The room reeked of cigar smoke and whiskey. The misty gray cloud that hung in the air made only made the stench worse. Lescelli was rather used to the obnoxious odours by now, but that didn’t make them any easier to tolerate. She’d long since abandoned the ideology they’d tried to drill into her from a young age – that her place was to look pretty, agree, and conceal her emotions – where they expected her to participate only when spoken to. She didn’t understand why her father insisted she sit through these meetings when he didn’t value her input. He had no intention of allowing her to take over the business, only the husband he was insistent that she find.

She sighed loudly as she watched the two men pour over maps and charts, supply lines and profit charts. They had been arguing softly back and forth for the better part of two hours and Lescelli had grown tired of the conversation. She was interested in the topics themselves but being banned from participating made observing the proceedings incredibly boring. She sighed again. “Why don’t you just reroute the shipping lanes through the Balbash channel? The waters are deep enough and the summer current will shave almost two days off the sailing time, so we can use the sailships, save on fuel, and leave the barges for heavier cargos.”

The reactions around the table caused a spark of amusement to ignite in Lescelli’s gut. Tobin was staring at her with wide eyes and she could see him wringing his hands beneath the table. The poor kid. He might have a year on her in age, but he was a nervous child who appeared to have more scholarly than business or military dreams. She pitied him a little, though just a little. His father had glanced up and had his brows furrowed and his lips parted. She respected him just a tiny bit more that he seemed to genuinely be pondering what she had said. She was almost willing to forgive his confused expression that indicated he didn’t understand how she had known to say something with potential merit.

Her own father, meanwhile, was glowering at her from beneath deep browline and the dip of his lips were twisted into a harsh scowl. He looked like he wanted to yell at her but just didn’t want to make a scene. Lescelli flashed him a smirk that she then masked with a neutral expression before the others saw. Her father’s skin darkened to a reddish-brown shade after she did. It was a satisfying sight.

“Is that viable?” Farren inquired.

Her father shook his head. “Of course not!” he snapped, though his attention never left Lescelli’s face as he spoke. “Lescelli often chimes in without doing her research. The Balbash channel passes right between a chain of savage islets. Unoccupied territory with a population of aggressive, cannibalistic savages fond of arrows and spear catapults. We have tried the route in the past and there are too many casualty risks for any of my captains to brave the trip.”

Lescelli rolled her eyes. “Only two of the islands are populated, father, and can be avoided by keeping to the eastern waters,” she challenged.

Silence descended over the room as her father’s eyes narrowed further and the muscles in his jaw clenched. Lescelli regarded him with a calm impasse in response.

Finally, it was Farren Warinford who shattered the tense atmosphere with a cough and a guttural clearing of his throat. “Tobin, Captain Rizzetto and I have some other, more…delicate matters to discuss for a while. Why don’t you take Lady Lescelli for some fresh air and a more…entertaining afternoon than sitting around discussing mindless affairs.” The tone in his voice suggested it was not a request and Lescelli resisted the urge to scoff and roll her eyes. It was one thing to subtly antagonize her father, and quite another to risk offending a man in power whom she might one day require a professional relationship with.

Tobin rose from his chair and dipped his chin sharply. Lescelli thought the motion made him look like a vulture, bobbing its head as it cautiously slunk towards some carrion, lest a nearby predator notice and attack. “Of course, Sir,” he agreed. Then he bowed to her father. “If you’ll excuse us, Captain.”

Lescelli raised an eyebrow as he came around to her chair and offered his hand out to her. “May I escort you?” he urged.

Lescelli frowned. Frankly, she wanted to stay and listen in on the negotiations and force her father to acknowledge her potential. She wanted to inherit the business, the leadership, the responsibility. She was stubborn and levelheaded and had taught herself to read the room. She could do it if only he would give her a chance. But arguing now would only antagonize her father beyond the line she had come to recognize, and it would make her look like an immature child having a tantrum to Commander Warinford.

With a sigh, she pursed her lips and took Tobin’s outstretched hand. “I’d be delighted,” she replied with a forced pep to her tone. She turned and pressed one of her best smiles onto her face. “Thank you for hosting me this morning, commander. I hope that perhaps you will be willing to include me in further audiences in the future.”

It was a polite response, but it had the added bonus of causing her father’s frown to darken.

“It was a pleasure to have you,” the commander replied. Then his attention turned back to the charts and she felt Tobin tug insistently on her arm.

She relented and followed the younger Warinford out of the library conference room that they had been holed up in. Tobin practically towed her down the stairs, past the books, and out the door. Once out in the sun, Lescelli ripped her hand free of his grasp. “Easy there, racehorse. You are such a spineless fish, you know that? You couldn’t have obeyed faster if you were a trained dog,” she growled.

Tobin scoffed and his posture tensed. “I am sorry if I offended you, Lady Lescelli.”

Lescelli’s eyes narrowed. She had not missed the terse tone he’d tried to conceal. “You need to grow a spine, Tobin. You’re being groomed to take over your father’s position one day and at this rate, all your underlings are going to smell your weakness and trample all over you.”

That finally seemed to break him, because he stiffened and whirled on her. “Because you’re so much better? You’re so hostile that you’re going to scare off any potential business partners in the future because they’re going to be too put off by your bad attitude to consider you anything more than a volatile risk!” he hissed.

Lescelli grinned. Finally. She nodded. “So you do have a bit of backbone in you. Yes, Tobin. I’m obnoxious, I won’t deny it. If I sit silently, I get passed over, and kindness and manners get me nowhere with my father. If I want to be valued as anything worthwhile in my life, I’ve got to be loud and forceful. I have to make people hear me. What about you? Why are you so meek?”

Tobin shrugged. “Growing up as a child, it was just easier to agree and not speak out. I suppose I never truly lost the habit. There’s nothing wrong with being well-mannered.”

“No,” Lescelli conceded. “But there is with allowing people to control you. What do you want to do with your life, Tobin? Truly? Not what your father wants, not what’s expected of you, just what you want? Is it to marry me and replace your father, or do you have dreams of your own?” she pressed. She had not known Tobin long, but he frustrated her to no end. It was like they had grown up under similar controlling atmospheres, but had taken polar opposite routes in life as a result of it. She wanted him to see that he could stand up for himself; that he was no longer a child that required wrangling.

Tobin’s breath whistled out between his teeth. “I don’t want to marry you,” he replied. “No offence, but you would be a terrifying wife and I had hoped for a breath of freedom before entering that sort of commitment.”

Lescelli snorted and clapped him on the back. “I’m not offended. I don’t want to marry you either. And damned right I’m scary. What about the rest of it?”

Again, Tobin shrugged his shoulders. He inclined his head towards her and shoved his fingers through his messy hair. It had previously looked well-groomed, but the wind had tossed it into a clump of dishevelled fly-aways. “That obligation runs deeper than just my father’s wishes. I have to earn his position and it would be an honour, but I would make different choices and pursue different hobbies. I prefer history to business deals.”

“I knew you had the air of a scholar. It’s your life, Tobin. Stop allowing everyone else to run it.”

Again, Tobin shrugged, but he had a distant expression on his face, with glossy eyes and a small frown that twitched in the corners of his hips. He didn’t immediately say anything, so Lescelli slipped into silence with him as they continued to walk down the street. It was mid-morning and the sun was high in the sky and burning pleasantly against her skin. The breeze brought the brine of the ocean into town and Lescelli found it somewhat comforting. She had grown used to being on the open water during so many various business and courtship trips that her father had dragged her on. Really, it was the only place she felt peaceful because at home there were lectures and lessons and expectations, and in strange lands, there were often snobby young lords and soon-to-be inheritors that felt they were entitled to her hand simply for being in her presence. The ocean in-between, however, offered her the freedom and space to just enjoy herself for a little while.

“Captain Rizzetto turned very red when you suggested the Balbash channel as a shipping route. I must admit, I’m not very well-versed in the oceanography of the area. Is that island chain truly that dangerous?” Tobin inquired when he finally broke their silence.

Lescelli snorted and shook her head. “Of course not. When you look at it on a world map, the channel looks like a narrow, winding water path through a cluster of thirty or so islands, but when you’re there, you can’t see one island shore from another in some places. Yes, there are some tribes that hop around a few of the closer islands and they don’t take kindly to the presence of our ships, but the eastern islands are uninhabitable and isolated, and keeping to that side would avoid any conflict at all with the natives. The islands that are close together tend to have sheer cliffs and instead of making the water calm and lazy through the shallows between the landmasses, it acts as a funnel for wind and water currents. I have been there – do not tell my father – and the speeds would cut any journey time significantly. My father just does not like the idea of change, and he likes showing off his steam barges. Our sail ships would make excellent time and cost us far less to run through the channel.”

“It certainly sounds like the smarter business decision,” Tobin agreed. He inclined his head towards her. “I haven’t known you well enough to pass much judgement, but it seems a shame your father doesn’t take you more seriously. It sounds like you have good ideas and know a lot about it.”

Lescelli kicked a pebble and watched it skitter down the street with several noisy clacks as it smacked against the cobblestone bumps. “Yes, well, daddy is far more concerned with his image as a strong, wealthy leader than he is about the actual business success itself or anything his pragmatic daughter might have to say. He just sees me as an airhead and a failure who needs to hurry up and get herself hitched to a strong, powerful man he can trust to take over the isles when he retires or kicks the bucket.”

“It really is a shame,” Tobin sighed.

Lescelli shrugged and kicked another pebble down the street. “It is what it is.”

“But surely your father is not going to wait forever if he is pushing you this hard…will he just force you to get married if you keep turning down all your suitors?”

Lescelli clucked her tongue. “Eventually, yes.”

“What are you going to do then?”

“Either run for the hills or be miserable, I don’t have much of another choice. Look, I still have a little time left, so I don’t really want to talk about it.” Thankfully, Tobin pressed his lips together and said nothing more. Lescelli sighed. She had not expected Tobin to argue or push the matter further – thus far he had been very respectful and accomodating – but she hated to show weakness and vocalizing her fate was a lump too large for Lescelli to swallow.

It hurt that she was not good enough in her father’s eyes. She did not like to show her weaknesses, but all through her childhood, she had taken a deep interest in the family business. She loved the strategy and the charting, and more than anything wanted to spend her days sailing from port to port, and bartering down prices of goods and services with the locals wherever she went. She was stubborn and smart and headstrong. She had mastered physical hand to hand and all the sailing skills of her father’s best captains, and she never backed down from a fight. In all ways, she had all the traits her father wanted in an heir. But she was a girl. And she liked other girls. And for those two things, her father would never look her directly in the eye unless reprimanding her. He would never love or respect her or treat her like an equal. He certainly would not allow her to inherit her birthright.

Instead, he was going to berate her and drag her across the seas – not to travel or to learn – but to force her into one suffocating courting ritual after the next with insufferable suitors that she could never be attracted to even if their personalities weren’t trash. And he would hand down the family business, not to her, but to whichever husband he eventually forced her to wed.

Her gut squeezed and she clenched her jaw. Then she glanced at Tobin. Her father had made it unquestionably clear that she was running out of time and that he favoured a union with the Warrinfords. It was not a guarantee, especially since Tobin didn’t seem interested either, but she wondered if this would be the last stop on her journey. She supposed if she compared him to the other options she had been given, Tobin wasn’t so bad, but that would never convince her to willingly marry him. She was starting to grow fond of the possible friendship, but a relationship remained out of the question.

Thankfully, Tobin seemed just as uncomfortable with the tense silence they had fallen into. “So…where would you like to go?” he stammered awkwardly.

Lescelli coughed to clear her throat, and then shrugged her shoulders and shook her head. “I thought we were going to the docks,” she replied.

“Were we supposed to be?”

Lescelli began to snigger and her mirth grew when Tobin glanced at her with furrowed brows. She took immense pleasure in pointing ahead of them. “I just assumed you were following her and it looks like that’s where she’s heading.”

“Huh?” Tobin followed her finger until his gaze fell where she was indicating. Lescelli eyed him as he seemed to slowly process what was going on. She didn’t think he had noticed that they had been taking the same path as the girl from the bakery, but she was still going to tease him for his obvious crush. The girl was wearing a long, earthy-toned cloak and her wavy brown hair bounced freely against her back as she walked. She was holding hands with a young boy who was practically skipping beside her in a yellow shirt tucked into the waistband of a pair of simple trousers. His mouth was moving and she turned to glance at him, giving both Tobin and Lescelli a side profile of her smile and bright blue eyes.

Glee warmed Lescelli’s gut as Tobin’s cheeks coloured and he choked. “I honestly did not even notice her,” he admitted. His smile fell a moment later to dismay as his brows furrowed. “Besides…if she’s got a kid, she’s probably got a husband too.”

“I don’t remember seeing a ring yesterday,” Lescelli pointed out.

“She might take it off when she’s working.”

“Ooooor, you just have the deduction skills of a pile of rocks.” Lescelli rolled her eyes. Most of her ‘escorts’ were rather thick in the skull, but Tobin was almost adorably naïve. It was clear he had never had a true crush before and it was cute enough that Lescelli wanted to encourage him, despite how she would have liked to get to know the girl better herself. She justified it to herself that if Tobin fell in love with another girl, it might give him the backbone to reject the wishes of both their parents. Then Lescelli could escape one more match and hopefully have a little more freedom for just a little while longer. “Tobin, she’s around our age, that kid is way too old to be hers. He’s probably her little brother or she’s just watching him for the day.”

“You think so?” Tobin’s blush deepened as he looked at her with wide, sparkling eyes.

Lescelli merely snickered and jerked her head. “I think you should go find out,” she suggested. “You totally chumped out on me yesterday and I was so generous that I didn’t even take your place, so come on. I could use some entertainment and I won’t wait a second time, so if you’re going to talk to her, now’s the time.”

“Gee, thanks Lescelli, you’re such a good friend.”

Lescelli grinned and made a shooing motion at him. “Go on, then.”

Tobin blushed. “Alright. I’ll be right back.”

“I’ll keep up,” Lescelli assured him. She kept pace with him just enough as he jogged ahead to be able to observe the interaction.

The closer Tobin got, the redder his face turned and the more he slowed until he was trailing behind the girl. “Umm…hi,” he stammered awkwardly when she noticed and turned to look at him.

Her piercing blue eyes had caution swimming in them and the genuine smile she’d had for the young boy slipped into something more polite and guarded. “Hello,” she replied.

Beside her, the little boy swung around while hanging on her arm with a beaming grin on his face. “Hi!” he called. “Who are you?”

“Ben, do not be rude,” she scolded.

“Oh, it’s alright…Uh…yours?” he checked.

She shook her head. “No.”

Lescelli chewed her lip to keep from smirking. Of course, the kid wasn’t the girl’s son. Her brother or little cousin, maybe even a nephew, but not her kid. If he had been a baby, she might have wondered too, but not a kid who looked six or seven years old. Tobin was a dolt, but at least he wasn’t stuck up. She didn’t imagine he’d ever had a crush before by the way he was acting.

“My mama and papa are back at the bakery. They own it,” Ben stated. He stuck his tongue out and puffed out his chest as he made the announcement. Lescelli grinned. She didn’t engage with them often because she knew her father would take it as a sign of weakness and reaffirm his belief that she needed to be wed and with child as quickly as possible, but she liked kids. Especially ones that were so full of energy and spunk like this little boy seemed to be.

“Ah.” Tobin glanced back up at the girl. There was still the guarded look in her eyes and she was shifting her weight as though she would rather just keep walking.

It pulled a frown at Lescelli’s lips. The girl looked cornered and nervous, and her heart sunk. She was pretty, had a nice smile and a cute laugh, but she was more than willing to pass up the opportunity because of how smitten Tobin seemed. She didn’t want to see his heart get shattered, but it seemed like encouraging him to socialize with the girl might have been a mistake.

“So, Lanna, right?” Tobin forged ahead. She wasn’t sure if he did it because he didn’t notice the girl’s discomfort or if it was because she was watching, but Lescelli wanted to groan at his cluelessness.

“Uh-huh,” Lanna agreed.

“I’m Tobin,” he introduced. He lifted a hand to rub awkwardly at the back of his neck. His cheeks began to colour again as he stared at her. “I’m uh, not sure if you remember me, but I-”

“Came into the bakery yesterday. I remember. Was something wrong with the food?”

Tobin shook his head. “No, not at all, the pastries were delicious. I err, that we,” Tobin paused to gesture at Lescelli “We saw you walking and I just wanted to come to say ‘hello’.”

Lescelli could have strangled Tobin as she watched Lanna glance between them. That one simple statement and Tobin no longer seemed single. Neither of them did. What had either of their parents been thinking? He clearly had not been couched in any form of courting rituals or dating social cues if he was fumbling about like a fool like this. Lescelli made a note to couch him herself. If his efforts didn’t crash and burn irreparably at this moment, anyway.

“Ah…well, hello,” Lanna offered back. She shifted her weight from foot to foot and pursed her lips. “Well, we had best be going now. It was nice to meet you.”

As soon as she began walking again, Tobin hastily jumped into motion and kept up. “Where are you headed?”

“I promised Ben I would take him down to the docks for lunch,” Lanna replied. “We only have so much time before I have to get back.”

“Nu-uh!” Ben protested. “We have all day!” A cheeky grin slid across his lips and he tugged on Lanna’s arm, but his attention was fixated on Tobin. “Mama kicked Lanna out of the bakery. She ain’t allowed back till dinner cause mama thinks she works too much.”

“Ben,” Lanna warned. Her face was now almost as flushed as Tobin’s, and Lescelli could have high-fived the kid in a different scenario. Lanna shook her head. “Anyway, it was nice to meet you, but he needs to eat lunch. Have a good day.”

As she turned to leave again, Tobin finally seemed to run out of steam, because his shoulders sagged. At this point, Lescelli stepped forward and decided to see if she could help him salvage half a chance. “Hey, kid…your name is Ben, right?” she called out.

The kid turned and his head bobbed up and down. “Yup. Who are you?”

“Lescelli,” she offered.

Ben frowned and his brows furrowed together. “Lesley?” he attempted.

Lescelli pursed her lips and shrugged. She’d had worse butcherings of her name in the past. At least this time it came from a little kid and not some noble too boarish to bother learning a foreign name. “Close enough, kiddo. Close enough. Hey, do you like boats?”

Again, Ben’s head began to bob. “Yeah, boats are cool. Hey Lanna, do you think there’ll be any in the port? I hope we get to see some.”

Lescelli’s grin widened. “Well, Tobin and I were actually headed down to the docks too. We were going to go up on one of the decks since it’s such a nice, sunny day. Would you and Lanna want to come?” she suggested.

Ben’s eyes lit up and he began bouncing on the balls of his feet. “You’re going on a ship?! Oh, Lanna, can we go too? Please?”

The look of apprehension on Lanna’s face as she shifted her weight and pursed her lips almost made Lescelli feel guilty for putting her in the situation of having to make the choice, but there was no harm in them coming up on one of the boats.

“Ben, I’m not sure that’s-”

“Please, Lanna?” the boy interrupted. He was smiling up at her with such an eager expression that Lescelli wasn’t remotely surprised when the girl sighed and her posture slumped.

“Alright,” she caved. “We will go and we’ll see about the boat, okay?”

“Yes!” Ben’s excitement led to him yanking eagerly on Lanna’s arm as he tried to take off down the street.

“Ben, slow down,” Lanna urged, though her laughter was back. “You’re going to trip us both.” She caught up to the boy in two steps, hooked her hands under his arms, and swung him up onto her shoulders in a fluid motion that made it look effortless. Though she had seen the girl heft flour yesterday, Lescelli’s brows still raised. Lanna didn’t look unhealthily skinny, but she didn’t have much noticeable muscle either. Her physique leaned more dainty than anything and based on appearance alone, Lescelli never would have guessed she could lift much at all, but there didn’t seem to be any strain from carrying the boy down the street. Her pace didn’t falter at all.

Though they were following closely, Tobin caught her sleeve and Lescelli slowed her pace when he did so they fell a bit further behind. “What are you doing?”

Lescelli cocked her head. “Getting you a little more time, why? I thought you would be happy?”

Tobin shrugged and rubbed the back of his neck. “I just don’t think she likes me very much. She clearly didn’t want to hang around.”

Lescelli pursed her lips. “I don’t think it was you. She was antsy the moment you started to speak and we didn’t have much of an interaction yesterday that could have made her uncomfortable, and she was just as uncomfortable around me. But you were so skittish and flustered I wouldn’t be surprised if that was winding her up more too. I didn’t realize you had such lacking social skills,” she teased. “Alright, you had a conversation, what did you learn?”

“Ben’s not her kid and she really didn’t seem interested,” Tobin muttered.

Lescelli rolled her eyes. “For someone who wants to be a scholar, you’re really bad at noticing details, aren’t you?”

“Well, what did you learn then?”

Lescelli grinned. “She’s not a mother. She’s either part of the family business or has a strong relationship with her employers, she’s a workaholic so she’s either got some sort of financial trouble or doesn’t do well with idle time. And obviously, she’s quite stressed out or overworked if she’s being ordered not to work, so she could probably use a few excuses to relax and take a break. And she’s not a dater.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Just that she was awkward. You weren’t really flirting, but we made her uncomfortable, which means she’s not super social – or at least not comfortable with making new friends or talking to strangers – which clashes quite a bit with her attitude while working. She’s comfortable with a barrier between herself and the rest of the world. Likely means she’s either never dated or had many friends before, or she had some sort of serious or meaningful relationship in the past and was burned pretty badly. She could just be socially awkward, but I doubt it.”

“So basically, I have no chance?” Tobin summarized. He’d stuffed his hands into his pockets and begun to scuff his shoes while staring at the ground.

Lescelli clucked her tongue. “I am saying that you have a very slim chance of something casual. If you want to pursue her, you’re going to have to be her friend and then try to grow something more.”

Tobin nodded slowly as if he was mulling over everything she had said. “And what about you?” he pressed. “You’ve noticed all these things about her in such a short time, you were clearly paying attention. Obviously, you like her too. I don’t want it to be a source of tension.”

Lescelli smiled and reached out to squeeze his hand. The more she was in his presence, the less Tobin grated on her nerves and the more she began to appreciate him. He was good friend material. “I do,” she admitted openly. “I think she’s pretty and kind and that there’s a whole lot more depth to her than we can see, and all of that is incredibly attractive. But Tobin, there is no competition between us. I don’t have the luxury of a long-term relationship. My father would never approve and I don’t have the means to challenge him. All I’m looking for is some fun. A few flings and some companionship before I’m saddled to a marriage I’ll hate. I like her, but I won’t use her feelings like that. I need someone who is just craving the same thing I am.”

Tobin squeezed her hand back. “Well then let's make sure you get to have some fun while you’re here,” he offered. “You’ve done me an immense favour today, let me return it, starting first thing tomorrow.”

“Alright,” Lescelli agreed. “Now go catch up before Lanna runs away or thinks we’re ignoring her. You wouldn’t want her to start thinking you’re already taken, would you?”

When Tobin shook his head and hastily broke into a job after the girl, Lescelli began to laugh and shake her head. At the very least, these next few weeks were going to be very entertaining.