“I don’t think I can marry Hallix,” she said, a sick feeling in her gut. Marry that insufferable oaf? Where the hell had he got that idea from?
But from the look of sudden horror on Leefe’s face, she knew she’d just made a serious blunder. “You would turn him down? One of the finest warriors in my army?”
“No!” Gantalla said, frantically trying to think of a way around this. “What I mean is, I can’t marry himnow. The gate’s just about to open and he’ll be away for weeks, so we won’t have a chance to enjoy being married. We should wait until the gate closes, then get married then. It will give me time to have a dress made,” she rambled on, desperate to stall things, even if only for a few weeks. “And just think how pleased the town would be to have a wedding to celebrate at the same time as celebrating the closing of the gate. I think it would be a far better plan to wait until the gate closes again.”
“Ah, I knew you were a clever woman,” Leefe said, sounding much happier now. “It’s a good idea. Very well. I’ll let Hallix know. It’ll give him something to look forward to while he’s dealing with all the demons at the gate.”
Gantalla nodded and forced a smile that she hoped looked genuine. “Excellent. Well, um… I suppose I should go and talk to a seamstress about getting a dress, then. What very exciting news.”
Still beaming, Leefe headed back across the square, leaving Gantalla with her mind in turmoil. Why the hell would Hallix think she wanted to marry him, when she’d done nothing but brush him off?
But the answer came to her a moment later. This was nothing at all to do with him actually liking her – and possibly not even to do with her actions in saving Liatra’s life. It was far more likely that his proposal was motivated by jealousy. He wanted what he couldn’t have, and more to the point, he wanted to stick a knife in Nalyx’s back. Marrying Gantalla would prove once and for all that he was the ‘better’ man, that he’d taken something from Nalyx and won this petty squabble between the two men.
Gods above, this entire town was stark raving mad. And suddenly, the idea of leaving the city was sounding like an excellent plan.
But she didn’t have to go just yet. With the wedding delayed, she had a few more weeks to save up some more money and learn everything she could from the hospital. And then, when she arrived in Palashran, she’d have some skills to land herself a job. Nalyx had said that there was a small hospital in Palashran. Surely they could be persuaded to take her on as an extra nurse?
Mind made up, Gantalla headed swiftly back to the hospital. She could borrow some books from the office and spend the afternoon reading, learning everything she could before she was finally forced to leave.
◊ ◊ ◊
The following morning, Gantalla buried herself in her work. She was tailing Gosta today, the woman back to her usual curt tone as she led Gantalla through the process of bandaging wounds, removing stitches and treating burns. Gantalla made sure to ask plenty of questions and paid attention to every little snippet of information that Gosta tossed her way.
The queue of patients slowed down around lunchtime, and she wolfed down a bread roll and an apple while reading a book on herbal remedies, then it was back to work. She saw a child with a rash, then an elderly woman with an open sore on her arm, and then she spotted a familiar face as she headed back to the reception room to fetch their next patient.
“Afternoon,” Nalyx greeted her, as she saw that he was the next appointment on the list. “How’s it been going?”
“Busy,” Gantalla said, smiling at him. “Everyone’s getting ready for the gate to open. We’re trying to clear as many civilian patients as possible before the warriors head back into battle.” Nalyx, too, was due to go back to the gate tomorrow, and Gantalla couldn’t quite decide how she felt about that. Knowing that he was going to be killing people made her resentful, but at the same time, she found herself dreading the idea of him being hurt. “But what brings you back here?”
“Captain Leefe wanted me to get my shoulder looked at one last time before the gate opens. Just to make sure everything’s healed up properly. I told him it was a waste of time, but he insisted.”
“Well, better safe than sorry,” Gantalla said. “Come through and I’ll have a look for you.” Gosta was still busy preparing a herbal remedy for their last patient, but she’d told Gantalla to get started on the next case and that she would join them in a few minutes, so she led Nalyx through into the consult room. “If you could just take your shirt off, I’ll see how it’s going. Take a seat.”
She gestured to a chair and Nalyx sat down. But now that they were alone, his earlier good mood faded. “Well?” he said, giving her an expectant look as he unbuttoned his shirt.
Gantalla raised an eyebrow. “Well, what? You haven’t even taken your shirt off yet.”
“No, I mean… What about June?”
“What about June?” she asked, feeling baffled.
Nalyx paused, looking at her quizzically. “You’ve got nothing to say about that?”
“What would I have to say? The captain found the mushrooms. The mayor found her guilty. It’s nothing to do with me anymore.”
Nalyx sighed, his hands stilling on his shirt. “You said weeks ago that spending time with two different women could cause problems. So it turns out you were right.”
Gantalla’s brow furrowed as she caught onto his meaning. “And you’re expecting me to want to gloat about that? Are you serious?”
Nalyx shrugged, looking down. “Most women would.”
Gantalla scowled at him. “This town has some really messed up standards for what’s acceptable behaviour. Liatra nearly died and June’s been kicked out of the serving women, she’s disgraced her family and she’s spending the next month in jail. There’s nothing to gloat about.”
“Nothing to gloat about? June tried to accuseyouof poisoning Liatra instead, and now you’re just forgetting about it like it never happened?”
“What am I supposed to be doing? Shouting my own praises from the top of the town hall?”
Nalyx shook his head, frowning. “For the first few days you were in town, you did everything for me. Feeding me, bathing me, cleaning my armour. And you never asked for anything in return, not so much as a simple bracelet. If Liatra had been the one to do all that work, she would have been begging jewels from me, left, right and centre. And now you were instrumental in finding the identity of a would-be murderer, but you haven’t asked Captain Leefe for any kind of reward. You make no sense, Gantalla. Why do you never want anything for yourself?”
