Chapter 24: Twenty-Two

Dauntrey House held four hundred candles again on the ninth of April, a year later.

The king came, which was new.

Dorian Wyke had worn the crown since the autumn, awkwardly.

He arrived at ten with a physician on his arm and a lemon tart in his pocket.

"Tobias," he said, with the dignity of the realm.

"No tarts at court."

"I have done nothing," said Tobias, chewing.

The duke received them at the top of the stair.

Leander would be twenty-two at midnight, but he already looked as though he had left something heavy at the foot of it.

His hair was longer and his shoulders had filled out.

The ring on his right hand, a thin silver band set with a grey stone, matched the one on Corwin's.

The house-spouse of the Duke of Dauntrey was not required to carry a tray.

Corwin carried it anyway.

"It's tradition," he told the housekeeper, who had been forgiven and put in charge of the keys.

"It is superstition," said Leander, kissing his jaw in front of two hundred guests.

At half past eleven Corwin wheeled the toast in.

He put the third glass of the Dauntrey red in the king's hand.

"Your Majesty will honour the house?"

Dorian laughed aloud.

He lifted it and drank it off.

The hall cheered, and Tobias patted his back.

Leander looked up at the clock over the gallery, and his lips began to move.

Corwin stepped to his side and put his gloved hand in Leander's, in front of everyone, and said, very low, "I'll count."

"You always say that."

"I always do."

The great clock began to strike, and Corwin counted every stroke aloud under his breath.

On the twelfth the echo died away.

The Duke of Dauntrey stood in the candlelight of his own hall, holding Corwin's hand, in the first minute of his twenty-second year.

A cheer broke over them like a wave.

Leander did not move.

He was white to the lips, and tears were running down his face, and he was smiling.

"Happy birthday, my lord," Corwin said.

Leander laughed, and it came out wet.

Then he turned his face into Corwin's shoulder in front of the king and half the peerage.

Nobody in the whole hall looked away.

They left the guests dancing.

In the bedroom Leander shut the door and leaned on it with his head back and his eyes closed.

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