“How is Sapphire doing?” Ann asked Andy when he returned to the wedding planning. “She says she’s fine. She seems a bit jumpy. I don’t think she’s going to stay much longer. She sees so little of Pt’this. She feels she might as well be in Thager where at least she can sleep comfortably. “When are they getting married?” Tylan asked. “I haven’t heard that they are.” Ann shrugged. “I’m sure Sapphire would have said something if they were.” “They’re not?” Tylan looked shocked. “Mom, Pt’this is a dragon. They don’t get married.” “And Sapphire is human. They do.” Tylan countered. “Humans live together without getting married sometimes too. You know that.” Tylan’s face grew hard. “I do. I also know what it’s like when he leaves.” Ann realized how what she had said must’ve sounded. Before meeting Emeton, Tylan had been living with a man. She had assumed it was a permanent arrangement. He had assumed it would last until someone else turned his head. Ann had forgotten about that. “Mother, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it that way. I was referring to Darina and Thailyn.” “If your parents have been married, we would have been able to find your father through the records. We could have at least known who he was.” “There are plenty of people who know Sapphire and Pt’this are together. But I’ll talk with him. I know Kith would have preferred her to get married first.” “Sapphire has been helping out so much, she might as well be planning her own wedding at the same time,” Andy said with a laugh. Ann’s eyes grew big, and she smiled. Tylan smiled too. “A double wedding!” They both said. “Andy, would you mind?” Ann asked. “No, not at all. It would be fun; assuming they’re going to get married and that they want to join us.” “I’ll talk with Emeton about giving Pt’this a little more free time to spend with Sapphire. All these meetings are just nonsense. I think he’s just trying to avoid wedding plans,” Tylan offered. “I do need to go now. I’ll see you two in the morning.” Andy started to say something. “Correction, I’ll see you, Ann, in the morning. Andy, good luck with your lessons.” “Thank you,” he said as she hurried off. Every other morning he had lessons in etiquette and ceremony and all the other things he needed to know to look as polished as any other prince. A prince. That had hit him hard. He had accepted that Ann was a princess, but he hadn’t fully understood. If he were marrying a princess, marrying into the royal family, he would become a prince. He was sure it didn’t work that way on Earth. Ann had laughed when it was finally spelled out for him. When she realized how much it surprised, and even scared him, she became supportive. It helped when she told him how neither could inherit the crown. Most of the nobles would never stand for an orphaned bastard like her on the throne, and where he wasn’t even a citizen and would be joining the family by marrying said bastard, he wasn’t eligible either. She said at best she might be regent if the heir was too young and there was no one else. That was doubtful since there were five siblings before they got to anyone too young. Once the wedding was done, if they chose to stay at the palace, he’d be tutored in politics and the different things he needed to know to help her either as regent or as an ambassador which Ann already was. “You and your mother seem to be getting along.” He observed as they headed to Ann’s room. “We are. We’ve never gotten along so well before. We’ve never been able to agree on so many things. I was dreading this enough, I thought about eloping in Veslin.” Andy raised an eyebrow. “Why didn’t you say so before? We could have saved ourselves a lot of aggravation. We still could.” “Nah, my mother is having too much fun.” Ann shook her head. “You’d think she’s never done this before.” Ann frowned. “I don’t know if she has.” “You have a brother and a sister who are both married.” “Well, Janta did elope, so she didn’t get to attend his wedding. I was in Erilu working on the treaty with the elves when Piena got married, so I have no idea what went on then, though I heard there was a war between the two of them.” “You missed your sister’s wedding?” Ann smiled. “Not the ceremony, just the preparations. I couldn’t have timed that better if I tried.” Andy just shook his head.