Page 80 of The Orc Warrioress and the Elf Lord

She bowed her head, nodding. “That’s actually thoughtful. It is all awkward enough with her without this on top of it.”

“Of course,” he said with a smile and went back to his pipe.

“But what about your going home?” she said.

“Well, I think I have to,” he muttered. “I do not wish to, but I cannot put it off forever.”

“And me?”

“You don’t want to go there, trust me.”

“So, we part ways?”

He looked up at her. “You can come along if you like. You won’t be welcome there, though, not in the main keep where my father lives. Of course, I suppose I have a house in town where I’ve kept courtesans. Perhaps you could—”

“Oh,” she said. “We’ve spoken of this, have we not?” She wrapped her hands around her waist. “This is actually impossible with us.”

He crossed the room to her. “It wouldn’t have to be like that. You know, I wouldn’t call you a, um…”

“Strumpet?”

He ran a hand through his hair. “Obviously, I would not call you that.”

She hugged herself. “I have nowhere to go.”

He nodded. “No, I realize. I’m realizing.”

She licked her lips. “Perhaps the farm. I suppose, with my uncle gone and my mother here, it is mine. There is no one else. I could live in the barn and try to have the farmhouse rebuilt and perhaps I could…” She shook her head. “No, I can’t run a farm on my own. And I don’t even like farming.” She let out a breath. “But the barn. It’s something.”

He rubbed his chin. “I need to shave.”

She touched his chin, too. “I like it. It makes you look a bit rugged.”

He gazed into her eyes. “I don’t think you should go and live in a barn.”

“You just want me to be your kept woman,” she said.

He smiled. “It won’t be like that. I don’t know long I’ll be there, but with my father…”

“What is it about your father?” she said.

He sighed.

She tilted her head to one side. “Well, as I have just said, I have nowhere else to go. I could act as if I have some pride that keeps me from being thought of as your whore, my lord, but we are…” She gestured back and forth between them.

“I shall be your whore,” he said, arching an eyebrow.

She smirked.

He reached out and took her hand. “Actually, I’m pleased you’ll come. It will be good to have company.” He squeezed her hand. “It will be quite good.”

THEY LEFT IN the afternoon, even though Gathren’s mother protested that she could stay longer. Gathren wouldn’t have minded, actually. She could have spent a few more nights in the lair, sleeping next to Iahir, both of them bare. It sounded quite nice to her, in fact.

But Iahir now seemed antsy and subdued.

She supposed it had something to do with his father, but he still would not truly engage her on that subject. She began to speculate that this could only go one of two ways. One would be that his father was truly horrific, some kind of unfeeling monster, and she would wonder how it was a small boy could have survived the man. The other would be that his father just wouldn’t be that bad, in the end, and she’d wonder why Iahir had made such a fuss over it.

But it would take some time to get to Cirlahir. They had traveled two days from her farm to get into the mountains where the dragon’s lair was. They would need to travel two days back and then likely another day on top of that to get there.