A Caress of Twilight

I nodded.

She laughed, a delighted burst of sound. I'd heard that selfsame laugh on the movie screen more than once. "I give you my most solemn oath nothing here shall harm you a-purpose."

Adding that last bit was nicely tricky. It meant that if I did come to harm, it wouldn't be her fault, but it also meant that I could come to harm. I had to smile. Such double-talk was so much a part of the court, where your word of honor was something you'd fight to the death to defend.

"I want your word of honor that no thing, no person, no animal, no being of any kind will harm me while I am here."

The pout was back. "Now, Meredith. Such a solemn oath? I will give my word to protect your safety to the best of my ability."

I shook my head. "Your word that no thing, no person, no animal, no being of any kind will harm me."

"While you are here," she added.

I nodded. "While I am here."

"If you had left that last little bit off, I'd have been responsible for you always, everywhere you go." She shivered, and I don't think it was pretense. "You go to the Unseelie Court, and that is not a place I would wish to have to guarantee your safety."

"Everyone seems to feel that way, Maeve. Don't feel bad."

She frowned, and again I think it was real. "I do not feel bad, Meredith. It is not within my purview to guard your safety within those dark, shadowed corridors."

I shrugged. "There is light and laughter within the darkling throng, just as there is darkness and sorrow among the glittering throng."

"I will not believe that the Unseelie Court holds the joyous wonders that await one at the Seelie Court."

I looked over my shoulder at Doyle and Frost. I made it a long look, then turned slowly back to Maeve, allowing their beauty to fill my eyes. "Oh, I don't know, Maeve, there are joys to be had at the dark court."

"I have heard tales of the debauchery that exists at Queen Andais's court."

That made me laugh. "You have lived too long among the humans if you say debauchery with such distaste. The joys of the flesh are a blessing to be shared, not a curse to be guarded against."

"As your wayward guard and my sweet Marie should know." She looked past me, smiling. Rhys and Marie were walking toward us. Rhys's white curls fell free to his waist again. His boyishly handsome face was its usual clean-shaven self. The pearl-studded eye patch was back in place. He was smiling, pleased with himself to the point of nearly laughing, as if he knew some new joke.

Marie trailed behind him. Her hair was a little less than perfect, and her white shirt was untucked. But she didn't look happy.

If Maeve's hint was true, then Marie would be smiling. Rhys had his faults, but not putting a smile on a girl's face was not one of them. You couldn't really take him as seriously in, or out of, bed as some of the other guards, but he was a lot of fun in bed.

I found myself frowning again. If he had done something sexual with Marie, how did I feel about that? He was, after all, mine. Exclusively mine, according to the queen.

I tried to be hurt, jealous, or even miffed that he might have been playing slap and tickle with Marie, and I just wasn't. Maybe it was because I was sleeping with the other men. Maybe to be truly jealous you have to have some pretense of monogamy. I didn't know why, but it simply didn't bother me. If he'd had intercourse with her, that would bother me, because I was the one that we needed pregnant, not some assistant to some star. Other than that, I didn't seem to care.

Rhys dropped to one knee in front of me, which crowded Kitto a little; but the fact that he was willing to touch the little goblin was actually a very good sign. He raised my hand to his lips, gri

"The lovely Marie offered me her favors."

I raised my eyebrows. "And?"

"And it would have been rude to have ignored such an offer." By fey standards, he was right.

"She's human, not fey," I said.

"Jealous?" he asked.

I shook my head, smiling. "No."

He came to his feet in one smooth movement, planting a quick kiss on my cheek. "I knew you were more fey than human."

Marie was kneeling by Maeve. She kept her face turned away from us but shook her head, and Maeve turned a very frowny face to us. "Marie said you refused her advances, guard."

"I made it clear that I found her lovely," Rhys said.

"But you did not take advantage of her."

"I am Princess Meredith's lover. Why should I look elsewhere? I showed your assistant the amount of attention she deserved, no more, no less." The humor was gone from his face now, and he seemed almost angry.

Maeve petted the woman's hand and sent her into the house. Marie very carefully avoided looking at Rhys. I think she was embarrassed. Maybe she didn't get turned down often, or maybe Maeve told her it was a sure thing.

I stood. "I've had enough games, Maeve."

She reached toward me, but I was out of reach. "Please, Meredith, I meant no offense."

"You sent your servant to seduce my lover. You tried to seduce me, not out of plain desire, but out of a desire to gain control over me."

She stood in one swift motion. "That last is not true."

"But you do not deny sending your servant to seduce my lover."

She took off the big sunglasses so I could see how confused she was. I was betting it was an act. "You are Unseelie Court, and all ma

It was my turn to be confused. "What does my court have to do with anything? You have insulted me and mine."

"You are Unseelie Court," she said again.

I shook my head. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"You would not try on the swimsuits," she said, voice soft, eyes downcast.

"What?" I asked.

"If Marie had seen him nude, then she would have known his body was pure, except for the scars."

I frowned harder. "What in the name of the Lord and Lady are you babbling about?"

"You are all Unseelie Court, Meredith. I have to be sure you are not... unclean."

"You mean deformed," I said, and I didn't even try to keep the anger out of my voice.

She gave a small nod.

"Why should our bodies, whatever they look like, make any difference to you?"

"I told you what I want, Meredith."

I nodded, and I was nice enough not to blurt out her secret in front of everyone, though heaven knows she hadn't earned the courtesy.

"If anyone who aids me in such an endeavor is impure, then..." She sort of nodded at me, trying to get me to finish the sentence in my head.

I leaned into her and hissed, more than whispered, "The child will be deformed."

No amount of glamour could hide the smell of cocoa butter, liquor, and cigarette smoke in her hair and skin. A sudden wave of nausea rushed over me.

I backed away from her and would have fallen if Rhys hadn't caught me, steadied me. "What's wrong?" he whispered.

I shook my head. "I'm tired of being here with this woman."

"Then we leave," Doyle said.

I shook my head again. "Not yet." I half clutched Rhys's arm and turned back to Maeve. "You tell me why you were exiled. You tell me the whole truth here and now or we walk away from you forever."

"If he knew I told anyone, he would kill me."

"If he finds out I was here, talking to you, do you really believe he'll wait to find out if you told me?"

She looked frightened now. But I didn't care.

"Tell me, Maeve, tell me or we walk, and you'll never find anyone else outside of faerie who can help you."

"Meredith, please..."

"No," I said. "The great pure Seelie Court, how they look down on us. If a child is born deformed, then it is killed, or was, until you all stopped having children. Then even the monsters were precious. Do you know what happened to the babies after a while, Maeve? Do you know what happened in the last four hundred years or so to deformed Seelie children? Because, make no mistake, inbreeding catches up, even with the immortal."