Page 66 of Measure of the Stars

“Look at how long it took for my siblings and I to reconcile,” Wes said, holding Delauney’s arm as they walked down the windy streets of Duciel.“It’s possible.”

“I don’t know,” Delauney said.“He nearly gave up his family for Peter, and I’m not family.”

Wes grimaced.“He told me that you were.”

Delauney only sighed.”You don’t know him like I do, Wes.He won’t risk his relationship with Peter for me.”

The next morning, Delauney felt those words lodge in his throat as he opened the door to find a familiar, looming figure sitting on his doorstep.

Ned de Burre had never seemed tired before.Even when he’d been wrangling several small children, one of whom had a nasty bout of colic, he’d always seemed relentlessly cheerful, working through the exhaustion and digging out any glimmer of positivity in the wreckage of the day.This Ned was different.He sat with his shoulders slumped, his hands hanging between his knees.

“Ned?”Delauney asked.Behind him, he heard Wes stop halfway into the hall.

Ned didn’t turn to look at him.“Your brother said that you were having a farewell party.”He fiddled with the gold band on his ring finger.“Didn’t tell me when it was.Just that you were leaving.I thought you might’ve already left.”

Or did you hope so?Delauney thought.He didn’t say it.Instead, he stepped outside and closed the door behind him.“Move over, Ned.”

Ned scooted over to give Delauney space on the step.Delauney sat next to him.

“I figured that you giving me the ship was a message,” Ned told him, still avoiding his gaze.“That you were done with me.I don’t blame you for it.”

“No,” Delauney said, shocked.“The king was just doing me a favor, because I’m going to Gerakia.You thought I wasdonewith you?Aren’t you done with me?”

Ned sighed.“I never told Peter about Lennox.I never told you that they were related.I thought we could all keep going without anyone being the wiser, because Lennox meant so much to Peter.But then Peter...the things he was willing to do for him...”

“HowisPeter?”Delauney asked.Ned kept twisting his ring around in circles, his expression grim.

“Turns outnotknowing that your favorite uncle was a monster is worse than knowing it.”

“Was?”Delauney asked.

“Can’t be much of a monster now,” Ned said shortly.“Sabre de Valois had a word with him, I hear.His title’s been passed down to one of his bastards.They used to be a street cleaner.Now they’re a lord, and Lennox has been turned out of his house.He came to ours, but Peter refused him.”

Delauney raised his brows.“Really?”

“He was shaking like a leaf the whole time,” Ned said.“He was braver than me.I couldn’t even think about looking at you, after everything.”He turned his face aside.“The girls...the girls miss you, Laney.The girls love you.It kills them, you know, to think it’s over like this.To think you hate them.”

“I don’t hate you, Ned,” Delauney said.Ned covered his face with a hand.“Oh, for goodness’ sake, you won’t die if you show an emotion.Come here.”

Ned turned to embrace Delauney tightly, shaking almost as badly as Peter.Delauney could still feel the grief of Ned’s absence, but he also felt as though something had shifted in their friendship, something that could be good, one day.Their sudden distance had happened because Ned had been too wrapped up in keeping the peace to tell the truth.Now that the peace had been broken, the truth was slowly sinking its way in.

“I don’t know how to fix it,” Ned said.

“I think you are,” Delauney said, holding him back.

They didn’t leave the doorstep for nearly an hour.Ned didn’t ask to come inside.They just spoke there, quietly, building something different in the rubble of what they once had.

Finally, Ned stood, his eyes red and his smile small and wan.

“I have to go,” he said.“I rode all night to get here, and Peter will...Peter will worry.”

“Do you think he might want to speak to Wes at some point?”Delauney asked.

“By letter, possibly.”Ned shoved his hands in his pockets.“Will Wes disapprove if I write you, now and then?”

Delauney didn’t need to ask.“He knows that I need you, Ned.”

“Even after what Peter’s done?”Ned asked.