Bat Out of Hell (Promised to the Demons #2) - Lidiya Foxglove Page 0,47
and she likely went back home."
"I'll fry the fish," I said. "Although it would serve you right having to eat stew and making a mess after you wouldn't help Jameson."
"I thank you, my lady." He nodded and I was already thinking about how to season the fish when he stopped and said, "Will you really not forgive me until I've apologized for every last thing? Even Jameson?"
"I'm not sure I'll ever be satisfied! Certainly not in the way you want me to be satisfied. But...that would be a nice start."
“I think…I would very much like to satisfy you thoroughly,” he said. “And so, I will confess that I should not have forced Jameson to stay a harpy. He’s a very fine actor.”
“Yes—yes, he is.” I wished I hadn’t put the word ‘satisfied’ in the conversation. When he was nearly naked, it was hard not to think about the other ways a man with a body like his could satisfy a woman.
As he left, I was grinning, but I didn't realize it until Dahl came back in and I quickly wiped it off my face before she had any ideas.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Jenny
I don't know how it had happened, exactly, but my best efforts to push Variel away had failed, and I couldn't help feeling pride and happiness when we had dinner on the ship together and I brought out the strawberry shortcakes.
"We have strawberries on a sailing ship?" Piers said.
"Only today. I used them up."
"And in winter, too," Bevan said.
"They's shipped right up from yon warmer climates just ‘cross th’ sea from La Serenissima," the captain said, or at least, I think he said something like that. "This dessert looks rightly fine, I mus’say."
"Dahl said you don't like them too sweet, sir, so I made you strawberries with only a pinch of sugar," I said, giving the captain hiw own dish. "And these are for you, Variel." I made Variel's into bite-sized cakes so they were easier for him to eat. I had dusted Piers' portion with cocoa powder.
"And what makes mine special?" Bevan asked.
"Yours are made with love," I said, as I put a dish in front of him.
The captain had asked all of us who were traveling on to the temple to eat in his private quarters. I think it was a matter of courtesy and not because he enjoyed our company.
If I had done my job right, the dessert would brighten his mood and make everyone feel more cheerful. I watched expectantly, barely touching mine, waiting to see if Piers’ serious face, the captain’s grouchy old man face, or Variel’s rather stubborn misery, would change one bit.
Variel had eaten his fried fish, bones and all, in a matter of minutes, spearing them on a claw and crunching them with his sharp teeth. He had looked a little embarrassed about his barbarian meal. But now he plucked each small cake between his claws and ate them slowly, making sure to enjoy them.
Piers and Bevan had spent most of the meal discussing their research, and they kept at it after telling me that the shortcake was delicious.
“What’s wrong, toadlet?” Bevan asked, when I finally started poking at mine.
“I tried to make the shortcakes magical,” I said. “Just a test. They were supposed to bring happiness, but none of you look any happier.”
“I’m definitely happier,” Piers said. “They’re delicious, and I don’t even really like strawberries. We’re just preoccupied…” His eyes drifted back to his book.
“Don’t worry,” Bevan said. “You’ll learn when we go back to La Serenissima.”
“If we do. What if I die at the Lost Isles? I wanted to do it on my own. But it’s okay. It was just…an attempt.”
“I forbid you from considering these shortcakes a failure,” Variel said. “It can’t be easy to cook on a ship, but they’re as perfect as anything you’ve ever made us.”
“I expect you’re just feeling your mortality,” Bevan said. “You’re not used to danger. And you haven’t had any fighting experience except the once, and it didn’t go very well. But I promise you, there’s a lifetime ahead to learn more.”
“That’s right,” Piers said. “Some of us have more experience fighting but are struggling a lot more with being decent people.”
They all made me feel cheerful, as it turned out. Somehow, the warm feeling I had when I looked out at Variel's cabin next to ours was back. It felt like I had a family again.
Six days into the journey, we reached the port where Cash was waiting for us.