‘So,’ he asked, ‘what should I do about it?’
She hesitated, and then turned away to find her clothes. ‘I don’t know. I was but warning you, my love.’
‘I would imagine you’d be even more at risk.’
She shrugged. ‘I don’t think so. Although,’ she added, ‘a jealous man is an unpredictable man.’ Turning, she studied him once more. ‘Are you jealous, Cutter?’’Of Golras Vidikas?’ The question seemed to surprise him and she could see him thinking about it. ‘Title and wealth, yes, that would be nice. Being born into something doesn’t mean it’s deserved, of course, so maybe he hasn’t earned all his privileges, but then, maybe he has-you’d know more of that than I would.’
‘That’s not what I meant. When he takes me, when he makes love to me.’
‘Oh. Does he?’
‘Occasionally.’
‘Make love? Or just make use of you?’
‘That is a rather rude question.’
Years ago, he would have leapt to his feet, apologies tumbling from him in a rush. Now, he remained on the bed, observing her with those calm eyes. Challice felt a shiver of something in her, and thought it might be fear. She had assumed a certain… control. Over all of this. Over him. And now she wondered. ‘What,’ he now asked, ‘do you want from me, Challice? Years and years of this? Meeting in dusty, abandoned bedrooms. Something you can own that Gorlas does not? It’s not as if you’ll ever leave him, is it?’
‘You once invited me to run away with you.’
‘If I did,’ he said, ‘you clearly said no. What has changed?’
‘I have.’
His gaze sharpened on her. ‘So now… you would? Leave it all behind? The estate, the wealth?’ He waved languidly at the room around them. ‘For a life of this? Challice, understand: the world of most people is a small world. It has more limitations that you might think-’
‘And you think it’s that different among the nobleborn?’
He laughed.
Fury hissed through her, and to keep from lashing out she quickly began dressing. ‘It’s typical,’ she said, pleased at her calm tone. ‘I shouldn’t have been surprised. The lowborn always think we have it so easy, that we can do anything, go anywhere. That our every whim is answered. They don’t think-’ she spun to face him, and watched his eyes widen as he comprehended her anger, ‘-you don’t think that people like me can suffer.’
‘I never said that-’
‘You laughed.’
‘Where are you going now, Challice? You’re going back to your home. Your estate, where your handmaids will rush to attend to you. Where another change of clothes and jewellery awaits. After a languid bath, of course.’ He sat up, abruptly. ‘The ship’s carpenter who stayed in this room here, well, he did so because he had nowhere else to go. This was his estate. Temporary, dependent on the whim of House Vidikas, and when his reason for being here was done out he went, to find somewhere else to live-if he was lucky.’ He reached for his shirt. ‘And where will I go now? Oh, out on to the streets. Wearing the same clothes I arrived in, and that won’t change any time soon. And tonight? Maybe I can wheedle another night in a room at the Phoenix Inn. And if I help in the kitchen I’ll earn a meal and if Meese is in a good mood then maybe even a bath. Tomorrow, the same challenges of living, the same questions of “what next?’” He faced her and shesaw amused irony in his expression, which slowly faded, ‘Challice, I’m not saying you’re somehow immune to suffering, If you were, you wouldn’t be here, would you? I spoke of limited worlds. They exist everywhere, but that doesn’t mean they’re all identical. Some are a damned sight more limited than others.’
‘You had choices, Cutter,’ she said. ‘More choices than I ever had.’
‘You could have told Gorlas no when he sought your hand in marriage.’
‘Really? Now that reveals one thing in you that’s not changed-your naivete.’
He shrugged. ‘If you say so. What next, Challice?’
His sudden, seemingly effortless dismissal of the argument took her breath away. It doesn’t matter to him. None of it. Not how I feel, not how I see him. ‘I need to think,’ she said, inwardly flailing.
He nodded as if unsurprised.
‘Tomorrow evening,’ she said, ‘we should meet again.’
A half-grin as he asked, ‘To talk?’
‘Among other things.’
