Page 70 of Knightfall
I leaned up to whisper in his ear, “Are you still drunk? Or what the hell was that?”
He leaned back down, his hands falling on my hips. “I’m a switch, sweetheart. But that? That was me hurrying you the hell up in your seduction of Connor. So we can wed and I can …” his fingers circled my hips suggestively.
“What about all that talk of war?” I nibbled his ear, on the side away from Connor.
“That’s me being overly cautious. I did get up a few hours ago, to hurl my guts out again. The ambassador had been hinting at an interest in courting Avia. But an official request from Macedon arrived yesterday.”
I pulled back so I could look in his eyes. “Do you really think—”
“We’re not gonna let it come to that, Bloss. Now, go do your job and seduce your fourth husband.”
“If I do, can we play tutor and student sometime? Because I like bossy you.”
I get to watch,Quinn chimed in.And maybe be the angry monarch who walks in and decides he wants in on the—
Declan grinned. “Get out of here, before I decide fairness is overrated.”
“Fairness is overrated,” Ryan grumbled as he poured water in a basin and then splashed his face.
“What the sard are you talking about?” Connor grumbled.
No one answered him. I went to the bell pull and asked the responding maid to summon my handmaiden so I could get dressed.
I turned to Connor. “Want to go to the kitchens and have them pack us a lunch? And ask Jace to get us a pegasus?”
“Gargoyle,” Ryan interjected. “They’re safer.”
Connor glared at all of us, cursed, and turned on his heel and stomped out the door.
* * *
We landed in one of Willard Ward’s fields and spent the day speaking to the farmhands. For once, I didn’t stumble all over myself. Connor looked an ass a few times, using uppity words. But eventually, he learned to tone it down.
It was a brilliant afternoon as we walked through the harvested fields of hay, brisk and warm all at once.
I smiled at the sky. “It’s been quite a while since I’ve had the sun on my face in the afternoon.”
Connor grunted and squinted beside me. “Do you smell that?”
“What?” I tried to subtly check my breath. We’d eaten with the local burgmaster, and the luncheon meal had been fish.
“Not you,” he sniffed the air again. Then he bent down and put his nose to the earth.
“This field is full of cow patties—” I grimaced.
Connor rolled his eyes. “I’m not such a palace bumpkin as to think that! Get down here.”
I rolled my eyes and got down on my knees next to him. I inhaled the dirt. “Nothing.”
Connor held up a finger. “Wait,” he sniffed, and crawled. And sniffed again.
I held in my laughter, but only just.
“Here. Come smell here.”
I stood and walked over to him and then bent down to the earth again. I sniffed. There was a hint of something … “Is that sulfur?”
Connor snapped his fingers. “Yes! That’s what it is.” He stood and brushed off his pants, then helped me stand. “Perhaps they have hot springs running under this area. Or sulfate salts in the ground.” Connor began to walk and look at the ground.
