Kai's breath caught. "You can," he promised, a trifle too eagerly.
Master frowned. "I hope so," he said at length. "I can't always be here to watch you, and I don't want you to be miserable in my absences. I hope I've been fair to you thus far-I think I have. I'm not interested in keeping discontented slaves. Tam tells me you enjoy swimming. I assume you were used to regular exercise in the army?"
Kai nodded, tense with anticipation.
"I've noticed you're losing muscle tone." Master touched Kai's bicep, and he flinched. I'd rather Master hadn't been so blunt about it, but what he said was true. "What would you say to joining the household guards in training each morning?"
I smiled as Kai tried to school his expression into something less eager.
"May I?" he eventually asked, his tone guarded like he suspected Master of making the offer only to immediately withdraw it.
"Morgan thinks I'm an idiot," Master admitted.
I snorted. The head of the household guard had never been friendly to the slaves in the compound.
Master smirked at my interruption, but when he turned his attention back to Kai, he was deadly serious. "He thinks you're dangerous. I disagree. I've made arrangements for you to join the guards starting tomorrow. You'll answer to Morgan and follow his instructions to the letter. You're to be allowed access to the practice weapons, but at the first sign of disobedience, they will punish you, and your privileges will be revoked. Do you understand me?"
Kai nodded vigorously.
"Good." Master settled back onto the chaise. "Don't disappoint me."
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
In the days that followed, we incorporated Kai's training into our routine. He would rise at dawn to join the guards on the practice grounds, a sandy paddock separated from the compound by a low wall. I took to sitting on the wall to watch him, admiring the way his strong body moved in the early morning light as he wrestled and ran and parried with wooden swords. The guards were hard on him at first, but he never complained when they tripped him or threw him to the ground, and within a matter of days he had made a friend or two from amongst their number. I realised, as I heard him trading cheerful insults with the other men, how much his Thirskan had improved.
Master was away until late in the evening for much of the following week, and so several days passed before we were once again called to his chamber. I helped him out of his travelling cloak while Kai lit the fire, this too now part of our routine. Master seemed tired and loath to talk, and he waved me to the bearskin before the hearth, settling himself at his desk, where a veritable mountain of scrolls awaited his attention. I wished I could have lifted some of the burden he carried, but whatever messages the scrolls contained pertained to life outside the compound, and he had already said he wanted both of us to be kept in ignorance as much as possible. The carefree day we had spent beside the pool already seemed a lifetime away.
Kai picked up the brush and settled in the chair before the hearth to tend my hair. Spending so much time in the sun and pool had left it drier than usual, and it crackled with static under his hands. I did my best not to wince as he ran into knots and tangles, and he did his best to be gentle with me.
At last Master put down his quill, pushing his chair back from the desk with a sigh. My heart ached as he rubbed his tired face, screwing his eyes up and blinking when he opened them, as though he were seeing two of everything.
"Please stop for today," I said, unable to watch him torment himself any longer. Whatever the scrolls required of him couldn't be urgent enough for him to continue further into the night.
"I think I will," he said, conceding defeat and rising to join us by the fire. Kai vacated his chair without being asked, sitting instead on the low stool beside it and continuing to brush my hair.
Master watched us in silence, his gaze fixed like he wasn't really seeing the interior of his chamber at all. At length, he seemed to shake himself, his attention refocusing on Kai.
"How's your training going?" he asked. "Are you enjoying it?"
"I love it," Kai said immediately, clearly deciding it was not the time to play at being grudging.
"The guards, they treat you well?"
I felt Kai stiffen as Master touched a bruise blooming across his bicep. The guards were rough, and Kai wasn't permitted armour or even a uniform. He performed his training in his loincloth, and his body was black and blue from being relentlessly hit and pummelled and thrown to the ground. I had worried about him the first morning, when he'd been stiff and sore, but Kai had laughed at my fretting and told me he'd had plenty worse in his time.
"It's nothing I can't handle," he said gruffly.
"Kai, if they're bullying you, I want to know," Master said.
"They're not."
"Tam?" Clearly, Master didn't trust him to be honest.
"They're not, Master," I said truthfully. Had he asked me after the first day or two, my response might have been different, but Kai had proved himself to the guards, and I truly believed they were starting to accept him as one of their own. Master interfering now would only damage Kai's standing with them.
"Good." I noticed Master's hand lingered, tracing the outline of the mottled purple and yellow and green bruises colouring Kai's arm. "Morgan says you're doing well."
I didn't have to be looking at Kai to know his cheeks pinked with pleasure. He ran his fingers through my neatly-brushed hair, separating the long strands.
"His muscles are getting firmer," I said, only teasing slightly. Kai had been swimming every day for several weeks, and the guards' training was intense. He wasn't as solid as he had been when I bought him, but the improvement was marked.
"So I see." I heard the smirk in Master's voice as he squeezed Kai's bicep.
Kai growled, but not aggressively, and snatched his arm away. I wondered if Master could tell as well as I he was pleased by the praise.
"Let me show you how to plait Tam's hair," Master said, nudging Kai aside.
I obligingly turned my back to him and remained still as he showed Kai how to separate my long hair into three sections and twist them together. Master secured the end with a leather thong, and I shook my head to feel the long rope slide across my exposed back.
"I think it's getting blonder," Kai observed.
"It is. The suns have bleached it. And his skin's darker, too."
I glanced at my tanned arms. The blue of my tattoos didn't stand out half as clearly as I was used to seeing, and I wondered if it was vain of me to like the way I looked. Master had always been so strict about keeping me indoors during the hottest part of the day, worried I would burn and damage my skin, but Kai and I had taken great care not to let that happen.
"You are beautiful, Tammy," Master said, his tone almost wistful.
I preened as he caressed my collar.
In a trice Kai was also touching me, moving his large hand possessively across my shoulder. I can't say I wasn't shallow enough to enjoy their attention, but I wished they didn't feel they had to compete with each other. In their own ways, both men held my heart.
"When are you leaving again?" Kai asked Master, shattering my contentment.
"Not for a day or two. It will be nice to spend some time with you both. Perhaps I'll watch you train in the morning."
"You don't have work to do?"
"You don't want me there?"
I remained still as a statue, waiting for Kai to answer. I still didn't fully understand why Master so often let Kai question him in a way I'd never have been excused, but mine was not to wonder why.
"I wouldn't want to distract you from anything more important," Kai said at length.
"Kai, there is nothing I would like more," Master said, his voice soft and serious.
I cheered inwardly through the silence which followed. Kai had admitted he was growing to like Master, and I knew that deep down, he wanted the man's approval. This was as close as he'd ever come to admitting it to Master.
"It's your house," Kai said at last, disappointing me somewhat. I didn't understand why he couldn't just confess to wanting Master there, when all three of us wanted nothing more than to be friends. Or was that me projecting a hopeless wish onto my two companions?
"I'd like you there," I said, surprising myself and them by speaking.
"You would, Tammy?"
I nodded. "Kai's doing really well, and I'd like you to see it for yourself."
"You're proud of him?"
I couldn't quite discern Master's meaning from his tone, and his expression gave nothing away. I glanced at Kai, surprised to see the hopeful look on his face. Did he want me to be proud of him?
"Yes." The answer was an honest one.
Kai ducked his head bashfully, and Master's broad smile encompassed us both.