“Do you think he knows about mating bites?” Idabel’s heart thundered. “Will he report it?”
“I doubt he’ll report anything until it serves his own interests.” Betje gnawed her lip pensively.
“He can’t force me to testify against Brandt, can he?”
“He’s a lord with the king’s ear. He can do quite a lot, but I don’t think he can squeeze a name out of you unless you want to tell him.” Betje moved to the workroom, pulling bottles from shelves with practiced efficiency. “Tomorrow’s problem. Tonight, we celebrate.”
“Celebrate what? I may have put Brandt in terrible danger.”
“You’ve found love. That’s worth celebrating, regardless of the complications.” Betje mixed a few ingredients into two clay cups of mead: meadowsweet tincture, her own dried basil, a drop of wormwood.
She handed Idabel one cup and raised her own. “The poison and the antidote in one draught. To love that knows no laws.”
“To love.” The concoction tasted of summer honey and licorice and made Idabel’s tongue tingle. Warmth spread through her chest, loosening the knot of anxiety that had formed during Lord Wilkin’s visit. “Maybe documenting the bite will be enough. Lord Wilkin hasn’t heard Brandt’s name. If I don’t tell anyone until after the deployment…”
Betje nodded, sipping her own drink. “There’s no reason he needs to know that right now. If he suspects it’s a matingbite, you could offer to go into detail about what it was like mating with a monster in front of his prim little daughter.” She snickered at her own joke, and Idabel choked on her mouthful of mead, spitting it back into her cup. The girl had seemed perfectly nice, but she definitely had delicate sensibilities.
“Speaking of the mating,” Betje said eventually, her voice warm with mead and frank curiosity. “Not the intimate details, but...what was it like? Did he treat you well? Ahh, I see from your blush he did.”
Tipsy already, Idabel refilled her cup. “He was very kind,” she mumbled into it.
“Kind?” There was a laugh in Betje’s voice.
“I needed kindness.” For some stupid reason, her eyes stung.
“Ah, sweet thing.” Betje leaned to squeeze her around the shoulders. “Don’t we all. Don’t we all.”
“He’s leaving tomorrow.” The reality of it hit fresh. “What if he doesn’t come back? What if a night or two is all we ever have?”
Betje reached across her lap to squeeze her hand. “That’s more than many get.”
Through the bond, she felt Brandt’s attention shift to her, gently questioning. She sent back her own contentment, tinged with longing. Tomorrow night seemed impossibly far away. She had to get through all of the daylight hours first.
“I should go.” Idabel stood, swaying slightly as the honeyed concoction made her head swim. “The keepers will wonder why I’m not in my bed come morning. Must maintain propriety, mustn’t I? At least for a few more days.” She shared a rueful grin with Betje.
“Take this.” Betje pressed a small glass ampoule into her hand.
Idabel’s fingers closed around it automatically. “What is it?”
“You know the charms you wear in the villages if you don’t want children? It’s like that. Drink it tonight, and it will protect you for a few days.”
Idabel hadn’t worn one of the clay amulets around her wrist like other women in her village because she’d never found a man who interested her in that way, but she knew the charms weren’t allowed in Solvantis because they were infused with tael.
“It’s magical?” she asked, peering at the cloudy liquid inside.
“No, it’s medicine. But it works the same. It should prevent his seed from taking.”
Everything in her stilled. She had not considereda child. Her empty hand went immediately to her belly. “I don’t need it,” she said automatically, even though her mind was still reeling. She handed it back.
Betje tucked it away. “I can show you how to make it for yourself if you change your mind.”
“Thank you,” she said. Betje waved her hand like it was nothing, so Idabel pressed to make sure she was understood. “For worrying about me. For celebrating with me. For teaching me. For everything.”
Betje’s smile was soft and teary. “That’s what family does, and you and I are the nearest thing we’ve got.”
Chapter 15
Idabel
