He snorted a laugh. “Heard that from Sass, did you? She’s never taken to the sea, but that’s because thinks she’ll drown.”
“And you don’t?”
He jogged to catch up with her longer stride. “I don’t plan to go in the water to find out.”
Well, that was positive thinking, although she had a similar strategy, so it was impossible to argue over it. “Does Bonnie One-Eye know you’re coming?”
“Aye.” His boot splashed in a puddle. “She said she’d make an exception to the females-only rule since I was so determined to serve as your bodyguard.”
Cali stopped so quickly that he almost walked into her. “My bodyguard?”
“Had to give her a reason to let me come, didn’t I?”
Cali swallowed a groan and continued trudging forward. Great. Now the fearsome pirate captain thought she needed a personal bodyguard.
“You know I can take care of myself, right?” She tried to keep the heat out of her voice but failed. “I worked as a mercenary even before I joined my first crew.”
“Course I know you don’t need a bodyguard, but I couldn’t exactly tell a lady pirate I needed to make amends for being a hells-cursed fool, now could I? I couldn’t tell her I needed to get away for a bit to clear my head and find a reason to roll out of bed in the mornings.”
Or afternoons, she thought, remembering the dwarf’s tendency to sleep in after long nights sharing pints and stories. She flicked her gaze to him as they walked side by side past the village shops, with Thrain taking two steps for each of her one. “I thought you were happy here in Wayside.”
He didn’t look up and meet her eyes. “I thought you were, too.”
Cali had been so caught up in her own embarrassment over Marina that she hadn’t considered how Marina’s treachery—andthrowing over Thrain for her—had affected the dwarf. Maybe they both had some things to sort out. Who was she to say that he didn’t need to run off on a pirate adventure just as desperately as she did?
She glanced at the black-and-white awning that shaded the apothecary shop. Despite her distaste for long goodbyes, guilt stabbed at her that she was leaving without saying a proper farewell to Iris. Aside from her former crew, Iris was the one person in Wayside who’d taken her under her wing. Without the apothecary’s ample library and fondness for discussing all the books Cali borrowed, she would have felt even more untethered in her new home.
Thrain jerked his head toward Korl’s tinker shop and the flat above it where Lira and the orc lived. “Guess they’re having a lie-in.”
Cali’s whiskers twitched. “I think if it’s the day after your wedding, it’s called a honeymoon.”
Thrain chuckled, the sound shaking his belly. “Maybe they should be the ones going on a trip.”
Now Cali laughed. “Not sure if chasing down Marina on a pirate ship would be Lira’s idea of a romantic vacation. Or Korl’s.”
“Fair enough,” Thrain said.
When they walked past Pip’s bakery, Cali was surprised that the lights weren’t on. She couldn’t remember a morning when the halfling baker hadn’t been up before sunrise baking his loaves of bread and sweet rolls. Yesterday had been a lot of work for him, though, so maybe he was finally getting some well-deserved rest.
The soles of their boots crunched over the snow, but their footprints weren’t the only ones leading to the Tusk & Tail. Cali suspected the trail had been made by both Vaskel’s and Thrain’s boots when they’d tracked her to the inn. When they rounded the bend and the tavern came into view, she realized that she’d under-counted the foot traffic—by a lot.
Vaskel and Iris stood holding hands outside the inn with Lira and Korl bundled up next to them. Pip, Fenni, and Tinpin were talking to Sass and Val while Klaff and Vorto were helping Bonnie One-Eye onto the buckboard of their cart where Seraphina already sat, her hood covering her head. Rosie and Rog were heaving jugs of apple brandy into the back of the cart, and even Erindil had joined the group, clad in a white fur cloak with a stand-up collar that looked much like a ruff.
“What in the axe-blazing hells is this?” Thrain said under his breath.
“There you are!” Pip bustled up to Cali, holding an armful of paper bags. “Lira and I have been up most of the night working on portable pastries.”
Cali blinked at him and then glanced at Lira, who was leaning against Korl. Now that she looked closer, it was clear she was leaning on him from exhaustion more than newlywed affection, although she knew there was plenty of that too.
When she returned her focus to the halfling, she noticed that he still wore his dressy outfit from the wedding, but now his hair contained an even more liberal dusting of flour, and he smelled distinctly of sugar.
“You really shouldn’t have, Pip,” Cali said while Thrain’s dark eyes glittered with curiosity. “But I’m grateful you did.”
The dwarf reached for a bag. “Pastries, did you say?”
Pip bobbed his head, and traces of flour sifted from his hair to his shoulders. “Hand pies with brambleberry filling and lemon blueberry teacakes.”
“Perfect timing.” Thrain poked his nose into the bag and breathed in. “I haven’t had my first breakfast.”
