Raising a Hero

Chapter 76

In celebration of this book coming out in paperback on Amazon, I'm adding a new free chapter! And here's the link if you're interested! Keep in mind this is just the first half of the story because Amazon printer can't make big books so I had to split it up into two volumes.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DTZ1B7LX

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At Roman's office, I got the 'enter' from inside just as the mother of all yawns hit me, so as I walked inside I didn't see the other occupants until the expelling of excess carbon dioxide had completed. When I did, I froze, a hand still on the doorknob.

Roman had visitors. An older man with salt and pepper hair who looked suspiciously like an older version of Roman and a younger with bright blond that had the same unrealistically bright green eyes.

Roman was standing by his desk, looking rather put together for bright and early at the butt crack of dawn.

"Ah, just in time," he said, gesturing to me. "Lillian, I have two people here who want to meet you. Say hello to my father and younger brother."

Nobles. Nobles. Damn it, I never learned how to curtsy. Ulyssia told me you had to curtsy, but she only gave me brief lessons on how a servant should, not how a lady—wait, it was a bow, yes. Wait, I can! Yes!

By the time my brain had untied itself from that mess of panic and spittle, I'd already managed a hopefully passable curtsy and a brief greeting with my full name. Once I'd straighten, though, the new mess came with where to look. Was it okay to look a noble in the eye? Or was it like looking a lion in the eyes and considered disrespectful? Or is that dogs? Aw hell, I don't do animals. Only chickens. Why couldn't these guys be chickens?

The older man, his father, stood and gave me a calm smile.

"Yes, I've been waiting a long time to meet my son's healer. I'm Duke Harris Lin Dostuve."

He held out a hand.

Oh, so hand shaking was kosher then?

So I gave him my hand and opened my mouth to say something formless and small talkish like 'nice to meet you' even though I would have been just fine never meeting him.

But instead of shaking my hand, he turned it and lightly kissed the back of my hand.

Yes, Roman had done this a while back. But the atmosphere at the time had been rather emotional, since he'd basically did a magical girl transformation from Hunchback of Notre Dame to Adonis. You get a lot of sliding points then. And I'd gleaned something of an idea that this was normal for these noble peeps, something about showing the utmost respect or honor to a lady.

Still, I got the goose pimples.

"I'm sorry, did I startle you?" he said, his polite smile growing a bit wry.

I put a hand to my face. Damn it, had it showed?

In the corner of my vision I saw Roman put a curled fist to his face to hold down his humor. The man deserved a boot in the head for that.

As the father stepped aside and looked to where his younger son sat, I too looked over at the blond with Roman's eyes. He had a short, well trimmed beard that only covered his jawline, so I had missed it when I first saw him. His cheekbones weren't as pronounced as Roman's, and his chin was a bit weaker, which was probably why he had the beard-line. He was a decent looking fellow, with tightened cloth over his shoulders promising pronounced muscles underneath the well-tailored shirt and vest.