Argidir smiled warmly when his son, Amren, managed to arrive at his father's private office a few minutes ahead of Count Dylan DuCoumont.
The young, gangly boy who had left for the Royal Academy a decade ago had grown into a fine young man. In many ways, Argidir felt like his son had received the best of his mother's traits, from his well-proportioned features to his inky, dark hair, while matching the trim, athletic physique that his father possessed in his youth.
As much as Argidir would have preferred to give Amren another few years to roam the kingdom as he had done, it was impossible with the impending Holy War in Lothian. Come the spring, hundreds of lords, knights and their fortune-seeking soldiers would cross the sea, and they would all pass through Keating on their way to the battlefields in Lothian.
