She felt a profound wave of pain go through him at the thought. "Thirty."
"Thirty? Jeez, you act like an old, wrinkled-up prune. Did no one laugh where you came from?"
"No," he said simply. "Laughter was not tolerated or indulged."
Tabitha couldn't breathe as his words sank in and she remembered the sight of the scars on his back. "Never?"
He didn't respond. Instead, he continued up her stairs. "I should retire now."
"Wait," she said, rushing up the stairs to sneak around him so that she could keep him still. She turned to face him.
She could feel turmoil inside him. Pain. Confusion. She knew just how hated this man was. Maybe he deserved it, but deep inside she wasn't so sure.
People didn't close themselves off from the world without reason. No one was happily this stoic.
And in that moment, she realized something. It was his defense mechanism. She got brash and wild whenever she was out of sorts or uncomfortable.
He turned cold. Formal.
That was his facade.
"I'm sorry if I said anything that offended you. My sisters often tell me that I've made offending people an art form."
A smile tugged at the edges of his lips and, if she didn't miss her guess, his eyes softened ever so slightly. "I wasn't offended."
"Good."
Valerius was tempted to stay here and talk to her, but he felt uncomfortable with the thought of it. He'd never been the kind of person other people chatted with. Even as a man, his conversations had revolved around battle tactics, philosophy, and politics. Never chit-chat.
His conversations with women had been even fewer than his conversations with men. Not even Agrippina had ever truly spoken to him. They had passed comments, but she had never shared her opinions with him. Merely agreed with him and did as he asked.
He had a feeling Tabitha would never agree with anyone, even if she knew they were right. It seemed a matter of principle that she had to disagree with everything.
"Are you always so outspoken?" he asked.
She smiled widely. "I know no other way."
Suddenly Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Gimme Three Steps" started playing on the radio.
Tabitha let out a small squeak of happiness and dashed down the stairs. Valerius barely had time to blink before she cranked the volume up, then ran back toward him.
"I love this song," she said as she danced to it. Valerius found it hard to focus on much of anything except the sway of her hips as she danced and sang to the song.
"C'mon, dance with me!" she said at the first guitar solo. She ran up the stairs to take his hand.
"This isn't really dancing music."
"Sure it is," she said before she broke into the chorus. In spite of himself, he was greatly amused by her. In all his lifetime, he'd never known anyone who enjoyed life so much, who took such pleasure from something so simple.
"C'mon," she tried again when the singing paused. "It's a great song. You have to admire anyone who can rhyme 'feller' with 'the head color yeller.'" She winked at him.
Valerius laughed.
Tabitha paused. "Oh, my God, he does know how to laugh."
"I know how to laugh," he said lightly.
She pulled him from the stairs and two-stepped around him before she used him as a maypole and continued dancing.