She was instantly still, but tense. “I—I cannot talk about that.”

“I think you are here against your will, and that you and Ganlin were planning something your families did not approve. You’re both related to that woman who came here for my coronation—Hanlin, her name was, a sister of the queen?”

“A sister of the current queen and Ganlin’s aunt,” Elis said. “The king married again after my mother’s death.” She took a breath and hurried on. “If they find out I told—Sir King, you are right. I did not want to come. Or marry. They drugged me that night at dinner. I was to leave the next day for my own place—my very own—my father promised—and then—”

“Breathe slower,” Kieri said. “So you were drugged and brought here … and did you then try to escape? Is that why you arrived in the middle of the night?”

She nodded. “I thought I could outride my guardians—escape completely or arrive long before them, and beg you for mercy.”

“For mercy?”

“For—for meaning—” She gulped then and Kieri realized she was about to cry.

“Pinch your nose,” he said.

“Wh-hat?”

“Pinch your nose. Hard. And think of something funny. You must not be seen crying. It leaves your eyes red, and they will ask questions.”

Startled, she complied, and in a moment was calmer.

“Soldier’s trick,” Kieri said, grinning. “For a sneeze, for a sob.” He sobered again. “Elis, I will not marry anyone who does not want to marry me. It was wrong of them—I suppose it must have been your father—to drug you and send you unwilling to me. But before I can find a way to help you, I must know more. Why you? Are you the only girl?”

“No,” Elis said. She let go her nose for a moment and looked almost cross-eyed down it. “I have sisters who would have been willing, but I am the eldest. And I am, my stepmother and father both say, an embarrassment.”

“Embarrassment?” How could this pretty child be an embarrassment?

“I am … not ladylike enough. I like riding—in trousers—and working in the stable, and I made my brothers teach me swordplay. When I was younger I wanted to be a soldier, but I knew that could not be, so then I wanted to be a horse-breeder.” She said that fiercely.

Kieri looked at her in astonishment. She had color in her cheeks now, and her pale eyes sparkled. She reminded him of all the eager young recruits he’d had, male and female alike.

“Or I could be one of your Squires,” she said, looking up at his face. “I would work hard, I promise.”

“And what would your father say, if you were a King’s Squire and not a queen?”

She turned white again in an instant.

“I’m sorry,” Kieri said quickly. “I did not mean to frighten you.”

“It is not you.” She pinched her nose hard; the tears that were in her eyes did not brim over. “I can’t tell—”