But in this moment, he was almost content, if he dared to say it.
“I’ll, uh, I’ll just go,” Abigail said, gesturing toward the door as she began to inch backwards.
He cleared his throat. “I hope I didn’t make you uncomfortable with my state of undress.”
“Oh, no,” Abigail said, pausing, though she still wouldn’t look at him. “I used to see my father all the time.”
Roan glanced at her skeptically. “I don’t imagine seeing your father without his shirt on made you unable to look him in the eyes,” he said dryly.
Abigail turned pinker, but she looked up at him, and there was merriment in her eyes. “I suppose you’re right,” she said.
“You don’t need to be uncomfortable,” Roan assured her. “Unless I’ve done something?”
“No, I just—” She looked at him. She looked down his body, and her words came out a bit strangled. “You don’t look anything like my father did.”
Roan grinned and couldn’t help flexing his muscles for a moment under his shirt. She must have seen the movement, because she turned away to hide her face with a light giggle.
“I’ll stop,” he said, resisting the urge to chuckle.
“You’d better,” she said as she hurried out the door without saying anything else.
Roan looked down at Beastie, who seemed entirely unamused by everything that had just happened, while he couldn’t stop grinning.
“Well, Beastie,” he said, “that was fun.”
And he hadn’t had fun in longer than he could remember.
Soft music filled the air as Roan opened his eyes. He blinked in surprise as he looked around the room. His tavern had never looked cozier. Candles were lit on most surfaces, there was the smell of fresh bread and warm soup in the air, and Lyle stood in the corner playing his fiddle.
All the men currently asleep in his storage room were scattered throughout the room, as if nothing had ever happened. Roan shook his head, blinking at the sight of them, lit in a rosy glow that filled the whole tavern.
Was this a dream, or was everyone being asleep the dream?
“I don’t know what’s happening,” he muttered, rubbing his hand over his face. Beastie bounded toward him with that dratted ball in her mouth. Hadn’t he seen her destroy it twice already?
“It’s good to see everyone awake, isn’t it?” a soft voice said behind him. Roan turned to see Abigail, and his jaw dropped. She was wearing his grandmother’s pink gown, which fit her perfectly.
So this was a dream, then.
Abigail was good, but she was not able to tailor a dress for a woman of his grandmother’s size to fit as if it was made for her in only a few hours. Not when she’d also been cleaning curtains and preparing food for both of them, while he hid in his office and pretended that he wasn’t looking at her differently than he ever had.
“You look beautiful,” he said. He wasn’t quite sure where the words came from, but they were true, and he wouldn’t take them back. She did look beautiful.
“And you look handsome,” she said, smiling at him.
Roan looked down to see himself wearing one of his grandfather’s old coats, one that he remembered Grandmother turning into cleaning rags after it became too ratty to be worn anymore.
Definitely a dream.
“I haven’t seen this in years,” he murmured, running his hands over the buttons. Like her dress, it fit him perfectly, which was a surprise given his grandfather’s stout nature.
“It seems we’re meant to enjoy ourselves tonight,” Abigail said, looking around the room with a smile. “Everyone looks happy.”
“Well, I can only hope that their bodies aren’t starving to death while you and I get no closer to figuring out what to do to break this curse,” Roan muttered.
Abigail smiled winningly. “I know,” she said, “but for a moment, could we forget it and just enjoy ourselves? I’ve never worn a gown this fine, and it seems a pity to waste this moment in fear and doubt, when that fear and doubt will be there for us in the morning, just as surely as it is here tonight.”
Roan looked down at her and nodded, doing his best to hide how afraid he was. “Of course, my lady,” he said, offering a hand.
