Page 54 of Roses and Murder
“One last thing and if this offends you, it never happened,” Mom said.
Basselt raised an eyebrow at her, but then he had to catch her because Mom was kissing him. My friends and I beingushooted and hollered while we encouraged them to go upstairs and get naked.
Basselt was definitely kissing her back, so he wasn’t offended by thatat all.
That was the last thing I wanted. I wanted my mom alive, but I also wanted her happy. Folcard insured she’d have to go it alone with just me because Guttertown men were cowards. Folcard wasn’t coming back. He might try to tax us harder, but he was done with us.
I was going to eventually marry, and I wanted someone for Mom when I was gone. I also wanted Basselt to be that man because I actually liked him and thought he was good for her.
It looked like he agreed. Yeah, I got everything I wanted.
Epilogue
We fell into a bit of a routine after that. The Madame was right. Ollie and I got all kinds of secrets from people who came from outside of Guttertown when they realized their taverns couldn’t do what mine could and they got curious. We leveraged them to keep Folcard far away from the Whispering Raven.
I didn’t bind my chest anymore, but I grew out my hair and hated it, so I cut it off again. I let the girls at the brothel show me how to do makeup and I also hated that, so I didn’t do it. Everyone in Guttertown knew, but some of the folks who weren’tfrom here still thought I was just a feminine man sometimes. I used that to my advantageallthe time.
There wasn’t really any ceremony for the five of us in Nestran, but there was in the Jagged Key Isle. It wasn’t Nestran official, but we were all hand fasted and Guttertown knew we were married.
Neco ferreted enough money away to buy Theda a house to retire in. She fussed, but he wouldn’t hear of it. We were socking money away to have a house built for the five of us. It wouldn’t be a fucking Nestran palace, but it was going to be nice. Ronan designed it.
I thought it was impossible, but five years later, a tiny girl with an Idric Island accent, red hair, a mouth that would make a Guttertown drunk blush, and dressed like the shifters strolled right into my tavern and bonded with Neco over a man they both beat the shit out of.
That was wheneverythingin Nestran changed, but that’s another story.
