The cat clicked and when the clockwork wheel spun, a tinkly little melody played. It wasn’t a shanty.. that would have been far too perfect. But it was nice enough.
“I’ll take it.”
The dusky pirate grinned at the merchant in the artisan’s quarter.
The other thing she needed was back a certain alley with spicy scents that served a particular sort of client.
She thought on her conversation with Alivendri. Magic would be so convenient.
But she had next to none, and what little she could summon seemed to serve for healing and growth, which.. really wasn’t the intention.
So herbs it was, of the kind that would make a woman bleed again. Lest her former husband have given her a final gift she didn’t wish to carry.
It still stabbed at her deep inside to think of. She’d had no idea his heart wasn’t hers anymore. He’d return home, they’d grapple with few words and fewer intimacies save the obvious.. and then he’d spend some time with Sammy and leave again.
She should have guessed. And that hurt worst. Just his stupid wife to come home and fuck and leave.
She hadn’t had her blood for a while, but the truth was that even after weaning Sammy, it hadn’t been even close to regular.
But she had no particular interest in having a second child of Zaristus FitzValdyr while he was off wooing his new woman.
And .. that enchanting, wonderful miracle-worker back home at the Rest.. well, he didn’t need any problems on that front either.
She’d come back, and take the things and hope they didn’t lay her out too badly.
And get that thing under the skin Alivendri suggested and.. be friends. Good friends.
Friends gave each other presents that looked like cats and whirred and played music.
Right?
Just good friends.
