Achilleas realised quite quickly he should have led with the fact that none of what had been alleged was true. It struck him the moment her mouth fell open in shock, and then again as she stared at him, and the truth of it was practically beating him around the head by the time her eyes had narrowed into a decidedly unhappy set. It was not an expression he liked being on the receiving end of.

“No! Of course not!” He was quick to reply, though perhaps more confident in his answer than he had been at very first. Though by no means a promiscuous man, Achilleas was still a man, and eight years ago he hadn’t had Briseis warming his bed. It would have been idiotic if he hadn’t at least considered the possibility that might be truth in the child’s story. Though the list of people he’d shared a bed with was hardly lengthy, he hadn’t witnessed every single one of his bed partners drink the tea that would prevent such happenings. It could have been true. But he wasn’t going to reveal that to his betrothed, and Achilleas frowned a little as she asked him again, interpreting it as doubt in his assurances.

“No. I promise you, Theodora, I wouldn’t sit here before you and tell you otherwise unless I was certain. I had the boy followed, and he eventually confessed that he’d been put up to it...just someone’s poor idea at a joke I suppose.”

She’d asked him who but Achilleas didn’t answer. He still hadn’t quite settled on how he was going to handle the matter, and there was no wisdom in implicating Nikos until he’d decided that. Had things been less unsteady already he might have marched straight round there to smack the smug smile off Condos’ face, but with the pressures of everything already stressing the relationships between the royal houses he knew better than to risk further upset. He would bide his time, and the opportunity to pay Nikos back for his idiotic manoeuvrings would present itself. And he’d remember every instant of this painful conversation when it did. Shaking his head slightly, he reached for Theodora’s hand as he went on, attempting to reassure her.

“I wouldn’t have raised it at all were it not for the worry that you’d hear talk of it and think I had been hiding something from you. It’s been addressed. Krysto and Lady Evangelina were a great help, and there really isn’t any need for concern.”

If Theodora knew then there was really no damage that even whispers could do, his only worry had been in it reaching her ears somehow and causing problems before their impending wedding. Already bearing the brunt of his father’s irritation following the senate meeting, he had no desire to tempt him to enact whatever ‘consequences’ the General had threatened those weeks ago when Achilleas had first talked to him of marrying Theodora. With his blue eyes settled rather searchingly on the beautiful face of his betrothed, he tried to gauge how she was receiving his words and hoping they’d been enough to settle the matter. He decided a verbal confirmation would probably be better.

“I apologise for even having to trouble you with such talk, Theodora, but I hope I have put your mind at rest?”

He was glad when she seemed to take him at this word, not quite sighing out his relief, but there was a definite drop in the tense line of his shoulders. In a habit he’d been unable to shake from his childhood, Achilleas hated to disappoint, he didn’t enjoy thinking others were displeased with him. He particularly didn’t want to think Theodora displeased with him. Frowning slightly at her next words he gave an uncomfortable shrug, not really wanting to get in to it.

“ Who can understand what some people find amusing. The important thing is no harm done”

Which was markedly more relaxed than he had been about it at the time, but a few days had passed and his initial anger had faded to a dull burn that would keep for when the time was right. He glanced at Theodora when she brought Emilios into it, not entirely pleased that his brother’s reputation was so well known as to be brought up in the context. He wished the younger would learn to curtail his women chasing. He thought he’d settled down of late and might finally be outgrowing it but perhaps not, Theodora probably more likely to hear whispers of it than he.

‘Thank you for telling me, though. You were right to come to me first’

He nodded slightly in agreement only to open his mouth and close it again as she suggested that she might have had sharper words for him had he not done so. Achilleas looked at her seriously. “I would hope you’d offer me the benefit of the doubt if you were to hear unflattering things about me” he said, sounding a little put out. “You know me well enough by now surely to afford me that courtesy?”

He blinked at her next words,for they certainly fell close to the bone though he didn’t believe she meant them maliciously, and so Theodora received a quick,tight smile.

“None that are not already common knowledge” he replied, and then to reassure that he had not taken any grave offence “ It’s fine”
It wasn’t, but Achilleas had long had to resolve himself to the public nature of his father’s indiscretions and it wasn’t a subject he was going to discuss with the woman before him. The important thing was that he’d delivered the news he’d come to tell and it seemed that Theodora was not going to hold it against him.

“Perhaps we can salvage something from today other than uncomfortable conversation?” He asked, looking at where their hands were joined before his gaze lifted back to her face “ A walk in the gardens? If you are not otherwise engaged?”