Page 31 of For the Love of the Quest

“Anytime?” The pitch of her voice tipped up at the end of the word, turning it into a question.

Edith pulled back enough to look Thomasin in her bewildered eyes. “For the thinking I’m brave part. Not for the pretending to murder me part.”

“Understood.” The abashed smile was back in full force.

Edith couldn’t withstand the force of it, so she buried her face back into Thomasin’s mess of curls. “Scare me like that again,” she said, “and I’ll axe-murder you.”

“Fair enough,” Thomasin said with a laugh.

Edith summoned back an air of dignity. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’d like to prepare for the day.”

“Of course, my lady,” Thomasin said in a mockingly haughty voice.

The door closed behind her, and Edith got dressed, then went over to the vanity to begin the lengthy process of styling her hair. Once the last tendril had been pinned in place, a knock at the door sounded. Edith’s brow scrunched.

Her face fell when she opened the door to see Worthing and not Thomasin as she had expected. “Can I help you?” Worthing was lucky that politeness had been so deeply ingrained in her.

“Thomasin would like to speak to you at the stables,” he said.

“Why?”

“I don’t presume to know the machinations of her mind.” His words were clipped, irritable.

Edith shrugged and slipped on her shoes. When she reached the stables, she paused. Thomasin was facing away from her, deep in conversation with Jay. She had never seen Jay look so angry before.

“You have to tell her,” he said to Thomasin, not having spotted Edith where she lingered half hidden behind the stable door. She pressed her back to the wooden planks, staying in the shadows.

“There is no point in hurting her now.” Thomasin’s reply was gruff, and Edith had to lean in closer to make out the words. Especially since her own heartbeat was now roaring in her ears.

“You’re already hurting her. She almost died of an infected wound because she wanted to impress you,” Jay said. The roar stuttered as her heart skipped a beat. There went any hope they weren’ttalking about her. “She would do anything for you. It’s not right that she has no idea what you did.”

“Technically, I saved her from her father.”

Her father? Dread creeped through Edith’s bones.

Jay barked a sardonic laugh. “You’re better than that.”

“What did you just say to me?” Thomasin’s voice dropped to an octave that Edith had come to recognize, the one that was meant to have her enemies running for their lives.

“Edith is a good person. She doesn’t deserve this. She thinks you’re her friend—”

“What’s wrong with that?” Thomasin interjected.

“What’s wrong with—” Jay sputtered in disbelief, then exhaled sharply. “Jesus, boss. She trusts you, and you ransomed her to her father!”

Ransom.The word clanged through Edith, hit her like a physical blow. It didn’t make sense. Her mind couldn’t wrap around it. Thomasin ransomed her. Thomasin lied. Was Thomasin even her friend? Was all of this still a lie?

Edith felt impossibly foolish. She should have known this couldn’t all be true. She wasn’t particularly suited to adventure, to danger. But she had never really felt like she was suited to her normal life either. Wherever she went, there always seemed to be something off about her. Something strange about her that everyone but her could see. Everyone had seemed to agree that Edith belonged on the outskirts, never to be included, never worthy of having her own story.

These last weeks with Thomasin, though, Edith had finally been beginning to feel like her existence made sense somewhere, that there wasn’t something inherently wrong about her that would always keep her set off in solitude. Had she just been the butt of the joke this whole time?

All she knew was that she couldn’t face Thomasin. But her retreat was clumsy, and gravel crunched beneath her boot. Jay and Thomasin went silent. Before she could make a run for it, Thomasin was swinging the stable door open. Her eyes landed on Edith with such intensity that the breath punched out of her.

“Edith, please wait. You have to listen to me.” Thomasin sounded desperate. That made Edith pause. Thomasin was never desperate. A reckless glimmer of naive hope fluttered in Edith’s stomach. Perhaps she had not imagined all of it. Perhaps Thomasin did have some affection for her.

Edith squeezed her eyes shut and willed her mind to function normally. Thomasin had lied to her in the worst possible way. She had actively tried to cause her harm and had used her for her family’s wealth. But wasn’t that to be expected when working with a mercenary? What she hadn’t expected were the long talks and frequent laughs. The ways Thomasin watched out for her. The companionable silences, and the thrills of adventuring with someone at her side. Edith hadn’t expected to make a friend. Maybe it was impossibly idealistic of her, but Edith hoped that, despite the betrayal, Thomasin felt the same way about her. There was only one way to find out. Terrified at what she would see on Thomasin’s face, Edith turned to look at her.

Chapter Fourteen