Gavriella was heading towards the big bed she shared with Camilla. “I will tell her that I could not sleep and went to walk about,” she said. “I have had trouble sleeping since I arrived, so that is nothing unusual.”
She climbed in, with Camilla climbing in next to her. They settled down on the feather mattress, soft and warm, far away from the foggy night and the dangerous guild in the sublevels of a burned-out church.
Far away from a dirty river that Gavriella had once entertained.
“Sleep well, Gavy,” Camilla said, sighing as she closed her eyes.
Gavriella rolled onto her side, facing the wall and the door. She was exhausted, that was true, but she didn’t fall asleep right away. Her thoughts were back on the handsome knight who had escorted her home, the one she had once told to go away. But he hadn’t listened.
She was glad he hadn’t listened.
In a few hours, he was going to take her to an entertainment across the river and she had to admit that she was excited about it. Not just the idea of watching an entertainment, but the idea of continuing the conversation with a man who had done the impossible. In spite of everything, the tumult they had been through and her own struggles against him, he had knocked a few holes in that wall she kept up around herself.
She was coming to trust him.
Truth be told, she was coming to like him just a little, too.
She knew she shouldn’t – God knew, she should send the man along his way – but she couldn’t seem to do it. Having a friend, a male friend, was something foreign and exciting and even a little titillating. She really hadn’t known any men other than her father and the men who served him, and then after what happened last year… nay, she had no desire to be friends or acquaintances with any man.
Men only brought pain.
But Andreas hadn’t. He’d been quite the opposite.
Something told her that her stay in London just became a little more bearable.
Lothbury House
“Where have you been?”
The question came from William as soon as Andreas walked into the hall of Lothbury House, his Uncle Edward’s townhome. Edward de Wolfe was an advisor to the king and, as such, needed a home near the Tower of London and also one near Windsor, which he did. It was on the River Thames off to the west, and a beautiful structure, but Edward and his cousins and Theodis had been staying at Lothbury, a hell of a fortified manse that wasn’t too far from the home where he’d just left Gavriella. The Asher, she had called it.
He couldn’t stop thinking about it.
Or her.
“Out,” he told his cousins, who were seated at the big table in the hall, having a morning meal. He pulled off his big leather gloves and plopped down next to Tor. “How was the rest of the evening at Gomorrah?”
He was deflecting the subject and, for the moment, they went along with it. “Boring,” Theodis said. “All of the pretty women were taken, including the one you left with. Where did you go?”
Andreas gave him an exaggeratedly coy look. “Do you truly expect me to kiss and tell?”
Will leaned into him. “Give us something to gossip about, lover,” he said. Then, he sniffed the man and immediately pulled away. “Jesus, Dray. You smell like the fat and greasy river rats that populate The Pox.”
Andreas poured himself some warmed, watered wine. “You were close when you said the river, actually,” he said. “Mayhap I’ll tell you sometime just how close. Now, back to that bawdy guild. Are you telling me that with all of the women there, I was the only one to find an attractive one? Tay, that’s not like you. Usually, you have a few hanging off your arms, anywhere we go. You must be losing your charm, old man.”
Theodis sneered at him. “I have lost nothing except my virginity at a very young age,” he said, watching William and Tor laugh. “Dray, you do not seem to understand. We do not want to speak of our evening. We want to know about yours.”
Andreas spooned stewed fruit into a bowl and took a hunk of bread. “There is nothing to tell,” he said. “You saw her run into the room where we were – she was hysterical because she could not find the exit. I merely helped her find her way out.”
“And?”
“And nothing. It was foggy, she could not remember where she lived, she tried to drown herself in the river, and I took her to an inn to wait out the mist.”
He said it so fast that they almost didn’t catch the part about the river. “She tried to drown herself?” William repeated, confused. “Why? What happened?”
Andreas stuffed his face with bread. “In truth, I still do not know,” he said. “She’s a sweet lass once you get past her hysteria. We had a pleasant conversation and I took her home at dawn. I am going to sleep a few hours and then we are going across the river to the entertainment over there.”
Will’s eyebrows lifted in surprise that Andreas should actually make a date to see the woman again. He looked at Tor, who shrugged, but Theodis was far less discreet than those two were.
He wanted answers.
“You must like her,” he said. “What is her name?”
“Gavriella.”
“Ah,” Theodis said. “Gavriella. A lovely name. Where is she from?”
“I do not know.”
“What is her family name?”
“I do not know.”
Theodis frowned. “What do you know about her?”
“Enough,” Andreas said, washing the bread down with wine. “Stop pestering me or I’ll tell you nothing more.”
Theodis backed down, but it was only to rethink his strategy. They continued to eat, with servants moving around the small hall delivering more food to the table, but Theodis was eyeing Andreas, as they all were, only Tor and William were more discreet about it. They didn’t want to hammer their cousin too much, although they were quite curious.
Andreas and a woman was a rare thing, indeed.
“When did you want to leave, Dray?” Tor finally asked, mouth full of warmed-over beef. “With our business here finished, I see no reason to remain. Have you thought about heading home soon?”
He spoke the truth. There really was no reason to remain in London because everything they’d come to accomplish had been completed. Yesterday, Andreas was ready to head home, but now…
Now, not so much.
“We need to make it home before the September rains come,” he said. “That gives us about five or six weeks at most. There’s plenty of time.”
Will shook his head. “Not for me,” he said. “I have a family to return to. I have already been gone overlong. No offense, lads, but I want to get home.”
No one argued with him, not even Theodis. They all knew the situation with Will, how his wife had been ill for the last year. A tumor in her belly, the physic said, something he couldn’t remove, so pretty and frail Lily had been fighting for her life ever since. Will was a devoted husband and father, strong in the face of his wife’s illness because he had to be. Outwardly, he was in control, but inwardly, that was another matter altogether.
He was struggling with a world turned upside-down.
But no one brought that up. There was no need. Still, it had been good to see Will enjoy himself, at least for a short time, something that was rare for him. When all of the puking and purging and scandalous guilds had passed, the fact remained that Will had enjoyed himself, even for a short while.