War Maid's Choice-ARC (34 page)

Probably.

There was always a flow of traffic in and out of Hill Guard, and there were always gate guards to watch it. She’d expressly asked her parents not to tell any one outside the immediate family she was coming or to wait to greet her at the gate themselves. That would only have made it even worse, once word got back to the rest of Balthar, she thought glumly. That didn’t mean she looked forward to how the gate guards were going to react when they spotted her coming at them with no advance warning, though, and she found herself watching them much more warily than she ever had when she’d been Leeana Bowmaster. She saw them stiffen as they saw her in turn and recognized her and Boots, and she was close enough to see their faces fade almost instantly into total nonexpression. She knew two of those armsmen well—or she had, once, at any rate—and fresh hurt spiked as she saw the completely neutral countenances which had replaced the broad smiles which once would have greeted her. Still, it was better than—

“Leeana!”

Boots’ ears twitched at the sudden, clear-voiced,
happy
greeting, and Leeana drew rein and looked up sharply. An attractive, auburn-haired young woman with eyes as green as her own leaned out of one of the lower archer’s slits, waving energetically.

“Leeana!” she repeated, and Leeana felt her lips quiver with a stillborn smile. Obviously at least one of Hill Guard’s inhabitants had missed that bit about not greeting her. Or maybe the other young woman had simply figured the request didn’t apply to someone who wasn’t a member of the family? Either way, she suddenly realized how glad she was that someone had ignored it.

“I’ll be down to meet you as soon as I can find the way,” Sharlassa Dragonclaw continued. “Don’t you
dare
go away until I get there!”

“Well, if you insist,” Leeana replied a bit more mildly.

“I do,” Sharlassa said firmly, and disappeared back into the stonework of Leeana’s ancestral home.

It took Sharlassa a little longer than it would have taken Leeana to make the same trip, but then Leeana had been
raised
in Hill Guard whereas Sharlassa was undoubtedly still learning its interior geography. Besides, Sharlassa probably didn’t plunge headlong down stairs and through doors the way a teenaged Leeana once had.

While she waited, Leeana swung down from the saddle, looped her reins over her left arm, and stood beside Boots, leaning companionably against the gelding’s strong shoulder. Three of the four gate guards seemed a little uncomfortable, obviously unsure of exactly how they ought to react to her. Fortunately, Sergeant Barek Irongrip, the guard detachment’s commander, was one of the armsman she’d known since childhood.

“Good afternoon...Ma’am,” the sergeant said after a moment with a smile which was almost natural. It wasn’t
quite
natural, of course, but it was genuinely warm, Leeana noted gratefully, even if Irongrip was clearly trapped between the the way he would have addressed any other war maid and the way he would once have addressed
her
.

“Good afternoon, Sergeant,” she replied, addressing him with the formality of his rank, instead of using his given name, as once
she
would have. She owed him that, especially in front of his detachment.

“Her Ladyship said you’d be arriving today,” Irongrip continued. “She didn’t say how long you’d be staying, though.”

Well, so much for not warning them I was coming
, Leanna thought philosophically.
I wonder if I really ever expected Mother not to? But at least she and Father didn’t send a drum-and-fife band to meet me on the front doorstep!

“Probably for a little longer this time,” she said out loud. He started to say something else, then stopped with a smile of acknowledgment, and Leanna hid a somewhat tarter smile of her own. Had he been about to express pleasure that she’d be there longer and stopped himself because of other listening ears? Or was she doing him a disservice because of her own hypersensitivity? Or—

“Welcome home, Leeana!”

Leeana looked up quickly as Sharlassa finally appeared out of the great, stony arch of the gate tunnel. There was no doubting the warmth of the younger woman’s smile, or the genuine welcome in her greeting, and something inside Leeana seemed to melt—or thaw, at least—as Sharlassa used the word “home.” It was a tiny thing, she thought, wondering why tears insisted on prickling behind her eyes, but—

“Thank you, Milady,” she replied.

Sharlassa’s nostrils flared at the honorific. She started to say something quickly, then visibly stopped herself, and Leeana regarded her levelly. Understanding flickered in Sharlassa’s eyes as their gazes met, and she smiled, instead.

“I know you’re accustomed to seeing to Boots yourself,” she said, “but I think I should probably take you straight to the Baroness. Sergeant Irongrip will see to it he’s taken care of, won’t you, Sergeant?”

“Course I will, Milady. Happy to.” The sergeant saluted Sharlassa, not Leeana, but he looked directly at the war maid who’d once been heiress conveyant to Hill Guard as he spoke, and the smile behind his last two words was genuine.

“Thank you, Sergeant,” Leeana said, and turned to unbuckle her saddle bags and sling them over one shoulder. She unstrapped her blanket roll from behind the cantle and tucked it under her arm, as well, suppressing a sudden, inappropriate urge to giggle as she reflected on the fact that everything she needed for a two-month stay had been packed into those bags or rolled up inside that blanket. Once upon a time, it would have required a freight wagon to haul everything a lady of her exalted station required for a visit like this one. She couldn’t deny that she missed some of those luxuries, often quite badly, but travel was certainly more convenient this way. At least for someone who had to travel without the hordes of servants who would also have been packed into that freight wagon along with the luggage, at any rate. Of course, back in that same once upon a time, those servants would have leapt to relieve her of her baggage rather than let such a nobly born personage soil her dainty hands carrying it herself.

So
there
is
a downside to your more humble status, too, isn’t there?
she asked herself. Y
ou just don’t want to admit how much you miss some of the priviliges of an effete, pampered noblewoman, do you?

Sharlassa started to reach for the blanket roll to help her carry it, but a glance from Leanna stopped her. She grimaced ever so slightly, but she also lowered her hand while Leanna got her baggage settled comfortably.

“At your service, Milady,” she said, then, nodding to the other young woman, and the two of them headed down the gate tunnel and into the castle grounds proper.

“It’s good to see you again,” Sharlassa said quietly as they emerged into the cobbled forecourt. “I know your mother’s really been looking forward to this visit, too.”

“It’s good to see you, too, Milady,” Leeana replied, smiling warmly as Sharlassa said “your mother” and not “Baroness Hanatha.” She considered the younger woman thoughtfully for a moment, then cocked an eyebrow. “Have you grown again since the last time I saw you?”

“No.” Sharlassa shook her head with something suspiciously like a giggle, and turned her head to look up at the far taller Leeana. “I wish I had! I feel like a dwarf—or even a halfling—around here most of the time. But it’s just the ridiculous heels they make me wear.”

She grimaced, and Leeana chuckled. Sharlassa Dragonclaw was scarcely as short as her comment might have suggested, although it was understandable enough that she might feel that way, especially walking beside Leeana. There was no denying that at a mere five feet four inches Sharlassa was on the petite side for a Sothōii woman, whereas Leanna, who’d inherited her height from her father, was tall—very tall—for
any
woman, even among the Sothōii. In fact, she stood six feet three, a full inch taller than Brandark Brandarkson...and almost a full
foot
taller than Sharlassa.

Just as well
you
don’t have to wear heels anymore
, she told herself.
Mother! You’d tower over
everyone
then, wouldn’t you? Or over everyone who wasn’t a hradani, at any rate!

“I never much cared for them myself, either, Milady,” she said out loud. “And I avoided wearing them whenever I could get away with it.”

“So do I,” Sharlassa said with feeling. “But they keep catching me and making me put them back on. Personally, I think Mama told Tahlmah to make sure I wear them. Which is pretty unfair, when you come down to it, since
she
doesn’t wear them at home!”

“Part of the training, I suppose,” Leeana commiserated, and Sharlassa sighed in heartfelt agreement.

It was odd how her and Sharlassa’s lives had moved in opposite directions, Leeana thought, and felt a strong surge of affection, as well as sympathy, for the younger woman. She’d given up the sort of life most young women could only have envied when she became a war maid, and that had been even harder than she’d expected it to be, yet she suspected Sharlassa was finding the transition in her own life equally difficult. In fact, she was probably finding it even
more
difficult, when it came down to it.

They’d crossed the forecourt while they were speaking, and Leeana followed Sharlassa down the awning-shaded, stone-slab walk fronting the neatly kept barracks as they headed for the gate into the inner bailey. Sharlassa seemed a little uncomfortable at having Leeana drop back to follow a half-pace behind her, but it was only proper, just as Leeana’s use of “Milady” was only proper. Whatever she might once have been, Leeana Hanathafressa was a guest in Hill Guard Castle...and a guest of House Bowmaster, not its daughter.

Nobody actually stopped and stared as they passed, but Leeana was aware of scores of watching eyes, and she wondered what sorts of comparisons some of those eyes’ owners were making between her and Sharlassa when they saw her striding along in her supple leather trousers, plain linen shirt, and sleeveless leather doublet at the younger woman’s elbow, an identical short sword riding at each hip and a dagger sheathed horizontally at the back of her belt. At least she wasn’t in chari and yathu, and she tried not to feel too much like a coward for having avoided that traditional garb for this visit...so far, at least, she reminded herself wryly. She’d have plenty of time to outrage everyone before she left.

And it’s not as if you don’t genuinely prefer trousers when you ride
, she scolded herself.
You only wear the chari—and the yathu—to Thalar to make a point to Trisu and his idiots. No need to rub anyone’s nose in it here
.

They ascended the steps up into the great keep with Leeana following one stairstep below Sharlassa. Which, given the difference in their heights, meant the top of her head was only a few inches higher than Sharlassa’s all the way up. Then they stepped through the great double doors and crossed the vast, cool entry hall where the banners of Bowmaster and Balthar hung from the beams far overhead, with servants bowing to Sharlassa as they passed, and started up the inner stair towards the family’s private quarters. Sharlassa waited until they’d climbed halfway to the first landing, then stopped and looked at Leeana.

“And now that we’re inside,” she said, pitching her voice to reach only Leeana’s ears, “I’d better not hear another ‘Milady’ pass your lips.” Leeana started to smile, but the smile faded as Sharlassa glared at her with what looked like true anger. “I understand the rules,” the younger woman said, “and I suppose I actually appreciate them. But I’m
not
your lady and this
is
your home and
I’m
a visitor in it, not you!” Her eyes softened and she shook her head, reaching out to lay one hand on Leeana’s elbow. “I’m sure I can’t really imagine how difficult it is for you to come home on a visit, Leeana. I know it has to be hard, though. Please don’t make it any harder on yourself—or on me—than it has to be.”

She may not have gotten any taller, but she
has
grown
, Leeana thought, reflecting on the confidence and assurance in that scold.
Of course, she’s wrong...but she’s right, too
.

“All right, Sharlassa,” she said. “At least when we’re in private.”

“Good.” Sharlassa gave her elbow a little shake, then smiled. “In that case, I believe your mother is waiting in the solarium.”

* * *

“Look who I found, Milady!” Sharlassa announced as she opened the solarium door and waved Leeana through it.

Hanatha Bowmaster was tall, although not remotely as tall as her daughter, and her back was straight as she leaned on her cane, despite the right leg which had been crippled so many years before. But there were streaks of silver in her long, black hair, Leeana realized. Streaks which hadn’t been there before, still tiny enough she might not have noticed if their flicker hadn’t caught the sunlight pouring in through the solarium’s windows. And there were lines in her face which hadn’t been there before Leeana ran away from home. But her eyes—those green eyes, exactly like her daughter’s—lit with delight as she saw Leeana at Sharlassa’s shoulder.

“Leeana!” Hanatha started towards her, but Leeana dropped her saddle bags and blanket and crossed the solarium in three long strides before her mother could move. Her arms went around Hanatha in a crushing hug, and she felt a pang as she realized how much taller she’d become. Her cheek pressed the top of her mother’s head, exactly as Hanatha’s cheek had once pressed hers, and she felt those pesky tears burning in her eyes once more.

“Oh, it’s so
good
to see you, love!” her mother half-whispered, and then gasped as Leeana’s arms tightened even further. “Mind the ribs!” she scolded. “Your father already broke them once!”

“Sorry.” Leeana’s voice was husky, and she cleared her throat as she released her mother and stood back. She held Hanatha’s at arms length, hands on her upper arms, and smiled a bit mistily into her eyes. “Did he really?” she asked after a moment. “Break them, I mean?”

“Yes, he did, love.” Her mother reached up to touch her cheek. “The morning you were born.”