Gabriel's Road by Laura Anne Gilman

Author:Laura Anne Gilman [Gilman, Laura Anne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Book View Cafe

6

After he’d finished his meal, as though putting down his bowl was a silent signal, other residents of Rabbit’s Mound came over, singly and in pairs, occasionally accompanied by children, to be introduced. Gabriel did his best to greet them politely, struggling to remember names with the faces. But once warm, fed, and dried, exhaustion set in, and when a yawn escaped him, practically cracking his jaw, the old man who’d been recounting a story of the early days of the town stopped, then slapped a surprisingly strong hand on his shoulder.

"And there's the hind leg of a donkey talked off, just like my momma warned."

Gabriel felt himself blushing. "I'm sorry, I—"

"No, no, you're a guest and we’re showing pitiful hospitality, jawing at you while you’re nearly dead on your feet."

He looked around the hall, summoning Henry back from where he was talking with another man. Gabriel noted that most of the folk had cleared their tables and left, only a few adults and the scattering of dogs remaining.

"Your boy needs his bed," the old man said to Henry. Gabriel might have been offended at the demotion to boy at his age, but they both had at least a decade on him, and likely more, so he let it pass.

"Too late to try and foist you onto someone," Henry decided. "We've not guesthouses as such, but there's a loft over where we left your beast, should be dry and warm and comfortable enough if you don't mind the smell of horse and hay. You being a Rider, I'm suspecting you don't."

He did not.

They said goodnight to the older man and walked back to the shed, where Henry pointed out the ladder to the loft, and left him with a promise of a fresh-cooked breakfast in the morning.

The other horse had been taken somewhere while they were eating dinner, and Steady seemed almost pathetically glad to see him, shoving his blunt head against Gabriel's shoulder, then lipping at his hair.

"Stop that, you idiot." Gabriel ran a hand through his hair and grimaced at the slight slobbers that came away in his fingers. "Look like they took good care of you." There was fresh water in the trough, and the remains of grain, and Steady had that sleepy look in his eye he got after a full meal. "Not your usual accommodations, hey? Not mine either, truth be told. But it seems well enough, and it's dry, which is more than I was expecting a few hours ago."

He gave the horse another once-over with his hands, making sure there wasn't any swelling or lumps he might've missed when unsaddling him earlier.

"All right, you look fine. I'm going to crawl up there," and he jerked a thumb at the ladder built into the wall, "and get some shuteye. Anyone comes knocking, probably best you don't trample them, okay?"

The loft wasn't quite high enough for him to stand upright, with an unprotected edge overlooking the lower level that gave him pause, but there was

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