| "Well, she didn't, of course."
"What?" I said.
"When the professor assigned a chapter to read, she skimmed it once, then she took notes on it as she read it a second time. Then in lecture she just highlighted the points that the professor covered and maybe wrote a few sentences if the professor mentioned anything she hadn't already written down."
"That's... that's brilliant! This is gonna change my life! Uh... That's what you did?"
"Actually, that's what I still do," said Dryden.
"For what?" I asked.
"For meetings, for business, for everything. I like being prepared."
"Oh. Where did you learn to do this?"
"From my mother," he said.
"Your mother?"
"Yeah. And when Meiden happened to give your father any good advice, he probably got it from my mother, too. She was away visiting her parents before the war, so that's why my father's counsel became so... um..."
"Bad?" I said.
Dryden raised his eyebrow at me. "I was gonna say ill-advised, but bad covers it pretty well."
"Oh. Sorry. My diplomacy lessons haven't sunk in yet."
He laughed. "Oh, it's all right. A rose by any other name would still have a great big ole slimy snail on it. There's not much point in trying to deny the family flaws. You keep reading. I'll go arrange to get dinner sent in here."
I kept reading the notes and eventually Dryden came back with dinner. I had intended to keep reading while I ate, but I was still fascinated by this disclosure about Meiden. Was it really true: behind every good man is a really good woman? I asked Dryden, "So it's really your mother who is the great advisor?"
"Well, my father is the one with the charm and the tact. My mother's great advice is often so... um... blunt, that it sounds a whole lot better coming out of my father's mouth. They're a team. If you separate them, then my father is a slick, greedy bastard and my mother's a revolutionary shrew, but together they do good work. And even made halfway rational parents, too."
"Oh. I think I need to get to know your mother."
"You'd like her," he said.
"Why? Am I a revolutionary shrew, too?"
"Hahaha! Am I a slick, greedy bastard?"
I smirked at him. "Hmmm. At first blush, I'd say that you seem to be too generous to be called greedy, but then I wonder... just how slick are you? How badly do you want to be King?"
"Oh, man! I don't at all! There was Marlene and Eries back when I agreed to marry you! I thought I was just getting a beautiful princess. I didn't think I'd have to do any work! MY plan was to retire rich and young and then bop around the world in my airship with my fabulous princess wife beside me, but nooooooooooo! When you figure out what Eries has done to you by foisting all the responsibility off onto you, you're gonna black both her eyes!"
"...Ya think?" I said. He's so cute when he's pissed off.
"Yeah, and I'll help. I didn't want to be Prince Regent; that was just the price of marrying you. I wanted to be a scholar and a world traveler. It's my bad luck that I happen to be good at... all this." He waved his hand, a disgusted flourish.
"Well, you are a scholar, despite all this."
"Uh-huh. And you are gonna be a doctor, despite all this. If you study. Give me those notes and let's see if you guess right." He grabbed the notebook from me and opened it up.
"Guess? What's with this guess?" I said.
"Yeah, yeah." |
