Page 131 of I Ran Away to Evil 3
CHAPTER 72
My Favorite Part of the Courtship Ritual
Julian
Tully’s mouth dropped. “Did Miss Gerda just blow you a kiss—”
“Yes.” Julian patted his paladin on the shoulder. “Don’t worry; you’ll get used to it.”
Then he left Sir Tully standing there in shock as he marched off toward Fell. Sir Tully hurried to catch up, before going into a full-volume interrogation that Julian mostly ignored. His party members—Visha, John, Pram, and Jeffry—were all sitting in the Piping Gorse, each drinking their morning beverage of choice.
Visha stood when she saw them. “Your Grace!”
The relief in her voice made him feel a pang of guilt. “Visha. I hope everything was fine in my absence?”
She nodded. “Yes—”
“It was not!” Jeffry cut in. There were bags under the half elf’s eyes. He looked like he’d been run over by a stoneskin wombat and hung out to dry for three days with no food or water.
“What happened?” Julian waved at Visha to sit and pulled up a chair himself. Pram handed him a menu.
“My sister,” he stressed, “wasveryput out that you didn’t have dinner with us last night.”
“She’s gonna be even more upset when she finds out His Grace and Miss Gerda are dating.” Sir Tully dropped the news without a thought as he waved at a waitress across the room. The waitress smiled and headed their way as John held out his hand to Jeffry. The viscount had a pained expression as he dropped a small coin purse into the rogue’s open palm.
Julian said nothing to refute the claim, only addressing the waitress. “I’ll have a glass of water, please.”
“Flying pork and potatoes for me, with rye,” Sir Tully added, handing over his menu.
“I’ll have the deep-fried shrimp and wild rice omelet.” Pram smiled at the girl, showing off slightly pointed teeth. She blushed and accepted his menu, giving the selkie an obvious look over.
Julian wondered how he could have missed seeing these kinds of things before now.
“I’ll have the cinnamon stone oats parfait,” Visha said.
Jeffry simply asked for a refill on his tea. The half elf had probably eaten at home already. The waitress dropped off their orders with the kitchen and came to refill all of their drinks.
“So, you and Miss Gerda?” Pram asked Julian, curious. “Does that mean the plans have changed?”
“Of course the plans have changed!” Jeffry groaned. “We aren’t even supposed tobehere. We should’ve made it to Borrow Grove last night and set up camp there—”
“I, for one,enjoyedsleeping in a real bed last night,” Visha said, sipping her tea.
Sir Tully slumped. “I wish.”
“Our new plan,” Julian told them, “is to reach Borrow Grove this evening.”
“Wait, why this evening?” Jeffry turned on John. “Is there something in the way?”
John shook his head, his emotionless face betraying nothing.
“Then why don’t we ride hard for the Northern Fortress? We should get there only a little bit after midnight if we push,” Jeffry argued.
“We’ll take the extra day and use it as an opportunity to practice traveling with Miss Gerdawithoutmonster attacks.” Julian sat back in his chair.
The people sitting around this table had been fighting beside him on and off for years. They were his party members. They were his friends. He knew that adding someone like Gerda—who could both slow them down and send them further than ever—would take getting used to.
Two days of practice wasn’t much, but it would have to do. He wanted everyone to have a good understanding of each other’s abilitiesbeforethey were in the heart of the Ice Fields, being overrun by frost goliaths or tula yetis.
