet, or out to dinner, or something. And then, to the citizens of the Edge, you and His Majesty will just…be.”
It would be nice not to be in this castle all of the time. It was big, and gorgeous, but the reprieve down in the Fall did not suck.
Even so.
“I’m not sure they’re ready to be outed,” I told Mira. “I don’t know why they aren’t being more careful.” I did. Cormac was fighting a losing emotional battle (or I hoped it was losing), and Gayliliel had spelled herself not to care. “I just wouldn’t count on that when His Majesty and I do what we need to do.”
She lifted her chin to acknowledge what I said and then asked, “Is there anything else?”
“No. Thank you for the time.”
“Don’t mention it,” she replied, got up and left.
I watched her go.
She was professional and not unfriendly, but she made it clear she had a job to do and not a lot of time to waste on chitchat and relationship building.
That could be because we had a bumpy beginning and she still wasn’t at one with me being who I was to Tanyn.
It could simply be her way.
The good news was, I didn’t care which it was.
I rose as well, with the intention of going to my desk to see about getting some work done.
But I changed my mind, walked out of the study, out of that wing to the other, and on my way, it was not lost on me there was an increased number of guards stationed around the castle.
This had started happening yesterday.
I’d decided to ignore this for the present. Tanyn being protective wasn’t new to me, and although I wanted to be kept informed, I didn’t want to be asking him constantly to explain his every decision as he went about doing that.