To Kill a Curse (A Lingering Sea Novel Book 1) by Jennifer Jenkins

Author:Jennifer Jenkins [Jenkins, Jennifer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-02-01T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

Madam Rosini insisted Fina sleep in her straw-stuffed mattress while she spent the night blessing the talisman. Luckily, the rain had finally stopped before the old woman bundled herself in her woolen wrap and set off with the talisman in one hand and an oil lantern in the other.

When the door creaked shut behind the old woman, Fina couldn’t help but notice how small the cottage was with only her and Antonio left to fill it.

Fina stood next to Madame Rosini’s bed, clutching the folds of her borrowed nightdress. “Are you sure you don’t want to take the bed?” She couldn’t bring herself to make eye contact with him. As much as they’d endured together over the last few weeks, being in the room with Antonio—the light flicking off the four walls of the cottage, the heady aroma of herbs drying above the warm fire—was entirely too intimate.

“You might want to turn around,” Antonio said. He walked over to his clothes hanging by the fire. Fina quickly turned away before she heard the rustling sound of a blanket dropped to the floor.

“What are you doing? The clothes can’t be dry yet.” Why were her cheeks burning? Why couldn’t he wait to dress until Madam Rosini was back in the cottage?

“They’re not. But I can’t follow the old woman into the woods in only a blanket.”

“Follow her? Why?”

A chair scraped along the floor. “I’m dressed, Fina. You can turn around now.”

She turned to find him threading Rom’s sword through his leather belt. His shirt was open at the collar. “Aren’t you exhausted?” Fina asked. She could barely keep her eyes open.

“I have to be sure that she isn’t out alerting other Zingaro of our whereabouts. Now that the storm has passed, Rom’s band will be out searching the area.”

“You don’t trust her.” A pause to swallow the lump forming in her throat. “You think I’m a fool.”

His answer shouldn’t have mattered so much. She struggled to keep her face from crumbling. The last thing she needed was to remind Antonio of the power he had over her.

The light from the fire cast heavy shadows across his face. “I don’t trust anyone, Fina Perona.” His lips pressed into a firm line, and he broke eye contact to look at his feet. “Neither should you.” He walked to the door and pulled it open. “Get some rest. You’ll need it.”

Fina nodded. “It’s a long way back to Vino Antico.” She assumed they would use some of the money to buy a little sailboat. Something the two of them could manage. If she got good enough at sailing, she’d use it to travel and fulfill the three tasks after she paid Antonio for his escort and returned the chest of money to her family.

“Vino Antico?” he asked. “I thought Fonte was our first stop.”

Fina blinked a little of her exhaustion away, replaying his words in her mind to be sure she understood them correctly. “You . . . ” Her voice failed her, so she had to try again.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.