“I’m curious about something, Wolf,” she said. “May I ask you a question?”
“My lady?”
“Why would you do this for a woman you do not know?”
“Do what?”
She looked around. “Risk yourself like this,” she said. “I do not understand why you would do it.”
He was looking around, too, but in his case, it was calculated. Years and years of being a trained knight, of being trained to always be aware of one’s surroundings, had him watching every shadow, every glimmer.
“Because I am a man of honor,” he said simply. “Whether or not you realize it, you became my responsibility the moment I helped you from that ghastly place. I could not simply leave you to fend for yourself once we were free of the confines.”
“But I am no one to you,” she said, genuinely baffled. “You just met me. You do not even know my name.”
“Kitty.”
“Kitten.”
“I like Kitty better. It suits you.”
She stared at him, having no idea what he meant by such a thing. Then, she broke into soft laughter.
“Suit yourself,” she said. “But you still have not answered my question.”
“I answered it plainly.”
“But you did not explain why you would do such a thing for a woman who means nothing to you,” she pointed out. “A man could jump out at us any moment with a dagger and you would defend me?”
“Of course.”
“With your life?”
“If necessary.”
She had to think on that. It made no sense to her but, then again, she had never really spent an inordinate amount of time around knights. Her father was a knight in the technical sense of the word, but somewhere over the years, he seemed to have lost the very thing that made knights who they were. Call it courage, call it dedication… whatever it was, her father’s seemed to have faded. He’d lost whatever was left of it when she had been attacked. She’d seen the light go out of his eyes then.
Nay… she didn’t understand much about men and their sense of duty because her father didn’t seem to harbor any hint of such a thing.
He’d given up completely.
But the man next to her had that sense of chivalry, of honor. She was coming to realize that. Of course, when they’d first met in the guild, she hadn’t trusted him. Her distrust was natural. But now that she’d had a few moments of conversation with him, she began to sense something settling and calm about the man.
Honorable.
True.
She didn’t know why she sensed such a thing, but she did.
It made her more curious than ever.
“You must have great experience as a knight, then,” she said after a moment. “In battle, I mean. You must be very skilled.”
“I have fought in my share of battles.”
She could tell that just by looking at him. “Is your father a knight?”
“He’s a very good one.”
“And your sons? Do they train also?”
“I have no sons.”
She didn’t say anything more after that. He didn’t seem to want to converse, so she stopped talking. He was watching their shrouded surroundings like a hawk, intensely focused. They were heading towards a main road, something Gavriella thought she recognized through the mist, but she wasn’t quite sure. Everything was so dark and disorienting.
They just kept walking.
The moon finally set even though they couldn’t see it because the fog suddenly became dark. There was very little ambient light at this late hour and, frustrated and a little fearful, Gavriella came to a halt. He stopped next to her.
“I thought I would recognize the street at the very least, but I do not,” she said. “As I said, I’ve not been here very long and this is a much larger city than anything I am used to. I fear that I cannot ask you to continue to walk aimlessly with me when I do not know where I am going. I have been far too much trouble to you already.”
His gaze lingered on her a moment before he started to look around again. “You have no idea where you are?”
“None at all.”
“It would probably be easier in the light.”
She sighed heavily. “It would, indeed. At least I might see something that I recognize.”
He looked up at the sky. “It is probably two or three hours before dawn,” he said. “I think we are finished wandering around for the night if you do not recognize anything.”
She looked at him curiously. “But I must keep looking,” she said. “I cannot stand here on the street all night.”
“That was not what I had in mind,” he said. “Come with me.”
She didn’t move. “Where?”
There was fear in her voice right away and he paused. “Someplace safe until dawn breaks and there is light for you to see,” he said evenly. “My lady, I cannot leave you standing out here on the street if you do not know where you live. I would be a dishonorable man, indeed, if I did that. I told you that you were my responsibility until I see you safely home and I meant it. Therefore, please let me take you someplace safe until the dawn comes. I swear upon my honor that I will not hurt you, nor will anyone else. Do you believe me?”
Gavriella couldn’t very well say no. He’d been kind and considerate since their rough acquaintance and, truthfully, she didn’t have much of a choice at the moment.
She would have to trust him.
“I do,” she said after a moment. “Where are we going?”
Gently, he took her arm with one of those enormous hands. “Come with me.”
She did.
Like a fool, she did.
Andreas took her to an inn he had stayed at on his very first night in London. He and William and Tor and Theodis had been so thrilled to finally be in London that they’d bypassed Lothbury House on that first night and opted for the food and excitement of a tavern, only this particular tavern hadn’t shown them much excitement.
It had been downright boring.
Someone had recommended the place called The Fox and The Wolf, and they’d taken up seats in the common room and were treated to a spectacular meal. The place had been full of people, but a much more respectable level of clientele than most inns in the city had, and there had literally been no music, no dancing, no entertainment. Just food and perhaps the softest bed Andreas had ever slept in. The visit hadn’t been a total waste, but it had been unspectacular, so he thought a place like that might be just the thing for a woman who had just suffered a harrowing visit to Gomorrah.
A woman he couldn’t seem to let out of his sight.
They moved out onto a main road that had stone paving on it as part of a drainage system. There were expensive homes on this street and those with wealth tended not to like shite in the streets, so Andreas knew where they were in spite of the fog and knew exactly where he was going. He continued down the avenue for a short distance until he came to a small and cramped alleyway. I was quite dark except for a single torch about halfway down the alley.
Andreas aimed for the torch.
The Fox and The Wolf was a two-storied establishment on that cramped alley and crammed in between other buildings. The first floor hung out over the alleyway by at least a couple of feet, as was common with most buildings built around this time to maximize the interior space. The upper floors were always wider than the lower floors. He knocked on the door, several times, before it was finally opened.