Mantheria’s lips twitched.Her sister had been anything but gentle.Or rather, she’d forced them to have a difficult conversation that Mantheria hadn’t wanted.But at this moment, she was grateful.“She wasn’t.But Aunt Frederica is right.Shall we all go back to the party?”
“Yes,” Andrew said, grabbing his mother’s hand and then Frederica’s.“You’ll never believe it, but Aunt Becca and Uncle Phineas haven’t stayed for their own wedding breakfast.We waited and waited to start, but when Grandpa sent a servant to find them, they were gone.They’d escaped in his carriage!”
Covering her mouth with her free hand, Mantheria feigned surprise.“Shocking!”
Andrew nodded in agreement.“But more cake for me.”
Frederica winked.“And me.”
“After the meal, Sunny said that he would teach me how to shoot a bow and arrow,” Andrew continued.“Did you know that he took first at Oxford in classical studies?Uncle Wick told me.And then Sunny offered to tell me all sorts of stories about the Romans.He’s read Homer in the original Greek and Virgil in Latin.Can you imagine?”
Unfortunately, she could, for she had read his beautiful translations.
“You don’t say,” Frederica said.“I suppose you’d best work twice as hard on your Latin with your governess so that you too can take a first in classical studies like Sunny did.In addition to attending grammar school in the fall.”
“That’s a good idea, Auntie.”
Frederica looked over Andrew’s head at Mantheria and said pointedly, “Allof my ideas are good ones.”
Her son missed their exchange entirely and continued on merrily, “Did you know that Odysseus shot a bow and arrow to win his wife’s hand because he was disguised as a vagrant at the time, and she didn’t know who he truly was?Queen Penelope set an impossible quest for her suitors—they were supposed to shoot an arrow through the loop of twelve axes.And Odysseus did it.Sunny said that we should probably stick to targets today and work our way up to shooting through axe loops.”
Trying to suppress a smile, Mantheria said, “It does seem sensible.”
“And did you know, Mama, that Odysseus had a son named Telemachus, who helped him slay all of the unwanted suitors that tried to force his mama to marry them, and they ate all of their food?”
“If they ate all of the food, especially the cake, they deserved to be slain,” Frederica added, her mouth serious, but her eyes were dancing.
Again, Andrew missed the nuances and readily agreed with her.“Yes.But Grandpa says it is not good manners to stab your guests after dinner.I wonder if it is all right to do beforedinner?Should I ask him?”
“Definitely,” Frederica said with another wink at Andrew.“And perhaps your mama could ask Sunny to tell her the story of Queen Penelope’s suitors.”
“Yes, Mama.You should.It is very interesting.”
Raising her eyebrows, Frederica echoed, “Very interesting.”
Although she was not a classical scholar, Mantheria was well aware of what her younger sister was referencing.“Then I shall.”
They entered the castle through a side door and walked together to the great hall, where there was a massive table with over one hundred chairs.Andrew tugged on Mantheria’s arm, and they sat down at the closest pair.Across the table, her eyes met Sunny’s.His crooked nose twitched, and then he grinned at her.Mantheria’s entire body thrummed with awareness of him.
Swallowing down her fears, Mantheria smiled back.
24
She was smiling at him.Sunny did not know why or how, but that didn’t matter.Mantheria was smiling at him for the first time since she turned down his offer of marriage.Surely that was a good sign.And he’d taken Wick’s advice to fix his interest with Andrew as well.If he were lucky, Sunny wouldn’t just be marrying Mantheria.He would also become Andrew’s stepfather, a position that he had no idea how to fulfill, but by providence, the lad was obsessed with stories from the classics, and Sunny knew them all.
Including the one about never trusting a Greek bearing gifts.
Sunny had brought a Trojan rocking horse as a wedding gift for Becca.Only Wick had understood its significance.Odysseus tricked the Trojans by giving them a large wooden horse, and when they brought it into their city, hidden inside the horse were Odysseus and other great Greek warriors who conquered Troy.Like Odysseus before him, he planned to siege Hampford Castle—or at least, Mantheria.
After the sumptuous feast, Sunny got to his feet and walked around the great table to where Mantheria and Andrew were sitting.They stood up when he arrived and moved back and forth in place as if unable to stay still.Mantheria bowed her head politely, and Andrew started talking faster than Achilles chasing Prince Hector around the walls of Troy.“Mama said that she wanted to hear all about the slaying of the suitors.I told her to ask you to tell her the story.She’s very interested, and so was Aunt Frederica—but she kept winking at me for some reason.Perhaps there was something in her eye.But I shall go and change out my best clothes into some of my everyday ones so that we can go practice our bow and arrow.”
Sunny opened his mouth to answer, but his best friend forestalled him.
“Why don’t Uncle Matthew and I start your archery lesson while Sunny tells your mama the story?”Wick said.“Then he can join us in our manly sport later.”
“Frederica is a better archer than both of you,” Mantheria pointed out.
Matthew, who was standing beside Wick, leaned down and whispered in Andrew’s ear loud enough for them all to hear.“That’s why we didn’t invite her.”