“I’ll keep that in mind. I think I can see why he was so upset he couldn’t get back here through the avalanche,” Vielle said, impressed. “I’d be quite content to stay here all winter, too, if I had such a nice home. And I haven’t even seen any bedrooms, yet.”
“I suspect they’re upstairs. I hadn’t had time to do more than look around the ground floor when I heard you come in,” he said. “You cleared away all that snow rather quickly. I’m impressed.”
“Don’t be,” Vee dismissed, once again feeling awkward about admitting the strength of her abilities. It still didn’t feel like a long time had passed since she had been bullied and picked upon for being stronger than the other students. She shook her head. “The roof actually goes all the way to the ground on either side. I just had to clear a bit of snow from the eaves’ entrances. But not all of it, of course. If any of those Jade Mountain guards come flying this way in their airship, this place should still look thoroughly snowbound, with no one having entered or left in weeks.”
“Yes, but it will look occupied,” Kiers warned her. “We won’t be able to stop the chimney from smoking or dropping soot on the snow if we keep burning wood for heat.”
Vee nodded. “I know. But we need to do it. One of my friends, her father used to say to us kids that a man was warmed once by wood if he burned it, twice if he also chopped it himself, and thrice if he used his thon to keep himself warm . . . because he’d burn through his thon faster than he could burn through a stack of firewood in a single day, and would still have to chop wood and burn it before that day was through. At least, with the average level of Fire-based thon.”
“He sounds like a smart fellow, then,” Kiers admitted. He looked around the cabin, then shrugged. “Well. Since I’ve only hunted for sport, not for a living as a furrier as our host does, and as there’s only so much sleeping or eating or poring over notes we’ll be able to do, I suspect we’ll be trading lots of childhood memories like that over the next few days. But before we do that, I believe you’d agreed to teach me how to cook, yes?”
Vee snorted. “I hadn’t agreed . . . but I’ll teach you what I can. I’m not the world’s best, though I’ve managed to make do so far.” She started to say more, only to blink at one of the shelves over the sink. “Is that a stack of cookbooks? And jars of herbs? Oh, we definitely did not pay Mister Horgen enough to stay here. I could actually cook something with flavor to it, rather than all that crude campfire cooking.”
It was his turn to scoff. “We paid that man enough money to leave him in a sated stupor of liquor, steaks, and wh . . . er, women to chat with for an entire month plus,” he quickly amended, blushing. “I’m quite sure we’re getting our money’s worth already.”
That made her roll her eyes. Vee picked up one of the oil lamps, aiming for the stairs. “Oh, just call them whores and be done with it, Mister Kiers. I’m not a fragile flower who knows nothing of how the world works. Not to mention that night we escaped, you and I fooled those guards into thinking I was one, and that you were just some random client of mine, so that they would overlook us. It was the only way to make them disbelieve that drunken, randy lout you portrayed could not possibly be the stuffy, formal Prince of Jade Mountain.
“I greatly appreciate the fact that you’re a gentleman by nature,” she added, leaning over the railing for a moment. “But you needn’t wrap both of us in wool. Now, let’s go see what lies up these stairs.”
“I’m almost afraid to,” the ex-prince muttered, following her as she continued up the steps. Then winced as the somewhat short woman turned to look back at him, her free hand on her hip and one ash blond brow quirked upward. Clad in two layers of bleached linen shirts and her white leather flight pants, she definitely didn’t look like a delicate flower of a lady. She looked strong, competent, and skeptical. She also had a tart tongue at times.
“And what is that supposed to mean, Mister Kiers?” Vee asked him.
Kiers cleared his throat and gestured at the cabin around them. “It’s quite clear Mister Horgen lives here on his own, Miss Vielle. That means a high probability that there is only one bed upstairs.”
CHAPTER TWO
Oh.” Vee felt her cheeks warming in a blush. “Well,” she managed, clearing her own throat. “It’s not as if we haven’t slept together before. We’ll, ah, just keep wearing our clothes.”
“This isn’t an inn with only one room left to let,” he reminded her, moving a little closer. “We’ve nowhere to go while we hide here for the next week . . . and . . .” His own face flushed. Clearing his throat again, Kiereseth admitted quietly, “And I find you highly attractive, Miss Vielle. I have since I first saw you remove your Courier’s cap and jacket, back in Father’s reception room. I still do.
“You are smart, beautiful, witty, and wise,” he told her, giving her the unvarnished truth. “Your knowledge of how to move across the face of Earthland has saved both our hides several times by now, and our conversations have ranged all over the place without tedium. I even enjoy the way you smell, which is a good thing since you’ve been flying us both across half the continent so far. I . . . fancy you as more than a mere traveling companion, tossed together by circumstances, but I am trying to be respectful about just how much I do find you desirable, Miss Vee.”
His repeated use of the honorific showed he was indeed trying. His blunt compliments made her blush and want to respond. Vee let him continue without interrupting, however.
“A single, passing night in a crowded inn is one thing, but this is an entire week of hiding in one place, with only one bed,” he reminded her, his gaze drifting down over her flight leathers before they returned to her blue eyes. “I’d like to remain a gentleman, because I have come to respect you deeply.
“With that in mind, I hope there are a lot of blankets upstairs, because I may have to sleep on the floor down here, to ensure I remain one around you,” he finished quietly. “Because I don’t think wearing clothing will mean a damn thing to me by day five of our stay, if I get to hold you in my arms every night.”
For a long moment, she couldn’t speak. Didn’t even know what to say, really. But as he lowered those blue eyes in growing discomfort, Vielle knew she had to give him credit for such open honesty. Taking a deep breath, she gave him some honesty of her own, unconsciously tensing her muscles as she did so.
“Well. For my part, Mister Kiereseth,” she returned, using his full name instead of his nickname since it seemed the best way to retain some of her dignity in the next few sentences, “I have found you quite attractive from our first meeting as well. On many levels. And . . . that interlude in the alleyway was not in the least repellent.
“I have deeply appreciated you being a gentleman, particularly that night at the inn when we were forced to be pragmatic, but . . .” Blushing, she steadied herself with another breath and finished her sentence. “But I don’t think you’ll, ah, need to sleep on the floor. Tonight. Or any other night. While we’re here.”
He stared at her, tanned cheeks flushed, lips parted, eyes widening in realization. Then he blinked and frowned slightly, eyeing her from head to toe. “. . . Are you floating, Miss Vielle?”