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JADE
Jade sat down at the rough-hewn wooden plank table beside Rafe, feeling overcome with relief.
Tally had come at Rafe with what he believed was a killing blow.
It was a frontiersman’s right to strike down without consequence any man who threatened his safety or property. The right was a necessity, born of vast open spaces without sufficient intergalactic oversight.
But everyone knew this rule was abused, stretched to the breaking point with killings that were obviously born of jealousy and greed and had nothing to do with self-defense.
Rafe would have been well within his rights to kill the boy, and it was clear that he could have done so without any real effort.
Instead, Rafe had talked Tally down and befriended him.
He’s not a murderous maniac, Jade thought happily to herself. And he’s not quick to lose control.
Though her heart had never believed that Rafe had killed the judge, now her mind and her gut had reason to believe in his innocence, too.
A serving girl sidled up to Rafe, smiling at him too widely.
“What do you have today?” Rafe asked politely, without even looking at her.
“Stew with bread,” the girl simpered. “Ale to drink.”
Jade’s belly rumbled appreciatively.
“Three stews and three ales, please,” Rafe told her.
“My pleasure,” she drawled, sashaying away, most likely in hopes that Rafe would notice the seductive way she moved. “Just call out Sassy if you need me.”
Jade felt a flare of fury over the obvious flirting, though she had no hold over Rafe.
“Tell us about your father,” Rafe said, his full attention on Tally.
“We’re sorry for your loss,” Jade put in quickly.
“Thank you,” the boy said, his eyes moving to her gloves. “My ma used to have pretty gloves like those.”
Jade smiled, though her heart was breaking a little at that used to.
“You’re adopting a baby, right?” the boy asked her.
She nodded, unable to hide her smile when thinking about Gus.
“Judge Gaxx adopted me,” he told her. “When I was little, my mom and I were poor. We lived on the streets, and she would beg for money. People would drop coins in her cup, and she would say a blessing for them. She begged for work too, but no one wanted a poor, dirty woman to work in their home. We moved around a lot. She always said a very bad man was looking for us, but I never saw him.”
Jade nodded, her heart going out to him.
“But even in the new locations, people gave less and less,” he said. “She said that money on Maltaffia was getting tighter, but I think it was because I wasn’t so tiny and cute anymore. People didn’t want to give to a dirty little boy, any more than they wanted to help his mother. Eventually, what we could take in wasn’t enough to buy even scraps, and we took to searching the trash for food.”
Jade glanced up at Rafe.
His jaw was clenched, as if with fury.
She was glad it made him mad, hearing such a sad story happening on a rich planet like Maltaffia.
“Out of desperation, one winter night, I was so hungry that my mother decided to pick a man’s pocket,” Tally said softly. “But she had no skill for such things. The police were called in, and she was dragged before the judge.”
Jade nodded, letting the boy know she was listening.
