“Of course,” I agreed flippantly.
“Excellent,” he muttered and threw back a healthy gulp of wine before putting his glass on the table. He looked back to me and spoke on, but his face belied his words. “Please continue. It amuses me.”
“I aim to please,” I murmured.
“I doubt that,” he returned.
Suddenly, I wished I’d never said anything and just ignored him completely. So we slept in the same bed. So what? We’d done it before. I would be asleep. I could ignore him there too.
“Perhaps we can stop talking,” I requested.
“Excellent idea,” he agreed and instantly moved to the door. “If you’d like dinner, meet me downstairs after you’ve had a moment to refresh.”
I was hungry and I needed to eat and to do that I needed him and his money so it was exasperating but I had to say, “I’ll be down in a few minutes.”
He said nothing. Just opened the door, went through it, turned, dipped his chin at me and closed it behind him.
I stared at the door thinking that maybe I should have sucked it up and went to Karsvall.
Imaginary children’s laughter peeled through my brain.
No, I wouldn’t have been able to suck it up and go to Karsvall.
I took another sip of my wine and when I was done, I muttered, sounding like a spoiled child, “Stupid malevolent witches and deposed rulers, ruining everything.”
But they damn well had.
My plans for me and my future.
My brief but brilliant feeling of freedom.
Now, I was back where I started, my life not my own but controlled by a rich and powerful man.
There was a knock at the door so I called, “Come in.”
The girl came in carrying a pitcher with what thankfully looked like clean drying cloths folded over her forearm.
She moved directly to the nightstand and set it down.
And as she left, I was sure to thank her.
* * * * *
Dinner was not the greatest.
We went to a pub down the street and the not-the-greatest-part wasn’t the food.
Unsurprisingly, without asking me my preference, Apollo ordered by stating, “Wine, red. And patty pie for the both of us.”
I had no clue what patty pie was but it didn’t sound all that great.
And during my time with the guys, they always asked the waiters to explain my choices so that I could make them.
Not Apollo.
Oh no.
After our to-do at the inn, I wisely decided to let this go, and luckily patty pie turned out to be us each receiving our own small casserole dish filled with fluffy mashed potatoes topped with melted cheese that looked really good. Under this I discovered corn, carrots and peas in a thick delicious brown gravy. This was poured over a patty of ground beef flavored with onion. In other words, a sort of shepherd’s pie but with a meat crust.