Page 5 of Centerpiece

Trusting.What if Agreeable was a liar anddidwant to rob him?What if he had a knife?There was one on the table, in fact.

That should not have warmed Agreeable even more, this fellow ready to have faith in him.It was only that he believed Agreeable to be a lass.That was all.That was why he was turned around as well, manners like a hero in a story, but because he thought Agreeable was a woman.

Of course, he also thought Agreeable was a thief yet was affording him the same respect anyway.

That did something strange and unspeakable to Agreeable’s insides.He tried to push past it.

“You’re on your way somewhere and stopped when you heard there was a market?”he pressed, staring with some dismay at the now-dirty water in the bowl.But at least his hands smelled of soap.

“Yes.I am due to return home.”

“And you’re not eager to get back there?”People could have many reasons for that.It wasn’t Agreeable’s business.But he got an answer.

“I love my home.But this time, the journey feels heavier.My grandfather died not long ago,” the man explained, stopping Agreeable with his hands over his mouth to enjoy the smell of the soap.

“I am sorry.”He truly was.The emotion in the man’s voice said he had cared for his grandfather.

“It wasn’t unexpected.But...he more or less raised me.”It emerged with a sigh.

Agreeable understood.“The place will be strange with him gone.A hole where he ought to be.With my da, it was like that.Of course, I wasn’t fit to manage a whole farm, and the Church claimed the land not long after that anyway.So it’s more the memory of him now.And worry that he’d be upset with me for failing, even though there’s little I could do against a few bad years and the Church.”

“I’m sorry.”The man bowed his head for a moment, and Agreeable realized he had a rosary in his pocket, part of the string of beads visible as he rolled them between his fingers.Enchantedbeads at that, glittering with blessings someone had paid well for.“It’s like that, isn’t it?Loving them but also always wondering if we will do right by their memory.”

“Well.”Agreeable frowned, wishing he had a rosary too, if only to play with something as he thought.Maybe that was what the beads were really for.“I didn’t know your grandfather, as you’d expect.But you’ve been all right to me, so far.Fair.More than fair, really.Kind as well.So if that would suit him, then I’d say you’re honoring him all right.”

The man turned as if to look at Agreeable, then seemed to realize what he’d done and turned back.“Sorry.But...thank you.Thank you for saying that.He would have stepped in for you.It’s what I thought of when I did it.And that no one with eyes like yours could be a very good thief.You’re not even a good liar—and he would have noticed that too.So thank you.”

“Ah,” said Agreeable with his insides going topsy-turvy and his skin aflame.“I’m done, if you’d like to enjoy your meal now.”

He skittered back to sit on the edge of the bed, kicking his legs to feel the brush of the skirt on his ankles and trying to keep his hands together in his lap.He left the cowl beside him.He was warmer now and the scarf ought to be enough to hide his short hair.

The man faced him again, considering Agreeable for several long moments as if a quick bath had changed Agreeable into someone worth staring at.Then the man’s attention was on the table and the food.He hesitated before pulling the chair from the corner to put it in arm’s length of the table, then took one of the plates laden with potatoes, chicken, and Betram’s wife’s somewhat burned rolls, and a fork.

Betram knew when he had a quality guest, no matter how simply the man dressed; he’d given him a fork.Agreeable debated asking for a roll when the man had finished eating, but kept his mouth firmly shut even while his stomach grumbled.

The man stopped in the middle of his first mouthful, which he had raised delicately to his lips with the fork, not once getting gravy or anything else on his fingers.He swallowed, then gestured with the hand holding the fork.“Help yourself.There is a plate for you as well.I wouldn’t....”He paused for whatever Agreeable’s face looked like.“I invited you to join me for dinner, not to watch me eat.Unless you aren’t hungry....”

“No, no.I’m hungry!”Agreeable didn’t move except to extend his arms in a nervous, pleading sort of way.“I just didn’t expect....The butter too?”He nodded toward the tiny dish overflowing with a slab of pale-yellow Heaven.

He first got a deep sigh for an answer, and then, “The butter too.Whatever you like,” in a warm, rich voice that would have had Agreeable trembling again if he hadn’t been so preoccupied to slathering butter over several rolls.He didn’t shovel them all into his mouth at once because being around someone with delicate manners made him go slower than that.But it was a struggle.He had two, exhaled and licked his lips with pleasure, and then would have been content but the man said, “Take a plate and eat your fill,” in that same voice, and Agreeable wouldn’t have been able to say no even if he’d had a feast day meal already.

He picked up a fork, for there were two, then set it down again.“I wouldn’t be as neat as you with it,” he admitted sheepishly.“And I’m too hungry to bother.I ran about a lot today.”

It earned him a small smile.“I’m sure you did.Eat.There’s wine as well, if that’s to your taste.”

Wine was also for feast days, or at least not for every day, despite the vineyards all around them.

Agreeable gave him a smile between bites of potato and more butter, and was so distracted by the taste he nearly forgot the purpose of the dinner aside from turning an empty stomach into a full one.

“What are you called?Or, if you are concerned with the truth getting out, what should I call you?”The man cleaned his plate but didn’t reach for more, except to take a small sprig of grapes and eat them one by one, delicate even with no forks involved.

“Agreeable,” Agreeable said absently, then flinched, for that name would surely get him caught if the man revealed it to anyone.

The man raised his eyebrows.“That wasn’t a joke earlier?That’s what people call you?”

“Um.”Agreeable hadn’t even had a drop of wine.“Some do.It’s not cruelly meant.Well, not for all of them, I expect.”

“But for enough of them.”The man slowly inclined his head.“And villages are small.And you attract notice.”

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