Page 67 of An Archer's Redemption

Seth lay still on the paving stones, his limbs strewn in mock-death, as the children danced around him with swords held high, cheering their heroic victory.

Seth peeked up from the stones with one eye, winked, then closed his eye again.

I turned to my new companion and tried desperately to avoid looking at him.

Before I realized it, Seth stood before me, one child attached to his back with her head poking over his shoulder, tongue extended toward me. “M’lord, might a humble monster accompany you on your errands this fine day?”

The older woman flushed at the handsome Priest. Clearly, she’d fallen under his spell. I straightened my back and looked imperiously up at the man.

“Monsters are not welcome in the market,” I said. “But perhaps they may allow a Priest to visit—if accompanied by a lord of respect and renown, of course.”

Seth lowered his head and shook it in mock disappointment. “Alas, I have found no such lord. I suppose I must go hungry.”

I punched his arm, then rose. “Come on, you ridiculous monster, I would be glad of the company.”

I glanced back to catch the older woman grinning from ear to ear.

It took a few moments to extricate Seth from his tiny pursuers, but we made our escape.

“There’s a story for the bards: the Priest and the Innkeeper’s Son Fleeing the Pack of Ravenous Children,” Seth teased.

I laughed and shook my head. Seth’s open warmth contrasted so deeply with my initial impression of the man. He caught me staring at him and raised a brow.

“What? Is there something still clinging to my neck?”

“No. You’re free of knee-high knights.” I grinned. “I guess . . . I just never imagined seeing you roughhousing with a pack of wild children.”

“You envision every religious man hunkered over ancient scrolls in his stone Temple, on his knees, forever praying to his gods or the Spirits, right?”

I gave him a sheepish shrug and nodded.

“That’s okay. It is what most people think, but the Order is different. We are here to help those in need, to be part of the community, rather than simply take from it. Everything we receive, we return. It is a vital tenet of our faith.”

I wasn’t sure I enjoyed the religious turn of our conversation, but I did admire what Seth had to say, and even more the commitment with which he said it. I could see in his eyes, feel in his words, that hemeantit—all of it. I’d encountered priests and monks of other orders, and most of them struck me as hollow, self-serving men who cloaked themselves in beliefs that never transformed into deeds.

This Priest walking beside me seemed so different.

Seeing him with the children, hearing their laughter and witnessing his obvious pleasure in their play, made me wonder if there wasn’t a ring of truth in his words.

“You are doing it again.”

I looked up. “Doing what?”

“Losing yourself in your thoughts. Care to share?”

His gaze was so intense, sobeautiful.

I looked away. “I was just walking through what we needed at the market in my head. That’s all.”

I thought I saw a grin out of the corner of my eye before his head turned to look ahead. “Taming that pack of wild pups was my only appointment today, so consider me at your service, m’lord.”

Chapter 28

Liam

Days turned into weeks, each mirroring the last, with me going about my routine, and Seth finding excuses to accompany me. Ma had taken to saving the Priest a table each dinner and beamed every time he darkened our doorway, racing forward to grip him by the arm and usher him to his seat. She chittered about how happy I seemed these days, and how she credited the Priest for my buoyant mood.

For my sake, I thought my mood was always cheerful and harrumphed at the thought some man made me more so—until Seth appeared in the doorway and my smile widened ever so slightly. The flutter of my heart and flush of warmth throughout my limbs stirred with his gaze, more so now than before.

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