“Take a bow, girl,” Marco ordered, and took an elaborate one himself. Though she rolled her eyes at him, she dipped into a curtsy that brought more applause.
And calls for more.
“We’ll do one more.” Marco leaned close to her ear. “Then I’ve got to get my flirt on.”
She glanced where he grinned, and at first saw only Keegan, standing in his leather duster, his hair windswept, his eyes on hers. But the dragon rider Marco had spoken with that morning stood beside him.
They did one more, then yet another by popular demand before Marco managed to pull away. Breen intended to head straight for Marg, but Keegan stepped in front of her, held out a glass of wine.
“Thanks.”
“You should sing more.” He took her arm, steered her toward the kitchen. “And they’ll see you do if you don’t move away. Your dog is entertaining those still among the tents.”
“I should call him, go back to the cottage.”
“Why?”
“I…” She decided to just come out with it. “I’m terrible at parties where I don’t know people. And I met I don’t know how many already, and I’m never going to remember the names.”
He nodded, drank some ale. “They’re crowded and noisy, and I need breaks from them myself.” He sliced a hunk of bread, slapped some cheese and cold meat on it. “Come outside in the air for a bit. I only came back myself as Brian wanted to find Marco.”
“Brian? Oh. I didn’t know his name.”
“Brian Kelly,” Keegan said as he nudged her outside. “He’s your cousin. His great-grandfather times four or so and yours were brothers, though his traveled to the north, met a north woman named Kate, and settled there. Yours stayed in the valley.”
“How do you know all that? How do you remember all that?”
“It’s part of my duty, and I suppose some luck with it. He’s a good man, is Brian, so you’ve no worries about Marco.”
“All right.”
He looked across to the tents, the campfires. “Some will go south tomorrow, some the day after. Not all at once, you see. And some will remain to guard after Samhain, after we break the back of what comes for us that night. And some we’ll mourn.”
He shook that off, had to. “And some will travel with us to the Capital.”
“How long am I supposed to stay there?”
“A few days only. You need to see and be seen. And my mother will have another shagging party.”
“A party? At the palace?”
He looked severely pained at the term. “It’s not a bleeding palace. A castle is a different thing, which you should know. A castle is for defense, to protect and house and fortify. And don’t be packing a case full of things this time. It’s a few days, and we’ll want to travel straight through, so quickly.”
He turned to her, eyes direct and intense. “You look very fine tonight, and you might as well know it’s hard for me to keep my hands off you. We’ll go back in, as my mother will roast me for keeping you out too long.”
“I like your hands on me.”
“Gods. Not now.” He took her arm, pulled her back inside.
CHAPTER TEN
While Breen went back into the party, Marco sat on the stone wall out front drinking an ale with Brian Kelly.
“You’re telling me you and my best girl are cousins?”
“We are, on our fathers’ sides, and well back. My many-times-great-grandfather traveled to the far north for the adventure of it, it’s told. There he met my many-times-great-grandmother. They fell in love, pledged. They had eight children, and lived to a ripe age.”
“Eight kids?”
Brian smiled and sipped his ale. “Nights are long and cold when winter comes to the north. So I spring from that, and Breen from her many-times-great-grandfather who was mine’s brother, who stayed in the valley, worked this very land where we sit, and with his woman had nine children of their own.”
“So you live in the north.”
“My family’s there, or the most of them. I make my place in the Capital for now, or wherever the taoiseach needs me. You’re traveling there with Tarryn after Samhain, I’m told.”
“Yeah. I’m grateful for the invite because I need to stick close to Breen.” Brian’s eyes, Marco thought, had a sparkle in them. An actual sparkle. “You’re heading back, too, right?”
“I will, aye, once we’ve settled things in the south.”