Page 68 of Royal Hunt
Her blue eyes sparkled merrily at me. No wonder business was booming.
“Didn’t old Ghee own this place?” I asked, curious. My early memories of this bar from my girlhood were much different; it had been a dank, dusty place that my father hadn’t even allowed me to step foot in. He’d instead brought food out to me, and we’d spent the night sleeping in the cart with our guards around us.
This was the same place … wasn’t it?
“My late husband. God rest his soul. Gertrude.”
She extended a hand and I took it, trying not to wince at her grip.
“Late husband?” I questioned, one eyebrow raising in astonishment. If that was true, then he’d married a girl young enough to be his granddaughter.
“God rest his soul. The man was taken before his time. This is my inn now.” The wicked grin on her face belied the words coming out of her mouth.
I grinned back. I liked Gertrude.
“There’s three of us, though I’m unsure if we’re all to be housed.”
Gertrude nodded. “I’ll prepare. Dinner?”
My stomach grumbled, anxious to taste the scents in the air. “Yes, please.”
“Right this way.”
I followed her up a polished wooden staircase with fur laid down on the steps to keep one from slipping. Rooms lined both sides of the second story, and a different scent of wildflowers filled the air.
“First room on the right, just finished cleaning an hour ago. It will take me a moment to get the food ready. Had a rowdy bunch that took some time to kick out earlier.”
Gertrude opened the door with a large skeleton key, then handed it to me. My fingers wrapped around the metal, still warm from her body.
A cheery room greeted me with white-washed walls and wooden beams in the ceiling and walls. A small fire crackled merrily, and the scent of fresh linens washed over me. There was one bed and a small chest of drawers.
“This one’s my favorite: has its own hearth and everything!” she exclaimed with satisfaction, her hands on her hips. “When you hear the bell, come down for dinner.”
“Thanks, Gertrude. This is lovely.”
She flushed a bright shade of red, then gave a quick bob and hurried away.
Her late husband, indeed.
The thought brought a wry grin to my face as I sat down. It vanished quickly once I remembered I was supposed to stay in this room until it was time to sneak out. That meant no dinner.
Leave it to Trenton to be able to ruin an escape plan.
I flopped down on the straw mattress, miserably wondering if Ellis had even noticed if I was gone yet. Would he be angry? Would Viana think I abandoned him? If Ellis started drinking again because of me, I’d skewer Gregory myself. How had I never noticed that my best friend was so selfish?
I snorted. My world had been turned upside down, I’d been forced to participate in death games and was losing my heart to a dying king, but the thing that left me most astonished was how my closest friend from childhood turned out to be a wanker.
It certainly sounded as though the dinner rush was well underway downstairs. Loud voices filtered up from underneath the floorboards, happy and laughing as my stomach growled at the scents of dinner.
I sat for a long while, wondering when the hell this ‘plan’ was going to take place. I’d just decided to leave my self when the door to my room slammed open. Gregory staggered in, smiling with a flushed, red face. Trenton stood behind him with his arms crossed over his chest. He raised one eyebrow when he saw me.
“Still here? So you can be obedient; at least when there’s something in it for you.”
I bit the inside of my cheek hard to keep from saying something stupid. Trenton was supposed to get Gregory drunk, but keep him downstairs. I glared at him, but Trenton just raised his arms as if to say he could hardly control his son when drunk. How many beers had Gregory had?
Bastard.
“Come on, Eve, you hungry?” Gregory asked, nearly tripping over air his way toward me.
