Total pages in book: 161
Estimated words: 162269 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 811(@200wpm)___ 649(@250wpm)___ 541(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 162269 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 811(@200wpm)___ 649(@250wpm)___ 541(@300wpm)
She glared at him.
He gave in.
“They are fed, as you know, and all have had baths, as you also know. Faunus has managed to get them clean nightgowns, and you know this too, as you are right now wearing one. And with the bag of coin he laid on their desk, the innkeeper’s wife is searching for clean, warm gowns and cloaks for all of you for our journey tomorrow, and my guess, to get that coin, she will find them. They are settled in, they know the Firenz guard this inn, and they might not be fully restored, but they are in decent spirits.”
She seemed to deflate after he reported this, and he remembered why he liked her so.
She was stubborn but she was also strong and most of all, she was caring.
During their journey, in the night, exhausted from walking, the women had slept as best they could, pressed together for warmth under the stars.
Not he and Moira. They took turns staying awake and keeping watch.
And it was she who should have had the last piece of ham.
But she gave it to Terra, who was the slimmest, and seemed to get slimmer by the day, thus Moira declared, needed the sustenance more than she.
Yes, she was stubborn.
But mostly, she was kind.
“We will request they get word to your families,” he said carefully.
“Yes,” she replied.
“Moira—”
“Is he your lover?”
Teddy suddenly felt a sickness in his stomach.
But he lifted his chin and said, “Yes.”
“He is very tall, and he is very muscled,” she decreed, rather than turning snide or looking repulsed.
“Um…yes,” he agreed to her obvious assessment.
“And exceptionally handsome, in a Firenz way.”
He was that.
“Moira—”
She gave a terse nod. “He cares deeply for you. You are his love. We can trust him. Trust them.”
Teddy wasn’t sure he was Faunus’s love.
But yes, they could trust him. And them.
And he could not quite put his finger on understanding the feeling he was feeling at her reaction to discovering who Teddy was, or rather, how he was.
He did not mention that.
“Of course you can trust him. And all of them. I would not lead you astray.” He then took her jaw in both hands and dipped his face to hers. “And as such, I am sure I can speak to Faunus. He will give you and the others a guard. Keep you safe as they take you home.”
“What did you see back in that clearing after we ran away, Teddy?”
Her stubbornness was an obstacle to much.
Her intelligence was just plain annoying.
He dropped his hands, but she caught both of them and shook them.
“What did you see?” she pressed.
“Poppet—”
“All right, you don’t wish to tell me that. But tell me this. We are safer with you and your warriors, whatever you saw, are we not?”
No one was safe.
But anyone was safer surrounded by thirty Firenz warriors.
“Yes,” he said quietly.
“Then we will send messages to our families and stay with you. They can come to get us from wherever we go…with you.”
He knew there was no talking her out of it, so he did not try.
“All right, love,” he muttered.
She squeezed his hands. “Teddy.”
He focused on her again.
“I don’t care who you love, and I don’t care who loves you. I know the man you are. Do you understand?”
He nodded, so much happening around the region of his heart, he did not trust himself to speak.
“All right,” she whispered, and again squeezed his hands. “Sleep well and I’ll see you in the morning.”
“You too, poppet.”
She smiled at him.
He bent and kissed her cheek.
They let go and he turned, but before he unlocked the door, she called his name.
He looked over his shoulder at her.
“Thank you,” she whispered, then lifted a hand slightly at her side to indicate the warmth and shelter about her.
“We all survived,” he reminded her.
“Because of you.”
He gave her a soft look, she returned it, then he set about unlocking her door, leaving her room, and he heard it lock again behind him before he’d taken one step down to the chamber he would share with Faunus.
Saturn had the only other accommodation in the inn. Another single on the other side of Moira.
The rest of the warriors were either guarding the inn or hunkering down in tents around it.
He opened the door to his room, which was much larger, and saw both Faunus and Saturn at the table before the window, their big bodies sprawled in chairs designed for the Dellish, which meant they dwarfed them. A fire was raging in the iron in the grate, making the room warm.
And with a full belly, a clean body, seeing his friends sitting there, a bed but a few steps away, of a sudden, he was worn through and all he wanted was to climb in that double bed, pull the rugs over him and sleep for a month.