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Thera didn’t pretend not to understand "There are a couple of bruises Nothing that won’t easily heal"
No anger No criticism Somehow that made it worse
Thera opened the door a fraction wider, a silent invitation
Jared stepped down and back
"Shriveled balls won’t be tolerated," Thera said tartly "I may need you to sit on her if Tomas and I can’t convince Lady Gruood patient?" Jared asked blandly
Thera snorted and shut the door
Feeling a little better, Jared walked around the wagon and gave Blaed the nod to move out It couldn’t be a serious injury if she was already snarling and snipping Painful, yes, but not so they’d need to find a Healer to deal with
Brock aiting for him "How is she?"
Jared noted that the Purple Dusk-Jeweled Warlord automent of subordinate rank
"Already bored with the sickbed," Jared answered He felt Brock relax "Do you know any outrageous stories?"
Brock looked startled, then wary "Depends on what you s like that?"
Jared felt a shiver of apprehension He knew the dangers of telling tales In one of the courts he’d been in, a h to receive an invitation to her bed, had repeated a funny but extre story about an aristo witch He’d na it as he’d heard it, but the story had been rich in detail--and the Lady, as also a guest, recognized herself He nized her by those details
Jared had wondered afterward if the ue cut out before he was gutted
"Well, spicy enough to distract an elderly Queen who’s convalescing," Jared said, pushing aside the darker h to understand walking the knife edge
Brock understood very well, if his o by
"Look," Jared said testily, "Thera is as subtle as an avalanche and doesn’t use a grain of caution about what she says or who she says it to It hasn’t been an hour yet and she’s already calling the Gray Lady ‘Lady Gru to end up in a spitting fight, which could end up with Thera being very dead, or she’s going to try to brain the rest of us out of frustration"
Brock ran a hand over his short, light-brown hair "For a broken witch, that one’s scary Hell’s fire, there’s not ave Jared a quick, assessing, hopeful look "You’re trained for personal service Couldn’t you handle it?"
Jared clenched his teeth Heashamed because he was a pleasure slave, but he didn’t have to let anyone see it
Brock didn’t h "I meant no insult, Lord Jared," he said quietly "Anybrains knows a consort--and a pleasure slave is nothing less than an unwilling consort--is trained to do ood consort ht--well--" Brock sighed, resigned "What kind of stories?"
A consort danced on tee, but seldom felt the cut Not like a pleasure slave did And that tiny question that kept flickering on the edges of Jared’s mind flashed to the front Hoould the Gray Lady treat a consortor a pleasure slave?
That thought stirred a memory
"When I was fourteen," Jared said, "the Province Queen cae Can’t remember why now, or why she wasn’t acco to remember "Maybe that was the year the former Queen stepped down and the new one wanted to see everything in her territory Anyway, all the boys old enough to have begun for to be allowed to stand with the men had decided to wait on the rinned at hi
"My father is the Warlord of Ranon’s Wood, so he was the Lady’s escort while she was there He had gone to the official landing place outside of Ranon’s Wood to meet her Coach and wasn’t home when I came downstairs, dressed into oing to be on the main street She never said a word aboutShe just ser brothers would be staying hole" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>