He bent closer to her. “You are not princess in name, not yet, but you are princess. Select a servant to travel with us. I’ll not have my intended not tended.”

She smiled at him.

Indeed.

Incandescent.

“Can’t we hire ones at the inns where we’ll be staying?” she asked.

“I’ve no idea. I don’t need a servant to unlace me.”

“So you’re traveling without a servant.”

“Of course.”

She started quietly laughing.

He tipped his head. “This is funny?”

She shook her head. “These clothes I have to wear in this land are most odd, but they’re warm. However, they’re not an insurmountable problem without a solution in the putting on and getting out of. If I need it, can’t you lace me?”

“Of course he can’t lace you,” his mother snapped, bringing True’s head around her way. “That’s not only absurd to ask of a prince, it’s indecent.”

True felt Mars’s energy shifting to angry, and Cassius’s shifting to controlling his friend.

But for once, Cassius’s aim was faulty.

“Mother, if you ever again use that tone with Farah, after we’re wed, we’ll move to Firenze and never return.”

His mother paled.

His father’s head came up.

Vanka and Johan went still.

True felt Silence’s eyes shoot to him.

Farah’s hand clutched his tightly.

True remained focused on his mother.

“Am I understood?” he asked.

Her jaw moved as she ground her teeth.

“Am I…understood?” True pressed.

“True,” Farah whispered.

“Mother,” True prompted.

“Son, calm,” his father urged.

“I’ll hear the words spoken,” True said to Mercy.

“Yes,” she said tightly. “You’re understood.”

“Excellent. Now apologize to her,” True demanded.

Vanka emitted a peep.

His mother, the queen, visibly bristled at being told to apologize to an untitled foreigner.

True did not back down for this was not what he asked.

He asked his fucking mother to apologize for being rude to the woman who was going to be his wife.

“True, that’s unnecessary,” Farah whispered.

His mother held his gaze.

“Mother,” True pushed.

“Son,” Wilmer murmured.

The table sat still and silent as a son, who was a prince and a soldier, clashed with his mother, who was the invisible monarch.

“Aunt Mercy, truly, you should apologize.”

True’s head jerked in surprise as he felt Farah’s hand in his spasm after Silence made this demand.

“Now,” Silence decreed. “It’s altogether unseemly you should speak thus to your soon-to-be daughter-in-law and, I mean, it’s horrible to bring up considering the grave loss so recently suffered, but it’s true, should you outlive Uncle Wilmer, Farah’s your future queen. And this discourtesy at the breakfast table no less. So very unlike you. Goodness.”

By the gods.

Silence might be stumbling in finding her way as a wife, but she was certainly finding her footing as a queen.