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“Hildfree,” I grunted in greeting. I hurled my body onto a nearby wooden bench, casting my gaze over the pots, pans, tools, and bunches of dried herbs hanging from the ceiling.
“Hello, Sigwulf,” she said cheerily, turning towards me and waving her ladle in my direction. Her eyes narrowed instantly. “What’s got you looking like that?”
“Looking like what?” I grumbled, knowing full well what she meant. Hildfree could read me better than anyone else. We’d grown up together as children. Where others might see a stony countenance, she saw the inner turmoil.
“Looking like a wood weasel’s climbed up your rear end,” she said, her cheery tone returning. I couldn’t be sure, but I sometimes wondered if my suffering was amusing to the orc woman. Her tusks poked out of a wicked grin as she lowered her spoon and faced me fully.
“Have some stew. A happy belly means a happy mind,” she said, tapping the side of her shaved head.
“I didn’t come here for that. It’s not for me. It’s for Wynthea.”
Her pierced brows rose.
“Oh! Your new library assistant. I knew she was to arrive today, but didn’t realize she was already here. Good thing I already got her room ready!”
My mouth thinned into a hard line.
“Sorry for having you do the extra work of getting it ready. But she actually isn’t staying in that room anymore. She’s…” I hesitated, already anticipating Hildfree’s reaction. “She’s in the Oleana Suite.”
“You mean… The room directly beside yours,” she said slowly, her words heavy with meaning. And, no doubt, judgment.
“Yes,” I replied sharply.
If she had thoughts about this, which she no doubt did, she rather surprisingly kept them to herself.
“Well, you’re lucky I keep this whole place in such good shape. Otherwise, that room wouldn’t have been ready for a guest!”
In all honesty, I hadn’t even thought of that. That the room might not be prepared with fresh linens and bedding for a guest.
“Thank you,” I said, meaning it. Yes, I was paying them good money, but I was still immensely grateful that she and Grimswald had come to help me here. I could have gotten staff from the Matchers Guild, of course. But look how foully my one attempt at that had turned out.
“I’ll bring a bowl up to her right away. I imagine she must be hungry after her journey,” Hildfree said.
“Thank you. And just so you know, she might be, ah… Taking advantage of the bath.”
Curse of the moon, why was that so blasted difficult to say?
“No problem, as long as she’s fine with me coming in,” Hildfree said, nodding and grabbing her ladle once more. She began spooning steaming stew into a bowl.
I couldn’t help but imagine Hildfree entering Wynthea’s chamber while she was naked in the bath. It’s a good thing Hildfree is so besotted with her own wife, otherwise…
Otherwise, I would be so astoundingly jealous of the possibility of Hildfree’s renowned charms working on Wynthea that I’d never even let her into the room at all.
That realization was not a good one. The realization that I was already having such possessive thoughts about the young woman naked in the room next to mine.
Even knowing that Hildfree was a loyal and faithful partner while her wife went on her long trading trips into the south, I still felt the hot drag of jealousy through my chest as she disappeared from the kitchen with the bowl of stew, heading for Wynthea’s room.
I have to get out of here. I need distraction.
I’d head for the library. There were literal mountains of work to be done there. Work had always kept me grounded. Kept me focused and fastidious.
At least, it had before.
Before tonight.
Before her.
Chapter 7
