“Says the woman who punched another earlier?”
“I was trying to save your cat.”
“And I’m trying to save my sanity.”
She glanced about the room where he’d left the chairs, far away from his desk. “Judging from the condition of the furniture upon my arrival, I would say I had much more success with the cat.”
Valteri laughed and then froze at the unfamiliar sound. It was the first time in his life he could ever remember doing such a thing.
“So, milord, I ask again, what has you so flustered?”
It galled him to admit his shortcomings to anyone, yet for some reason he’d rather admit them to her than another. “I can’t make any sense of these damnable accounts.” He handed her the ledger that his steward had been trying to explain before he’d threatened to strangle the bastard.
And meant it.
“These are the rents that are owed that I’m supposed to review, and then I’m supposed to pay taxes on them.” He grimaced as she read over the figures. “And before you say anything else, aye, I can read.”
She looked up at him with an innocent stare. “Why would I assume otherwise?”
“Because I’m a mercenary.”
“And?”
That caught him off guard, as virtually everyone, including his brother, thought him stupid and ill-educated. “I’m demonspawn.”
She snorted at that. “What kind of demon wouldn’t know how to read?”
“You’re not funny.”
“Nay, but it’s true. Never known a demon yet that was illiterate.” Ariel wasn’t sure which of them was more shocked by her words.
Valteri or her.
However, the most shocking part for her was the fact that she didn’t think it was a joke.
Just like knowing how to use a sword, she had a bad feeling that she had an intimate knowledge of demons as well. That somehow, somewhere, she’d interacted with them.
But that couldn’t be.
And such thoughts and words were dangerous. She knew that even though she had no idea how or where she’d acquired that knowledge.
She let out a nervous, fake laugh as she shoved playfully at his arm. “I’m jesting, milord! Just kidding. How would I know the literacy rate among demons? Rather, it just seems to me that they’d have to be fairly literate in order to be so maniacal. Wouldn’t you think?”
“Sure.” But his tone didn’t match that word.
What is wrong with me?
Biting her lip, she looked back down at the ledger and his steward’s awkward scribbles. “Um… well then… what would be the problem?”
“I can’t do arithmetic.”
That stunned her. She looked up sharply to catch the embarrassment in his mismatched gaze.
“Don’t you dare tell anyone!”
“Not a soul, milord. Why would I?”
Valteri let out a sigh of relief. “I mean it, Ariel. It’s humiliating enough.”
