The jibe was intended to make him feel guilty, but he had no intention of it. “I didn’t want to get your hopes up, my lord.”

“You’re going to wed her?”

“I am… exploring possibilities,” he said, very careful. “As you requested.” Demanded. But by all means, let us not quibble over semantics. “Why, my lord? Do you mislike the connection?”

His father paused to catch his breath at the next twist of the staircase. “I mislike learning of my son’s courting from a servant.”

Not as much as I do. Believe me.

“I was going to tell you. I was only waiting until you were feeling a little stronger. Ranmer doesn’t want you excited.”

The comment earned him a hot glare. “Don’t think to play this off to my confounded health. I’ll crack you across the ear if you try.”

And his father would, too. In fairness, Greve Danfey could not be called a brutal parent but he had no qualms about raising his fist when provoked.

The glare faded into something less easily withstood. “You should’ve spoken up, Morgan. I’ve been waiting some days for you to confide in me.”

A shade of hurt in his father’s voice. “I am sorry.”

“Well? Do you want the girl or don’t you? A plain answer, this time.”

If only it were as simple as his father imagined. “Maris is young, attractive, unattached and the only daughter of a First Family ranked more highly than ours. I’d be a fool to discount her.”

His father flicked him a look. “But?”

“But every family has its secrets. What do you know of the Garricks?”

“Venette hasn’t given you chapter and verse?”

“I haven’t asked her to. When it comes to Maris Garrick she’s not what you’d call unbiased.”

His father frowned, thinking. “For all their high ranking they’re good mages, but not brilliant. As a family they’re proud. Too proud, to my mind. There’s a son. Ehrig. Six years your senior. Started at the College but was invited to leave before the end of his first year. You won’t remember that. Too young, and it was kept quiet. Caught cheating. A bad business. The wife’s nothing out of the ordinary. Parnel Garrick’s stiff-necked but honest. The son’s misconduct nearly broke him. Some cut him for it. I never did, the rare times I saw him after. Only been in Elvado two years. They started off in the north, you know. The Fifth district.”

Morgan stifled amusement. Trust his father to have a comprehensive knowledge of the Garricks’ history. And it was typically contrary and kind of him, too, not to bruise Parnel Garrick over the actions of his wayward heir. For all he was often a hard man, there could be found in Greve Danfey the occasional impulse toward softness.