Page 19 of High Stakes and Soulmates
“I’m so sorry! I didn’t see you,” the young man says as he reaches for me. His hand stops and I can’t help but question what he sees on my face that makes him hesitate. “Are you okay?” He kneels in front of me. “Did you get hurt?”
“N-No, I’m fine. I’m just… ha… I just…” I just what? Murdered a man? Left his child to stumble onto the body and to be orphaned? What if he has no other family? What if he’s left begging and starving on the street?
The young man grabs my face in his hands and forces me to look up at him.
“Are you okay? What happened? Is someone after you?” He looks behind himself to check, but shouldn’t he be worried about me, not whatever is behind him? I’m the monster here.
“I’m fine. I’m sorry. I just… heard… some bad news and it… I’m just struggling to comprehend it,” I lie, hoping to cover up what I’ve done.
His face immediately fills with compassion. It’s such an odd expression when I feel like I’m constantly surrounded by such indifferent monsters. They can kill and head off to the tavern to drink and fuck and be merry.
And I… I’m left kneeling in the middle of the road being comforted by a man I’ve never met.
“I’m so sorry,” he says, voice gentle. “That must have been really hard. Come on, let’s at least get off the road. I don’t want you to get run over as well.”
When I make no move to get up, he takes my wrist and carefully guides me to my feet. Now all that’s left for me is to return to Lorenzo, hand over the ledger, and tell him what I’ve done. And he’ll praise me, as if anything I just did was fantastic.
But instead, the young man pulls me over to the grass beneath a tall tree. He immediately leaves me but returns quickly as I realize he’s holding something out. It takes a moment for the horror to set in that the ledger I’d just taken from the dead man must have dropped when I’d slammed into him, and I’d nearly left it lying in the road.
“Thank you,” I say.
“Of course.” He kneels down. “Are you feeling a bit better now?”
“Yes, I apologize.”
“What’s your name?” he asks, and I know I should lie because if it gets out that someone killed the man and was caught fleeing with a ledger, it’d lead them right to us, but what’s it even matter? Maybe I want to get caught… but again, I’m with the army. It’s not like I did anything wrong; I was following orders.
“Ezio.”
“My name is Arturo. Are you from around here?”
“No, we’re traveling merchants,” I say.
“Ah! You’re with the crew who just came into town, yes? My master was telling me about them.”
“Master?”
“I’m a servant at the Florian estate.”
I hesitate, not knowing what that is. I suppose I haven’t paid much attention to the town since I showed up.
Noticing my blank expression, he goes, “The giant mansion?”
“Ah. I did happen to see that as we came in.”
“Pretty hard to miss, eh?” Arturo asks with a smile. “I was running an errand before I bumped into you.”
“This late at night?”
“I sure was. My master seems to prefer the night. He says it’s when there’s the most life. And since I slammed into you, I happen to agree.”
“Trust me, I’m not normally this exciting,” I say. “While the rest of my group likes to drink and enjoy life, I tend to sit far out of the way.”
“Do you just creepily stare off into the distance?” he teases.
“I might.”
He’s grinning now, and it immediately puts me at ease. I feel like—for the first time since my father dragged me into the army where he dedicated his entire life and assumed I should as well—I’ve met someone who is more like me and less like them.
