“Stop that,” she said crossly.
“Can’t help myself,” he said with a shrug. “I like to look at you.”
“You’re not looking,” she said, “you’re coming to conclusions. There’s a difference.”
“There might be, but I’m honestly too tired to decide what that might be. I’ll settle for simply looking at your fetching self without making any judgments.”
She supposed she couldn’t argue with that. She also imagined he didn’t need to be told that he looked so thoroughly exhausted, she was half surprised he wasn’t senseless on the floor. It was perhaps the worst thing she’d seen in days upon days of terrible things. Even in the dodgiest of locales while about the most dangerous activities, he had only ever looked as if he were on the verge of chortling before casting himself enthusiastically back into the fray.
Perhaps there had been a slow, reluctant march toward more serious expressions and viler curses, but in his defense, he’d been running from a mage of terrifying power he couldn’t defend either of them against. The price for simply eluding that mage long enough to allow them both to escape had been very high.
“You should take the bed,” she said. “You need it more than I do.”
He shook his head. “The king would definitely slay me for daring the same, not that I would think to anyway. I’ll pull up a scrap of floor later and be quite content.”
“Then food, at least.”
He hesitated, then nodded. “That would be very kind, thank you.”
Weariness had also made him terribly polite. She rose, then walked over to the little table that stood under the window and sported a tray laden with tea and biscuits. She poured two cups of tea and carried them back across the room. Acair accepted one, though he didn’t drink. She fetched a plate of biscuits and sat down on the bed, prepared to hand one to him when he looked like he could manage it. He still hadn’t touched his tea.
“Not good?” she asked.
“I’m not sure yet. I think I might put it aside for now.”
She caught his cup before he dropped it, then set it on the night stand for him. She took her time resuming her spot and wondered if perhaps waking the king’s physick would be wise.
“I’m concerned,” she said frankly.
“All I need is another hour or two of sleep, then I’ll be back to my old self.” He rubbed his eyes with marginally clean fingers, then shook his head sharply. “Let’s talk about you instead.”
She applied herself to her own tea until there was no more, then set her cup down next to Acair’s and looked for something else to use as a distraction.
“Lovely weather we’re having,” she noted.
He leaned forward with his elbows on his knees and rubbed his hands together as if they ached. “It might be, but it has absolutely nothing to do with that other thing we need to discuss.” His expression was very grave. “We’ll have to eventually, you know.”
“Not if I can help it.”
“I’m very persistent.”
That was true, but she thought that with enough effort she might be able to avoid the conversation completely.
After all, what was there to discuss? ’Twas bad enough that she had set aside her good sense and pride as she’d sat with him on the other side of his invisible but very functional dungeon door and attempted to memorize a few spells. The business of spewing out words into thin air and trying to convince herself there was anything but embarrassment to follow was naught but foolishness—and fraught with peril, as she had proven recently not only to herself but the king outside in his courtyard.
“Did you see the stables?” she asked, desperate to distract him, but realizing even that would bring them back round to things she didn’t want to discuss. “They weren’t completely ruined, were they?”
“Just a bit scorched,” he said, “and you’re hedging.”
“Care for a biscuit?”
“Thank you, but nay, not yet.”
She settled for a look of pleading.
He smiled briefly. “Very well, I’ll leave you alone about it for the time being. Let’s discuss something less personal, say the condition of His Majesty’s beard. I think his having the same singed might be what turned the tide for me.”
“I honestly didn’t mean to,” she said. “He wasn’t being reasonable.”
