Snippet #1822419

Valentine shrugged. "Years of practice. My father gave me a lot of physical exercise," he said. That much was true; his father had trained him for war since he could walk, and he was at peak fitness by ten. At least, before everything changed in his life. Since then, he'd kept his fitness up through his work, which was obviously extremely demanding on his body.

"Like I said before, my name is Phoebe, and yours is...?"

"Valentine," he said. "Valentine Arbites." He couldn't tell her his real last name; it would compromise the mission.

"I was planning to go riding for a bit if you'd like, you can come, too, I have an extra horse. If your too tired, I think my mother went into town for the day, you can rest in my room."

He saw little disadvantage to it; he hadn't ridden for some time, and needed practice. Besides, getting to know Pheobe better...

He realised with alarm that he had no logical explanation for his desire to get to know Pheobe. He'd need to think about that later. "Sure, I'll go riding with you," he said. "Try to keep up," he added, with a slight grin.