Gavin pauses his glowering long enough to shoot me a worried look.
Just then there’s another knock on the door, and Gavin’s mother peeks around the corner. She focuses on me, but I have the distinct feeling she’s talking to Gavin. “Evie has another guest. And he brought flowers!” Her smile is forced when she says it. Her eyes flicker to Gavin and Asher and then back to me. “Are you up to seeing him, dear?”
“Uh…” I look at Gavin for help.
“Of course she’s up to seeing me,” a male voice says from behind Gavin’s mother. “I won’t stay long.” He pushes past her and stands just inside the door while I stare. His hair is blond streaked with silver, but otherwise he is an almost exact duplicate of Asher, only older. Wait. No. I look briefly at Asher, then back to his father. The mayor’s eyes are completely different. They’re a sea-foam green, and cold. Hard. They remind me of someone else’s, but, of course, I can’t pull up the memory. As always, my mind keeps the pieces of my former life just out of reach.
His eyes flick over Gavin and his nose crinkles—only for a second, as if something smells bad—before he studies me. His eyebrows raise a fraction, and there’s something in his expression I don’t quite understand. But the way his eyes roam over my body makes me want to pull the blankets up further. I grip tighter to Gavin’s hand.
Gavin squeezes back, but steps forward, holding out his other hand to the mayor, who ignores it. Gavin clears his throat and lets his hand drop.
The mayor smiles, but it’s neither kind nor happy. “So, Evelyn, is it?” He looks to Asher for confirmation, but Asher doesn’t so much as nod. The mayor narrows his eyes at his son and turns back to me.
“Yes … sir,” Gavin answers, and although it’s only an instant, I hear the hesitance before the “sir.”
“I’m Kristofer St. James. I’m the mayor of this fair town. I see you’ve met my son.”
I nod and take the flowers he offers me. I don’t like him. I don’t need Gavin’s warning not to trust him. Everything in me is warning me away from him.
“How are you feeling, young lady?”
“Fine,” Gavin interjects quickly before I can. “She’s just fine. She doesn’t need anything. We don’t need anything.”
“Gavin,” Asher says under his breath.
Gavin glances over to him, then me, then seems to make up his mind about something. The mayor watches us all with this knowing look on his face. For some reason this makes me angry. What is he so smug about?
“I’d like to request a visa to get into the city,” Gavin says, completely confusing me. The city is where Doc wanted me to go, but Gavin had said that going into the town proper was the city. So why he’d need permission from the mayor, I have no idea.
The mayor’s eyebrows lift and he looks to me as if asking if he misunderstood before turning back to Gavin. “Why?”
Gavin tells him, but only of how I don’t remember anything from before I came and that Doc is at a loss to what it could be. I’m grateful he doesn’t mention the blackouts and freakouts, but then he goes on to explain that Doc had suggested that someone from the city with more training and experience would be able to help me, and I realize he lied to me. The city isn’t the town. It’s somewhere else altogether. And Doc thinks they can help! I can’t understand why Gavin would keep this from me.
My blood boiling, I skewer him with a look, promising myself we will talk about this when the mayor leaves.
The mayor taps his finger against his lips. “So … you want to take Evelyn to Rushlake in the hopes of finding a doctor who will overlook your Outlander status and treat her. Do I have that right?”
“Yes … sir.”
“And how do you propose to pay for her care? Do you have any money?”
Gavin looks at me, then at the mayor. “Um … no.”
“I see.” The mayor moves to look out the window. Gavin and I glance at each other, then look back at the mayor when he says, “You do realize that is out of the question, don’t you, Gavin?”
“Sir?”
“There is no reason for me to allow you to travel to the city so you can beg for help. Which is essentially what you’d be doing: begging for someone to help you. Do you have any idea how badly that would reflect on me?”
Gavin only shakes his head, but his frustration is practically palpable.
“Besides, where would you stay?” the mayor continues. “No one needs your wild game there. They have stores full of anything money can buy. Would you sit on the street with an empty cup? Or, maybe play some kind of instrument and let people throw coins at you? Find some kind of tent city where the other beggers live?”
Gavin doesn’t say anything, but his teeth clench. I’m not sure why, but this is the final straw that sets me off. This is Asher’s father?
I shove myself to my feet and the room spins for a second, but my voice is cold and calm when I say, “Mr. Mayor, I can’t imagine anything Gavin Hunter would do that would reflect as badly on you as your own behavior. I consider our business complete. Good day, sir.”
“I beg your pardon?”
The silence in the room is thick with tension and fear, though I can’t remember feeling less afraid since I woke up in the hospital.
I focus my gaze directly into his eyes, unblinking, as an invisible string seems to pull my posture straighter than my injured shoulder has allowed in weeks. “I will not be treated like a commoner.”
“Evie…” Gavin whispers, but I silence him with a flick of my wrist.
At first, the mayor meets my stare with red spots of anger on his cheeks, but after a moment he pales and looks away. A wave of dizziness threatens to overwhelm me as the adrenaline of my anger fades, and I turn. Gavin gets to his feet, his eyes wide with concern, and reaches hesitantly toward me. I shake my head slightly. I will not let the mayor see even a moment of weakness.
The mayor clears his throat, and says, “Perhaps you misunderstood me. I didn’t say I wouldn’t help you, Evelyn.”
I glance at the mayor over my shoulder. He smiles and watches me for a minute before gesturing for us to sit again.
I wait for him to take a seat first before lowering myself to the edge of the bed.
He continues, “I said his going would be out of the question. Not yours.”
I look to Gavin, only to see a tic in his jaw. The mayor goes on, either unaware of Gavin’s increasing annoyance, or not caring. “Gavin is an Outlander; he would never make it in Rushlake. But you, Evelyn … you’re different. You were obviously raised with a certain … quality, shall we say, that is lacking in the average Outlander. Even if you can’t remember any of it.”
“Say what you mean, Mr. Mayor.”
He smiles and nods graciously, like he’s indulging me. Obviously trying to take the power back. It sets my teeth on edge, but I let him speak. “I would be willing to sponsor your treatment. Set you up with the best doctors and the best places to stay while you’re there. You wouldn’t have to beg, or borrow. Steal.” He glances at Gavin. “To get the help you need. You’d only get the best care.”
Remembering what Gavin said about people from the city, I say, “And what do you suppose I would I owe you in return?”
The mayor waves a hand in front of his face, the diamond on his pinky ring sparkling. “There’s no need to worry about that now. We’re both reasonable people. We can come up with something at a later date. But Gavin stays here. You’ll have to go alone.”