Page 23

“Aye, but also for my other affliction.”

“So you are overly amorous? Or are your affections just not returned? Because that is a very different sort of problem.”

I choose to laugh rather than be insulted. “Nay. You accused me of having antiquated notions of women. And indeed, I know of none at court who sit the way you do in public, so casually, or accuse me of wanting to stick my cock in them.”

A cock that I’ve been attempting to tame since the moment I spied her outside the inn. Everything about Aedre—her long, loose hair, her thoughtful eyes and full mouth, the intensity of her expressions, her quick wit. Everything about her entices me.

“You will instruct me of your women. Your ways.”

“Will I?”

I take out a coin purse and hand it to her. Fool that I am, I’m grateful for the excuse to touch her.

“Can you resist such an offer?”

Can you resist me?

“I could,” she says confidently. “It serves my purpose not to.”

“Hmm. And what purpose is that?”

When she stands, I realize the sun is beginning to set. Have we been out here so long already?

“Mayhap I will tell you on the morrow.” She puts the coin purse in a pocket sewn into her gown. Likely the same pocket where her knife resides. “Or mayhap not.”