A/N: I think this is the first actual SOTL story I've posted on this forum (I dislike the new categories and therefore have been ignoring them). An AG set at the beginning of POTS.

Also, I'm not Tamora Pierce. If I were, I would not be waiting on Amazon to deliver the new Tortall and Other Lands anthology.

George Cooper knew something was amiss almost as soon as he rode through the Swoop's gates. The guards on duty, the servants at work in the courtyard, the hostlers who took his horse- all their faces shared the same look of heartfelt relief at seeing him home at last.

There was no reason to guess at the cause, he thought wryly, observing the Lioness banner whipping in the wind above the highest tower. This wasn't the first time this had happened. But George also knew that this time was serious, as he had only been gone on his errand two days. It usually took his wife at least a week to terrorize the entire castle to this degree.

His first duty was to stow the reports he had collected in the lockbox in his study. Then he would find Alanna. He walked with purpose through the castle's halls, keen to get to the second task. But when he opened the door to his study he found his six year old daughter Alianne sitting in the corner with a slate and the Book of Mithros in her lap.

"Da! You're home!" she cried as she ran to him. George swept his only daughter into his arms and hugged her to his chest. Even after six years, it always amazed him that he had helped bring such beautiful (and mischievous) children into the world. His children made life at the Swoop worth living even when his wife rode off on missions.

He set her down on the desk and motioned her to stay put as he removed the reports from his pack and deposited them in a lockbox for safekeeping. He carefully positioned himself so he shielded his hands as he unlocked the box. There was a trick to it, one he didn't want his nosy daughter learning. Although she was just shy of seven years old, Aly was already a natural at lock picking and deciphering codes, and George didn't trust her to handle these most sensitive reports as yet. He also knew it was only a matter of time before she figured it out- she was his daughter after all.

Finished, he turned back to the girl child perched on his desk. "Now, youngling, what are you doing in my office? Aren't you supposed to be in the nursery?" He looked around the room for Alan, as it was so unusual to find one twin without the other. "Where's Alan, then? And Thom?" he asked the girl, naming his two sons.

"Ma came home from Corus this morning. She's yelling and throwing things," Aly told him soberly. "The nursery's too close. So Alan and Thom and me went to hide in the stable loft, but I got bored so I came here." She pointed over to her slate and book. "I was writing you a message from the Book of Mithros, Da!"

"Well, why don't you finish that message, then find your brothers and go back to the nursery and Maude," he suggested. "I'll find your Ma."

"Mithros guard you, Da," his daughter told him as he left the room.

It wasn't difficult to find Alanna. George knew that she if she was scaring the servants so terribly much, he would probably find her trying to hit something. Since he hadn't already met her in the courtyard, he made his way to the keep's indoor practice court. The flow of servants in the opposite direction, each giving him incredulous looks, simply confirmed his suspicions.

Sure enough, he opened the door to find his wife performing a complex sword drill which she ended by cutting into the neck of a straw practice dummy. Every movement and line in her body and face communicated tension and intense anger to George's crooked eye.

Once the dummy was thoroughly "dead," George called softly, "Lass?"

She dropped her sword point and whirled to stare at him. Her face and eyes were red, clashing with her shoulder length red curls. He could almost feel the anger steaming off of her.

"Do you already know?" she asked, her voice clipped.

To others it might have seemed an odd question, but as the kingdom's clandestine spymaster, George was normally well informed about happenings in the capital. But this time, he could only guess from what he already knew- that his wife had planned to meet Jonathan and his training master, Wyldon of Cavall. The second man was more likely to put her in this state, as he was a staunch conservative who hated everything Alanna, the first lady knight in over 200 years, represented. But that was nothing new, and it had never made her this angry before. What on earth had Wyldon said?

"No, Alanna. I was out on an errand and haven't had a chance to read my reports yet. What's amiss? You're scaring the servants. And the children."

She looked sheepish and didn't answer for a moment.

"Has it aught to do with your meeting with the king?" he prompted "And Lord Wyldon?," he added, figuring that was more to the point.

He could see her anger return full force as she called back the memory. Finally she managed to spit. "They put her on probation, George. Probation. After just one year, gods festering Wyldon of conservative jackass Cavall gets to decide if she has the right to continue." Alanna started to pace, brandishing her sword once more.

George's brain rushed to catch up. Then he remembered the purpose of her meeting: to discuss the training of Keladry of Mindelan for knighthood. Ah. That was clearer, then.

"As if he ever turned down any boy," Alanna continued, "Even Baird's lilyhanded bleetbrained son. And," Alanna yelled, now in a towering rage, "Jon forbid me to even talk to her because bloody Cavall said that his monkey brained pig-kissing conservative pals would spread rumors about me magicking her to succeed. Of all the…" At this point, she let out a string of invectives that would have impressed George had he not spent his youth in Corus' slums. All the same, he was glad the children were not in earshot.

"You knew that Jon might have to compromise, lass," he said gently, his voice soothing, trying to reason with her although he knew that she cared nothing for the intricacies of politics. "Wyldon has a good deal of power at court and Jon needs his support."

Alanna grumbled under her breath about conservatives and politics but she stopped pacing and swinging her sword wildly.

"Lass, if the girl is capable then Wyldon will have no choice but to let her continue- now that the king has granted him his compromise, he'll think he will smirch his honor if he is any less than fair," he said. "If for some reason she is not capable then we will simply have to wait for a girl who is, and then Jon hasn't wasted any political capital or made an enemy of Wyldon for no reason." He watched his wife as he spoke- she was slightly mollified by his reassurances about Wyldon but bristled at the suggestion that Keladry, the first girl to want to even try for her shield since Jon had legalized it (not counting Kalisan- best not even to go into that subject with her already in a rage) would not be able to complete a knight's training. It was a touchy subject- although George knew that training for knighthood was not the life for many girls (or many boys, for that matter), saying as much to Alanna at the moment was probably not wise.

More gently he said, "Do you really think Jon will let him fail her if she proves herself? If she deserves to continue and Wyldon still forgets his honor, Jon can use royal power then. So the distinction of one year of probation is in fact somewhat meaningless."

He knew he had made a mistake as soon as the words left his mouth. "Meaningless?" she squeaked, the tone of her voice rising dangerously. "Meaningless?" she repeated, nearly screaming. "How can you even say that? Jon is as good as telling her and the whole kingdom that she's not equal to the boys! The whole devil-blessed point of this was to show them that women are equal to men and Jon is backing down? George, she'll be starting off second rate- if she even agrees to come after that slight. I know I wouldn't."

"That's not entirely true," he cut her off. "I know as well as you that you often thought you were second-best because of the guilt of the deception. It made you work harder to prove yourself." Alanna glared at him, purple eyes blazing, but George saw that she also bit her lip to keep herself from yelling again. Years of marriage had taught them the contours of each other's fighting styles- in this case, she knew he was right but was not willing to concede just yet.

When she had reigned in her temper, he continued, "Lass, if this Keladry proves herself against every obstacle without assistance don't you see that that will be the best outcome of all? If Wyldon of Cavall, the conservatives' standard bearer, judges that she is fit," he paused to grin as he considered the effect "Now that would be a right coup. And if she has even half the determination you had at that age, lass, she'll have nothing to fear from Wyldon of Cavall or any of them."

Her gaze became less like steel and she sighed and looked away. When she finally spoke her voice was much gentler, almost as it had sounded when they sat in the Dancing Dove during her days as a squire and his as the Rouge. "George is it so wrong that I want to help her? She'll be alone- I alone know how difficult it was, to always be comparing myself to the boys and thinking I was less than them… She will be there among all the conservatives' sons, and you know that Wyldon has allowed bullies to develop. Roald doesn't have Jon's command over the pages. She'll need support and she'll have none. And Jon's forbidden me to talk to her, help her…"

George crossed his arms over his chest and raised an eyebrow. "You are a silly lass. Why in the name of all the gods wouldn't you be able to help her?"

She looked up at him, confused. "But Jon ordered…"

"He forbade you to talk to the girl, yes. But there are other ways of helping a person than talking to them." He grinned slightly, gesturing at the wounded practice dummy. "Especially if you're like this- Mithros knows you might scare the girl witless. What if you show your support in a subtle, more useful fashion?"

Alanna did not react to his teasing. Her eyes were blazing again, but with an entirely different light. "What other ways?" she asked.

"Think, lass. What, besides companionship and teaching, was the single most important thing your friends did for you before you were knighted?"

Alanna thought for a moment, her forehead wrinkling. Then her eyes fell to the sword in her hands. "They outfitted me," she said slowly, considering. "On my eighteenth birthday, they gave me mail and gear and tack for my adventures. Some of the gear saved my life more than once. And it gave me confidence and showed that they loved me, even though I was going away." She looked up at her husband, unsure.

"Not to mention Myles took you as his heir and helped you pay road expenses."

"You're suggesting… that I take her as my heir?" she asked, confusion clear in her voice. "But we have children…"

"No lass, I'm not suggesting you disinherit our own sons and daughter," he said, laughing slightly. "They'd have something to say to that, for certain. Besides, that kind of thing would cause even more uproar and rumors than you simply talking to her and so would probably be best avoided." She groaned slightly at his teasing tone. "But," he said, more seriously, "especially if you go about it quietly, nothing is stopping you from acting as a benefactor to her. Mithros knows Fief Mindelan isn't rich, with all the children they have, and this Keladry would be scraping by as a youngest daughter at any rate."

Alanna looked thoughtful. "But how will I keep this a secret? You know everyone says the palace is so full of gossip the walls would fall over if they stopped. And I'd prefer not to go back to the palace. Politics or no, Jon was completely out of line to give me such an order."

He went up to her and slung his arm around her shoulders. "You know, my dear, you are married to an expert in these kinds of matters. Pick the gifts, then leave it to me and no one will be any the wiser." He put his hand in the small of her back and started guiding her toward the door.

"A good dagger," she said absently, sheathing her sword. "And a whetstone. That will be first. A page uses those every day."

"Well, then, we'll have to have my agents visit Raven Armory and see that its delivered the first day of classes," he said brightly, naming the best armor makers in the realm. "Nothing but the best for the second female page in two hundred year." He kissed his wife's cheek.

Alanna smiled suddenly, a satisfied glint in her eye. "I'll be helping her, and it will be right under Jon's nose."

'For a time, at least. Jon keeps and eye on such things and he's not slow on the uptake,' George thought. However, since the idea had brought a flicker of his wife's good mood back, he didn't say it aloud. He had an interest in that good mood after all.

"You know," he drawled. "There is one good thing about you scaring away all the servants."

She threw him a playful glance, recognizing his tone. "And what would that be, laddybuck?"

He turned to face her. "They're like to think more yellin' is fighting," he said earnestly. "So you won't have to mind yer manners when you welcome me back proper."

Alanna's eyebrows raised and she started to give the customary, "Oh, is that so?" Instead, George stopped her with a long, sweet kiss before leading her away in the direction of their rooms.