“You don’t think… that it was Trice do you, because she isn’t-” Tor held up his hand.
“Same height, nearly the same build and wearing a skirt or dress. But really, unless she’s secretly been a man this whole time, it isn’t her. Not Wensa either, same rationale. So at the very least this is an outside player, but…”
But the eye’s. He knew he’d seen them before; he just had to make sure he was right. How could he check though? That was the hard part. The impossible part, probably.
“Anyway, I saw Trice. I told her to come here tonight, so…” Tor didn’t want them to leave, but would Trice come if they were there? They both thought that wouldn’t matter, so he let the issue go. They knew more about what she was up to than he did, that much was clear. Then Ursala was a sitting Countess. Odds were she knew a lot of things that Tor wasn’t privy to. Sara was… her best friend. Also in the camp of knowing a lot that Tor wouldn’t he bet. He could accept that.
After all, he probably knew a thing or two about Rolph that Sara didn’t. What that was he couldn’t imagine, but it was probably true at least.
Tor went behind his screen and started working, since sitting around aimlessly and waiting for someone that might not even come wouldn’t help anything. On the third set of shields for the night, just as he finished, big batches like he’d done earlier, he opened his eyes in the dim light to find he wasn’t alone.
Trice stood in front of him.
Lights were on past his divider, they shone through the white cloth giving everything a slightly diffuse glow. At least everyone else knew she was there. He’d decided to trust her, true. Tor even meant it. That didn’t mean that a few things didn’t stir up inside when he saw her again.
Anger.
A bit of fear. Longing for something that had probably never been real at all anyway and a few other things he couldn’t even name at the moment.
She just stood, dressed very similarly to how the ladies of the house dressed for work, at least from what little he’d seen of them. She had a tight bodice on that showed off her bust line and a bright purple, silky dress with black lace trim that wasn’t overly long. The boots she wore were high and jet black, going to her knees, over them in fact. The top part was scuffed from kneeling. It was what the girls he’d seen in the city had worn too. Given what he’d seen from the statue earlier, it made sense, after all the streets of the Capital were stone and it would hurt to be on them in some alley for too long. Kind of sensible really. For a few seconds he wondered if the boots had been gotten used or if she’d broken them in herself. Then he let that idea go.
After all, Trice had been willing to say the things she had about him to reach her goal, even knowing that he might not take it well. Given her culture and society, it was pretty close to as bad as you could get with words too. If she had to service some men to make everything work after that, he didn’t doubt that she would. For that matter, she may have had to, just in order to get into the house he’d had put in the back. It would be hard to blame her for that then, since it had been his idea in the first place. It wasn’t like she could hide from him in the kitchen, was it? Tor had found her there in what, two hours? Less?
He cleared the shields off his bed and patted it.
“Sit, please. If you want to I mean.” He tried to sound nice about it. Tor couldn’t tell for sure, but he’d though he’d done pretty well, even though she winced.
“Don’t worry, I just don’t have a chair back here. It’s not an invitation to ply your new trade.” Tor smiled and gave her a wink.
She took a deep breath, nodded and sat down.
“You know I didn’t mean that stuff I said, right? I mean the others have told you why? How I had to get close to the Wards so that I could find some evidence on them?” She looked nervous and he shrugged.
“Everyone’s mentioned something about it, but no one really bothered to explain why it had to be you, or why you didn’t just tell me first. Did you really think that I care so much about looking good that I wouldn’t help set a trap for killers? God Trice. I’d been willing to die for you, what, twice already by then, and you really… you didn’t have to marry me or anything, but… why didn’t you tell me?” He tried, mainly successfully, to keep the sadness out of his voice when he asked. She looked down at the bed anyway.
Silence followed for a long time. Several times she started to talk, then finally she just shook her head. “I can’t tell you Tor. But know that I didn’t want to do it the way I did, and that I didn’t mean any of those things. Well, except that your short and really your kissing could use some work-” She gave him a cute half grin, trying to be playful.
Leaning in quickly he kissed her hard. Thanks to Ursala, Sara and Varley he’d actually gotten a little practice. She kissed him back for about a minute and then pulled back, with tears in her eyes.
“Right, so you’re still short, but you don’t kiss like a dog any more. Tor… I’m so sorry. I would have married you, you know that right? I still will, when this is over, if you’ll have me…” Trice’s voice actually sounded hopeful.
“Um, well… No.” He said firmly, then kissed her again. He didn’t know if it would soften the blow, if it was a blow to her at all, but she did at least kiss him back.
After a few minutes she pulled back and raised her eyebrows a bit. “Why not?”
It sounded a lot more hurt than Tor would have thought.
He shrugged. It was in the letter anyway, so he might as well tell her now, right?
“I’m already engaged again.”
“Who? Sara? I… know she was going to ask. Really, I was kind of surprised you didn’t say yes. Now it would be outside the three steps, but… well, who’s going to tell you no?”
“No, um, Varley. Sara kind of stepped in as a backup though, unless she gets something going first, which, I mean, come on, she’s great, right? I’m a little surprised she doesn’t have someone lined up already. If she doesn’t soon, my little brother will be all over her.”
That led to a whole conversation about their options, which given everything shocked Tor more than a little. He’d figured that he’d be lucky if Trice would be his friend again someday and wasn’t really sure he wanted her to be anything more. That she wanted to be his lover… Well, that made him blush. Then again, it could, he knew, still all be a trick. It was easy enough to lie about things like that, at least to him, wasn’t it? For all he knew she really was trying to set him up to die. Tor shrugged mentally, if so, then he’d do what he had to in order to be a good friend. As long as he could at least. Smiling he agreed that they should be close again, but put her off for the night, since he still hadn’t been with a woman and really wanted Ursala to be his first.
“Oh?” Trice sounded surprised at that.
“Sure! She’s great and really, if I suck with her, which I’m sure I will, well, she’s already going to be marrying someone else anyway, so it won’t matter too much. Besides she already promised to teach me this stuff, we kind of have a deal of sorts, so I want to get good at it first.” He chuckled softly. “Besides, I have other plans for you tonight…” He let his own voice go as playful as he could get it. The next part wouldn’t be fun, but fighting with the girls about it first would just make it harder. Even he could see that.
What he said was true of course but he knew that by saying it playfully it would make it sound a little naughty. The fact was just that he didn’t know if she’d go along with the plan if she knew it. No. That wasn’t right. He knew for a fact she wouldn’t. Who would? It was insane. Tor started dropping into a trance and not thinking about it himself.
First he had some questions for her.
“Do you remember the guy that started hanging out with Dorgal Sorvee and Marko at school? Older, about twenty-five, mustache, black eyes that were kind of freaky?” Trice stiffened and sat up straight.
“Yeesss. He, uh, hangs out with the Wards. I think that he’s one of Maria’s lovers. Laval? I think that’s the name I’ve heard at least. I’ve been hiding as a prostitute and had less cock in the last month than Maria in any given week…” She looked away suddenly, as if embarrassed.
“What? Some of my best friends are ladies of industry. Kind of own the house you’ve been working in you know, so I’m not going to judge. Besides, it’s all practice, right?” It was hard for him to believe the words himself, but she gave him a shy look and nodded, looking… grateful. Tor nodded back, faking a confident air. Friend or not, the idea left him a little jealous. She was willing to take on all comers, but not him? Then, he hadn’t exactly pushed her that way, had he? Maybe she would have hopped into bed with him at any time, if he’d just asked, or even hinted it would be fun… It probably didn’t matter really. The past had already happened, now it was time for the future.
