Page 6 of Centerpiece (Infinite Grace #2)

“Am I?” Tall as an oak again, Holburn could have reached out and trapped Agreeable against the door.

Agreeable tipped his head up to look into eyes of warm red-brown one more time. “You’re kind.”

“I am not.” Holburn didn’t look away. “Not always.”

Agreeable stilled his trembling as best he could and lowered his head again as he reached for the handle. Then he slipped out from under the arm Holburn had raised to lean against the doorframe and opened the door to peer outside.

One of the large, armed figures from earlier slouched against the wall at the top of the stairs leading to the first floor.

Agreeable quickly shut the door and spun around. Startled, Holburn stepped back and withdrew his arm.

“A guard,” Agreeable explained before Holburn could ask. “Damn my luck.”

“A guard?” Holburn repeated with a small frown and a darted glance toward the door. “But not the bailiff?”

“No. Not wearing any colors either, but I know a guard when I see one. Maybe the Count heard of the situation and offered his guards to help the bailiff. Him, or one of the other local lords.”

Holburn stared at Agreeable for another moment, then gently urged him to the side in order to crack the door to look out as well.

“Hmm.” He closed the door without a sound, then paused before looking to Agreeable.

“I see what you mean. Now, now.” He put one hand to Agreeable’s shoulder, only for a moment, but Agreeable sank on his heels and closed his mouth to wait.

“I have a suggestion.” Holburn paused again but Agreeable continued to wait, flushing when this made Holburn twitch another half smile.

“In consideration of your safety, I’d recommend that you wait here for the night, and in the morning, we’ll better consider situations for you. ”

“What? No.” Agreeable shook his head while he was still able to refuse such a lovely offer. “Betram will lock the doors in a few hours. I’ll have to slip out before then. And I’m not going to bother you more. What if they accuse you of helping me?”

Holburn glanced to the side and twisted his lips in a funny little grimace. “I don’t think that will happen. And... I should say, that guard might only be there to guard some other visitor and have nothing to do with you.”

“But he might also have everything to do with me. And if they’re that angry, maybe this time they’ll hang me.”

“So they did beat you before.” Holburn pinned Agreeable to the door with a furious look.

Agreeable opened and shut his mouth. He exhaled through his nose. “That doesn’t matter now.”

“Beating or hanging, you’re better served staying here tonight and allowing me to help smuggle you out in the morning. Now, be a good lass and go sit in the chair while I think this over. Have some more butter.”

“You’re not a lord, you know,” Agreeable said, already breathless as he crossed the room to help himself to the last roll and a generous smear of butter before plopping into the chair by the fire.

“Hmm,” Holburn said again, considering Agreeable with an unsettling amount of attention.

“Unless you are hiding coins and spices in your clothes, they have no proof you’ve done anything.

But proof doesn’t matter to some. To them, reputation and appearance matter.

Therefore, you have no chance with them but you have a chance with me. ”

Agreeable stopped with a dollop of butter at the side of his mouth. “Sharp, aren’t you?”

“I told you I wasn’t always kind.” Holburn nodded as if he’d settled on a decision. “You stay here for now. Have the bed. I’ll take the chair.”

“Daft.” Agreeable surprised himself by saying it and also by how little he was surprised by Holburn’s suggestion. “Giving up that fine bed for me when I can have the floor. The fire is warm enough. Warmer than moss and leaves, to be sure. But aren’t you worried I’ll kill you in your sleep?”

Holburn scoffed. “Rob me, perhaps, but not kill me. And with robbery, you’d have trouble getting rid of anything you took from me.

This place is too small. They’d find it, and you, only too quickly.

For something like that, your count might even be motivated to search the woods.

And I doubt he’d care which thief he caught. ”

That enchanted rosary alone would call for such a search. And Holburn was right about the Count’s response.

Agreeable made a face anyway. “Sharp again.”

“Regrettable at times, but yes.” Holburn was an oak in manner as well; hard and stubborn. “You are a guest. You will take the bed.”

Agreeable glanced to it. “It is soft, I’m certain. But could I sleep in it? Will I sleep at all with the bailiff on my mind? I think not. So you will take the bed you paid for, and if you truly feel that I deserve the rights of a guest, I can take one of your blankets here in this chair.”

Holburn tilted his head down and to the side. “So you are not always agreeable.”

Agreeable arranged himself in the chair like he was in a church pew: back straight, hands together, feet nearly on the floor. “You have already gifted me much and you deserve your sleep. This will do well for me.”

“I was worried I would trample over your desires.” Holburn gave in with a frown and then a sudden, rueful smile. “Yet I remain irked that you are not so easily trampled.”

“I can say no.” Agreeable kicked his feet again. “I just like to say yes.”

“So you’ve said, or hinted.” Holburn sat on the edge of the bed to consider him, then bent over to remove his boots. “But if I may, perhaps reconsider saying yes to those who left you to swing.”

There was that.

Agreeable wrinkled his nose. “I see your meaning. But sometimes I get an itch and there’s nothing for it but to let them all have me.” He sighed it.

Holburn’s second boot thudded to the floor. “All of them?” He stared over through his curls. “At once?”

“In turns.” Agreeable sighed that too. “They aren’t all good, but some are. And it helps the itch. But you’re right. They did leave me. They couldn’t have saved me, but they could have warned me what they were planning at least.”

“At least.” Holburn moved on to the buttons of his doublet, baring the white chemise underneath and part of his throat.

“You’re calm about it, them having me. Or quiet, if not calm.” Agreeable had expected that and yet it still stole his breath.

“If you ever attend a party in the capital, you’ll understand why.” Holburn stripped off the doublet and walked to the bureau to leave it on the top.

“Does no one listen to the Church?” Agreeable asked, a little faint to consider what Holburn was not saying, but maybe also for the loose sway of Holburn’s chemise around a chest more substantial than the color and cut of his doublet had suggested.

Holburn laughed while removing his belt. “They listen. Most just do what they please when no priests are around.”

“Do you?”

Holburn didn’t scold Agreeable for the question. He merely shrugged and sat on the bed to remove his breeches, leaving him in his chemise and stockings. Agreeable ought to turn away as Holburn had done. He didn’t.

“I have in the past,” Holburn said, as if answering another question entirely, or feeling that he must be careful, as if Agreeable would mind his true answer, whatever it was. “And do still, on occasion. Though I suspect I won’t have much time for that anymore.”

He was too cautious. Now Agreeable had a new sort of itch to discover exactly what Holburn had done at capital parties or elsewhere.

“Do you have someone? Someone special, as you said?” He didn’t frown as he asked, but he did smooth the skirt over his knees a few times, needing to do something with his hands.

“Yes. She also likes to tell me no. Says it’s good for me to hear it from time to time.” Holburn didn’t sound angry about it as some men did when women stood up to them.

“She may be right. I don’t imagine many would tell you no. You’re very persuasive.” Which might be why some thought of him as a devil. Agreeable enjoyed the idea. “You must be a danger at those parties of yours.”

“Of mine?” Holburn scoffed lightly, but met Agreeable’s gaze before twitching another smile. “I don’t know what you mean.”

Lying was supposed to be a sin too, not that Agreeable cared much about that.

“And she doesn’t mind? I suppose she mustn’t,” Agreeable reasoned aloud, “since you said she tells you no when she pleases to. Oh.” Agreeable jerked upright. “Does she join you? Aren’t you worried over children?”

“Precautions are taken,” Holburn said, scandalously unconcerned with his words.

But then, he’d have the funds to pay a mage, if he found one that hadn’t been dragged into the priesthood.

Mages could arrange such things, or so Agreeable had heard.

That was alleged to be sinful as well, although Agreeable had yet to hear any priest explain why.

And like most things, what was sinful for villagers and farmers wasn’t all that sinful if a person had enough coin or land to their name.

“Is she lovely as well as strong-willed? As lovely as you?” Agreeable gripped handfuls of his skirt tight enough to hike it up past his ankles. He forced his hands to relax. “I mean, well, you are a jewel. But you must know that.”

Holburn stopped at the side of the bed. “I’m an oddity, a lumpy dark pearl. But jewel sounds much better. Thank you. And no, Aliette is far lovelier than I am. A beauty and a wit, and for some reason, fond of me.”

Something twisted in Agreeable’s chest but did not hurt. There was only a sort of pressure, like a held-in sigh.

“Two jewels, then.” Agreeable bobbed his head to show how fine he was to hear that.

Holburn dragged a blanket from the bed and brought it to him. “If you insist upon the chair, then here is your blanket. Will you stay the whole night?”