Page 65 of An Archer's Redemption

“I assume you didn’t come here to talk about the royal family. Is there something I can do for you, Father? What do I even call you?”

“Seth, please just call me Seth. I may wear the frock, but I am just a man trying to do his best in a dark world.”

I couldn’t decide if my suspicion rose or fell at that.

“All right, Seth, what can I do for you? We’re trying to wrap up for the night.”

He smiled and ducked his head—again. “I came to see you.”

A flush of heat ran through my arms and into my chest.

“Me?”

He smiled innocently.

I shivered.

“Yes, you. I understand you arenotmarried, as I had . . . hoped. It seems no one in this town has managed to win your hand.”

Another flush.

I dabbed my cheeks with the towel, then tossed it on the table. “I . . . well, no, I’m not married. What would that matter to a Priest?”

He took a step forward, and my heart raced faster.

“It has nothing to do with the Priest, but has much to do with the nervous man standing humbly before you.”

I coughed a laugh. “Nervous? You? That’s not a word I’ve thought to describe you all day.”

His brow raised. “So, you thought about me all day?”

My eyes widened at the net tightening about me.

“Well, no. I mean, yes, I may have. Oh, bother, what do you want with me?”

“I would very much like to have a glass of wine with you and to learn more about the most enchanting man I have seen in all my travels. Would that be all right?”

“Enchanting?” I snorted, though something kept my eyes glued to his. “Well, uh, I have to finish—”

“Two wines, coming right up.” Ma’s voice cut through the tension in the room. “He needs a drink ’bout now, I can tell.”

Seth grinned as Ma chortled from behind the bar. I hadn’t heard my portly mother enter, nor did I realize she’d heard the whole conversation.

“Ma!”

“Hush. I’ll finish up. We wouldn’t want a man of the cloth—whatever cloth that is—to stand around waitin’, would we?”

I rolled my eyes. “I suppose I could haveoneglass.”

The thunk of a newly opened bottle slammed onto the wooden table before I had finished speaking. Two glasses appeared a second later.

“Take yer time. He’s off t’morrow, whether or not he tells ya that.”

And with a flourish, Ma vanished back into the kitchen, leaving me staring at the bottle and Seth shifting nervously from one foot to the other.

Later that night, as I lay in bed staring out the tiny window in my room above the kitchen, I thought the stars shone a bit brighter than they had all winter. I leaned forward and squinted at the pinpricks of light as they danced in the darkness, then shook my head at the boy who’d apparently had a little too much wine.

Still, thinking back to the hour or so with Seth, I couldn’t help but smile.

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