Chapter 429: A Bribe for a Cat

Chapter 428: A Bribe for a Cat

Lyria’s POV

Duke Valenridge stared directly back at Zephyr, who now sat and licked at his paws, all the while keeping his gaze fixed upon the Duke.

For a long moment, neither of them stirred. Zephyr’s eyes remained fastened upon His Grace with an intensity that suggested some manner of assessment were underway. The Duke, for his part, regarded the creature with amusement, and then, at length, sighed.

He bent somewhat, extended his hand into his pocket, and drew forth something wrapped within a napkin.

But just as he did so, he paused, and turned his attention instead towards me.

"Might I set this upon the floor, Your Highness?" he asked. "I should not wish to make a mess of your chamber."

Zephyr turned to look upon me, rising once more to his feet. His tail flicked once, then twice, as though he too awaited my permission, and I daresay he was rather eager for it.

"D-do tell, what i-is it you w-wish to set d-down?" I asked him.

"A small offering for Zephyr," he said. "A bribe, if you will permit the word, that I might discover whether he can be persuaded to abandon his hostility towards me."

I laughed softly at that.

In truth, I rather suspected Zephyr harboured no further hostility towards him whatsoever. Given that he had slept beside him only that morning, curled against his side as though he had determined this to be the most agreeable place for a nap, hostility seemed quite removed from his present self. But I judged it best to allow His Grace his small triumph, however unnecessary it might prove, and so I kept my peace.

"I d-do hope y-your attempt at b-bribery proves successful," I told him. "Y-you may s-set it d-down."

"I thank you," Duke Valenridge said, and then set the folded napkin upon the floor and unfolded it.

At once, Zephyr fell upon the offering.

It was a biscuit, fashioned in the shape of a fish. Zephyr devoured it with such enthusiasm as might suggest he had not eaten in some days — though I knew this to be entirely false. Still, I must confess Zephyr possessed a remarkable capacity for consumption, when the food suited his particular tastes.

I watched as Duke Valenridge, crouched before him, ran a hand gently along Zephyr’s back.

"Is there s-something within i-it that m-makes him so p-partial to it?" I asked.

He nodded as he rose and crossed towards me.

"There is," he said.

He removed his coat, and Margery hastened forward to receive it from him. He offered his thanks, and she curtseyed low, immediately attempting to conceal a blush that had risen to her cheeks. I marked the colour there with no small degree of amusement, though I said nothing of it.

Duke Valenridge continued, "I have it upon good authority that cats are exceedingly partial to it."

He took up a chair from the reading table and seated himself opposite me, near the window. But at this, I rose at once from my own seat.

"We o-ought to change our p-positions, Your Grace," I said. "I h-have no wish to c-compromise you, s-should anyone c-chance to see us so seated."

Duke Valenridge stared at me, one eyebrow raised.

Then he took up his chair once more and returned it to its place at the reading table.

I attempted to take up mine in turn, but Debbie was quicker still, removing it from my grasp and setting it at what she judged a respectable distance from His Grace.

When she had finished, she curtseyed to me with proper deference.

"Your Highness," she said.

Duke Valenridge observed all this with a smile. As did I.

Then I took my seat, and no sooner had I done so than Duke Valenridge spoke.

"If there be any one in this chamber who ought properly to fear compromise," he said, "should it not be yourself, rather than I, Your Highness?"

I paused at this, and opened my mouth to answer, but he continued before I could utter a word.

"You will not, surely, contend that because I am a duke, the greater risk falls upon me?" He shook his head slowly. "Need I remind you that you are a princess? And I care not one whit that the title is, in the eyes of some, but a nominal one. You are a princess, and I regard you as such, in every particular."

I closed my mouth at once. Duke Valenridge regarded me a moment longer, then sighed.

"There is a matter I must put to you," he said, "since our lessons have, after all, already commenced."

I nodded.

"If you truly wish to grow stronger, Your Highness, then you must cease this habit of diminishing yourself."

I frowned at that.

"I d-do not diminish m-myself. I m-merely speak the t-truth of things."

"No," he said, with a shake of his head. "You do diminish yourself. For are there not a great many things you hold the opinion you do not deserve?"

I could offer no reply to this, for I could not in honesty deny that I did think in such a manner. But it was fact, I reasoned, not self-belittlement, but plain and honest truth.

"Every one deserves everything," he said. "The good things most especially. Every one deserves beauty, and protection...unless, of course, they should prove themselves unworthy through misuse of it. But at the very least, every one is entitled to it. And so you ought not diminish yourself, least of all in my presence."

He paused, then added:

"And I must extend that same counsel beyond my presence also. For even when you are not before me, you need not diminish yourself. I shall, after all, always be watching over you."

I stared at him, and he merely gave a shrug.

"I am your partner now, curious wolf. Surely you did not suppose I should fail to keep watch over you? Should some misfortune arise, it is the office of partners to watch after one another, and I trust that you, in your own fashion, shall watch after me also. And besides this, you must learn to hold your head high, and speak your mind without reservation."

I considered his words with a frown. Surely to speak one’s mind so plainly could not always be the wisest course.

"S-sometimes, s-such plainness may w-wound others," I said to him.

He tilted his head.

"Who, within this court, has ever taken such care for your feelings, Your Highness... who has troubled themselves to consider how their own words might wound you?"

I opened my mouth to answer, but he spoke again before I could.

"Do not name mere acquaintances," he said. "Give me a name, or a description, of someone beyond that circle."

I closed my mouth and pondered the matter a while, though, in honesty, there was little need for pondering, the answer being plain enough already.

"N-no one," I admitted at last.

"Precisely."

I was quiet a moment.

"But s-still," I said, "that does n-not mean I o-ought to speak my m-mind so freely. Besides, y-you yourself have t-told me of consequence. And i-if I am to grow s-stronger, I m-must surely understand the c-onsequences of my own a-actions, must I n-not?"

Duke Valenridge nodded.

"Indeed," he said. "Which brings us to a further part of this lesson."

He leaned forward.

"Consequence matters only where there exists something of worth to be turned against a person. And if you wish truly to grow stronger... you must strip yourself of every weakness — or, better still, transform each weakness into a strength of its own."