Originally, my plan was to have a romance between Pela and Tancred, but I reconsidered that once I got two stories into the Lyte Brigade and never really had them directly interact much or display that much chemistry.
Still, I think I would like to have Pela find a nice boy at some point.
On the other hand, Amara and Nolan is pretty much the one romantic plot arc I intend to write for my characters. To the point that I basically consider it their destiny to end up together.
Egeria hasn’t ever been in a full-length Realmgard story yet, but I’m liking the idea of her and Tancred as a couple, at least in theory…
“Cousin Amy,” Egeria says. “I got a question.”
“Yes? Amara asks, looking up from her Krimson Katja book.
“That friend o’ yours, from the Lyte Brigade, Tancred,” Egeria says bashfully. “Is he available?”
“Available? To hire? Why would you want to hire just him and not the rest of us?” Amara asks.
Egeria shakes her head, making her dark hair dance.
“No, Cousin Amy,” she says. “I’m askin’ if he’s… you know.”
“I’m afraid that I don’t know, Egeria. I’m quite sure I have no idea what you’re saying,” Amara replies.
Egeria sighs and rolls her eyes in exasperation.
“Cousin Amy. I’m askin’ if he has, you know, a lady friend,” Egeria explains.
“Well, he does seem to get along with the women of the Lyte Brigade, I suppose,” Amara says. “I’d really considered him more a colleague than a friend, but his heart is in the right place. Falcata and Pela get along with him. Now, Matilda doesn’t, but she’s like that with everyone.”
Egeria sighs again. She buries her face in her hand.
“Ugh. Cousin Amy. Yer not listenin’ to me!” she groans. “I’m asking you if your friend Tancred is single.”
“Why did you just say so?” Amara asks.
“But I done said so,” Egeria insists. “I been sayin’ so this whole time, Cousin Amy!”
“Ah,” Amara says.
She falls silent for a long, thoughtful moment.
“But why Sir Tancred?” she asks at length. “You’re a Valda, Egeria. You could have any eligible bachelor in Porthaven — and I’m sure any number of the less scrupulous ineligible ones who could be induced to put aside their current wives.”
Egeria blushes
“Gosh. It sounds so darn sordid when you say like that,” she mutters.
She looks resolutely at her cousin.
“And besides, I ain’t lookin’ to wreck nobody’s home,” she insists. “If Tancred ain’t on the open market, I’ll leave well enough alone. It’s just that, well, he just seems so gallant and chivalrous.”
She smiles dreamily.
“He’s just like Commodore Haversthorpe from Bridgewalltonshire Priory, ain’t he?”
She smirks knowing at Amara.
“Yeah. You know what I’m talkin’ about, Cousin Amy.”
Amara bashfully wiggles her nose.
“I suppose I could see the resemblance,” she murmurs.
“Besides,” Egeria says. “I don’t know why you gotta make fun o’ me like this, Cousin Amy, just because I’m going sweet on a fine, upstanding young man. I seen the way you look at the Captain of yours when you think ain’t nobody lookin’.”
Her smirk grows.
“And that dopey smile y’all get on your face whenever I mention him.”
Amara blanches.
“Absolutely preposterous!” she exclaims. “If you are implying that I have any sort of feelings for Nolan Alexander Lyte beyond the merely professional, I’m quite sure I don’t know what you’re talking about. The very notion that I have daydreams about riding along the beach at sunset on a unicorn in Nolan’s arms is patently ridiculous.
“I didn’t say nothin’ about unicorns, Cousin Amy,” Egeria says smugly. “And besides, y’all seem seem to have gone to the trouble of learnin’ your sweetheart’s middle name, and everything.
“Oh,” Nolan says, frozen in the doorway. “Wow. This was a bad time to drop off those new gloves Amara had delivered to the pub…
Oh, Amara and Nolan, you two really are perfect for each other…
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