“Why does it feel like I never see you anymore?” Heidi asked giving Jolene a long hug, if for no other reason than to spare herself giving the other woman a long once over. Something was wrong, it was there in the way she held her shoulders in the way that her eyes flickered away whenever Heidi tried to catch them. She couldn’t have screamed wrong more short of investing in a large neon sign.

“Because we spent the better part of eight months as roommates where you saw me everyday and now we only see each other a couple of times a week. You being less than mobile these days.” Jolene waved at Heidi’s midsection.

“I’m pregnant, not dying.” Heidi retorted. “And no one gets all upset about Raquel running all over Shadowcrest and what not.”

“Except Kennedy.” Jolene said and Heidi stifled a snort.

“But Blake doesn’t.” Heidi mused, thinking of how if Dolph had his way, Heidi’d forget how to walk before she had this baby.

“We don’t know that.” Jolene pointed out. Heidi looked at Jolene quizzically. “Aren’t you the one who is always telling me what you see is not always what you get. We see Blake and Raquel’s public faces and have no idea what’s behind their façade.”

“True, but it still looks like not only would Blake lay his shirt down so she could walk over a mud puddle, he’d do it with him still in it. Dolph’s idea is to either get rid of mud puddles or have me carried over them. Or preferably never leave the house when there is such a thing as mud about.” Something passed over Jolene’s face at that.

“Yeah, it’s tough having a guy adore you.” She shook her head.

“Well, come in, we don’t need to spend all day out in the front yard.” Heidi shooed her friend into the nook of her kitchen. “Can I get you anything? Tea, milk, water? Ever since Kennedy recommended that I not drink alcohol he’s hidden away every bit of it, so you’d have to go brave him for anything stronger.”

“No, I’m fine. So your lord husband is giving you grief about walking, still?”

“Yes. And I don’t know why, I mean Raquel’s what two, close to three months ahead of me and you see her all over Shadowcrest.” Heidi shook her head.

“Maybe it’s cause you married a Lord and she married a carpenter.” Jolene offered, with a bitter sigh that caused Heidi to look at her sharply. “Plus, Raquel hardly even looks pregnant.”

“I don’t know that I’d say that.” Heidi murmured in response.

“She looks like a skinny teenager with a basketball stuffed up her dress. You look pregnant.” Before Heidi could think of how to respond to that, Jolene looked around the kitchen and sighed. “I don’t know how you did it. This place is the color of an ice cave and it still seems warm and inviting.” Jolene shook her head. “If I used this color scheme in my house, it’d be like sitting inside an icecube. If, of course, I had a house instead of living with Dr. I never met a riotously bright color I didn’t like Misra.”

“Jo, what’s wrong? Did you have a fight with somebody?” Heidi asked, her concern jumping toward alarmed.

“No. Why do you think something’s wrong, aren’t I always this bitter and unhappy?” Jolene asked.

“No.” Heidi said before letting the silence talk for her. Jolene stood up and walked toward the kitchen doorway, keeping her face turned away. “Jo, c’mon, you can talk to me.”

“You wouldn’t understand.” Jolene said barely above a whisper.

“I can’t even try if you won’t tell me.” She pointed out.

“How could you understand, look around this place!” Jolene walked off to the library and threw herself down on the bench with enough force to make Heidi glad it was a very sturdy bench and her body twinge in sympathy.

“I guess you’re right cause I don’t understand.” Heidi waddled after Jolene when it was apparent the other woman had moved permanently.

“You with a huge beautiful house, you with your Lord husband, you with your baby on the way.” Jolene murmured bitterly. “And what have I got?”

“A good man who loves you, who half literally worships the ground you walk on?”

“A kid, Heidi. A little teenage Romeo who could–couldn’t even do the one thing I wanted him to do right.” Jolene stared at her hands.

“What was that?” Heidi asked, touching one of Jolene’s soft brown curls.

“Fall for someone else… Why did he have to latch onto me and ruin me for everyone else? Why couldn’t he have fallen for Raquel, or Zahrah, or even that little gold digging twit Fiona? Why did he have to fall for me? None of the other guys will even look at me because he wants me. I don’t even get a choice. Either I stay alone or take him.” Jolene said.

“So you really think you’d feel better if there had been some other girl?” Heidi asked.

“I don’t know.”

“Jolene, maybe Sawyer’s not a noble. Maybe he does odd jobs and can’t buy you the biggest nicest house on the block. But he’s a good man with a good heart and he’s given it to you.” Heidi said, her eyes locking on Jolene’s.

“I told you you wouldn’t understand.” Jolene turned away. “He’s a kid.”

“No, Jo, he isn’t. The only way Sawyer is still a kid is in your head.” Heidi took a deep breath and exhaled it slowly so she wouldn’t snap at the other woman. “He’s been on his own for six years, Joey. About as long as you have. Except you had your parents to go home to those first couple of years.”

“Don’t bring my parents into this.” Jolene warned.

“Okay, cause they’re not the point. The point is Sawyer’s only a child because you can attach a number to him. ‘Seventeen’. Which yes, might mean a helluva lot back home, but it means exactly squat here.” Heidi said.

“And then that child rapist came along.” Jolene stared at the fireplace with a heat that practically could have lit the log on it.

“Which child rapist?”

“Victoria.” The venom in Jolene’s voice probably would have eaten through solid steel.

“Okay, apparently I missed something else.” Heidi said puzzled.

“What else do you call a woman–a grown woman–older than us–who marries a kid? Do you really think, given how often they’d sit under the tree outside and make-out that they’re really not fucking, Heidi? Don’t tell me you’re that naïve.” Jolene snarled.

“Oh, Joey. Camden is not a kid. He’s–what–a month now shy of being eighteen? And if you’d ever spent five minutes in his company you’d know he wasn’t a kid. Not in any way except maybe still broadening out in the shoulders. He’s probably more mature and grown up than I am.” And the way things are going in this conversation a helluva lot more grown up than you are. Heidi thought.

“Then why didn’t she just wait the month?” Jolene snarled.

“Maybe because it wasn’t as big a deal to them as it is to you. And I have to say I don’t think it’s any of our business when two consenting adults want to get married. And in Shadowcrest, Camden is an adult, maybe he wouldn’t have been back home, but we’re not back there. We’re here.” Heidi shook her head.

“They made it my business last night.”

“Oh, really? what did you get a call from Camden cause Victoria was abusing him, wouldn’t let him eat his dessert until he finished all his vegetables?” She couldn’t keep the snark out of her voice. Something had to break, otherwise they were going to have a fight and Heidi didn’t want to push her friend away. Maybe Jolene was being a bitch, but no one else was going to figure out what was going on with her.

“No. Sawyer proposed.” Jolene wailed hopelessly. Heidi blinked. Twice.

“And this is…” Heidi trailed off unable to even finish. “What did you say?”

“I didn’t.” Jolene said. “I just–I wanted to say no. But I couldn’t. It’s like the words stuck in my throat. I–I tried. But somehow, I just couldn’t say it.”

“Maybe because you knew it wasn’t the right thing to say?” Heidi offered.

“What else could I say?”

“Yes?” If Heidi had grown a second head, the look Jolene gave her then wouldn’t have been any odder.

“Yes?” Jolene gasped.

“Yeah. He loves you, even though you’ve done everything to dissuade him that you could, short of throwing him into bed with every other woman currently in Shadowcrest. And you wouldn’t be near this pissed off and confused if you didn’t love him too.”

“But Heidi, what–how…”

“You’ll figure it out, you know, together.” Heidi shrugged and laid a hand on her tummy. “It isn’t like they hand you a manual on your eighteenth birthday that makes everything about love and marriage make sense.” She sure as hell hadn’t gotten one–and obviously neither had Jolene.

“But…” Jolene broke off with a sigh. “I really should go. I have–I’m sorry.” Heidi nodded and got to her feet. “Bye, little Heidi’s spawn, you’ll be glad some day your mom’s a wise lady.”

“And bye Spawn’s mom they’ll be lucky to have later.” Jolene said in a whisper after she hugged Heidi.

Heidi scrubbed her hand over her face, near as exhausted as the time she’d gotten caught in a shoot-out. A creak from her right caught her attention, the door to Dolph’s office swinging open.

“Heidi, love, what’s wrong?” Dolph asked his genial expression turning to one of alarm.

“I love you.” Heidi said, putting a hand on the side of his face as he sat next to her pulling her into his shoulder with a rightness that Heidi hoped more than anything Jolene felt–or would let herself feel about Sawyer.

“I love you too, but what’s wrong–do you need Kennedy?”

“No. I’m just really lucky I have you.” Heidi said leaning her weight into Dolph’s comforting warmth. “As for what’s wrong–apparently not enough.” She shook her head. Dolph shrugged and shook his before pulling her just a little closer. “I think it’ll sort itself out though. At any rate, it’s nothing we can fix, you and me.”

“Don’t you think I can fix everything?” Dolph murmured into her hair.

Heidi sighed. “I dunno. Can you fix it when the prince doesn’t turn into a frog?”

Tate stepped nervously into the parlor. Not so very long ago it had just been that, a parlor. One he occasionally helped dust when Master Gray was busy. Now it was, more or less, the counsel chamber. All of the big decisions made about the future of Shadowcrest were made in this room, with the same desk chair that had been here as long as he could remember coming, serving as a throne for his king. That somehow didn’t seem right, thrones were supposed to be impressive, special. Only kings were supposed to have sat in the throne. Tate himself had sat in that chair himself, and more than once.

“My-Your Majesty, your guests are here.” Lord Lock sighed softly as if to himself. King, King Lachlan, Tate reminded himself sharply, even though he’d likely forget again in just a moment.

“Show them in, Tate, please.” Tate bowed and stepped out of the room to fetch the two men.

“What, Lock?” Tate heard Sir Wesley asked. “You look like swallowed vinegar when you were expecting wine.”

“I didn’t used to scare him.” Lord Lock said.

“Scare who, my lord?” Master Gray asked, sounding puzzled.

“Tate.” He could hear the murmurs from the parlor indicating that the conversation was continuing, but he could no longer pick out individual words, and that was probably all for the better, he didn’t need to eavesdrop.

“If you’ll follow me, my lords?” The king, along with a proper throne, should have a proper herald or at least a page. Not a peasant boy with dirt from the garden under his fingernails. Someone with the manners that these men no doubt expected. Nevermind if Sir Camden was little older than Tate was.

Even though it was only half a dozen steps from the door to the parlor, Tate proceeded them and held the door open for them. “Sir Camden and Lord-Judge Dolph, my-Your Majesty.” Tate said, sort of unnecessarily, none of the men in the room were blind, but that was what formality seemed to be about. Doing unnecessary things for the reason of because somebody, once upon a time, had decided it should be so.

Sir Camden entered first, dropping to one knee, his mail jingling as he did so. Lord Lock nodded formally to the young knight. Then Lord Dolph, who bowed deeply before taking his seat in the chairs that Tate had pilfered from the kitchen and set in front of the fire. Tate’s duties done, he started to slip out of the room, leaving the king and his lords to their discussion when Lord Lock’s deep voice stopped him.

“Tate, please, stay.”

“My-Your Majesty?” Tate asked in alarm, looking around the room.

Lord Lock started to say something then shook his head. “Tate, stay.”

“Aye, my-Your Majesty.” There were no more seats open and truthfully no room for another chair so Tate simply took up residence on the floor and listened.The first order of business was apparently just a general state of the country. Which then switched over to the arrival of Lady Kennedy, about a week prior.

Tate liked the doctor, she was funny in rather dry way and she scared Sir Wesley terribly. That was amusing all on it’s own. Sir Wesley was a knight and a brave one. Tate had seen him stand up to hulking brutes twice Lady Kennedy’s size and never even blink, but Lady Kennedy always seemed to know just how to poke holes in Sir Wesley.

“I think, my lords, that it is time for a second summoning.” Lord Lock told his assembled nobles and Tate.

“Are you certain, Majesty? The last summoning tired you terribly.” Master Gray said in that deferential but still firm voice.

“Aye, I’m fine, Nanny Gray.” Tate had to hide a smile.

“Your majesty.” Master Gray protested.

“It has been a week, Gray. And I am perfectly recovered.” Lord Lock told Master Gray with a shake of his head. Master Gray apparently gave up for he said nothing further. “My inquiry though would be what does Shadowcrest need most?” The lords looked around as if hoping that someone else might have an idea. Tate cleared his throat, the sound barely audible over the crackle of the fire.

“Aye, Tate?” Lord Lock asked as the lords looked at him, perhaps having forgotten that he was even present.

“You said, my-your majesty, that one of the ladies-did something with buildings?” Tate asked, even more uncertain with all those eyes upon him.

“Aye.”

“Might, as we’ve not had lots of luck with the rebuilding of Shadowhaven so far, my lord, might she be of use?” Tate stared at his hands, twisted on his lap. Lord Lock said nothing and Tate cringed further in on himself. Never say anything, that’s not why he asked you to stay, dummy.

“Very good, Tate.” Lord Lock said then. “That is a very good idea, thank you.”

“You are-you are welcome, my-your majesty.” Tate said. The lords then finished their discussion and Tate jumped to his feet to get the door almost as soon as Lord Lock deemed the meeting over.

After he had seen Lord Dolph and Sir Camden out, he entered the parlor to bank the fire and put the chairs away, expecting to find it empty. But Lord Lock stood by the window, looking out into the twilight.

“My-Your majesty, I’m sorry for disturbing you.” Tate said when Lord Lock looked over at him after he squeaked.

“You know, Tate, we’re all kind of new at this. Don’t beat yourself up over the fact that you’re still getting used to it.” The king patted his shoulder before heading over to his study, leaving Tate to gape after him.

***

“It’ll be fine, Sawyer.” Jarrett sighed, in his quiet voice. “T’ain’t no reason to take the time to walk ‘crossed town during the busy season.”

“But it ain’t fine, Jarrett.  It’s been hurtin’ you since early week an’ it still ain’t stopped.” The young man countered. The former butcher shook his blonde hair.

“We’ve got too much to do. And somebody ain’t helping any.” Jarrett murmured, neither of them bothering to glance over at the man stretched out on the hammock under the tree. The young nobleman paid them about as much mind as he did the squirrels chittering in the tree above him.

“You heard what the lady doctor said, she said when things start hurtin’ ye, to come see her right away.”

“She’s probably jist looking for money.” Jarrett said. Sawyer scoffed massaging an ache in his left palm.

“She ain’t charging nothing! Tate and I went over to help Master Blake move in a table for her, an there she was looking over Master Ren’s knee, an’ she sent him on her way without any word of a bill, you know merchants, Jarrett, they’s very good at wiggling them fingers for the glim.”

“Well, then she ain’t probably a very good doctor.” Jarrett had enough stubborn some days for two plus ten donkeys. But Sawyer wasn’t giving up. He liked Jarrett, who was a far better companion than the lazy-assed noble who treated them like his servants and did absolutely no good.

“That’s a load of horseshit, Jarrett an’ you know it. Maybe you an’ me wouldn’t know much about doctors an’ doctorin’ but Tate says the king’s even impressed an’ I think he would know.” Sawyer countered.

“This ain’t get getting the crops tended an’ we still need to put those leaves on the pile.” Jarrett dismissed. Sawyer shook his head as the older man walked away, but followed him over to the small field where all the crops were planted in orderly lines. Theirs might not be the best kitchen garden in the world, but Sawyer would’ve laid odds that it was at least tied for the neatest and nearly the best kept.

Sawyer heard Jarrett’s pain-filled grunt as he bent to pull some of the weeds that had seemingly popped up over night and would have laid glim on a grimace twisting the older man’s  face, though he couldn’t see it.

“I can handle this, Jarrett, get your ass over t’ the lady doctor, now. If you lay yourself up over this, who’s gonna help with harvest, which t’ain’t that far off now.” Sawyer said, earning himself a black look. “An’ no, you can’t go after lunch or after y’finish the weedin’, y’go now.”

***

“You should have come earlier in the week, Master Jarrett, you didn’t have to live all this time in pain.” Kennedy scolded the butcher as they stood outside her barn.

“Lady Kennedy, it weren’t nothing.” Jarrett shook his head.

“I disagree.”

“M’lady, work means pain, that’s the way it is.” He told her in a voice that was deep and rich was so quiet an errant bit of breeze from the tree behind her could practically rip it away.

“Pain means something’s wrong, Master Jarrett, if working means you’re always in pain, then you’re doing something wrong.” Kennedy crossed her arms over her chest and tried to meet his eyes, which darted away. “I want you to take it easy, you hear me? I’ll take you over my knee and spank you if I hear you’ve been ignoring this injury.”

“Animals don’t care if you’re hurt, neither do the crops. Sawyer’s a good lad, but he can’t do it all by himself.” Jarrett told her.

“So get your other lazy-ass roomie to work.” Kennedy said. At Jarrett’s puzzled look she explained. “Alistair, he’s there, what’s he doing with all his time? Beating off?” The butcher looked even more puzzled. “Never mind the beating off.”

“He’s a noble, Lady Kennedy. I can’t just order him to work.”

“That is so stupid. He’s a man just like any other man.”

“It jist doesn’t work that way, Lady Kennedy.” Jarrett protested.

“Well, how bout it working like this: You don’t work, you don’t eat. That’s what my aunt used to tell me and my cousins about our chores. And she had a lot of success in it.” Jarrett shook his head, though a bit of a shy smile quirked the corner of his lips. Kennedy felt an answering smile herself, before she noticed the blonde man coming up the path behind Jarrett.

Apparently he saw her eyes slide past him, though they weren’t gone for long, and he turned, bowing practically before he was all the way turned. “Your majesty.” Jarrett murmured.

“Master Jarrett.” Lock said with that “I’m trying really hard to be reassuring” smile that he seemingly always wore around his subjects.

“Now, you take that prescription over to Emanuel at the merchants’ camp and get it filled, and you take it easy, else I’ll sic the king on you.” Jarrett nodded and bowed again before hurrying off. Hopefully he was going to the Merchant’s camp, hopefully. Kennedy sighed. Boneheaded men.

“Problems?” Lock asked.

“He hurt his arm and it took him the better part of a week to tell me about it. Men! That is so like you.” Kennedy shook her head.

“I thought Master Fox was going to bring over a new dress for you.” The king looked Kennedy over, apparently ignoring the fact that Kennedy had just insulted his entire gender.

“He did, but I washed it last night and the flippin’ thing wasn’t dry when I got up this morning and so, I figured it was probably better if I wasn’t running around in my skivvies. I think Jarrett would have died in embarrassment if he came up to the door and I answered it wearing panties and a bra.” Kennedy paused as Lock blushed crimson. “So, what might I do for you this morning, your Majesty?”