Free Ghosts in the Snow by Tamara S Jones Page B

time left to rule before the burden falls to me."
    "'Burden'?"
    He shrugged. "It's a good deal of work to run a province properly, and not as simple as tax the poor and beat the life out of them. There's a delicate balance between the needs of the people and the needs of the government, and when that balance tips, it must tip toward the people, not away from them. My father works very hard to ensure our people live without fear or poverty and have a chance to improve their lives. When the harvests are meager or the winter runs long, it weighs heavily on my father's soul, as it should. Lord Egeslic has it all wrong, Nella. What he does to the people of Pyrinn is incomprehensible to me."
    His words tugged at her heart, the impossibility of them, the hope. "But you went there anyway, to Pyrinn. Why?"
    He turned his whole body to face her and sat cross-legged on the cushions. "It started out as just another mission. I'd never been to Pyrinn before, and I wasn't prepared for what I ran into."
    "What happened?"
    "The King had heard rumors Lord Egeslic sought illegal items in an effort to increase his power. Aswin and I were sent to meet with a spy my grandfather had established there summers ago. We were supposed to find out how much power Egeslic had acquired and what his true intentions were."
    He sighed harshly. "I didn't know anything about Pyrinn, not a damn thing, and that was entirely my fault. I should have researched the customs before I left, but I didn't. I expected Pyrinn to be like most any other province where I could move around essentially unnoticed. But before I knew what happened, I had broken some law, Goddess only knows what one. All I did was try to pay a bridge toll with a gold crown. I mean, dangit, Nella,
everyone
takes crowns! The toll cost a scepter and I had no smaller change on me, but I had to pay the exact toll or be arrested, and the toll man could not give me change."
    She sipped her tea. "The toll boxes are locked and only the retainers have the keys. Toll roads are horrible. They're an excuse to capture people for the work camps. Even nobles."
    "Exactly. It was ludicrous. The toll man rang a bell and a handful of soldiers came to arrest me. They took my sword and started to drag me off! Since I was on a mission, I couldn't tell them who I was, but they probably wouldn't have cared anyway. All for a lousy scepter I would have gladly paid."
    It all made perfect sense to her, but she knew Risley found Pyrinnian money laws difficult to understand.
    "I escaped from them, but I was late for my meeting with the spy and he had gone. Soldiers were after me and I got on the first coach I saw to get as far away from there as possible."
    "And when you got in the coach, you met me."
    "Yes. I had ruined the whole meeting, lost my horse and my sword, and then the coach was attacked! Never had I failed a mission so badly. In many, many ways it was one of the worst days of my life."
    He paused as she lowered her head. "But it was one of the best, too," he said, reaching for her hand. "If I had paid the correct toll, if I had not been arrested, then sought shelter on that particular coach, I never would have met you."
    She raised her eyes and smiled. "Really? Do you mean that?"
    He grinned. "Of course I mean it. Now I'm not saying that our flight from Pyrinn was an especially enjoyable experience. I hope to never fight bandits unarmed or charge a terrified horse down a collapsing gully ever again. But I wouldn't trade those five days with you for anything in the world. We should have discussed this before. I shouldn't have left you wondering."
    He looked deep into her eyes and said, "I'm not going anywhere, and you'll likely see a lot more of me once the debt is paid. It doesn't matter to me if you're a commoner or a princess. I swear on my life that is the Goddess's truth, and I hope with all of my heart it doesn't matter to you that I'm a noble. I want to spend time with you. As much as you'll allow me."
    She