But then the vision scattered, because the orc’s hand had somehow slid up the sleeve of her dressing-gown, and his tongue was now trailing up herarm. Lapping against the still-painful cuts she’d made with her candlewood, and as her dazed eyes blinked down at him, it occurred to her that he —knew. Good gods, he knew, and was thatreproachin his black eyes?Disapproval? After all he had done? And was still currently doing?!
Gwyn yanked her arm away from him, so forceful that she nearly fell backward, and she stumbled up to her feet, while the garden spun powerfully around her. “What the hell, orc,” she croaked. “You have no right.None. Don’t yourememberwhat you did to me last night?!”
Her voice came out sharp and shrill, not unlike a scream, and before her the orc had risen too. And Gwyn belatedly realized how damnedtallhe was, his lean powerful body towering deadly and dangerous above her. And she’d left her crossbow inside the house, and was he going to take advantage, was he going to —
“Ach, I ken,” he cut in, the words cursory and stiff. “But you” — he hesitated, his head tilting — “you no… you no betrayed me, this day. No spoke of me, to this man.”
To this man. ToRoy? And Gwyn couldn’t stop squinting up at the orc’s face in the bright sunlight, searching his dark eyes, grasping at her spiralling thoughts. He’d come back here because… he’d beenspyingon her, again? And waiting for her to report his devious arse to Roy? To claim, perhaps, that she’d been tricked by an orc? Accosted? Attacked?
And wait,wait, how had this not yet occurred to her? Because yes, surely, she could have easily done such a thing. She could have made up any number of ghastly, terrifying tales about what this horrid orc had done to her, and thrown his horrid plan straight back into his horrid face. She could have single-handedly dismantled that entire peace-treaty, anddestroyedhim.
Should the worst happen, she’d told her father that day,you can happily launch into another war to rescue me…
“But,” she began, and then hesitated, frowning suspiciously at the orc’s guarded eyes. “But — you can’t mean to tell me that was actually yourplan, when you came here? That you were willing to risk anotherwar, for a few minutes over my kitchen table?”
The orc blinked, once, and that might have been a wince, tightening his mouth. “I noplanto risk all this,” he said, voice flat. “I no saw all this. I never saw you —”
He broke off there, definitely wincing this time, and Gwyn considered that for an instant — and heard herself bark a laugh, bitter and cold. “Oh, so I wasn’t supposed to figure out your little scheme, is that it?” she retorted. “I was supposed to dangle along after you for weeks or months on end, growing your child, until I was too compromised to escape? To bebelieved?”
She was somehow shouting again, the words ringing through the suddenly small-feeling garden all around them — and the orc took a hasty, reflexive step backwards, his face gone rather pale. “Sonowyou do this,” he said, in a monotone. “Now you go find thisbetrothed, and speak this to him.”
What? Gwyn’s throat was making a strangled sound, her hands dragging through her hair. “Of course I’m not going to go find Roy, or tell himanything,” she snapped back. “I’ve been trying to shake him off formonthsnow, and I came here with the express intent of getting the hell away from him, permanently,forever!”
The orc kept blinking at her, clearly nonplussed, and Gwyn rubbed at her eyes again, fighting to ignore the fact that doing so felt far less painful this time. “And to finally start my own life,” she added, her voice hollow. “To escape my fate as a lord’s daughter, and make my own way, apart from Roy and my father. But now —”
She couldn’t seem to finish over the constriction in her throat, and gods, why was she even telling such things to an orc? Tothisorc? Why was she giving him even more to wield against her, after what he’d done?
“Just — forget it,” she heard herself say, her shoulders sagging. “You tried to use me for your purposes, you failed, and now you can even rest assured that I’m not going to report you. So if you’ll kindly go away, I have more important things to address right now, without adding in your awful manipulativerubbish. Goodbye.”
With that, she spun around and lurched in the direction of the house, silently cursing herself with every step. Stupid. So damned stupid. And her eyes were even prickling again, and she would not shed more tears over this bastard, she wouldnot—
Until before her, something flashed into place, tall and dark and impossibly swift. Sending Gwyn reeling backwards, cursing aloud this time — because of course, it was the orc again. Now fully blocking her path, looming over her, looking down at her with unreadable black eyes.
“Wait,” he said, his voice low and urgent. “I wish —”
But he broke off there, his throat bobbing — so Gwyn jerked a hard shake of her head, and swerved to step around him. But again he leapt to block her, the movement again almost instant, his shaggy hair glinting as it settled in the sunlight.
“I wish to offer amends,” he said, in a rush. “To… you.”
Amends?Toher? Gwyn heard herself bark a disbelieving laugh, and veered in the other direction — but again the orc was far too fast, his tall body easing into place before her. “You are… under threat,” he continued. “This fool man swore to burn your goods. Your herbs. Yourgarden.”
His eyes flicked darkly toward the garden around them, almost as though he’d been personally insulted by that — and then he glowered back down at her, his long arms gracefully folding over his bare chest.
“Have you funds or help to hire guards, to keep all this safe?” he demanded. “Or to hire new lands, and to move all your goods there in secret? Or” — his fingers flexed against his arms — “to make second garden, in safe place, to serve as surety if this one is lost?”
Gwyn felt her frustration simmering as he spoke, seething for escape — but then it seemed to plummet again, dragging down her head and her shoulders. No, she didn’t have enough extra money for such things. And this asshole had very aptly summarized the totality of the possible options that had already been swarming her thoughts, all of them with deeply depressing finality.
She needed to protect her life’s work. So many of her plants were costly or rare — some were irreplaceable — which meant that rebuilding would take years, and would be exorbitantly expensive, as well. But without her plants, her ability to earn her living would be significantly reduced, perhaps enough to destroy her career forever.
No. She had to find a way to keep her plants safe, or move them elsewhere. And to make that happen, she again needed either large sums of money, or considerable support from others. And she had no friends or family here, and this entire move had already consumed most of her savings, and — and —
“Look, I’m likely worrying over nothing,” she said, too quickly, though she couldn’t hide her grimace. “Roy obviously just lost his temper, and was making entirely empty threats. He and my father are both quite fond of me, and I’m sure I can bring one of them around on this. Roy wouldn’t truly want to hurt me like that. We — understand one another.”
But the orc’s scoffing laugh was immediate and unapologetic, his eyes sparking with dangerous amusement. “This man nounderstandyou,” he drawled, “if he believethisthreat, of all means, shall gain him your vow, or your fealty. If he believe woman like you shall sit still andwaitfor this threat to become truth?”
Gwyn’s mouth had opened, surely to make some kind of appropriate counter-argument — but nothing came. And instead, there was an odd little prickle up her back, a tight swallow in her closed-off throat. Because yes, good gods, again, this too-astute bastard had the truth of it. Now that Roy had made that threat, Gwyn would never, ever forget it. And as long as it retained even the slightest possibility of coming true, she surely wouldn’t be able to rest until she’d dealt with it. Permanently.
The orc was smirking at her again, as though he’d read the words from her very thoughts. “You are under threat,” he said firmly. “You have no funds to face this. Thus, you need help.”
