Winter's Bees Read Online Free Page B

place.
    There was no turning back now, though. He had agreed, Gilbert had agreed, the emperor had made his decision. Now they would all have to live with the consequences.
    *~*~*
    The College of Science and Technology would be the first of its kind in the empire. It was modeled after the great University of al-Karaouine, where Marcel had just spent the past almost two years studying mathematics.
    The building itself—or collection of buildings, to be precise—had been warehouses before the Marquis de la Marche bought them and the architect Riku Takahashi redesigned the buildings. They now sported glass-domed roofs and beautiful sculpted metalwork that shone in the sunlight.
    When he'd stopped by Gregory's townhouse, he'd been told that the Marquis de la Marches was here. So Marcel climbed the stone steps that led up the front doors and pulled them open, stepping into the main hall.
    The Marquis de la Marche, Sushil Mukherjee, and Lady Yujia looked up from where they'd been studying a blueprint of some sort. The inside of the great hall still looked like a work in progress with scaffolding and worktables everywhere. Marcel ignored all of it as he headed for the group.
    "Marcel!" Gregory was the first to respond, striding across the space and hugging him. "I'd heard you were back. Come to see the new school?"
    "I've actually come to ask about Berti," Marcel said when Gregory let him go. "What happened when I was gone?"
    "What do you mean?" Sushil had come to stand a little behind Gregory, giving Marcel a puzzled frown.
    "I went to see him," Marcel said, keeping his voice even. "Something had happened. He seemed ... sad."
    "It's probably about Tristan," Yujia said, and all three turned to look at her.
    "Yes, probably," Gregory sighed, running his hands through his hair.
    "Tristan?"
    "While you were gone," Gregory turned back to Marcel, "Gilbert fell in love."
    It shouldn't have hurt, physically hurt, but it did. It was like being kicked in the gut; Marcel concentrated on breathing because he couldn't do anything else past the pain in his chest. He'd always known it would happen one day. In fact, it was a wonder Gilbert had not taken a lover before this. Gilbert had always seemed, if not happy then content, to remain single with his books, insects, and Marcel for companionship. It had lulled him into a false sense of security; he had gotten used to a life where even if he could not have Gilbert he wouldn't have to see him with another man.
    "Tristan was Charlotte's aid when he came to the palace, good-looking enough, I suppose, if you like them tall, blond, and heavily muscled, and Berti fell in love."
    "He never said." Marcel's voice came out much softer than he'd meant it to, and he gripped his cane tighter with his good hand. "He wrote to me, letters, so many of them, but never talked about this at all."
    "He was very quiet, shy about it. You know Gilbert. I don't think in the beginning he really believed Tristan was interested, and then he convinced himself that if he talked too much about it that it would all magically go away. But they were really cute together, happy. In the beginning."
    "What happened?" Marcel had a sinking feeling he knew, but he needed to hear Gregory say it.
    Gregory, Yujia, and Sushil all exchanged looks.
    "Tristan left him. They had a fight. I think Tristan cheated, although Gilbert never said. Certainly Tristan said unkind things to him right at the end. Charlotte reposted him to the tower in the northern mountains, and he's not coming back anytime soon."
    "Oh God." Marcel looked away from the three of them. Stupid, stupid he was so stupid. But it hurt so much to think of Gregory with someone else, some lowlife soldier who had gone and broken his heart, no less. Of course Gregory didn't want to be with him when he did not share Marcel's feelings. Not to mention he was still most likely feeling fragile and used from being treated badly by the one and only man he'd trusted to be his lover. Here