“You don’t? You are friendly to all around you, but sitting and having serious chats like the one you just had with Bruce and Simon about affairs of the realm, they are not chieftains or barons or…whatever you call them in this land? What is it? Lords?”

“In the second village where we stayed, I spoke to a member of the gentry,” he informed her as they made the top landing and he guided them down the hall.

“That is it?” she inquired.

“Yes.” He was still confused. “Does this surprise you?”

“I, well…I…” She said no more as he stopped them outside the door to their room and produced the key from his trousers.

But he didn’t open it.

“It does surprise you,” he noted.

She looked up at him. “Mars deals with barons and chieftains.”

“Yes,” he said when she spoke no more.

“Baldrick was a leader,” she remarked.

“He was. But I’m still not understanding your surprise,” he said.

“Does your father mingle with his subjects as you do?” she asked.

He nearly roared with laughter, thus, his one-word answer was shaking with it.

“No.”

“And he does not dance with them.”

“Bloody hell, no,” he replied, putting the key to the lock and letting them in.

He was closing and locking the door behind them when she spoke again.

“Mars is removed. We have many celebrations and he’s seen reveling with his people, but not amongst them. He is on the royal podium at the coliseum. If marquees are erected, his will be easily seen, but apart. There are instances, such as dancing, feasts and other revelries, where there will be those of the populace invited to be close to the king, but it is a special honor, usually for a feat accomplished or a service provided to the realm. And there are times that Mars, as had his father, travels the realm to speak directly to the people. Not to give speeches, to sit with local teachers or healers or priests to hear what they have to say about what is happening in the land. And in those times, he will be with his people at feasts they make for him or celebrations to honor him. But he is always held in a position of distinction, for instance, at a high table, or separated and sitting with the leaders of the clan.”

True had thrown the key down on a table and was walking to the fire when Farah finished talking, after which he murmured, “My father doesn’t do even that.”

He’d bent to feed some logs on the banked fire and stir it when she said, “I know of no realm where a prince can ride the countryside with five guards and be safe.”