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“Are you worried?”
The queen turned from the balcony, a faint smile on her lips as she faced Lady Virginia. Her skirts scraped across the floor, the stiff fabric making more noise than she cared for, and she decided that she would start her own modifications to fashion soon. She held sway over almost everything else, so why not make a useful change as well as the tedious ones?
“Why should I be worried?”
Virginia laughed. “Because you sent Lord Hawkeye on a mission he might not come back from. No one knows what happened to Stark or where he might be. Most assume that he is dead. Even if he is alive, he must be some place terrible or he would have come back. He is irresponsible, but he has never stayed away this long.”
“You know him better than anyone else,” the queen said. Not even the women Stark had seduced or the men he fought with knew him as well as Virginia did. “I accept your judgment in this matter.”
Virginia leaned against the railing. “I appreciate everything you have done for me, but you should not have done this.”
“Done what?”
“Sent the man you care for most in the world after the man that seduced all the other women in the court.”
Natalia frowned. “The man I care about most? I do not think such a person exists. As for Stark, there are other reasons besides your friendship and affection for him that I have sent men after him. He is an inventor of some renown as well as one of the few officers in the army left. We will need strong forces—there will soon be a siege.”
“Because of our perceived weakness or because of you?”
“Both.”
Virginia nodded. “I understand that, but you fool no one—certainly not me—about your reason for doing this. I am grateful, and I will be even more so if Stark is found alive and returns, but you should not have done this for me.”
“It is not for you.”
Virginia laughed, crossing over to embrace her. “It is, and I know it. I will not pretend otherwise. You have been a good friend to me, and I will be beside you through what comes. I do hope that you have not lost anything because you thought you owed me a debt.”
Natalia pulled away. “I have nothing besides you to lose.”
“That is not true,” Virginia said, laughing. Natalia frowned at her, but the other woman shook her head. “If you do not care about his return, you would not watch for it every day.”