Keirth hadn’t touched his food. “Let it go?”
“You must know,” said Lilla, “that killing Risciter will not bring your mother back. And since there are people in the sector already looking for you—they may not have your face plastered everywhere, but they had your name in the last update—you’d be better off finding some place out of the way and laying low. Your mother wouldn’t want you to get yourself hung.”
This seemed like the first sensible thing anyone had said in a long time. Ariana found herself warming to Lilla, prostitute or not.
Keirth shoveled some rice into his mouth. “You don’t understand. I have to do this. It’s the only way...” He set down his fork. “It’s the only way anything will ever seem finished.”
“But now you’ve dragged the daughter of a duke into it.” Lilla gestured to Ariana.
“She dragged herself into it,” said Keirth.
Ariana glared at him. “Well, you helped. You did have a blaster pointed at my head, after all.”
“Really?” said Lilla.
“I wasn’t going to shoot her,” said Keirth. He looked at Ariana. “I wasn’t.”
“Well, I know that now,” said Ariana. “But I didn’t then.” She ate another bite of rice. “This is very good, Lilla.”
“Thanks,” said Lilla.
“I was practically engaged to Risciter,” said Ariana. “I got involved in this because I had a misguided idea that I need to save Risciter from Keirth. But then we found Risciter, and he tried to...hurt me. But Keirth got me away from him. And now, I can’t go back to the sector, because my reputation is ruined, and—”
“She’s not safe,” interrupted Keirth. “Your reputation is less important than your life.”
Ariana rolled her eyes. She wasn’t sure if that was exactly true.
Lilla’s eyebrows were raised again. “I think I understand the situation a bit better.” She smiled. “So, Keirth, you aren’t taking her home because you want to keep her safe.”
“Exactly,” said Keirth.
Lilla nodded. “I see.” She turned to Ariana. “But you don’t want to Keirth to leave you?”
“I...” Ariana floundered. She looked at Keirth, then back at her rice. “I can’t go back. And no disrespect to you, Lilla, but I don’t know if I feel comfortable in a place like this.”
“It’s fine with me for her to stay,” said Lilla. “But Keirth, I won’t have you rushing back off after Risciter either. You’ve both had a harrowing experience. You need to rest and get your strength up. And Ariana, since your reputation is already ruined, I don’t see why it should be so horrible to spend a bit of time here.”
Maybe Lilla had a point there. Ariana had slept in the same bed with Keirth and pretended to be his wife for goodness sake. Maybe she was overreacting. She had to admit, she felt a little better knowing that Keirth wasn’t going to be allowed to simply dump her here and run. “I’m sorry if I offended you. I really didn’t mean to.”
Lilla waved it off. “I’m used to much worse. Don’t trouble yourself with that.” She made a tent with her fingers. “Actually, you’re in luck, because one of our girls decided to leave us last week for the city, and that means her house is empty. I had it cleaned out yesterday. You two can stay there, and I’m sure you’ll be comfortable.”
“No,” said Keirth, his face going a little red. “That’s not.... She and I aren’t... We need separate lodgings.”
Lilla threw her head back and laughed. “Oh, no wonder this is complicated.” She winked at Ariana. “So, you can’t convince him to actually ‘ruin your reputation,’ huh?”
Ariana became immediately interested in her rice. So, there had been a very brief period of time when she’d lost her head and thought she might have feelings for Keirth. This woman couldn’t know that. And she didn’t want Keirth to...lie with her. Although, if she thought about it, it might be nice to do that with someone who was as inexperienced as she was in the whole business. Maybe that would make it easier. And he was very nice to look at.
“Don’t tease her,” Keirth was saying to Lilla. “She’s not like that. She’s a member of the nobility, for goodness sake.” He looked at Ariana. “I’m sorry.”
Lilla laughed harder. She leaned back in her chair, clutching her stomach. When she finally stopped, tears were coming out of her eyes. Ariana was pretty sure she was blushing. Very hard. Which wasn’t so bad, because Keirth was too. Lilla put a hand on her chest, catching her breath. “Oh, the two of you are really very cute.” She stood up, patting Keirth on the shoulder. “You run off this planet, you make sure you kiss her first.” She started for the doorway. “You can just dump those plates in the cleaner when you’re done.” She left the kitchen, still chuckling.