Page 46 of Untempered
I couldn’t hear the words from the cook’s mouth, but I knew what I was being asked. “The same,” I said, and knew I’d have to eat it.
There was no way they’d had time to butcher Bravura, much less cook that tough bastard down into anything resembling food.
But there was a way that Kadan could’ve been sorely injured without it inciting rioting in the streets.
I didn’t bother to sit. Anywhere I chose, my mentor wouldn’t approve. Instead, I just took a spoon and started eating as I waited. It’d been a long day, and it didn’t matter that I was sick to my stomach. I needed the food.
I wondered if the blood would boil in my veins if I neglected to look after myself and became a liability that way.
My mentor’s amusement had drained somewhat. “You’ll learn,” he said. And I was pretty sure he was right about that.
CHAPTERSIXTEEN
THOMAS
“The right gates shall be opened and the wrong ones closed
through your faith in the One.”~The Book of Bread and Salt
At the knock, I settled my shield more firmly on my arm and opened the door to the familiar face of Joseph, who’d been a boy when Rose and I had moved into our home right beside him. At his feet was a basket of coal. “Heard this was needed,” he said, rocking back on his heels. “Congratulations, sir.”
Sir.I was already reaching for the basket before I realized that was my title now. “Thanking you,” I said without thought. “I believe there’s enough for a three-day, with this.” Not that I knew how high the lady burned her fire.
“That’s good, then.” He cleared his throat. “Mary, she sent for Master Fitzherbert to attend your Rose, I hear.”
The world slowed around me, and my attention narrowed to his familiar expression. The lines worn into his skin over the decades had gathered in folds of worry between his brows and around his lips.
“We knew you’d make the payments work,” Joseph went on, hands in his pockets. “And you’d want to come home to Rose. You’ve always said so. You said she was worth everything.”
She was. And Fitzherbert’s rates might just cost me that. “Is she okay?”
He shuffled back a step. “I’m guessin’ so. Not much that mage can’t heal.”
I’d seen things mages couldn’t heal, but those who were willing to pay for a mage to attend the childbed rarely lost the mother or the babe. Whether it was because of the magic, or because the only ones who could afford a mage could also afford to feed the family…
I looked down at the basket of coal in my arms, having forgotten it was there, unsure of what to do with it.
I needed this watch to finish so I could get home to Rose.
“Mary, she’s probably taken the little ones,” he went on, taking another step back. “I expect they’ll do well to wait with us tonight. Unless you’ve rooms, now, in the castle?”
Rooms? I thought of the little home we’d been lucky enough to find for ourselves, on the first floor, no less. The world didn’t quite make sense when I thought of leaving that home. “Oh. I don’t know.” I’d been knighted, but all I understood of it was the roles I needed to perform.
“Good timing, though. Mary, she was terrified of the cost of a Healer. She’ll rest easy now, knowing you’re,” he waved a hand at me, taking yet another step back, his smile brittle. “I’m glad for you, Tom. You’ve earned it.”
Mayhap he meant for that to be a good thing, but mayhap not. We all knew how people earned positions under the Duke.
But he was too far away, and I was too smart to correct him, so I just nodded and hefted the basket, closing the door after myself, my blood howling through my veins.
Rose would be fine, even if we were beggared. And mayhap we wouldn’t be. Mayhap there was some way it would all be okay.
Whatever happened, I knew we’d be well with Rose still alive with us.
I knocked and quietly deposited the coal in its cubbyhole, my hands clumsy from the cold that had seeped into me when I wasn’t paying attention. I was about to let myself out again when Isolde swept down the stairs. She’d have been a beautiful woman, if she didn’t look like she was always sucking on a lemon. My Rose was older, and her clothes less fashionable, but she always had a smile. Surely, she’d have a smile this night, too.
Chay was late, and the ladies looked ready for the night’s meal. The One knew I was ready to have the day done with.
They were headed for me, and I realized I was going to need to tell them they couldn’t leave yet when heavy knocks sounded on the door. I opened it and found Chay and Mortemon both there, with their tabards.
