Tehr bowed deeply and genuinely to the matron of House Saari.  It seemed they were not quite ready for their audience with the queen and were willing to pass their place in the queue. Such things happened often enough.  Also some times petitioners would cede their time to a higher ranking house or petitioner to try to curry favor, or even to try to gain the knowledge that they might glean by waiting.  However he did not think that House Saari was doing such a thing.<br/><br/><strong>"My heart gladdens to see you again your highness,"</strong>he said bowing even deeper towards the queen, a broad and enthusiastic smile on his face.<strong> "I've missed your royal presence in my life the last week while I was traveling." </strong>Such a greeting would be simpering and overly sympathetic from most.  But Tehr felt it was in keeping with his official station as Royal Consort.  Certainly not overly lewd or even overly familiar, but a good recognition of his station to the queen.<strong> "First let me tell you that things are going well on the trade road that passes through Wynt lands."</strong><br/><br/>He took the time to update the queen on the status of the increasing usage of the trade road that passed through his lands, which was somewhat centered between Londinium and the elvish lands of Wales.  He made sure to mention how the halfling outriders of house Ravos had been occasionally patrolling.  The good will he'd built with the halfling house had caused them to be a much more visible presence across all of britannia.  Under the previous queen, when demi-humans had withdrawn from society much as house Wynt had, the halflings had pulled back into their own lands.  The fact that Tehr had worked out a simple agreement with House Ravos that any bonded Ravos outriders could stable and rest on his own personal lands free of charge had been quite mutually beneficial.  Now not more than two weeks went by without an outrider or two stopping at his family lands, stabling their mounts, and spending a night before heading out on further travels.  That type of additional traffic had only helped enforce the safety of the trade route as a whole, not just along his lands.  While there was a small, but vocal, minority that thought the wider introduction of demihumans into Britanian culture was a bad thing, Tehr couldn't see how such a thing could be possible.  He viewed that as a closed minded and defeatist way of thinking.  Especially considering the half elven servant who was his right hand, the elven duchess he loved, the halfling maid who could barely take his cock no matter how hard she tried, the changeling twins that lived with him one of whom loved his sister, the elven adventurer who seemed content to guard his home, and of course the somewhat mysterious half orcish monk that he'd seen training in his stable.<br/><br/>After finishing his reports on the state of Wynt controlled lands, leaving out the parts about the Dryad seeds, for such was personal information not subject to the ears of the court, Tehr bowed again.<strong>"And now my grace, I present our friend, Duke Caledor.  You are well familiar with his daughter of course here in court, but the duke has returned from the continent with news of his own."</strong><br/><br/>He bowed again slightly and stepped aside for the wounded elven duke who had been waiting patiently.