The Bloodbaths | Page 9

they walked through the streets to his inn. The route she chose was lined with apartments and houses, but most townsfolk were inside, asleep or gathered around the hearth. Street cleaners pushed sewage into drainage trenches with ragged brooms.
"It's so peaceful," he said, his voice hushed. "At this hour, my neighborhood would still be a madhouse with drunkards and bawds. And muggers."
"Don't bring that to our little Restia." Kharrina watched the clouds pass over the moon. "The reason it's quiet here is because we love our town. A brawl on Friday is the talk of the town on Saturday. Even the sailors know to behave." She chuckled. "Sometimes."
"Are you an authority?" He laughed at her as she slapped his stomach. Kharrina said nothing at the jibe, but her eyes and her sly smile answered his question.
Crixus bought a flagon of wine and two goblets from the innkeeper. The main room flickered in torch light and tobacco smoke. The tables had filled with revelers joking and shouting or gambling with tense faces. Waitresses weaved between the tables with jugs of ale in their muscular arms.?
They mounted the back stairs to the second floor, divided into six rooms of which he, Stamm, and Gavri rented three. Stamm was either exploring the other pubs of Restia or drinking alone. Gavri retired early as a rule. Careful scouting had established that this inn had the softest, cleanest beds, free of insect life. Kharrina flopped on it and rolled around.
"I want one of these," she said. "Father still thinks straw mattresses befit sturdy tradesmen."
Crixus filled the goblets to the brim and handed one to her. "What should we toast?"?
She lay on her stomach, legs bent, looking years younger. "Soft beds."
They drank to soft beds. Kharrina gulped down half the glass.
"Darling!" Crixus said in mock alarm. "I have to take you back to your father tonight. Let's not give him more reasons to hate me."
"Other than the fact that you have ravished his daughter, and you're going to steal her away from his dirty, smelly, sweaty shop forever?"?
He knelt in front of her, face to face. "Ravishing, yes, I am guilty. But I haven't stolen you yet."
Kharrina kissed his forehead. "Promise you'll try."
Cupping her chin, he gave her a kiss. "But if you ask me to steal you, is it still a crime?"
"To father it is," she said, giggling.
"Now, wait." He stood and began to pace the room. "Let's be serious for a moment. Your father resents me."
"He doesn't." Kharrina removed her sandals.
"Alman hasn't exactly warmed up to me."
"He has in his own way. I've had suitors before, you know. Some he chased away with a rod. That you've gotten this far is a sign that his resistance is weakening."
Crixus became quiet. Kharrina held out her hands until he relented and climbed onto the bed. She embraced him. "Don't sulk. You know you're not my first lover. Would you want a child bride, who you have to raise like a daughter before you can make her a woman?"
He set the goblet on the flat bed post. "I suppose not. I prefer not to think of the men who came before me."?
"You were pleased enough to steal me away from that boy the first time we met."?
He remembered their meeting in the field at dawn, where he had been scouting for water sources. Her escort had been more than displeased when Kharrina stopped to talk to the brawny man lying on his stomach on the ground with a tablet and quill.
She spoke before he could respond. "I doubt you slept alone until you met me."
"You're right. It doesn't matter what has gone before. We are here now, together."
Kharrina kissed him, licking his lips with her tongue. He couldn't resist a grin. "Father knows I love you the best of any suitor I've ever had. That's significant to him."
"It is?"
She nodded, sober despite the wine. "He forbade me to marry one young man I was besotted with because he was unkind. I couldn't see past the pretty face at the time. Father was right."
"It seems that I must please old men in order to get everything that matters to me right now."
"Am I not worth it?"?
Crixus kissed her cheeks, then her lips. "You are worth everything to me." Their legs tangled together with sensuous friction. "I can't remember life without you."
"Keep going," she said.?
"Ha, what else do you want to hear?"
"Your noble intentions, good ser," she said as she slid a hand under his tunic to tug at his chest hair.
"My immediate intentions are not so noble," he said, eliciting her laugh. "But very soon, I intend to declare myself for you."
Kharrina pulled back. "You do?"
"Are you surprised? I want to make you my wife." The words came out fast and thrilled him to the core. They had