Page 108 of Crown of Tides and Fury

“Come, now. Ye dinnae want me followin’ ye in there—”

“Don’t you dare.” I hurried inside and slammed the bathroom door. Then I paced until I heard the outer door close again. When I peeked out, Wickham was sitting on my bed, against my headboard, picking at the food piled wide and deep on the tray. “Get out!”

He waved at the chair. “Either sit and eat or it’s fair game, aye?”

“Fine. I’ll sit. But you’re leaving.” I flounced around the room and dropped my butt in the seat.

Wickham lifted the tray from the bedspread and set it on the table beside me, then dusted his hands together.

I nodded toward the door.

He leaned back and folded his arms. “Let’s talk of what-if’s. What if Griffon would have taken ye home with him, to wherever he’s keepin’ Fallon and Annag. What if I’d come ‘round in a day or two, once he’d begun to relax, and popped the three of ye back here, safe and sound? Ye would have thought me clever then, aye?”

I couldn’t resist the temptation any longer and grabbed some bacon and a raspberry scone. I ignored him and his question.

“No doubt ye wondered why I didn’t include ye on the plan, but to be honest, I never considered it. Anything less than sincerity on yer part and Griffon would never have trusted ye in his home.” Wickham nodded and waved his hands nice and low, as if convincing a horse to calm down. “Aye. I concede he never took ye to his home, but he might have. And again, I would have been the clever laddie.”

I sighed dramatically and chased my bacon down with hot, delicious coffee, refusing to give credit to Wickham for providing it. Food was part of our overall bargain, after all, and I had stopped thanking him for it a long time ago.

“Now, onto the nextwhat if—which is what happened—Griffon takes ye to a location where I cannae rescue ye. Yer innocence of my plan only ensures his pity, and therefore, his careful treatment of ye.” He glanced sideways briefly, too chicken to ask for details. “I am sorry the brother was involved. I hadn’t remotely imagined the possibility because—”

“You thought Archer was dead.” I took another bite of scone and found delightful bits of white chocolate along with the raspberries.

“Aye. Urban said he watched the man’s body disappear into the other realm. Which can only mean—”

“He was brought back to life? How? You think Orion has Soni’s power?” I tried to decide what I’d eat next while I watched him, closely, out of the corner of my eye.

Wickham held his breath, briefly, then let it out in a whoosh. “More likely he controls a powerful healer. They arenae unheard of in the Fae world, though most Fae heal quickly on their own.”

I sipped some cranberry juice. “Go on. You were talking about the secondwhat if.”

“More?”

“Oh, yeah.What ifGriffon is more pig-headed than you? What if he decides to keep me for days and days in a dark dungeon in the center of the earth? What if I’m given a bucket of kitty litter for a toilet because he doesn’t dare let me out of the trap for even a minute?”

Wickham’s eyes widened appropriately.

“What if his brother keeps the only key, and that brother wants me dead? What if he spits at me regularly and tries to get Griffon to summon Orion? What if I’m convinced I’m going to die any minute, whether Griffon’s there or not?”

Wickham looked confused. “But he loves ye!”

I shook my head slowly. “You’re not such a clever boy, are you?”

He moved his feet off the bed and onto the floor. With his head bowed and his shoulders hunched, he looked smaller.

“You really did think it was a clever idea, didn’t you?”

He shook his head, then lifted it to look me in the eye. “Lennon, I’m sorry. I’m so verra sorry. I counted on him to keep ye safe and comfortable, despite the dungeon.”

“And he counted on you to come save me from it. You were both wrong.”

He tipped to the side, to put himself in my line of vision. “I am sorry.”

I nodded. It was as much as I could offer by way of forgiveness, at least for the moment. I decided not to tell him how close Archer had come to handing me over to Orion. I was content he felt bad enough.

“You do know Griffon planned to give you to Orion.”

“My worst fear was that he had chosen sides. I put more stock in his affection for ye.”

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