“Yes, Mistress.” She swallowed. She’d been stupider last night than she could believe. She was normally so rational!
“Have you spoken with Commander Ironfist about this matter?” the White asked. “Help me scoot down here, will you?”
Karris helped the White shift from sitting up in bed to lying down. “Um, no, Mistress. I—I’m afraid I acted impulsively last night, and before that I never thought it would be a, um, temptation.” She had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.
The White lay back. “Well, dear, if you had, Ironfist would have told you that he and I had a discussion about this very matter long ago. And then another much more recently.”
“You did?” Karris asked.
“Don’t interrupt, dear. We did. And we agreed that it’s a good rule. Keeps lines clearer. Keeps waters from being muddied.”
“Yes, Mistress,” Karris said. She straightened her shoulders, took a breath. Her head was still a whirl, but this was the life she’d chosen. She was a Blackguard, through and through. It wasn’t easy, but that was why she’d chosen it, because she’d known it was hard. Rules existed for a reason.
The White said, “And we also agreed that sometimes the exception proves the rule. And that you are that exception. If you wish to pursue a relationship with that impossible man, you may.”
A sound that may have had some faint resemblance to a squeal jumped out of Karris’s mouth. She froze, her lips pursed.
The White opened her eyes and grinned. “May Orholam have pity on us for whom we love, child. Now go find that incorrigible man, and keep him alive. I fear we’re going to have great need of him in the coming days.”
Karris hugged the old woman tight and ran from the room, pausing only to send the other Blackguards in.
Chapter 86
Gavin climbed out of the hell of his own making one foot at a time. The pulley and counterweights made it so he could go much faster, but the pulley made noise. From the depths, he couldn’t know if the noise high above would make any difference, so he had to err on the side of caution.
Some time later, he got to the top. He climbed through the hole, reset the floor as quietly as possible, dissolved the yellow luxin board, and listened at the door. Nothing.
After listening for a full minute, he opened the door a crack. Then more.
There was no one in the room except Marissia, kneeling silently on the floor.
“Marissia,” Gavin said, warmed by the sight of her. “I told you to go,” he said gently.
She looked at him then, and he was surprised to see a wash of fresh tears run down her cheeks. “I knew you’d come back. Please, my lord, don’t send me away. This is all I know. I—Please don’t reject me.”
Reject? “No, no, no,” he told her. “I’m not sending you away. But… Marissia, I’ve given you your freedom. I would be a faithless man if I tried to take it back from you. It’s a gift—”
“And I don’t despise it, my lord. Not at all. I treasure it. But I can’t accept it and still be your room slave. You would be lost without me, my lord.” She ducked her head. “My apologies. That was very presumptuous.”
“The truth often is. You’re right. I need you. But you could become my secretary. Orholam knows, your duties have already included everything a secretary does.”
“And more,” she said quietly.
“Well, yes, of course. And the more has been accomplished with aplomb,” he said, giving a little smirk. Then the smirk froze.
He’d just killed his brother, and the rest of life went on, not even pausing to notice.
“My lord…” she said, as if he was being dense.
“Yes?” he said.
“You love Lady White Oak.”
“Yes, I do.”
“It is one thing for a lady to tolerate the man she loves enjoying the companionship of his room slave. It is quite another for him to cheat on her with a free woman. Especially if you had made your favor obvious by freeing me.”
Ah. It was so much easier to free a slave when you thought it wasn’t going to cost you anything. Damn.
Good thing I don’t have anything more pressing to deal with than my loins.
Gavin rubbed his jaw. Popped his neck right and left. “Marissia, I made you a promise, and I would be a small man to—”
“I have a solution, my lord!”
“A solution?”
“That doesn’t dishonor the gift you’ve given me, but doesn’t make me go.”
Gavin cocked an eyebrow. “You want to stay? I mean, you really want to stay? Or are you just afraid of things being different? If you need more money…”