When the cocks began to crow with the dawning of the sun, Seth eased away from the window where he had been looking out over his brother's land. He knew that his mother would not have risen yet but he decided to see if Zane was already in the breakfast room. Before he left his chambers, he checked to make sure that his practice gear was ready for use after the morning meal. In near silence, he passed through the common halls of the palace, nodding briefly to the servants who were already hurrying about their day. After descending to the ground level of the palace and walking across the great hall, he knocked briefly on a door before entering the chamber that had been used for family meals since he was knee-high. Although he saw and acknowledged his brother and Tamara, as soon as he entered the room his attention was captured by the dark curls that cascaded over the shoulders of the slim young woman loading a plate with food at the sideboard. The colour of her dress was a cool forest green and he wanted her to turn so he could see if her eyes were still the same colour. "Narelle," he breathed taking a step towards her. Her shoulders stiffened for an instant before she lowered her plate to the sideboard and turned to face him.
With her head bowed to the floor, she murmured, "Welcome home, Prince Seth." Stunned by her apparently submissive demeanour, Seth's gaze sought his brother's and he tried to telegraph his feelings of confusion and helplessness.
***
Leaning back in her chair, Tamara bit her lip to stifle the bubble of laughter that was rising in her throat. Although they had spent the last five years apart, she and her sister had frequently exchanged long letters full of gossip and sisterly discussion. Through those letters, Tamara had learned of Narelle's growth from a teenager into a young woman. The sisters had been close as children, with just three years separating their births they had been best of friends as well as sisters and not once, in her little sister's entire life, had Tamara seen Narelle act in such a stereotypically feminine way. Not even when their father discovered that the two of them had ridden his prized war steed against his orders when they were ten and seven respectively. She stared off into space as she reminisced for a moment and then blinked the memories away. As enjoyable as those carefree days had been, she had a feeling that the present was going to be just as entertaining, especially if her sister intended to lead Seth on as merry a chase as she suspected.
***
Narelle saw her older sister's expression of barely concealed amusement and shook her head. She knew what her sister thought -- that she, Narelle, was faking shyness in an attempt to snare Seth's attention. Gritting her teeth, the younger woman only wished it were an act -- she was truly intimidated by the knight's presence. It had been five long years since his departure and over those years, she had come to realise that no other held her fascinated admiration the way Seth did. Even when they had all played together as young teenagers, she had felt like a sunflower always turning her face to catch the rays of his approval and casual affection. When he'd argued with his father a few short weeks before his departure, she'd been the one to lend a sympathetic ear as he ranted about his parent's rigid disapproval of his plans. She had waited patiently until he had calmed down and then offered her opinion, though it had almost torn her heart in two when she convinced him to leave on his journey regardless of his father's edict against it. The day of his departure, she had been unable to stifle her impulse to wrap herself around his body and raise her face to his. When he had responded by dipping his head and pressing an ardent kiss to her untried lips, she had been shocked into letting him go and retreating behind her older sister. Caught up in her confusion, she had missed seeing him mount up and ride out the gates, coming back to herself only when her sister had grabbed her hand and led her back into the castle. Staring at the floor of the breakfast room, Narelle wondered how she was going to talk to Seth like a normal person when all she wanted to do was curl around him like an affectionate kitten.
***
Quickly deducing what was going on in the heads of his three companions, Zane broke the tension building in the room by rising to his feet and leading his love's sister to her seat. Placing her plate in front of her, he squeezed her shoulder reassuringly before turning to his brother. Waving a hand at the sideboard, he told Seth, "Help yourself, Cook's skills haven't diminished since you've been gone and she somehow heard you were back."
