“I left all my best forks at home.” She picked up one of the fish, then dropped it immediately when it burned the tips of her fingers. “It’s hot.”
Atlas chuckled. “It was just over the fire. Here.” He handed her his knife. “I wouldn’t use it for eating, but you can pull the meat away from the bones and speed up the cooling process.”
While she followed his suggestion, he pulled apart his own fish with his fingers, apparently immune to the fire’s effects. She watched in amusement as he consumed nearly half a fillet in one bite.
“Are you sure that’s going to be enough?” She looked at their evenly divided portions. There was no way that a man his size was going to survive on two measly fish.
“If I’m still hungry, I’ll get more.” He nodded to her meal. “Eat. This is my contribution to curse-breaking, remember? I want my goose back; I’m keeping you alive.”
“Right.” She breathed out a laugh. “Every meal is one step closer to Phoebe.”
He’s here for his goose. I can’t forget that.
She cautiously poked at her fish and found that it was cool enough to eat. The flaky meat was tender and moist, and she closed her eyes and nearly cried with happiness at her first real meal since dinner the night of the funeral.
“How long ago was that?”
She opened her eyes, realizing with embarrassment that she must have spoken her thoughts out loud. “I don’t know. The night before last, I think? It’s all been a bit of a blur, honestly.”
Atlas set his bark to the side, empty of everything but fish bones picked clean, stretched his legs to the side, and leaned back on his hands. “What happened?”
“Well, I hiked through the forest for a day and picked some nettles, and then?—”
“No,” he interrupted her. “I mean before that. With the princes.”
Lindy sighed deeply, her appetite forgotten. She looked at her hands, which appeared less miserable in the firelight. “It’s a long story.”
“I have nowhere else to be.”
She glanced up at that, tilting her head. “You don’t have a home or a business that needs tending? A family?”
She realized with an uncomfortable jolt that she hadn’t even stopped to consider the fact that he might not be as alone in the world as she was, that he might have someone waiting for him to return.
“My housekeeper, Ms. Fumley, is perfectly capable of keeping things running while I’m gone. Phoebe is the only one who would miss me, and she’s not there.”
“How did you and Phoebe come to be? It seems an odd pairing.”
He narrowed his eyes at her. “You’re deflecting.”
She folded her hands in her lap. “I’m genuinely interested.”
He looked at her for a long moment, then sighed. “We get some wild geese every winter when they come down from Norditch. Last spring, I found an egg that had been abandoned in one of their nests. I wasn’t sure if it would hatch or not, but I brought it inside, kept it warm, and about a week later, Phoebe was born. She’s been following me around ever since.”
There was a warmth in his eyes and a softness in his voice as he spoke, and Lindy found herself wishing for someone to think about her with even half as much affection as the giant had for his goose.Atlas smiled at her, and she leaned in, mesmerized by the emotion in his face. “I never thought birds could have personalities, but Phee certainly keeps me on my toes.”
“Have you always lived on the mountain?” Lindy asked, fishing for a line of conversation that would keep him talking.
The look he gave her said he knew what she was doing, but he acquiesced anyway. “My family has owned the estate for several generations. I was born there, and I’ll probably die there.”
“You don’t ever think about living somewhere else?”
He laughed humorlessly. “In case you haven’t noticed, Lindy, I don’t exactly fit in most places—literally and figuratively. I’d rather not be constantly followed by nervous whispers or people being suspicious of me simply for existing. Do you know how many crimes I’ve been accused of in my lifetime, just because it’s easier to blame the big, scary giant than it is to admit that maybe the neighbor you’ve known your whole life is a crook?”
Lindy shook her head wordlessly.
“At least a dozen, and that’s with me only coming down the Beanstalk once a season to replenish supplies. I can’t imagine what it would be like if I lived there every day.”
“I’m sure they’d get used to you after a while,” she offered.
