Page 93 of The Wolf

But Scarlet didn’t wish to dwell on such unpleasant memories. She wanted to look toward the future, with a friend and with her child, and with her past firmly behind her.

“Ah,” Scarlet uttered, a hand instinctively rubbing against the pressure inside her belly.

“Is the baby kicking again?” asked an elderly man who had come in to retrieve a small bag of medicinal herbs from Scarlet, a knowing smile on his face. “My daughter is six months pregnant right now. She can’t get any rest!”

Warmth spread through Scarlet’s body, and she matched the man’s smile. “I can relate.” She laughed, sealing up the bag before handing it over to the man. But when he reached into his pocket to retrieve payment, Scarlet held up a hand to stop him. “No charge,” she said. “If there’s a baby on the way in your family, you need every coin you can get.”

From the look on the man’s face he appreciated the gesture more than he could ever say. Scarlet was no stranger to identifying people at first glance, and from the way the elderly man was dressed—the repaired and re-repaired patches on his jacket in several different materials, the scuffs on his shoes, the uneven shave of his face—it was clear that his family was not wealthy. And yet he held himself happily, and easily, as if he knew that money was not the thing that controlled his life. These were the people Scarlet loved most, and was only too eager to help.

It brought her more peace than she’d known in a lifetime.

Besides, her pirate clients paid more than handsomely enough to allow her to give the small folk her help free of charge.

“You’re too kind to us, Miss Poppy,” the man said, making his way to the door. When he reached it, he turned to face her once more, an almost angelic smile on his face. Scarlet didn’t think she’d ever get tired of seeing that kind of smile on her customers’ faces. “You’ll let me pay next time, you hear me? I won’t take no for an answer!”

Scarlet could only laugh as he exited her shop, which was above Ari’s pub. It hadn’t taken long to set up a healing apothecary in the Callmai, and word of mouth had meant that, before long, there were often queues outside the door with people seeking Scarlet’s help. Her only rule was that her skills were used to help people and not to harm them. It was in this way that she became the official doctor of the pirates coming through the bay.

They accepted that she would not be selling them poisons and other nefarious means to dispatch with their enemies and instead was there simply to help heal them. She was tough but fair on them, and they returned her attitude with nothing but respect.

She’d finally done something her mother would be proud of.

Once upon a time, Scarlet could never have imagined living in Callmai. She hated it so because of what was smuggled in and out of the docks. But people were still people, and so long as Scarlet was helping others thrive on the back of her work then she was happy to do her part.

Besides, just like the old man she had served, the city was also full of people like Ari and the refugees they helped escape the ever-present terrors of Heimserya, and the small folk who were too scared and unskilled to do anything against the people who sought to oppress them. Scarlet could help them without charging a penny just so long as the pirates kept paying for her services, which she was all too glad to do for the sake of the Callmai.

So Scarlet was happy.Even if she wasn’t using her real name, and nobody but Ari knew who she was, she had never felt more like herself.

This is what freedom meant.

But once the old man had left, Scarlet buckled against the little table she used as a reception desk. Though she was happy—truly, she was—her heart still hurt whenever she thought of Brine. He’d tossed her to the side without letting her explain anything. Sometimes Scarlet wondered if she should have put more effort into trying to get him to listen to her. But then she gritted her teeth and firmed her resolve. Whyshouldit have been on her shoulders to explain things to him? He had never explained things to her.

He’d sentheraway.

The damned wolf had brokenherheart.

Let it go. You must move on.

Knowing that this kind of reasoning was ultimately juvenile and beneath her, Scarlet only felt sadder. But it was too late now. She had to grin and bear it and move on with her life. For her sake and, more importantly, for her child’s.

“One moment,” she murmured, pulling herself together and standing up straight when she heard the jingling of the bell over the door.

“Take all the time you need,” a silky voice said. Scarlet’s eyes darted up with a start, for she recognized that voice from somewhere. Looking at the handsome man who had walked into her workshop, she realized he was familiar … in an odd, dreamlike way, as if he were from another life.

Her skin prickled and she eyed him.Where had she seen him before? Where had she heard him?

You’re being paranoid.

Scarlet pushed her unease to the side in order to serve her new customer. “How can I help you?” she asked briskly.

A slow, feline smile spread across the man’s face as he took in Scarlet’s swollen belly, flashing sharp canines.

A Talagan?

“Who’s the happy father?”

Scarlet’s eyes narrowed and she shook her head. “There isn’t one.” At least in Callmai, no one usually gave her trouble for being a single pregnant woman.

“You aren’t mated? Someone as lovely as you?” The man shook his head in what appeared to be genuine dismay at Scarlet’s circumstances.

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