He inclined his head and blinked.
“We have been, the seven of us, pooling our coin for medicine, Tallowgill, to reduce their frequency and severity. And—” here I paused, deciding to gloss over River having lost the Tallowgill, “she has run out of it. And we do not get paid for another week.”
His eyes were on me, eyebrows drawn.
I continued, shame in my tone. I looked at the V-shaped neckline of his tunic instead of at his face. “May I borrow two silvers from you? I will pay you back. It will take me some time, but I will. We do not have enough for another jar. I myself foolishly bought something I didn’t need with what I had left.” I shut my eyes, feeling my cheeks heat. “I am so sorry to ask—”
“We will go now,” he said, reaching for the handle of Thatcher’s door and opening it. He stepped inside and took some of the copper coins from the center of the desk.
“What the hell?” Arbis asked. “I’m not starting over! I have a good hand.”
Anwyn, Thatcher and Perch looked from Alric to me, standing in the hallway.
“You’re starting over,” Alric said, pocketing the coins with one hand and finishing his cup’s whiskey with the other. He set the tin cup on the table and put that hand on the chair and picked it up off the floor. He walked through the doorway, closing the door behind him. He walked past me and opened our room’s door, striding inside.
I followed him, watching him replace the chair at the desk and then open his wooden chest. He fished out a small leather bag and tied it to his belt. He looked at me, “Apothecary by the fountain?”
“Yes, but it will be open so late?”
“We will make them open,” he responded, walking past me back into the hall. Then he turned to me, eyes on my summer dress. “Have you a shawl? It is hot out but there is a night breeze now.”
I went back inside to gather the dark green shawl I had been taking with me to read at the turret’s top landing. I returned to him in the hall, tying it about my shoulders.
As we walked down the stairwell to the first level and entered a corridor that led to the plateau where the livery was, he explained, “Maggie will get us there faster.”
I did not know how to reply. I could not tell if he wanted to be quick so he could return to his card game, if he was irritated by me or was simply behaving in his usual way.
“A night ride, captain?” a boy of fifteen or so said, coming up next to us in the hallway. He wore the Tintarian black cotton of keep staff.
“Yes. Please run ahead and saddle my mare for me,” Alric answered. “I thank you.”
The boy took off at a fast clip.
“I am sorry,” I repeated as we walked. “I know you have already spent so much on us.”
He did not reply, but afforded me a quick look.
Again I wished I knew what he thought.
Maggie awaited us, bridled and saddled outside the stables.
Alric held out his hand and helped me up into the saddle. Once I was seated, he swung up behind me and reaching his arms around my waist, took the reins from the stable boy.
He made a clicking with his teeth and tongue and Maggie took off down the incline leading into Pikestully, the sun’s lowness casting every building in shadows.
I spared a thought for our reversal in the saddle from that one day in Nyossa, he in front and I behind. Now, I was cradled entirely by his body around me, his front up against my shoulders, his thighs behind mine, his forearms passing my waist to hold the reins. I gripped the saddle with one hand and my shawl with the other.
“We are not bereft, Edith,” he said, mouth close to my ear.
I did not reply at first, but then said, “But you had to spend so much on us.”
He sighed and his breath tickled my ear. “I may have to work another winter or so before I feel I can retire, but that is my own carefulness. That I do not mind as I am used to soldiering. I have coin because I never spend it.”
Was that chastisement at my own spending? “I should not have bought lavender oil,” I offered lamely, humiliated at my choice after my conversation with Isabeau.
He said nothing and we made our way into the city, passing homes and businesses. He pulled Maggie up to the public hitching post in the square next to the fountain with the statue of The Farthest Four. Light from a tavern nearby lit up the four stone figures.
Dismounted, he held up a hand to guide me down. We walked up to the front door of the apothecary and he knocked. There was no answer and he knocked again.
