a completely different picture than they once had. “Wait, so when I asked him to stay on long enough to pay back what I’d spent on him, is that why he gave me such a funny smile?”
Beirly gave a one-shoulder shrug. “Don’t know anything about that.”
Hammon put his knife down, apparently too engrossed in the conversation and history of Deepwoods to care about a trivial thing like eating. “So what happened next?”
“Sylvie,” Grae said, like a man explaining that a typhoon had hit.
Siobhan smothered a laugh, as it rather had been like that. “You see, the whole incident with the smuggler had taught us a clear lesson. We didn’t know enough about trade, and I’m not a good trader anyway. None of us are. So I started looking around for another member, someone that would understand the business, and give me good guidance. It wasn’t long after that we found Sylvie. She’d left Orin and come through Converse, looking for a guild that had a female guildmaster. I suppose she felt it would be safer that way, or something. Anyway, she heard that I was looking for a tradesman and came to me. We bonded over a bowl of chocolate strawberries.”
“And the guild hasn’t been the same since,” Beirly inserted, eyes crinkling. “She wasn’t too sure what to think of a male-dominated guild like ours at first—she’s a bad history with men trying to take advantage of her—but we worked it out with her quick-like. The first day she was out late, and Wolf went looking for her, she came back with the widest smile on her face. She’d run into trouble and was in a fine pickle before Wolf showed up. It was the first time a man had defended her and not asked something in return, see. I knew then, she’d never leave of her own accord.”
“It took us some time to figure out how to protect her properly,” Siobhan admitted with a long sigh. “But she’s worth every bit of trouble and then some. Although we haven’t had as much trouble with that in Goldschmidt the past few years. People more or less know now that if you hassle her, you’ll be dealing with every other person in Deepwoods, and there will be broken bones.”
“It’s given her space to breathe.” Grae tapped the table to get Hammon’s attention. “Be careful with her. Please.”
“And Denney too,” Beirly added.
“And…?” Siobhan encouraged them with a smile of anticipation.
Both Grae and Beirly looked back at her blankly.
“And what?” Beirly asked, looking for all the world as if he hadn’t a clue what she wanted.
“And what am I?” she snapped back, irritated. “Chopped liver? Why aren’t you worried about protecting me?”
“Shi, I feel sorry for anyone that tangles with you,” Grae informed her bluntly.
“No kidding,” Beirly muttered. “The last time a man hassled you, you’d taken him down before Wolf could do more than turn his head.”
She glared at them murderously. Without turning her head, she growled, “I see that smile, Hammon. Wipe it off your face right now.”
He gave a fake cough. “Wasn’t smiling.”
‘Wise of you,’ Grae mouthed.
Grumbling under her breath, she stabbed the knife into her food with more force than necessary.
“What are you two on about?” Wolf asked them. He’d apparently come down without her noticing. He came around the table to pat her gently on the head. “She’s a beautiful woman, isn’t she? Of course you should look out for her.”
Her bad mood disappeared without a trace and she beamed up at him. Putting both arms around his waist, she laid her head against his stomach and crooned, “You wonderful man.”
In an undertone, Beirly murmured, “He always spoils her like that.”
“If either of you had any sense, you would too,” Sylvie informed them as she sauntered around the table to the empty seat next to Hammon. “After all, she controls your paychecks.”
Grae and Beirly gave each other nervous looks.
Siobhan started cackling like a mad crone.
Sylvie grabbed Hammon’s spoon and without a by-your-leave snatched a bite from his plate. “Mmm, good.”
Hammon regarded her with open surprise, not expecting his breakfast to be stolen.
“She does that,” Beirly warned him belatedly. “If you sit next to Sylvie, expect to only eat about half your plate. She can’t resist eating both her food and yours.”
“Is that right?” Hammon glanced at her, expression thoughtful and weighing. Then without another word, he reached out and piled another spoonful of everything onto the plate before nudging it a little closer to her.