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Allow me to venture a guess. Our dear Cillian?"
    Edward shrugged, unwilling to discuss his relationship with the prince. Alaric laughed. "He's been testing his dear papa again, aye? And therefore you. But there's something else, aye? Something at home?"
    Edward scowled, annoyed but not surprised at his friend's insight. "Why would you say that?"
    Alaric's shrug was too affected to be innocent. "Rumor has it you've secured a Handmaiden."
    Edward made a low noise deep in his throat. "The members of this court are lacking in activity if they have the time to discuss my private affairs."
    "So it's true?"
    Alaric's frown left Edward unmoved. "I've no time to constantly train housemaids to properly clean and take care of me. I wanted someone who'd come already prepared." Alaric snorted. "My good man, a Handmaiden is no housemaid."
    "I know that." Edward frowned harder. Alaric would insist on being deliberately obtuse.
    "But that's the only reason you sent for her? To clean your rooms and press your clothes?"
    Edward said nothing, refusing to respond to such a slyly made comment. Alaric reached over to flick the lace hanging in disarray from Edwards sleeve. "If so, she's been neglecting her duties."
    Edward yanked his sleeve from Alaric's all too nimble fingers. "I haven't been home in two days. I've been sleeping in my court apartment."
    "Why?" Alaric seemed genuinely puzzled.
    Annoyed at having to explain himself but knowing his friend would pester him until he gave an answer, Edward said, "Because Cillian's had need of me, and I find it easier to concentrate on my duties when I'm here."
    Because going home to Stillness meant giving in to temptation spurred by the time he spent watching Cillian live out his fantasies.
    Alaric settled back on the sofa, this time propping his feet on the table, heedless of the way his boots knocked the cider jug. "When you have a warm and willing woman at home, waiting to grant your every need? I should think you'd be eager to get home to that. Not to mention how much it costs you. . . ."
    "No more than any mistress would," Edward snapped. "And she expects nothing from me but what we've already contracted."
    "You mean she expects no emotional ties," Alaric said, voice quiet. Edward let out a curse and got up to pace in front of the fire. Having such a longtime friend had its disadvantages, particularly when that friend knew your past and how it affected your present.
    "There's no harm in admitting it, old man. It's well-known that you avoid such entanglements."
    "Unlike you," Edward said, turning, "who breaks hearts left and right?" Alaric's shrug wasn't forced this time. "I do my share of wooing and bedding, but I leave my lovers grateful for our time together, not weeping. Besides, it's also well-known that Alaric Dewan is an exquisite lover but heartless as well, and anyone who accepts my wooing does so knowing a fuck is all they'll get from me."
    "And you avoid liaisons with those who seek to change you?" Edward already knew the answer.
    "It's always to our mutual benefit," Alaric answered without shame. "My lovers know what I am. But at least I'm honest wit them, and they with me. And with ourselves, which is the most important part."
    "You think me dishonest with myself?" Edward would have gone to blows with another man over such a statement, but Alaric . . . well, Alaric had been his boon companion for long enough to earn the right to speak his mind.
    "I think you hide from yourself, Edward. Because of what happened back then." Edward stiffened, though he'd known where this conversation was going the moment it began. "That was a long time ago."
    "Aye, by the Void, eons ago, and yet you still haven't done more than take the occasional company of a doxy to ease your needs!" Alaric shook his head as though in wonder.
    "You're fair of face and form, with a well-filled purse and a good position in the court. Even if you seek not to ally yourself in marriage, surely you could set yourself up with a