Page 10 of Centerpiece

Holburn laughed while removing his belt.“They listen.Most just do what they please when no priests are around.”

“Do you?”

Holburn didn’t scold Agreeable for the question.He merely shrugged and sat on the bed to remove his breeches, leaving him in his chemise and stockings.Agreeable ought to turn away as Holburn had done.He didn’t.

“I have in the past,” Holburn said, as if answering another question entirely, or feeling that he must be careful, as if Agreeable would mind his true answer, whatever it was.“And do still, on occasion.Though I suspect I won’t have much time for that anymore.”

He was too cautious.Now Agreeable had a new sort of itch to discover exactly what Holburn had done at capital parties or elsewhere.

“Do you have someone?Someone special, as you said?”He didn’t frown as he asked, but he did smooth the skirt over his knees a few times, needing to do something with his hands.

“Yes.She also likes to tell me no.Says it’s good for me to hear it from time to time.”Holburn didn’t sound angry about it as some men did when women stood up to them.

“She may be right.I don’t imagine many would tell you no.You’re very persuasive.”Which might be why some thought of him as a devil.Agreeable enjoyed the idea.“You must be a danger at those parties of yours.”

“Of mine?”Holburn scoffed lightly, but met Agreeable’s gaze before twitching another smile.“I don’t know what you mean.”

Lying was supposed to be a sin too, not that Agreeable cared much about that.

“And she doesn’t mind?I suppose she mustn’t,” Agreeable reasoned aloud, “since you said she tells you no when she pleases to.Oh.”Agreeable jerked upright.“Does she join you?Aren’t you worried over children?”

“Precautions are taken,” Holburn said, scandalously unconcerned with his words.But then, he’d have the funds to pay a mage, if he found one that hadn’t been dragged into the priesthood.Mages could arrange such things, or so Agreeable had heard.That was alleged to be sinful as well, although Agreeable had yet to hear any priest explain why.And like most things, what was sinful for villagers and farmers wasn’t all that sinful if a person had enough coin or land to their name.

“Is she lovely as well as strong-willed?As lovely as you?”Agreeable gripped handfuls of his skirt tight enough to hike it up past his ankles.He forced his hands to relax.“I mean, well, you are a jewel.But you must know that.”

Holburn stopped at the side of the bed.“I’m an oddity, a lumpy dark pearl.Butjewelsounds much better.Thank you.And no, Aliette is far lovelier than I am.A beauty and a wit, and for some reason, fond of me.”

Something twisted in Agreeable’s chest but did not hurt.There was only a sort of pressure, like a held-in sigh.

“Two jewels, then.”Agreeable bobbed his head to show how fine he was to hear that.

Holburn dragged a blanket from the bed and brought it to him.“If you insist upon the chair, then here is your blanket.Will you stay the whole night?”

“I....”The blanket tumbled onto Agreeable’s lap, giving him something to hold to as he looked up.Part of Holburn’s chest was visible where his chemise’s laces were open.He was pale, as one might expect from someone who had never tilled a field.His chest hair was dark.Agreeable forced his gaze up.“I will try.But if it seems safe, I’ll go.I don’t want to trouble you more.”

“And I think that’s foolish, but short of tying you to the chair or the bed, I have no way to stop you.”Holburn turned away, his chemise very thin in the firelight, and Agreeable was left dry-mouthed and breathless as Holburn returned to the bed to get beneath the remaining blankets.

He sat with his back to the headboard instead of lying down, but arranged the blankets and closed his eyes.

“Will you sleep sitting up like that?”Agreeable wondered in disbelief.

“Will you?”Holburn returned without even cracking an eye.“Are you wrinkling your adorable nose at me?”

Agreeable reached up to still his nose, just in case he had been, then poked the end.Adorable?

“I am exhausted from riding most of the day,” Holburn went on, keeping his eyes shut despite the thief in the room with him.“But I’m not quite ready for sleep.Tell me, if you don’t mind, how long have you lived as you do?Wait.”He blinked his eyes open.“How old are you?I’ve been guessing no more than nineteen.”

“Twenty-one years,” Agreeable corrected him, not offended.He wasn’t small but he was a light-boned thing, rather like a bird.“And it’s been near five years, I think.”

“What about winters?”Holburn pressed, then tossed his head.“It’s probably better if you don’t tell me now.I’ll never sleep.”

“You’re a strange one, Holburn,” Agreeable told him, fond and not hiding it.

“The Church has a roof.”Holburn was stern.“They should be allowing parishioners in need to sleep under it.Someone ought to remind them.”

“Unless you are a bishop, I don’t see how you can ensure that.”

“I can know a bishop,” Holburn grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest.Agreeable must have heard him wrong.He gave Holburn a long study but Holburn only glared back.“I can also say that the nobles who own the lands here are supposed to grant you care as well.That was the bargain made centuries ago.”

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