Page 74 of Goldilocks
“He is apologising for striking Laurence,” Goldilocks translated. “He did not realise who he was.”
“You mean he didn’t realise there were two mermen ready to drown him for it?” Sam surmised.
“Yes,” Goldilocks said. “Come. We will tend the lash.”
Goldilocks led Sam, and he paused to make sure Laurence came as well. Jasper walked next to Laurence, tail constantly reaching out to feather against the back of Laurence’s calves. When Laurence cast the guard a smile, he leaned in to quickly nuzzle Laurence’s cheek.
“Are you okay?” Sam asked, noticing his slight limp.
Laurence rubbed his thigh, casting Sam a smile. “I’m okay. It just hurts a little. I wasn’t going to grab his tail,” he added. “I didn’t mean to scare him. Or offend him. Or for Bee to threaten to tear it off.” Laurence’s smile faded as he looked to the ocean.
“It was nice of me to let him keep it,” Goldilocks pointed out.
Sam cast him a look. “Are you going to bring it up every time you’re slightly nice? And just to be clear, I don’t consider you decidingnotto rip someone’s limb off nice. That’s more like…” Sam struggled to find the right word. “I don’t even know what that is, actually.”
“Nice,” Goldilocks supplied. “Kind. Merciful.”
Laurence snickered, and Sam levelled an exasperated look at Goldilocks. And he knew, plainly, from the puzzled look that Goldilocks returned to him, that he didn’t understand why Sam wasn’t impressed by hiskindgesture.
“Do you often tear off people’s tails?” Sam asked. Maybe before he considered dating Goldilocks, he should first determine if he was jumping into bed with a bloodthirsty creature.
“No,” Goldilocks answered as they stepped off the pier onto the front step. “It is never necessary.” And he tilted his head, his eyes flicking to Jasper and Laurence. “Jasper is a skilled fighter. It would be a shame for him to lose his tail. His brother works for the city; he manages the Order, and his sister works at the castle, organising its guard. An impressive warrior in her own right, though she does not fight often anymore.”
“I see,” Sam said. He wouldn’t say that it didn’t make much sense to him, but he listened. He often talked to Goldilocks about his own life – had been doing so long before Goldilocks could answer him – and Goldilocks had always listened attentively. Focusing on Sam with interest in his eyes. And they’d argued too, Sam with words, Goldilocks with snarls and hisses. He still used the glares.
Goldilocks strode inside the open entrance way. “We will be in our rooms. Laurence, Jasper will show you to the gardens. Bee and Dew will meet you there. They prefer to take the tunnels.”
Laurence was already crouched down, examining the pool cut into the middle of the floor. “This leads to the ocean?” he asked. “That’s cool. I wonder, could we build one of these in our house? Adonis always has a hard time keeping his legs.”
Goldilocks’s huff was, to Sam’s ear, derogatory. “He struggles with many things.”
“This is the same Adonis who can heal stab wounds,” Sam pointed out.
Goldilocks’s top lip twitched. “All others in his line were far more skilled. Though they may have lacked his brute strength, they were instead graced with manners.”
Sam pressed his lips together hard. Laurence giggled by the pool. “Nick’s always making comments about Adonis’s manners too. I like him tons though, even if he’s kind of a dick to me most of the time. He’s always trying to chase me off when he thinks Connor isn’t looking.” Laurence straightened up, his eyes shining. “Andhe thinks that Connor is my dad, no matter how many times we try to explain it to him.”
“He still thinks that?” Sam asked in surprise.
Laurence shrugged. “I’ve given up correcting him. What does it matter anyway? I’m going to look around. Is there anywhere I can’t go?”
“You may explore as you like,” Goldilocks said. “Sam, this way.”
Sam watched Laurence trot off through a doorway with Jasper on his heels. He glanced at Goldilocks. “It’s okay for him to just explore? It isn’t even your house, right? It’s Vi’s. Though she’s married – sorry,mated– to your sister?” Sam didn’t prompt him for an explanation about Goldilocks’s sister. He hadn’t asked, nor had it been said outright, but he was sure, based on their last visit, that Goldilocks’s sister wasn’t around anymore.
“It is okay,” Goldilocks confirmed. “Jasper will keep him from where he should not go.”
Sam followed Goldilocks to the bedroom from before. “Sit here.” Goldilocks gestured to a table and chair. They were set up just before the open doors leading to a balcony. A stone barrier that came to waist height blocked off a short drop to the ground below. The light was fading from the sky already, and a hot, dry breeze drifted in. The balmy warmth was already too much for Sam’s sweater.
Sam shrugged it off, folding and placing it onto the bed before sitting at the table. He turned up his palm and watched as Goldilocks carefully unravelled the bandage. Angry red skin was slowly revealed on the inside of Sam’s hand. The cuts across his palm were shallow but numerous. And clearly, from the colour of the surrounding skin, a darker red than what he’d seen first thing that morning when wrapping his hand, it was infected.
“I definitely need to go to the doctor,” Sam said to himself.
“I am bringing the doctor,” Goldilocks reminded him. He dropped the dirty bandages into a tub on the ground and very gently took hold of Sam’s hand, examining the injury.
“I know, but one of my doctors too.”
Goldilocks flicked his gaze up, meeting Sam’s eyes. “Are your doctors skilled?”