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I flinched and stared at him with wide eyes. “I don’t want to leave the frontier,” I said. “My friends are here. My home is here. I don’t want to sail away.”
“No?” Dmitri said, then straightened and laughed. “Let’s see if I can’t get you to change your mind.” He grabbed my hand and headed farther up the hill, to what looked like a lawn with crisscrossing paths between several large, ornate buildings. “Where is this suite you promised me, Olympus Hakobyan?” he called out to Olympus. “I wish to take my pup there and give him a bath as soon as possible. He’s filthy, inside and out.” He winked at me.
Magnus turned his head at Dmitri’s bold demand and narrowed his eyes. He then glanced to me with a look of…trust?
I stood a little taller. That one look was as good as an order from my king. He wanted me to carry out our plan to bleed Dmitri of all the information he had…before he was bled in more sinister ways.
“You don’t have to leave everyone’s company right away,” Lefric said in a rush of words. “It’s just about supper time. I’m sure the Hakobyan kitchens will prepare something magnificent for everyone. They have such a fun way of serving important meals here. Everyone eats off the same plates, and we all—”
I blinked rapidly at Lefric’s burst of words.
“I am hungry,” Dmitri cut him off, as though Lefric had bowed and scraped to invite him to a feast. “But I want to scrub the spunk off my pup first. Maybe add some more while I’m at it. And I wouldn’t refuse nicer, more appropriate clothing while you’re at it. My pup and I had to run from our last hosts, and we have nothing to our names.”
I could tell it took Olympus a great deal of self-control not to tell Dmitri just what he thought of him. “I quite agree,” he said instead. “I’ll have my housekeeper take you to the finest guestroom in my house. And I’m certain Mia can find appropriate clothing for you.” He nodded to a middle-aged woman with a stern face who stood at the edge of one of the patios.
“Right away, sir,” the woman said, curtsying slightly. She glanced to Dmitri with an expressionless face and said, “If you will follow me.”
She turned and headed across the patio and into one of the houses, not checking to see if Dmitri and I would follow. I peeked sideways at Dmitri and was tempted to smirk. If he had expected the same sort of reverence he’d gotten in the eastern forest here in Good Port, he was in for a disappointment. It didn’t take much for me to see that the people of Good Port, even the servants, weren’t exactly impressed with strangers.
Not that I could blame the woman—Mia, I assumed her name was, from the way Olympus had addressed her. Dmitri wasn’t exaggerating when he said we looked a mess. Sponge baths on a boat and borrowed clothes were hardly enough to cleanse away months in the forest, or a year, in Dmitri’s case.
Mia might not have been impressed with us, but even Dmitri couldn’t hide how delighted he was with the suite we were shown to.
“This is exceptional,” he said in an awed voice, turning a full circle as he stepped into the room Mia showed us to. “Better than anything General Rufus rolled out for us, eh, pup?”
“It’s….” I didn’t know what words to use to describe everything around me.
To start with, the room was large and airy, with floor-to-ceiling arches along the far side that led out to what I could see was a balcony. The arches were filled with glass doors that kept the chill out but I had the idea that they could be removed when the weather was warmer. There was a large fireplace against one wall which was cold now, seeing as the household probably wasn’t expecting guests.
The large bed that sat against the wall opposite the fireplace was made, though, or at least it appeared to be. It was piled with pillows as well and decorated with a brocade covering. Without touching it, I knew it was soft. I almost groaned with the need to sink into it and sleep for a week. I didn’t even care if Dmitri fucked me until I bled. It would be worth it to be able to sleep in that bed.
“Pup, come look at this,” Dmitri called from an adjacent room.
His voice echoed a bit, and moments later, I heard the sound of water being pumped. That alone pushed me into action.
The adjacent room turned out to be a beautiful washroom set with the same sort of tiles that adorned the outside of most of the buildings in Good Port. The centerpiece of the room was a large, porcelain tub decorated with painted sea creatures under its shiny glaze. Even more amazing, as Dmitri worked the pump, the water that came out steamed.
“The tub is fed from a cistern under the house that is kept constantly heated,” Mia explained. I hadn’t seen her follow Dmitri into the washroom, but she was there, opening a large cupboard to reveal neatly stacked towels. “Soap, tooth powder, shaving razors, and toothbrushes are kept in that cupboard there,” she said, nodding to a cabinet above a sink, “and there are robes in this cupboard as well. You could wear them until I am able to find suitable clothing for you.”
Dmitri was so fascinated by the hot water coming out of the pump that he didn’t see Mia’s sneer as she glanced over him. Come to think of it, Dmitri did look less than reputable. It had been necessary in the forest, but now it just marked him as somehow less than the people around him.
I swallowed hard. Marked as less, just like all of us had been when we lived in the cities, hiding our true selves. I wondered if Good Port was as prejudiced against men who loved other men as the cities were.
“Thank you so much,” I told Mia, nodding respectfully to her. “Your generosity is touching.” I placed a hand on my heart the way we did in Dunsk to show her as much. “I apologize for our rough appearance and our uncivil manners.” I flicked a glance to Dmitri.
Mia grinned slightly, then schooled her features. “I am here to serve, sir,” she said.
“Anton,” I told her. “My name is Anton.”
“Just call him ‘pup’,” Dmitri commented from the tub, where he was now loosening the ties of his leather vest with the obvious intent of undressing entirely to take a bath.
I glanced back to Mia. She now wore a sympathetic look for me. Not that unlike the way my friends had been staring at me for the last few days. Everyone seemed to think I was in some sort of miserable, unfortunate position. I wished they’d give it up and let me be. I’d chosen this misery.
At least the kind look from Mia hinted that it wasn’t my position with another man that offended her, it was Dmitri’s horrible manners. I was beginning to get the idea that the people of Good Port weren’t prudes, they were just snobs.
Mia showed me where a few more things were, including fuel for the fireplaces—though she said she would send a lower servant up to light a fire in the bedroom while Dmitri and I bathed. I just hoped that servant made it in and out without seeing or overhearing anything that would embarrass us both. Mia then informed us that supper would be in the main hall of Lord Vikhrov’s house in an hour, and that she would escort us there when we came down.
“Looks like we only have an hour to enjoy ourselves, pup,” Dmitri said as soon as Mia left. He was already naked. He’d undressed between stretches of working the pump to fill the bathtub. It was more than halfway full now and steamed invitingly. “Strip out of those filthy clothes and get in the tub,” he ordered. “I want you to scrub me clean before I get you dirty.”
