So I've been using my Tall Dark & Bitter mug recently. No particular reason. I'd put away my Christmas mugs, and this felt very Januaryish.
I bought it when I was writing Children of Night. It reminds me of Damian. lol!
That's it, I'm afraid. It's a fairly shallow post.
So, here's an excerpt from Old Sins, Long Shadows. The setting is Seville, in the Fifteenth Century. This is from the night Conrad and Damian first met.
A wry smile curved Conrad’s lips. “Such a petulant little bird,” he said as his gaze swept the room. “Could it be he’s grown tired of his pretty, gilded cage? Is your life here become so drear you long to escape it? Shall I oblige you in this? I could, you know.”
Damian shook his head. “Muchas gracias, Señor. Much as I appreciate your kind offer, to what would I escape? I assure you, this ‘little bird’ is quite content with his life in this cage, as you choose to call it. If it were up to me, I would never leave. Alas, such is not to be my fate.”
Conrad’s eyebrows rose. “Why is that?”
“Oh, what does it matter?” Wandering over to the window, Damian pulled the drapes aside and looked out. Moonlight illuminated the gardens below. Faint strains of music drifted to him on the sweet-smelling air. And, in the perfect sky above, the stars were shining. Only a fool would wish to be anywhere else, he thought as he glanced up at them. Only a fool would ask for anything more than I’ve been given.
“In truth, it matters very little,” Conrad replied from behind him. “Yet, I confess, I find myself to be curious. Speak.”
Damian sighed. “It has been decided that the duke should marry,” he explained, with his back still to the room. “And, soon, if the Crown has anything to say about it. Already, negotiations have begun with the families of several prospective brides. I have been a valued member of the royal household since I was little more than a boy. His Excellency has trusted me, relied upon me, made me privy to his every confidence. Not once in the past few years have I even been allowed to so much as stray from his side for more than a couple of hours. And yet, when that happy day arrives and the entire realm rejoices in my lord’s marriage, shall I be here to see it? No. I shall not. Out of deference to his new duchess, whoever she may be, I am to be sent away.”
Turning again, he smiled at Conrad. “I have, of course, no reason to complain about any of this, nor would I ever dream of doing so. It has been decided this course of action is in the best interests of all concerned and who am I to offer protest? Besides, I am to be rewarded most handsomely for my service here. I am to receive a new title and an estate in the country. It is even likely there will be an advantageous marriage arranged for me as well. And so the appearances will be preserved.”
“All the same, it sounds to me as though you are complaining,” Conrad pointed out. “And why, exactly? What is it that troubles you? This is hardly a tragedy that you have recounted to me. Are you so in love with him you cannot bear to be parted from your master? You’ll forgive my skepticism, but you do not kiss like a man whose heart belongs to another.”
“I have never claimed that was the case,” Damian replied. “I am at His Excellency’s service, nothing more. He honors me with his attention. But, what, pray tell, am I to find pleasing about this arrangement? I am in no way unhappy with my life here and would much prefer for it to continue unchanged.”
Conrad sighed. “Nothing continues unchanged. It is useless to wish for such a thing. The future you have outlined for yourself is far from unpleasant. Many people would count themselves lucky to be in your place.”
Damian inclined his head. “It is as you say. My options have always been limited by my situation. This is hardly the worst fate that could have befallen me. I am not unmindful of that fact. Indeed, I know many people who will be quite pleased. My father will be made happy because I will have increased the family’s fortunes and will at last have done something to bring honor to our name. My mother will rejoice at the prospect of more grandchildren upon whom she might dote. I’m sure even my future bride will find much with which to be content. Not only will she have escaped from an almost certain life of spinsterhood, but she will have her own household to run, a staff to oversee and—always assuming we can contrive to produce them, of course—children to raise. His Excellency, too, will have lost little and gained much since I will, as a matter of course, be expected to host several hunting parties for him each year, during which time I may rejoice in, once again, placing myself at his disposal.”
Filling his glass one more time, Damian sighed. “In fact, as it turns out, the only people likely to be at all inconvenienced are my elder brother—who I will have at last eclipsed—and myself. For I do not wish to spend the remainder of my years rusticating in bucolic seclusion, barred from society, from Sevilla, from this life to which I’m so well suited. I ask you, sir, what am I to do with myself in the country? What amusements do you suppose I shall find there? Shall I read? Take long walks through the mud? Grow things? And the hunting—ay, Dios mio—to go riding for hours through the trees and the weeds, clambering after a pack of yammering dogs! Tell me, what manner of sport is that for any man of sense to pursue?”
Of all the mistakes Conrad Quintano has made, driving Damian away is the one that haunts him the most. He hates the fact that’s he’s hurt the man he loves more than anything. For the sake of the twins, though, Conrad and Damian parent as a united front, a challenge that grows more and more difficult with each passing year. And with Conrad in his weakened state after his kidnapping, it grows more difficult than ever to be around the one man he can’t have.
But an old enemy’s mission to create a dangerous new breed of vampire threatens the twins’ lives, and it’s now more important than ever that the estranged lovers put the past behind them, or everything they hold dear might be ripped apart.
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