Stifling a yawn, Gisela drank the last of her ale. “I’m going up to rest…provided I don’t get stopped again by some awful-meaning ogre or troll telling me I don’t belong here. No offense, but I can’t wait to get out of Vaskalia.”
“Noted. If they give you lip, send them my way. I need someone to beat on tonight.” Anything to get rid of this pent-up…
Well, he’d go with frustration. It covered a lot of what was wrong with him at present.
Sighing, he glanced back to his fake brother. He never really realized how much Masakage had meant to him until the last few days of dealing with someone pretending to be him. It also reminded him of what Dash had always said—Xaydin was hard to get along with.
Yes, I am.
Yet Masakage had rarely gotten on his nerves.
Oddly enough, Gisela, so far, had yet to get on his nerves.
That latter statement was a rarity he was grateful for.
Maybe I’ll get lucky and someone will knife the bastard for us.
If only he was that lucky. But it’d never happen.
With a sigh, he downed the rest of his drink and tossed coins on the table as a tip for their waiter. Then, he headed off for the stairs to get some well-needed sleep so that he’d have enough patience on the morrow to deal with his fake brother.
Gisela sighedas she rinsed her hair. She missed having warm baths. The one thing about Meara’s court that was nice…
Her mother’s bathing room. Even now she could feel the warm water as she sank below it.
Of course, she could only use it in the wee hours of the night when she was certain her mother was asleep. Even though she had permission to use it, her mother would fly into a fit of rage if Gisela dared be in it should her mother want to bathe.
Her jaw currently ached from being clenched tight to keep from chattering. She’d always hated taking frigid baths.
It is what it is.
Suddenly, the door behind her opened.
She turned with a gasp to catch Xaydin there with an equally shocked expression. Before she could gather her wits, he quickly shut the door and gave her his back.
“Sorry! I had no idea you’d be bathing.”
She grabbed her clothes and quickly threw them on. “Freezing more than bathing…I didn’t think you’d come up so soon.” Normally, he stayed downstairs for at least an hour before coming to bed. “You can turn around. I’m covered…and thank you.”
“For what?”
She clutched her shirt tight against her neck. “Not shaming me or recoiling from my scars.”
“I didn’t see any scars.”
Then he must not have really looked at her. They were impossible to miss. It was one of the reasons why she’d neverwear a dress or anything that didn’t conceal her entire body. She hated the sight of them.
They were everywhere.
Especially on her soul.
She picked up her towel from the floor and returned to drying her hair.
His eyes twinkled as he glanced at her before making his pallet on the floor. “I wondered how you managed to smell so fresh every day.”
Gisela had to press her lips together to keep from saying something insulting. She didn’t want to go there, but it did make her curious about one thing. “I’ve noticed you don’t have the same thick cloud of horse enveloping you that our imposter does.”
“I bathe in the morning…outside.”
