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When I climb out of the tub, the towel he picks out for me does feel like it’s made of a blend of velvet and cloud. I allow myself to snuggle in it for a few moments before getting to the practical business of drying myself off. Casimir rubs my hair down with a smaller towel.
It’s hard to feel self-consciousness about my nakedness when he’s just gotten so very familiar with my body. There’s nothing provocative about the way he handles me now as his usual warmly vibrant self.
Maybe getting someone off really is no more intimate to him than whipping up a pastry. It’s easier for me to accept what happened if I assume so.
After the courtesan has re-laced my gown, he stops me by the door with his hand at my cheek. “It was a pleasure spending this time with you, Ivy.”
The words and his touch send a renewed tingle straight down the middle of me.
My face flares all over again, but I’ve regained my wits enough to reply, “Even more so for me than for you, I’d imagine.”
His dark eyes gleam. “You might be surprised.”
I practically float through the halls and up the stairs to Stavros’s quarters. I only come to earth when I push open the door… and find the former general sitting on the edge of his desk, his gaze shooting straight to me like he’s been waiting for my arrival since the moment I left the archives.
Stavros’s gaze sweeps over me. I’m abruptly twice as aware of the dampness of my hair and the freshly-washed rosiness of my skin, which no doubt tell at least part of the story of what Casimir and I got up to.
I don’t know if Stavros can guess the rest. A muscle ticks in his jaw.
His gaze lifts and sears into mine for a few awkward beats of my heart before he straightens up.
“Casimir looked after you his way,” he says, his cocky voice marred by the hint of a growl in it. “And I’m going to look after you mine. Starting tomorrow, I’m going to need your assistance from breakfast to evening bell. If anyone wants to so much as aim a poisonous look at you, they’ll have to get through me first.”
Twenty-Nine
Stavros’s new intense “need” for assistance puts a significant damper on what little social life I was developing. When Esmae catches me outside the dining hall, arriving for breakfast while we’re just leaving after an early one, I feel like I haven’t seen her in a year.
“Your employer is keeping you awfully busy these days,” she says with a sympathetic smile when I stop to say hello.
Stavros glowers from where he’s also halted several paces away. Which is about as far as he’s gotten from me at all in the past two days, although at least he allows a door between us when I use the latrine.
I offer a wry smile in return. “I’m surviving. It’s good to see you, but I don’t think I can stay for much of a conversation.”
Esmae’s single-eyed gaze darts to Stavros and then back to me. Her laugh sounds a bit nervous, maybe because he looks like a menace even when he’s leaning against the wall in a supposedly nonchalant pose. “That’s all right. He’s got to give you a break at some point, I suppose. For now…”
She fishes in her carry pouch and produces a fine gold chain with a simple flower pendant dangling from it. A teal gem gleams at its center. “There was a merchant selling these in sets of two. I didn’t need both… I thought it might go well with your dress.”
She tips her head toward my turquoise gown, which I guess I must wear often enough for anyone to figure out it’s my favorite.
My heart squeezes with a bittersweet pang. For an instant, I’m seven years old again, beaming at Linzi’s dimpled five-year-old face as she holds out a daisy she plucked to me.
Outside of Casimir’s bath, that’s probably the last time anyone offered me any kind of present.
As I take the necklace and fasten the chain around my neck, a faint aura of magic prickles into my chest. It feels like one of those minor spells shopkeepers who can afford it use to encourage people’s purchases.
Well, even if Esmae bought it partly thanks to magical influence, she didn’t have to give the second necklace to me.
Julita scoffs.Cheap thing. Might not even be gold all the way through. I doubt it cost her more than a few bits.
If she wasn’t an ephemeral presence residing inside my head, I’d kick her. Nobles obviously don’t understand that a thing can be worth much more than the money you have to pay for it.
I aim a more emphatic smile at Esmae, wishing I was a better friend to her than one who has to make up lies and pretend to be someone I’m not. “Thank you. They do go together well.”
Stavros clears his throat with an air of impatient boredom. I shoot a glower back at him before gathering my skirts. “Sorry. Duty calls.”
Esmae pats my arm. “I won’t keep you from it.”
I pick up my pace to draw up beside the former general as he strides through the nearest entryway and across the courtyard. “You don’t have to protect me fromher. She’s tried to stop Anya and the others from harassing me.”
