Page 80 of The Isles of the Gods
“But he can’t possibly…” He trails off, shaking his head, and his bewilderment makes my chest ache.
“Who is he?” I ask, gentler.
“We went to school together,” he says slowly. “He’s a friend. A friend I had no idea was in Port Naranda.”
“For a friend, he didn’t seem to like you much. Between him and Keegan, I’m beginning to wonder if anyone from your school did.”
“Me too,” he mutters, but he’s only half listening to me.
“Will he tell anyone he saw you?”
Leander shakes his head. “Never,” he replies, and then he pauses. “I’d have said he’d never believe I abandoned him either, though.”
“Did you?”
“Of course not. He just vanished on me one day—hard to help somebody you can’t find.”
“There must be more to it than that,” I press, keeping my voice gentle, trying to figure out just how much of a grudge Jude might carry.
Leander inclines his head, pressing his hand to the door as though he could reach through it. “Jude had his mother’s name at school—he was Jude Kien. His father was Lord Anson, but Jude’s mother wasn’t Lord Anson’s wife.”
“Ah.”
“Yes. When His Lordship died, he left Jude and his mother nothing. Whether it was on purpose or an accident I don’t know, but Lady Anson wasn’t in the mood to help—she’d never liked her husband paying for Jude’s schooling.”
“So Jude had to leave school?”
“They just disappeared one day,” he replies, helpless. “I tried everything to find him. I gave his mother letters—why wouldn’t she pass them on?”
“Families are complicated,” I murmur, and it sounds like a weak excuse even as I offer it.
“I’d have made sure he stayed at school, that he had somewhere to go, if I’d known were to find him,” Leander says miserably. “But he vanished.”
He looks so lost, and I hurt for him. I can also imagine how angry Jude might be, if he does think Leander abandoned him just as he lost everything. “I’m sorry he ran. He was right about one thing, though. We should go—it’s not safe here. You can leave word with the ambassador to try and find him, get him on a ship home, but…”
He closes his eyes. “You’re right. I know you are. I haven’t seen him in two years, though, Selly. I tried everywhere. I don’t understand. Why did he lock the door?”
I slip my arm through his and get him moving. It’s strange to touch him like this—like I have permission—and it’s also not strange at all. It feels dangerously close to right, even though I know it never will be.
“One problem at a time,” I say, making myself sound businesslike. “Let’s get back to the inn.”
We collect the bag of my old clothes from behind the barand make our way out past the man on the door and up the stairs to the street.
Leander’s still lost in his thoughts, his arm linked through mine as we walk. But I can’t help looking back over my shoulder as we turn for the docks once more.
—
Keegan’s relief is written all over his face when we get back, and he’s full of questions about Port Naranda: about what we saw at the market, about the word in the city. Leander tells him about Jude and hands him the newspaper, and I guess not reading any new words for the last couple of days has hurt, because Keegan flips it open to soak them up like he’s parched and they’re cool, fresh water.
We took enough twists and turns, and I glanced back before we slipped into the alley to climb the fire escape—I’m sure we weren’t followed from the club. But with that immediate fear behind me, everything else is surfacing again. The ache of tiredness behind my eyes. The awareness I can’t shake of where Leander is at any given moment, and whether he’s looking my way.
“You should sleep,” Keegan says without looking up. “I napped while you were gone, so the bed would be free.”
Leander and I both glance at the bed at the same time, and even though we made a point of it when we rented the room, there’s still a long, long pause as we think about those words.The bed.Just the one.
My gaze flicks up in time to meet his, and I feel my blush heating my cheeks.
“Please, please don’t make me be all noble and offer to sleepon the floor,” he says, and though he makes his tone comically pleading, there’s something else in his dark eyes, and I’m not sure I understand what it is.
