AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Aislinn moved.
“Sorry,” I whispered, releasing her once I made sure she had regained her balance. “I almost caused you to fall as well.”
I stared at her face blankly, trying to forget about the warmth of her embrace.
“Shall we?” she asked.
It took me another embarrassingly long moment to remember what she meant.
My wallet. Of course.
I nodded.
For a second, neither of us moved. But there was nothing more to say or do. Ignoring our flushed cheeks, I started to walk back to the inn and Aislinn followed.
We did not speak until we were back at the inn.
“Hello?” The innkeeper who had served us recognized us as we entered. The patrons were still enjoying the evening, but now, it seemed the inn was louder. Fae laughed and spoke with booming voices fueled with wine.
“I left my coin purse here,” I told the innkeeper. “Can we look for it?”
“Did you happen to find it?” Aislinn corrected my question.
The man’s brows raised.
“We did not,” he said. “And of course, you can look for it.”
He did not move to join us as we walked back to the table. Our plates and glasses were gone, but the table was unoccupied still. Aislinn immediately started searching for the purse, and I joined her.
I looked everywhere I could think of. And Aislinn did the same on the other side of the table. We searched under the tables, over the chairs, and we even asked the customers sitting on the tables closest to us to move a little so that we could look for my purse underneath their table.
It wasn’t here.
“You couldn’t find it?” The innkeeper came up to us. He did not move to join the search as though he already knew we would not be able to find it.
“No,” I said. “Did anyone sit here?”
“No,” he replied quickly. Then, his expression changed as he remembered. “Oh... There was a man. He sat a few tables to the left of you.”
He pointed towards the other side of the room, where a small table now sat empty.
“He changed tables after we left?” Aislinn asked.
“No,” the innkeeper replied. “But I saw him walking around here before he left. Perhaps he saw you leave your purse here and came for it.”
It made sense. From where he sat, he wouldn’t need to walk all the way over to our table to leave the inn. The only reason he might have would be that he had seen my wallet left behind and came over to secretly take it.
“I didn’t see who it was,” Aislinn thought out loud.
We wouldn’t. The possible thief’s table was positioned so that it would not be seen from where we sat, even if we were to turn around and look for it specifically.
“So my purse is gone,” I said.
Aislinn came over to pat me on the back. “Did you have all your coins in it?”
She sounded sad. The innkeeper did not make a move to console me, probably because he did not want to be implied in any responsibility. I did not blame him.
“Most of it,” I replied. “But it’s okay. We should go.”
