Ginn Hale - Lord of the White Hell book Two

Nestor glared at Elezar through his delicate gold spectacles. "I can't believe you were so forward to that girl."

"We just flirted with her." Elezar shrugged.

"Him," Kiram corrected and he gave Javier a hard look.

"What?" Elezar demanded.

"You were flirting-rudely I might add-with a man," Kiram said coldly. "A bridegroom on his way to his wife's home."

Javier's smug grin evaporated and he had the decency to pale, though Kiram guessed it was for the wrong reason.

"No!" Elezar shook his head. "No, that was a girl. She was dressed-"

"-In the traditional clothes of a Haldiim bridegroom!" Kiram cut him off. Elezar went surprisingly quiet. He glanced to Javier and then away almost guiltily. Neither seemed able to meet the other's gaze.

"We aren't far from your mother's candy shop, are we?" Nestor asked after a few moments of awkward silence had passed between them all. "Maybe we should look in on Mother and Riossa."

"We're only a few minutes away." Kiram led Nestor along the street while Javier and Elezar mutely trailed them. They passed street vendors and merchants with goat carts loaded with wine barrels and bunches of spring herbs. At a cross street they glimpsed another bridegroom and his entourage. The wedding season was really upon them, Kiram thought.

Beside him, Nestor started to giggle to himself. Kiram watched him fight to maintain a serious expression as he turned back to Elezar.

"Mother would never approve," Nestor's voice wavered with suppressed laughter, "but if that was who you wanted, I would support you and your Haldiim bridegroom, Elezar, no matter what. I just want you to be happy." Then Nestor dissolved into laughter.

"Shut up," Elezar growled. "It's not funny."

"It is a little," Javier said. He gave Nestor an assessing glance. "It's good to know you're so openminded about matters of the heart, Nestor."

Nestor grinned while Elezar's face flushed vivid red.

"I didn't know! And why was he dressed like that anyway?" Elezar demanded.

"It's a different culture," Javier replied calmly. He now seemed more amused by the interaction than mortified. He briefly met Kiram's gaze. "And everyone knows that Haldiim men can be prettier than Cadeleonian women."

"Disgusting," Elezar grumbled.

"No, he wasn't." Javier laughed. "That was the trouble."

That at least drew a smirk from Elezar. Then Javier glanced to Kiram. "We're not going to see you dressed like that anytime soon, are we?"

"Let's hope not." Kiram rounded the corner and found the street in front of the Kir-Zaki candy shop unusually clogged with people. He made polite apologies as Javier, Nestor and Elezar shouldered their way through the throngs.

Kiram wondered what had attracted so many neighbors and onlookers. He prayed it wasn't another of his father's workshop fires, though there was no sign or scent of smoke. Perhaps his mother and Siamak had had another of their infamous arguments in the street. But Kiram didn't hear either of their voices screeching through the murmurs of the gathered crowd.

Then Kiram realized the loiterers were primarily focused on a gleaming red carriage and the four red stallions that were hitched to it. Emblazoned in gold the Grunito crest adorned the doors of the carriage as well as the front of the driver's long coat. A footman standing at the door of the carriage watched the gawking Haldiim passersby with suspicion, but the majority of the crowd hardly seemed to notice his disapproval. They eyed the huge horses and whispered about the expense of the carriage.

Even Kiram stared for a moment. Not because Cadeleonian carriages were new or strange to him, but because this shining, gilded mass was so out of place here on a narrow Haldiim street. As a rule, when Cadeleonians came to the Haldiim district they did not come with carriages and even left their horses at the stable. If they needed goods transported, then they hired goat carts, and if they wished to travel in an indulgent fashion, then it was expected that they would hire a Haldiim palanquin. That had certainly been how the Grunitos had visited the candy shop in the past.

Nestor exchanged a wave with the carriage driver and Kiram felt the crowd's attention shift from the carriage to himself and the three Cadeleonians with him. Kiram was suddenly very aware of how imposing, foreign and rich Javier and the Grunito brothers would look to the gathered Haldiim.

As Kiram walked past with Javier, Nestor and Elezar, he caught Haldiim whispers and appraising glances, not all of them kind. Someone behind him wondered if Mother Kir-Zaki had whored her son out to all three of those Cadeleonian men in exchange for their business.

Kiram stopped, not shocked by the words as much as the familiarity of the voice, though he refused to turn or to acknowledge the remark.

But Javier spun back to glare at the crowd. Elezar followed Javier's motion, clearly backing him despite the fact that he couldn't have known what had roused Javier's ire. Nestor looked startled, almost panicked, and then Kiram realized that both Javier and Elezar had their hands on their sword hilts.

Only a few feet away two wiry Haldiim men went pale, but Musni gripped his fighting knife. A gasp went through the crowd and mothers pulled their young charges back from Musni and his friends. Kiram noticed the two Civic Guards a few yards away suddenly hefting their short bows.

Kiram instantly caught Javier's forearm and Elezar's elbow and then he stepped between them and the now gaping group of Haldiim.

"There's nothing to be offended, about," Kiram said firmly. "Petty people can't help but say jealous words any more than swine can keep from rolling in filth." Kiram projected his voice to carry the Haldiim anecdote over the crowd. Several people had the good grace to look embarrassed and an older woman slapped Musni in the back of his head.

"He's not worth it," Kiram said and he met Javier's gaze.

Javier relaxed his grip on his sword though his anger still showed on his face. Elezar followed Javier's lead, dropping his grip from his sword. Kiram wondered if Elezar would follow Javier off a cliff just as blindly.

"What just-" Nestor began to ask but Kiram cut him off.

"A misunderstanding that we don't need to drag out any longer." Kiram turned his back on Musni. "Let's see what there is inside for us, shall we?" He strode purposefully towards the perfumed warmth of his mother's candy shop and was relieved when Javier, Elezar and Nestor followed him.

Inside Lady Grunito dominated the tasting room with the same scale and bold presence that her carriage displayed out on the street. Her red silk gown flashed with gold embroidery and the coils of her dark brown braids sat atop her head like a silk crown, plaited with gold ribbons and gleaming pearls. Two Cadeleonian maids and a pair of footmen in Grunito uniforms hung back by the door, their arms already loaded with baskets of marzipan fruit, candied lemons and bright snips of taffy. Beside Lady Grunito, Riossa looked tiny, despite the spectacle of yellow silk, jeweled butterfly pins and embroidered ribbons billowing from her. She held two glistening honey cakes in her hands as if they were delicate blossoms.

Both of Kiram's sisters flitted between the granite counters, displaying sweets to Lady Grunito. Their mother sat demurely by the side, pretending not to understand a word of Cadeleonian. She glanced briefly to Kiram but remained quiet and aloof, perched on her tall stool with a wooden candy spoon in one hand like a scepter. Dauhd flashed him a quick smile before she handed Lady Grunito a small dish piled with glazed almonds.

Riossa, who seemed to have been watching Dauhd closely, followed her quick glance to the door. Suddenly Riossa's plain features lit with a truly beautiful smile.

"Nestor!" Riossa waved a honey cake. "I purchased these for you!" And she added much more demurely, "There's one for you as well, Elezar."