Well, unless that woman was in on it.
No, as far as Teia had been able to learn, members of the Order were not supposed to know one another’s identities or fraternize in any special way. Far simpler that she was his mistress, and he was supporting her himself, and she was innocent of his Order ties. Or she might be cheating on a husband, if this was just somewhere they met to make love, but she was still innocent of Halfcock’s Order ties.
Either way, not someone Teia could kill.
The conversation dragged on, and Teia sidled closer to eavesdrop.
“. . . understand . . . retire,” she said. She was turned more away, so Teia couldn’t hear her as well.
“We’re not doing this again,” Halfcock said.
Dammit. That would have been handy.
“Come inside,” the woman said. “It’s practically morning anyway, and I’m freezing. I’ll make you breakfast.”
“Does this place even have a stove?” he asked.
“Yeah, but I, uh, couldn’t get the flue open.”
“Oh, using me for my muscles, I see,” he said.
Please don’t go back inside.
“I thought we agreed you were going to leave right after I did,” Halfcock continued.
“Eliazar is gonna be out all night with his friends regardless, and probably not come home until I can’t smell the liquor on him.”
“But you need to be home before he is,” Halfcock insisted. “Just in case.”
“I don’t know that I need—”
“We agreed to certain rules,” Halfcock said sharply. “That’s all that keeps us safe.”
Aha! So it was a love nest. And she was a married woman, it seemed.
Halfcock, you naughty, naughty boy.
Well, his punishment is coming.
“Safe,” she scoffed. “You act like there are spies in every alley!”
He cursed. “Promise me,” he said. “You wait two minutes after I leave, then you go.”
“No,” she said. “I’m tired. I’m sleeping here tonight.” Then she lowered her voice and said something else Teia couldn’t catch.
“No,” he said, and then said something else Teia couldn’t hear, but he was obviously getting mad.
The mistress tugged on Halfcock’s nipple through his dark tunic. “Oh? How you gonna make me . . . big man?”
He looked at the sky like a man out of all patience. “You have got to be shitting me. I asked you twenty minutes ago if you wanted to go another—and you said no!”
“You were supposed to ask again.”
“You do this to me every—” He trailed off, sighing at the sky again, but this time his gaze was like one gauging the time. “I am gonna bang you like an open storm door in a tempest, woman.”
She wet her lower lip, a look of erotic triumph in her sudden smirk. “Oops, look at that. I left the storm door unlatched,” she said, hiking her shift up.
He rushed up the steps, and she jumped up on his hips, embracing him, kissing him. He swept her inside, neither of them shutting the door in their haste.
Oh, for fuck’s sake!
Yes, I think it’s exactly for that, T.
She sat down, sighing. Everyone’s got a love life but me. Is everyone getting that much action, or am I just unlucky enough to go out exactly when everyone else is getting lucky?
She stood. Not even a pity party was going to keep her awake if she kept resting.
Instead, she went to the door. Glanced inside.
Halfcock had his lover standing pinned against a wall, her legs around his waist, bouncing her against him as if she weren’t nearly as big as he was. Impressive.
The look of rapture and the delighted gasps from the woman took Teia aback. For some reason she couldn’t have articulated, she’d imagined that really amazing sex was reserved for the young and good-looking. Neither partner here was either.
Huh. Well, go to it, you two. Good for you.
I guess.
She looked beyond them. There wasn’t much to the space. There was only a single room. A feather bed made neatly after the night’s diversions (admirable Blackguard discipline there), towels, chamber pot, a stove with a bit of kindling and firewood stacked beside it. A thick lock and a bar on the front door, and presumably on the back as well, though Teia couldn’t see that. The bed was the closest thing to a luxury; apparently Halfcock saved up for what he really valued.
Love nest indeed.
With loud primal grunts and a sudden alarming squeal, Halfcock finished.
His lover buried her face in his neck, clinging to his shoulders, urging him on. “Don’t you dare, uh, stop. Don’t you—”
Surprisingly, he didn’t, and in half a minute, she cried out, spasming and pushing off the wall. With his trousers around his ankles, he staggered and stumbled, barely making it to the bed before they fell.
He dissolved laughing, and a few moments later, after she regained her breath, she joined him. She kissed his sweaty forehead over and over.
They’re so goddam happy.
Great sex? That was one thing. Like, yeah, good for them. One last blast before dying. Let the man have his pleasures.
But joyous companionship?
Teia felt a purple bruise of bitterness that she hadn’t even been aware of, like they’d just kicked it. It was ugly, ugly of her to hate them, but she did. Suddenly, intensely.
She wanted to hurt him.
This is no good, T. You need to expel this poison.
I chose this path. Dumbass that I am, I chose this.
Halfcock rolled off his lover, and Teia saw the reason the slattern had been gasping. The Blackguard’s flag was only flying at half mast now, and Teia saw the full extent of the sarcasm behind his name.
Sure, a woman’s body can stretch. We give birth, after all. But I can’t imagine that even a woman who spoke with the fuzzy nostalgia of the ‘ultimate feminine beauty’ of pushing a baby into the light would want that kind of experience every time she made love.
And yet, hierovagus over there lay basking in juicy cetacean satiety.
She gazed at Halfcock with unabashed adoration.
“I don’t want to keep hiding us,” she said. “My son should know—”
He froze, trousers half-laced. Then he finished angrily. “Get the hell out. We’re not talking about this again. I’m gonna be late for duty as is.”
“Don’t be angry with—”
“The hell I won’t!” he said. “I can’t believe you.”
“Next week?” she asked, not moving from the bed.
“Up!” he said. “You’re leaving first. You cannot sleep here. You gotta get back. Gimme your key. Eliazar can’ t—”
“You’ll be here, though? Next week?” she asked.
He sighed. “Yes. Now, would you hurry?”
“And we’ll talk?” she asked, getting up and pulling her dress over her head.
“Yes, yes!” he said.
She got dressed and pulled on a cloak as he dressed, too. He glanced toward the open back door, which they had never taken notice of all this time, and slammed it in Teia’s face.
It scared her, though she knew she was invisible.
She heard no more raised voices, and two minutes later, the door opened again. She saw that the lanterns were extinguished in the room behind Halfcock, the front door barred, the folded blankets stacked, and the bedcovers pristine once more. He’d made his lover leave first, then cleaned up. The man might be in a hurry, but he simply couldn’t leave a mess.