Page 178 of A Sanctuary from Shadow
“Anaccountingclass?” Sedge laughed.
“Yeah—you know, bookkeeping? Maybe a little economics. With the schools and colleges I’d have set up—”
“Colleges? For whores?”
“Yep.” I raised my chin. “And for anyone else who wants to learn something.”
I hadn’t asked Pete, and Briar hadn’t told me, but I suspected that only the wealthy could find an adequate education in my kingdom. And that was not cool with me. In any way.
“The world according to Shorty,” Pete teased. Although, by the twinkle in his eyes, I thought he might’ve enjoyed that world, the progressive colonial that he was.
Sedge’s sharp teeth glinted in the dappled sunlight. “A fearsome prospect, that.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “By the way, we would’ve died of dehydration.”
Puzzled, both males glanced my way again.
“Last night, you said Pete would’ve died from fornication until starvation,” I reminded Sedge. “But we’d have both died of dehydration long before starvation. It’s the rule of three. I don’t know how it works with Vampires, obviously, but for humans—and other fae, probably—we can live for three minutes without air, three days without water, and three weeks without food.”
“Really?” Sedge asked.
“Yep. And you know where I learned that?”
“No.”
“College.”
Pete’s amusement erupted boisterously, scaring flying creatures from their feathery banyan nests and making Bob yowl. That I could elicit such delight from him exhilarated me.
“This is what happens when you educate a beyn.” Sedge winked, belying his snark. “Mouthiness.”
“If that means I’m a smartass,” I said. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
Sedge snickered at Pete. “You Earthers and your college learning.”
I perked up. “You went to college?” Though I’d seen tomes of many varieties stocked in Pete’s home, I hadn’t pegged him for a scholar.
“Aye,” Pete answered, mirth still choking his voice. “College of Philadelphia—now the University of Pennsylvania, I believe.” He shrugged. “My parents encouraged it. Waste of my time, however. In your jabbering, Shorty, I’ve gathered that colleges of today run much differently than they once did. In my time, they taught little more than conservative church laymanship—which didn’t particularly suit me.”
Sedge chortled again.
“But after that, I took an apprenticeship with a lawyer who’d studied at Oxford—became one myself.”
“You’re a lawyer?” I boggled at the rugged scoundrel before me. He looked more like a potential client than a lawyer.
“I was, aye.”
“But—” I shook my head. “You’re so honest.”
“Didn’t say I was a good one, Shorty.”
Sedge sniffed. “Don’t let him fool you, lady. He knows how to lie when needs be.”
I suddenly remembered the easy falsehoods Pete had spun for Maggie the night of the bachram tournament, how he’d misled the Blue Caps about our acquaintance, and when he’d convinced me he was a simple thirsty hunter the night I’d met him. Hehadbeen awfully smooth about it.
Pete shrugged. “I lie by omission, mostly.”
Me too,I thought, stomach knotting. Pete and Sedge traded jokes as we jolted down the path, oblivious to my turning mood.
