'Thank you, Gorst,' said Jezal. 'You may leave us.' The big man thumped his chest and backed through the archway, pulling the door to behind him. Hardly the first time they had met in secret, of course, but things were different now. He wondered if it would end with kisses and soft words between them, or if it would simply end. The start was far from promising.

'Your August Majesty,' said Ardee with the very heaviest of irony. 'What a towering honour. Should I grovel on my face? Or do I curtsey?'

However hard her words, the sound of her voice still made the breath catch in his throat. 'Curtsey?' he managed to say. 'Do you even know how?'

'In truth, not really. I have not had the training for polite society, and now the lack of it quite crushes me.' She stepped forward, frowning into the darkened garden. 'When I was a girl, in my wildest flights of fancy, I used to dream of being invited to the palace, a guest of the king himself. We would eat fine cakes, and drink fine wine, and talk fine talk of important things, deep into the night.' Ardee pressed her hands to her chest and fluttered her eyelashes. 'Thank you for making the pitiful dreams of one poor wretch come true, if only for the briefest moment. The other beggars will never believe me when I tell them!'

'We are all more than a little shocked by the turn events have taken.'

'Oh, we are indeed, your Majesty.'

Jezal flinched. 'Don't call me that. Not you.'

'What should I call you?'

'My name. Jezal, that is. The way you used to… please.'

'If I must. You promised me, Jezal. You promised me you would not let me down.'

'I know I did, and I meant to keep my promise… but the fact is…' King or not, he fumbled with the words as much as he ever had, then blurted them out in an idiotic spurt. 'I cannot marry you! I surely would have done, had not…' He raised his arms and hopelessly let them drop. 'Had not all this happened. But it has happened, and there is nothing that I can do. I cannot marry you.'

'Of course not.' Her mouth gave a bitter twist. 'Promises are for children. I never thought it very likely, even before. Even in my most unrealistic moments. Now the notion seems ridiculous. The king and the peasant-girl. Absurd. The most hackneyed story-book would never dare suggest it.'

'It need not mean that we never see each other again.' He took a hesitant step towards her. 'Things will be different, of course, but we can still find moments…' He reached out, slowly, awkwardly. 'Moments when we can be together.' He touched her face, gently, and felt the same guilty thrill he always had. 'We can be to each other just as we were. You would not need to worry. Everything would be taken care of…'

She looked him in the eye. 'So… you'd like me to be your whore?'