These were moments she could thank Birdy for. The baby took so much time from everyone, Starling had found it easier to slip away unescorted. Peregrine especially was so wholly distracted by the cherub faced little creature that he hardly harped at Starling about her virgin night.
Sure, they'd been edgy lately. Kite the worse of the two thanks to his caste, but things had settled. The Lady Solveig wouldn't let them go unsettled for long. The queen had swept this way and that all over Reric seeing things put back together. Even Starling had helped, craft put to use in hastily raised infirmaries. Kite had helped with repairs.
What Peregrine had been up to, Starling wasn't wholly sure. He and the queen had had one brief clash, and otherwise avoided each other. Honestly, it was better they did. He was always impossible to deal with after a visit with the lady of Reric.
Starling sighed. Fingers running a length of silk between them. There wasn't a snag to be felt, though her fingertips were turning pink in the cold. She let go and slipped her gloves back on, eyes sweeping the crowd for fussy brothers when someone spoke at her shoulder. Twisting, Starling looked up.
And up some more. Oh why, why, why Mother Night, did all these bedamned men have to be so tall? Offended, Starling frowned, cheeks rosy, and lips dry with cold, she looked very much like a petulant child. All in the face of a kind offer, which took a moment to sink into her brain. Glancing at the offered dish, Starling blinked, and blushed.
"Sorry," she mumbled, tucking into the fur lining of her hood. Peregrine and bought the coat for her. Kite had probably told him which one. She eyed the male shyly. Men didn't just offer you things in the middle of the market for no good reason. They always had a reason. And agenda. She knew that, thanks to her brothers.
Frozen by indecision, Starling pulled her hood down, hair spilling free, and tried to buy herself some time. "Why have you?" She asked. It sounded less suspicions, or insulting, than asking why he'd offered it. Was it spoiled? Poisoned? Was he trying to use it as some sort of bait for nefarious ends? Or worse, sexual ones? Starling had had worse courting techniques used on her.
Though she really enjoyed the chocolate sort. This was much meatier than that. And very awkwardly presented.