The White Spell (Nine Kingdoms #10)(24)

“I find that very difficult to believe.” He tossed his cloak over one shoulder, then looked at her. “You should have a dagger. It isn’t safe for a woman to go about without one.”

“I wouldn’t know what to do with one if I had one,” she said frankly.

“The general idea is to bury it to the hilt into the gut of whoever is threatening you,” he said. “I’ll show you how later. For now, let’s go find something to eat, unless you’re off to do nefarious deeds. I wouldn’t want to get in the way of that.”

She looked at the sky, then sighed. “I had hoped to be to town before dark, but I don’t think I’ll manage it. I suppose all I can do is turn for home and look for supper.”

“Not if you value the condition of your tum, you won’t,” he said. He nodded up the way. “What of that place there?”

“The food isn’t terrible and the ale is better than what Doghail serves, but I haven’t enough coin for myself, much less the two of us.”

He shot her a look. “As if I would allow a woman to pay for a meal for me.”

“Wouldn’t you?”

He paused. “Well, I would actually, but not recently. I’ve turned over some sort of new leaf.”

“And found vermin under it?”

He smiled. “Exactly that.” He nodded toward the pub. “Let’s go, woman. I’ll see if I can’t parlay my excessive earnings into at least a mug or two of ale and some crusts of bread.”

“And just how do you intend to do that?”

“Cards,” he said easily. He glanced at her. “Ever seen any?”

“Ever had a boot up your—”

He tsk-tsked her. “You shouldn’t use that sort of inflammatory rhetoric unless you have the ability to follow it up with physical damage. I see no dagger in your hand nor sword strapped to your back which leads me to believe that you are merely bluffing with your threats.”

She didn’t bother to respond, mostly because he was right. She generally relied on the fact that she had a stallion in tow to keep herself safe. That didn’t help her all that much in town, but since she went there only during the daytime, she had never truly considered her lack of protection to be a problem. That looked to have changed recently.

She didn’t like change.

“Let’s be off before this refuse awakes,” he said, nodding toward the road. “Also, I fear the stench of that pub behind us is making me queasy.”

She had to agree with that, so she nodded and walked away from the lads Acair had left in a tidy heap. She looked at him out of the corner of her eye as they walked because it was difficult not to look at him. His hair was mussed, but other than that, there was no sign that he had just been in a brawl with four men who hadn’t been shy about throwing their fists.

“Do you have brothers?” she asked.

“Several,” he said, “and each more vile and reprehensible than the last.”

She smiled in spite of herself. “How many?”

He shot her a brief look. “Let’s just say my father was not unwilling to sire the occasional bastard. My mother bore him seven sons, of which I am the youngest. After gazing for quite some time on my admittedly superior self, he decided he had done all he could with my dam and cast his eye elsewhere. I am also unhappily aware that my mother was not his first encounter with the fairer sex given that I seem to never be able to turn a corner at home without running into yet another of his early forays into fatherhood.”

“A busy man, your father.”

“Extremely.”

“Do you have large suppers together with the extended relations?”

He lifted an eyebrow. “You’re very cheeky.”

“And you’re a terrible stable lad.”

“Which is obviously what makes you curious about my true skills,” he said. “A pity I am unable at the moment to enlighten you. Rest assured, the list is very long.”

She could only imagine and she suspected that stable hand was definitely not on that list. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know what was on that list. She’d had watched too many things over the past few days turn out to be something other than what she’d expected them to be.

That thought was unsettling enough that she decided perhaps a change of plans was in order. She would indulge in a quick, cheap mug of ale only because she’d come too far to refuse it without looking like a fool, then she would turn around and go back to where she belonged before she found herself embroiled in things she had the feeling she wouldn’t like at all.

“Do you have brothers?”

She looked at him in surprise. No one ever asked her about her family, as a rule. Doghail had, when they’d first met, but she hadn’t cared to talk about them so he’d never brought it up again. Of course Acair couldn’t have known the particulars of her past, so she supposed that was reason enough not to give him the look she generally reserved for lads too stupid to know when to keep their mouths shut.

“One,” she said. “And a younger sister. Both gone now.”

He studied her casually for longer than she liked, but he was apparently wise enough to know when not to pursue forbidden topics of conversation.

“I’m sorry,” he said simply.