The Peddler's Reward by Carrie Anne Noble

Author:Carrie Anne Noble [Noble, Carrie Anne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-10-28T16:00:00+00:00

Battered, bruised, itchy, and grimy, O’Neill stumbled up the caravan steps and through the newly repaired door. He’d already delivered the ibis feathers and clever raven to Madame Vadoma, and lovestruck Mizella and her panther suitor, Calan, were on their way to beg the king to allow their marriage. Now he was eager to see only two things: Scarff and his own pillow.

Scarff greeted him with a snore. In the light of a low-burning oil lamp, the old peddler looked no worse than he had before the quest to find the Gaskin girl — and that was a good thing indeed.

O’Neill shed his sand-encrusted vest and then unbuttoned his charred shirt and dropped it onto the floor. Discarding the garments made him feel ten times less filthy. He started to unbutton his trousers.

“You’ve a foul stench on you, lad,” Scarff muttered from the bed. “The good Lord alone knows what mischief you’ve been up to. Do not even think of climbing into this bed without bathing first.”

It seemed the fellow was on the mend after all.

“But there are alligators in the pond,” O’Neill said. “And I am weary to the bone.”

“The smoke from Madame Vadoma’s special incense scares the beasts off. Besides, they certainly would avoid eating something that smelled as rank as you.”

“Yes, sir.” O’Neill picked up his ruined shirt and rebuttoned it. No way would he risk attracting another Gaskin bride with an immodest display of skin. He planned to do his level best and then some to avoid accidentally wooing anyone else before he made it back to his Pennsylvanian lass.

Scarff coughed a few times and then said, “When you return in a cleaner state, I’ll expect to hear what you’ve been doing, lad. All of it. The truth.”

“Of course.”

Had Scarff not been a well-traveled peddler acquainted with the world’s oft-hidden magic, no doubt he would have scoffed at the tale O’Neill was going to recount.

But first, a bath with alligators.

It just might be fun.

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