Page 58 of Tattle Tail
She raided Lord Resolve’s medical kit the moment she came aboard the ship. A broad-spectrum antibiotic past its expiration date was the best it could offer. She didn’t care. She coaxed Joseph to swallow the pills, hoping they had some effect.
Once he settled, she changed the dressing and cleaned the wound again. The flesh was still an angry red and swollen, but did not appear worse. With a sponge, she mopped Joseph’s brow. She wanted to bathe him entirely, but did not wish to disturb his injuries.
The door opened. She ignored it, focusing on the way Joseph’s eyes fluttered behind his eyelids as he slept. The fever had gone down, which lifted her spirits.
Lord Resolve dragged a chair over to her. “We have contacted the medical facility at the Aslan Station. They are sending a shuttle. It will arrive in twenty hours.”
“Good.” She debated contacting Joseph’s family. The information she could offer was minimal, but they could leave Corra and meet them at the medical center.
Peaceable felt zero impulse to contact her parents, but Joseph’s family was…involved. Perhaps too involved. She could hear her mother sniff and proclaim that the entire Moonquest family was prone to hysterics.
Nonsense. Peaceable’s tail twitched, trying to shake off the secondhand judgmental attitude. Caring if a loved one lived or died was not hysterical. It was basic compassion, something her mother lacked.
“All you have to say is good?” Lord Resolved asked, offense in his voice.
Irritated at his words, she swung her attention to the older male. Once, she might have swallowed her irritation and smiled placidly. She was far too tired to be polite to a male who did not deserve such consideration.
“There are many things I could say, Lord Resolve, but you are fortunate that all I have to say isgood,” she said. Her words were cold and meant to cut.
If he was surprised by the ice in her voice, he gave no hint and continued to smile indulgently. “A little gratitude for rescuing you and your…companion wouldn’t be amiss.”
Gratitude? Gratitude!
Peaceable suddenly understood why Lord Resolve was such a good friend of her parents. He had a staggering sense of his worth, the same as her mother.
“Very well. Shall I list the things I am grateful for?” She folded her hands in her lap and lowered her head, adopting the pose of a perfectly behaved female, all docile and meek. “I am grateful that my mother is so concerned with my love life that she arranged a match for me with a completely unsuitable male. I am grateful, somehow, that my mother believes I do not deserve a love match, but that I can be useful to pump out a kit. How thoughtful. I am also grateful that when I declined the match, that they continued to conspire behind my back.”
His ears went back, the first sign that she had cracked his cool exterior. “Tolerance suggested a grand gesture. If I could show you my estate on Talmar, perhaps—”
“Perhaps you would appeal to my greed? How you flatter me, Lord Resolve.” She lifted her chin and sneezed, loudly and deliberately. “So you disabled my ship?”
“No, no. That was not the original plan. I merely wanted you to deliver the piano.”
“Not the original plan, but the eventual plan,” she said, unimpressed. “You decided on sabotage for what? A dramatic rescue?”
Color drained from his face, indicating guilt. “You were meant to send a distress call. How was I to know you would land on a hostile planet?”
“Because it is logical to assume that pirates or bandits sabotaged the ship for a ransom rather than a rejected suitor wanting to make a grand gesture.” Nettle mewled in complaint, upset at the growing volume of Peaceable’s voice.
“Ransom? Who would be ransomed?”
“Him!” Peaceable pointed to the pale and restlessly sleeping Joseph.
“Whatever for?” Confusion flickered across the male’s face, as if considering the well-being of someone beneath him was a new experience. It probably was.
This revelation simply added more fuel to her anger.
“I am deeply insulted that you would think such a dangerous and reckless act asdestroying my oxygen supplywould endear you to me.” Then, as the thought occurred to her, “And I am more insulted that it was not evenyourplan. Ardent suggested it because he knew I would take it badly and he wanted the plan to fail.” The last thing Ardent wanted was a match between Peaceable and his uncle.
What an unexpected way to find an ally.
“He said he would arrange it. I did not know the details,” Lord Resolve said.
“No amount of lavish estates or dramatic rescues will change my mind.”
“I see that your heart belongs to another.” He cast an assessing glance at Joseph.
How this male thought they would ever be a good match baffled her. He did not understand the first thing about her.
