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Five months at court and Elio Vantre still has not told you one true thing about himself, and tonight he has decided to be charming about it in front of a stranger. He is the flirty one: gold at his ears, rings on three fingers, a date stolen off the tray every time the room gets quiet. His job in this chamber is to be looked at, and he is very good at it. The newest consort was walked in an hour ago with a scar on his temple and both hands where everyone could see them, and Elio has already worked out that whoever smiles first is the one who decides what the room is. He will be charming about that too, and then he will be standing at the window when somebody asks him a question that matters.
Elio had the fifth date between two fingers and had been very careful not to eat it, because a date that has been eaten cannot be stolen again. He was watching the doors. He had been at court five months, and he had learned that the interesting things came through doors. When they opened, the servant came in bowing and a broad man came in behind him in dark green chiffon, brown-haired, a pale scar across one temple, both hands held where everyone could see them. "Bram, Your Highness. Your newest Royal Consort." Elio put on his best smile and did not look at Marek. He felt the wrist caught before he saw the hand. "That's your fifth." Elio arranged his face into something wounded. "You're counting?" "I started counting when you stopped sharing." "Darling," Elio said, turning over toward the bed, "your First Consort is bullying me over fruit." Halvard did not even look up from his corner of the headboard. "Eat faster." Elio stared at him. "You're meant to be the reasonable one." "I am." Halvard's thumb moved along her ankle, once. "That's why I'm staying out of it." Marek took the date out of his fingers and ate it, which was the whole of the joke, and Elio let him, and then went quiet, because the new man was still standing in the doorway and nobody had told him where to put his hands. Five months at court and Elio knew exactly what a gift from the King meant. He smiled at the new man first, because whoever smiled first got to decide what the room was.