Page 42 of Roses and Murder
Because somehow, in the mess that was my life since Mom got stick, I still went down to the basement to check my infusions before I went to bed. I found the perfect recipe and set a barrel of it going. Ollie rigged up a tool to strain it and promised me he got it bottled up in between running off to save me.
That seemed to do the trick. Everyone went about their business, but Belinda came up to me. Belinda was Heath when we were in school. She didn’t drink at the tavern much because it wasn’t her thing, but she made the best damned cheese in Guttertown, so I visited her stall all the time.
“If you ever want to talk, your life seems confusing and I have some experience.”
“I’m going to take you up on that because yeah, it can be confusing. I know the tavern isn’t your thing, but maybe somewhere else?”
“It’s not the tavern, it’s some of the men in your tavern. I’ve been meaning to check it out since you hired musicians. I like music.”
“Any of the men get stupid, you let me know and I’ll toss them.”
“Some of them are going to treat you differently.”
I shrugged.
“I’m looking forward to not having to bind my chest. I don’t intend on dressing any differently. My clothes are comfortable and I’m not buying a whole new wardrobe. I’ve never had long hair, but I like mine short. I might grow it out to see if I like it, but if I don’t, I’ll cut it off again. They can treat me differently all they want, but I’m still the same person who tossed their arses before.”
Belinda nodded.
“I’ve got this rosemary and garlic cheese I need to check on. I just left because everyone was talking about Folcard on horseback.”
I moaned.
“You’d better save me some of that.”
“Will do, Lucy.”
After Belinda left, the insanity of what happened finally hit me. I told a Baron no. I called him stupid. He knew damned wellI wasn’t a boy now. I burnedallmy bridges, and he was probably going to target the tavern. I was already going to have to get creative with the books because my tavern was getting famous outside of Guttertown and they were going to want part of that.
Fuck.
One of the best things I did was hire Basselt. It wasn’t just his help to catch the Ghoul. He could hear everything from inside the tavern because of his enhanced hearing. Basselt was cooking breakfast while everything was going on outside.
I stepped into the tavern with Neco, Beck, Ollie, Ronan, Mom, the Madame, and Trevils. Basselt had food out, but he started plating it and setting it in front of Mom and if she didn’t swoon, I was going to.
“You need to keep up your strength. I went out to check on the herbs I’ll need. It should be another day or two and I can make the cure.”
The Madame was grinning like a cat with the canary and she knewwaymore about relationships than I did and if she was smiling at Basselt fawning over my mom, then she was seeing what I was seeing. That was a good thing.
“So, Folcard had me dragged out of my house for my version of events after Goran tried to lie,” Trevils said. “He was less concerned that one of his sons was murdering the others and had his sights on his heir than he was that you might be a girl.
“I find it hard to believe this man had access to fancy tutors the rest of us didn’t. His eldest is brilliant and would be the best choice for Nestran to take his seat. His eldest is a girl, so he’s going to marry her off to some arsehole instead of giving it to her. Lucy was instrumental in helping catch the Ghoul.”
“Of course, she was,” the Madame said. “She’s always been brilliant with anything she set her mind to. She might be a legend with the girls at the brothel, but I couldn’t exactly put her with a man because she’d probably kill him.”
“Only if she didn’t want what he was offering,” Mom said.
“I have a feeling you’d have trouble with these men, too,” Trevils said.
Yeah, they were all agreeing. There was a rap on the tavern door and I couldn’t imagine who it was. Folcard was the type of dick who would have just barged in and I didn’t think he’d be back. I didn’t think my neighbors would be bothering me.
Beck got up to answer the door, and it was Leodos. Now, I usually loved it when he visited, but Basselt was here. Leodos refused and made sure it couldn’t continue, but his ancestors right down to his father used to torture people like Basselt to try to steal their magic.Iknew Leodos wasn’t like that, but Basselt had every right to be mad about it.
“Hey, kid. You caused a big stir at the palace,” Leodos said.
“Let me get your whiskey. Basselt, can you help me?”
As soon as we were alone, I stopped him.
