Page 3 of The Poison Within

I hated when he distanced himself like that.

“Stop fussing, Käyru. I’m fine.”

The hell he was. Everyone in Radvadur knew his father had died of lung disease at a young age. I thought I spotted a drop of scarlet on his lips, but he turned aside and wiped his mouth with a handkerchief he’d taken out of his coat pocket.

A chill gripped me. “Elly…” I closed the distance between us in one stride. Ignoring the rigidity of his posture, I trapped him in a hug. Long gone were the days when he intimidated me too much to have attempted a similar boldness.

“Promise me,” I insisted, burying my face in his hair and going for what he sometimes referred to as my Inspector’s voice. The tone came out a little muffled and less stern than I’d hoped for. “Promise you will see the healer.”

It took a while before he relaxed his body against mine. “Very well. But not for a few days yet. I…” A note of hesitation crept into his tone. “I sent her to the refugee camp. The Nymphs need a healer more than I do.”

Warmth spread through my chest. I took a step back to look at him.

A blush tinted his cheeks.

“What will your mother say? Will she cope without the healer?”

Elly’s mouth twitched. “The only ailment my mother suffers is hysteria. And if anyone’s health is at risk, it would be her poor maid’s.”

I snorted. The old Countess was indeed a piece of work. Her hysteria, no doubt, stemmed from her son’s refusal to restore the family’s strained finances through either a profitable marriage or the oppression of his peasants. She must’ve had a fit when Elly, as the only noble in the West, accepted the Nymphs onto his lands. Spending silver on waifs and strays didn’t fit in with her ladyship’s agenda.

The prejudice and hostility against the Nymphs, a free people of peaceful tree-worshipers who were without their own state, bewildered me. They found themselves in need of safe harbour after the Emperor’s campaign against the Barbarian tribes turned the forests they’d inhabited at the fringes of the country into smouldering ruins.

It made me happy to see Elly support their cause.

I brought his hand to my lips and kissed the inside of his wrist.

He wore that peculiar look again.

The blood started pounding in my temples when he opened his mouth and drew in a breath to speak.

“Käyru, I—”

An obnoxious knock at the door, accompanied by the voice of my sergeant, startled us both.

“Inspector Skaer, are you there? We’ve got a situation.”

Phlegmatic and unflappable, Sergeant Daag had been called ‘Temper’ for years by everyone, including his own mother. He wasn’t quite as broad and tall as me, but he didn’t lag far behind. I trusted him more than I would my brothers. Which took little effort since my brothers were mean bastards.

“I’m sorry, Käyru,” he said the instant I opened the door, “but we need to go. We’ve got three bodies at the Bold Cock Inn. And it ain’t pretty.”

I suppressed a sigh.

Damn. Elly wouldn’t be getting his sweet rolls after all.

Elly joined us at the entrance, tying up his hair. “Good morning, Sergeant Temper.”

“My lord Finn-Jánn.” Temper managed something between a bow and a nod, which expressed the respect owed to Elly’s position while recognising the casualness of the situation.

Impressive. I bit my lip.

“Let us go, then. It sounds an urgent business.” Elly smiled pleasantly and walked towards the stairs.

Duty. He understood it well. Yet a part of me longed for a sign that he regretted our untimely departure.

Temper knew about us, as did all of Radvadur except the old Countess, of course. We didn’t flaunt it, but hiding anything to do with Elly, the most recognisable person in the province, would be futile. The passing fancy of a bored lord fucking one of his subjects didn’t cause much of a stir, never mind the pairing. In fact, same-sex arrangements had become almost fashionable since the Emperor elevated his male lover to the official position of First Concubinus. The class difference could be stomached as long as it all remained an inconsequential roll in the hay. But acceptance towards similar indiscretions ended abruptly the moment such couplings suggested permanency and threatened to disturb the established social order.

We rode together for a time, but separated prior to arriving at the next inn. Elly had been itching to inspect the camp, so he dismounted upon reaching the Nymphs’ settlement. Although he partially financed it as the landowner, the running of it remained in the hands of the Emperor’s army. Regardless, the reports of cramped, filthy and unsafe living conditions, as well as the guards’ brutality, had worried him. Rumours about the spread of disease in the camp circulated among disquieted locals, adding insult to injury. The situation was delicate, to say the least.