He held his hand out before me.
“You’re not from around here, are you?” Vina asked me. “Her accent. It’s very thick.”
No one had told me I had an accent, but I guess I sounded different than them. I was grateful that my hair was covering my ears.
“That’s really none of your business, now is it?” Fyn snapped.
Vina’s smile twisted. “I haven’t seen you in months, my lord… and you show up here with a very beautiful lady?—”
“Well, it’s been lovely to see you too.” He reached into his pocket and slammed coin on the desk. “A room, please. Whatever you have available that’s suitable enough for the lady.”
The metal key scraped against the wood as she slid it toward him. “Shall I have a meal sent up for you both?”
“That would be great. You remember what I like?” Fyn asked.
“You ask for the same thing every time you’re here,” Vina said.
When we walked away from her, I glared at him. “I’m not sharing a room with you. What other inns can we try?”
“This is it.” He leaned over me. “You are in an inn with a tavern attached to it. You are absolutely sharing a room with me.” He gestured for me to take the stairs.
My muscles screamed before I took a single step up them. At least he was standing behind me in case my legs gave out. I knew I’d never hear the end of it if I crashed into him.
He turned the key in the narrow lock and pushed open the burgundy door. A single bed lay in the middle with mismatched quilts strewn haphazardly on top. Each one decorated in a faded pattern.
“Your sister would have my head if I left you unchaperoned here.” He closed the door behind me.
“So they know?” I couldn’t believe she would condone this. “It is indecent. How could my sister think I would be okay with this? There is only one bed.”
“Indecent?” He dropped our bags in the corner. “They know,” he said. “I don’t know what you think I’m implying… but I don’t just fling myself at women when we share the same room.”
“Oh? So you do this often?” Somehow that made it even worse.
“That is absolutely not what I meant.” He raked his fingers through his wind-strewn locks and then slowly patted them back in place.
“I’m not sharing a bed with you.” It was out of the question.
“Of course you’re not. I’ll take the sofa.”
Calling the brown, patched fabric lump that sat along the wall a sofa was generous. “You’re too tall for that thing.”
“I sleep on the ground sometimes when I’m on the road. It’s called camping.” He folded his arms across his chest.
“I know what camping is.” I had heard of people doing it before.
“Oh, good. I was getting concerned there for a moment. How exactly have you traveled anywhere before?” He tugged at the belt he wore at his chest, loosening the leather strap that threaded through the brass buckle, pulling it free. Our swords clanked to the ground with it.
“In a carriage. And then I’m hosted by noble families.”
“Well, the ladies and lords of Lythira wouldn’t exactly be welcoming to a human princess… especially one?—”
“From the kingdom that attacked yours,” I said. “They always know the moment I speak that I’m not one of you.”
He flung our packs down on the ground near the sofa. “I don’t know if it’s just that. It’s probably the way you walk.”
I scowled at him.
A knock rivaled the laugh that escaped him.
