Stone of Inheritance by Melissa McShane

Author:Melissa McShane [McShane, Melissa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Night Harbor Publishing

15

Aneirin’s brows rose. “Sienne!” he said. “What a pleasant surprise!”

“A surprise, at least,” Sienne said. “What are you doing here? Didn’t you say you were engaged to play for a duke for the first summer season?”

Aneirin wrinkled his nose as if he’d eaten something rotten. “Unfortunately, that engagement fell through,” he said, “and I’m at loose ends. But let’s not stand in the doorway chatting. Allow me to buy you a drink.”

Still stunned, Sienne let him lead her to the bar, where he found an empty stool for her. He shrugged off her suggestion that he sit, too. “I don’t mind standing,” he said, gesturing to the barkeep for two glasses of wine. “As to my predicament, well, it seems the duke in whose home I intended to reside had two very lovely daughters, both of whom appreciated my many skills.”

“I bet they did,” Sienne said.

Aneirin laughed. “I’d forgotten how keen your wit is. It’s true, I practiced my more amatory arts on them, but of course I intended it as harmless flirtation. They, alas, felt otherwise, and when the duke tried to prevail upon me to marry one of them, I decided it was time for me to take my leave. My savings brought me this far, and now I play for my supper and a few extra soldi at the other inn every night, and come here for a companionable drink afterward. Easier not to play, so to speak, where I work.” He sipped his wine. “But now I insist you tell me of your adventures. Have you returned from the wilderness so early?”

Sienne thought fast. It was beyond coincidental that Aneirin was here, never mind the story he’d spun. He’d confided in her so she’d feel comfortable opening up to him. The question was, how much should she tell him? “What makes you think we’ve already gone? We might well be on our way out.”

“You left with such alacrity, I assumed you traveled at the same speed. But you’re right, that was simply a guess on my part. I don’t know anything about scrappers, except that there’s one I’m interested in getting to know.” Aneirin smiled and put his hand over Sienne’s. She kept from jerking it away.

“We’re headed back to Fioretti,” she said. “So your guess was right.”

“Then you were successful?”

Sienne made another lightning-fast decision. “We were. We’re going to report to our client and get paid.”

“And what does success look like, for a scrapper like you?” Aneirin stepped closer, not letting go of her hand. Standing, he loomed over her on her stool, and she had to work at not flinching. She felt no sense of menace from him, but he was still bigger than she was, and the greatest dangers were the ones you didn’t see coming.

“It means whatever makes the client happy, or brings us the best salvage,” she said. “Sometimes both.”

“What did your client want?”

“I’m not at liberty to say. I can say she’ll be satisfied with what we bring her.” That

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