"I'm a handmaiden,” Bláth sharply reminded me. "And our pasts do not define us."
So she had been a disgrace, a disappointment to her family. What had she done to earn such a fate? Fallen pregnant with a bastard child or maybe lain with a foul-blood?
"True enough," I murmured, dropping the line of questioning.
I wouldn't want anyone pressing into the pain of my past.
Bláth straightened her posture, then slapped my arm. “Look.”
A man crossed the road ahead of us. Platinum locks piled on the shoulders of his thick winter cloak.
This was the lord who’d, admittedly, rescued us from his lessers.
“What of him?” I asked.
“Not him. Behind him.” Bláth nudged my arm.
A pair of shadows emerged from behind a parked wagon and pursued the Solheart man. One was a Muirashin woman, trapped in a gown that trailed behind her over the snow. A cloak obscured the other, but I caught a hint of his clothes when he glanced in our direction.
A doublet with a deep neckline and high collar, forest green.
Ferris.
“This is getting fun.” Bláth smiled. “Why are they tailing him?” She bumped her hip into me. “Let’s follow them.”
“This is ridiculous,” I sighed, before promptly tailing the odd pair.
Aenir’s love of gossip had gotten to me. There were more important things to worry about than the story behind the tension I’d seen pass between Lord Seradh and Paragon Tiernan.
Those two had history, and I wanted to know it.
Our odd double-chase didn’t last long. Quinn ducked into an unassuming house on a crowded street and shut the door behind him. The woman with Ferris stalked after him, clearly intent on barreling through the door to follow.
Ferris lunged after her, pulling her into the shadows of a shop’s canopy. They struggled for a moment, arguing. Then the woman stepped away and gripped her sword tightly.
Relieved, Ferris glanced around and noticed Bláth and me standing across the road.
He waved.
Oh, Reese was going to kill him, all right.
“What a little ladies' man,” Bláth cooed, nudging me with her elbow. “You could learn a thing or two from him.”
“Tell me you’re joking,” I said.
I moved to join them, but Ferris shook his head and pressed a finger to his mouth before slinking back into the shadows. Backing up, I pulled Bláth closer, pretending I was soliciting her services.
She played along like she was born for the role, giggling and running a finger along my arm.
I suddenly felt sick, knowing her effortless acting came from experience.
A man strode toward us, coming from the same direction we had. He paid us no mind as he passed. Stopping at the same house Quinn had entered, he knocked, waited, and slipped inside when someone opened the door.
I turned back to Bláth and saw her lean around me, trying to get a better look. She recognized the man who passed.
“Friend of yours?" I breathed.
“No,” she said. “I thought I recognized him, though.”
