“Not as good a man as Dorian was,” I said thinking of my lost friend.
“True,” she agreed with a sad note in her voice. “He was the truest, most honest, and chivalrous man I ever met. Not just in his word and deed, but right down to his very bones. You are not as ‘good’ as he was.”
Her explanation was a bit excessive, but it was accurate in every particular.
“But still, I think you are the best one to bear the burden of that power,” she added. “The choices and responsibilities that your power will thrust upon you would undo someone as pure as he was. Your power and goals will require compassion, adaptability, and cunning.”
I didn’t really want to engage in excessive philosophic discourse in a moldy storeroom, though her words did strike a chord in me. “Let’s go find Marc before we talk the day away.”
“What if we’re seen? We don’t exactly blend in,” Rose pointed out, gesturing to her red dress. It was of a practical cut, but the color and the woman wearing it would draw attention no matter where you put them.
“There’s no one in the halls. Those that are moving around are up above. I think I can get us to his room without encountering anyone from where we are now,” I explained. It was very useful being able to explore the layout without venturing there, and even more useful knowing where all the inhabitants were.
I opened the door and led her into the corridor. It was a short walk and a few turns before I led her into the hallway that served the cells where Marc was currently ‘engaged’. We reached his doorway without being seen. The noises coming faintly through the door made it plain that we had reached the right room.
“Now what?” said Rose.
“Shibal,” I said sternly in the direction of the door. The sounds inside changed, as one of the partners abruptly stopped vocalizing. Marc of course was wearing the necklace I had given him. The door had no lock, but was barred from within; another word and I removed the bar. Rose and I stepped inside quickly and closed the door behind us.
“Son of a bitch!” Marc exclaimed coarsely. “You bastard, you scared me half to death.”
“I can see that,” I said smugly, glancing down at the woman who had collapsed beside him.
“Boys… behave,” Rose admonished us. She leaned over to pull the blanket up over the woman’s naked form. I was oddly disappointed, but no one else needed to know that. Rose looked at Marc, “And you… cover that thing up, no one wants to see that.”
I stuck my tongue out at him from behind her, while he responded with wounded dignity, “I’ll have you know that a number of ladies have expressed quite the opposite opinion.” He drew the other side of the blanket up to cover himself as well. “I’m assuming you have a good reason for barging into a young priest’s room without so much as knocking.”
As usual I found myself smiling at his banter, until I remembered the news I had to give him. “I do. I can’t spend too much time in the city and I didn’t know how long it would be before you returned to the house.”
“You must have important news then. Is it safe to talk here? How long will she be out?” he patted the woman next to him gently on the rump.
“An hour or more, but my news can wait. It will take longer than that to discuss,” I replied.
Marc answered quickly, “If you like I can come and meet you at the house, say around noon?”
It was closing in on somewhere past nine already at my best guess. “You can leave without ruining your disguise?”
“Certainly, I do so all the time. This cell is just a courtesy for a visiting brother,” he said gesturing with his hand to include the room, as if he were in grand surroundings.
“Why exactly did you need to stay here?” I said suspiciously.
He grinned, “It helps further the disguise. I’ve learned innumerable things while sharing meals and accommodations with the Iron Brothers.”
“And?”
He smirked, “and your house is rather unfriendly to strangers that you haven’t personally vouched for, like sweet Marissa here.”
Rose spoke up, “Can we save the chatter for later gentlemen?” I got the impression the setting made her uneasy.
“Noon then,” I said looking at Marc. He nodded in acknowledgment and drew Marissa closer as if to snuggle as we started through the door.
Rose stopped in shock, “Have you no shame? The girl’s still unconscious!”
Marc was unabashed, “That’s disgusting. You should wash your head out for having such dirty thoughts; I was planning to wake her up first.” Then he tilted his head as if thinking, “Though your idea does have some merit, sick as it is.”
I ushered Rose out the door before she could kill him, trying not to laugh as I did. “That man is unbelievable!” she said as we moved quickly down the corridor.
“Shhh,” I told her, “Let’s wait till we get somewhere else to talk about it.”
To her credit she did hold her tongue till we got back to the old storeroom. “Your friend is a cad,” she said simply.
“As you so recently told me, I’m not exactly a saint myself,” I replied.
She looked at me with a worried frown, “Do you think he really woke her up?”
That did start me to laughing. She really is worried he might ravish the poor girl in her sleep, I thought to myself. “Do you want me to check?” I answered. “Really?” I had been deliberately keeping my mind from observing Marc’s room up until that point.
Rose was torn, “No.” She chewed her lip for a moment before speaking again, “Yes, but don’t be a voyeur about it.”
“Alright, let me focus for a moment,” I said more dramatically than necessary. Stepping back I closed my eyes, though at such close range it really wasn’t necessary. After a few seconds I made an expression of interest. “Oh, now that’s original,” I said aloud.
“Stop looking!” Rose admonished me. “Did he wake her up or not?”
“I don’t think she’s fully awake yet, but she will be before long I’m quite certain,” I said with authority. “Now let’s head back…”
Rose glared at me suspiciously, “ How is he waking her up?”
I looked upward, not wanting to meet her eyes. “Well he’s kissing her… sort of.”
Rose blushed until her skin tone matched her name, “That’s enough, let’s go.”
I laughed so hard it was several minutes before I was able to concentrate. Somewhere in the middle of it Rose joined me.
Chapter 32
Marc arrived a half an hour before noon, just before we had finished preparing for lunch. We had bought some food on the way back, and Rose had tested her cooking skills warming it up while we waited.
Unfortunately her skills had not extended much beyond setting the table. Although we had bought nothing more complicated than fresh sausages and bread she had managed to burn the sausages while heating them in a pan. Thankfully she hadn’t tried to warm up the bread.
The experience had her more flustered and upset than I had ever seen her, since she was normally the epitome of grace and reserve. It had never occurred to me that her sheltered upbringing might have left her short on a few skills that most people from my own social background took for granted.
Although cooking was generally considered a woman’s art, most of the men in Washbrook knew the basics, and quite a few went well beyond that. Joe McDaniel was an excellent cook I happened to know from experience. My father had also been a fair hand with a skillet. I made sure to mention none of this to Rose as I helped to fix the mess.
Marc wandered into the kitchen as I was helping to cut the burned part off the sausages so I could reheat them. While they had burned in places most of them were still partly raw as well. As a result Marc had no idea that it was Rose that had burned the food. Obviously he never would have expected Rose to have tried her hand at cooking.
“What is that smell?” he observed upon entering.
I glanced at Rose before answering, “I got distracted and left the sausages on too long. They burned before I caught my mistake.”