Greylock shook his head and sighed. ‘Ah, to be young again.’
Erik just sat silently, wondering at all the odd feelings of delight and uncertainty within. He stole a glance at Kitty and saw her watching him. He smiled at her and she returned it, and he felt joyous inside.
Then while Jadow and Greylock exchanged witty remarks, a dark cloud descended over Erik, as he considered the coming battle. How could he afford the time for anything other than that, he wondered to himself.
Sylvia bit Roo playfully on the neck.
‘Ow,’ he said, half in jest, half in real pain. ‘That was too hard.’
She pouted. ‘I need to punish you. You’ve been gone too long.’
She snuggled down into the crook of his arm as he said, ‘I know. The closer we get -’ He caught himself. He was about to say ‘to the invasion.’
‘Closer to what?’ she asked, very attentively.
He studied her face in the candlelight. He had come to her house late and they had gone straight to bed. Her father was away on business, she said, so he planned on spending the entire night, rather than returning to his town house before dawn, as was his habit when Jacob Esterbrook was at home. Thinking about what he had found about her father’s advantage over Roo’s companies in trade with Great Kesh, he again wondered if he was saying anything that she was repeating to her father. He pushed aside the concern. ‘I mean, as I get closer to this goal I have, controlling all shipping on the Bitter Sea, I seem to have less time for anything else.’
She bit him on the shoulder again, this time hard enough to make him genuinely cry out. ‘Explain that to your wife,’ she said, indicating the teeth marks she’d left. She got out of bed, and Roo marveled at the sight of her naked body. She was the most beautiful woman he had ever encountered, and in the light of the single candle she seemed sculpted from living marble, without flaw. He thought about his own wife’s pudgy body, without a hint of strength in the muscle, the marks on her left by childbirth, and he found himself astonished by his ability to make love to Karli.
As Sylvia put on her robe, he said, ‘What’s gotten into you?’
‘You have time to spend with Helen Jacoby, but you spend days away from me.’
Roo said, ‘You can’t possibly be jealous of Helen?’
‘Why not?’ She turned, an accusatory expression on her face as he sat up in her bed. ‘You spend time with her. She’s not unattractive in a raw-boned peasant-girl fashion. You’ve mentioned you respect her wit, far too many times for my liking.’
Roo got out of bed, and said, ‘I killed her husband, Sylvia. I owe her some comfort. But I have never touched her. ‘
‘You’d like touching her, I wager,’ said Sylvia.
Roo tried to put his arms around her, but she brushed him aside and moved away. ‘Sylvia, you’re being unfair.’
‘I’m being unfair?’ she said, turning and allowing her robe to fall open.
Roo found himself beginning to become aroused at the sight of her.
‘You’re the man with the wife, children, and reputation. I was one of the most eligible daughters in the Kingdom until I met you.’ Pouting, she moved toward him, letting her breasts rub against his bare chest as she said, ‘I’m the mistress. I’m the woman of no status. You can leave whenever you want.’ Her hand began tracing small circles on his stomach.
Roo’s breath came hard as he said, ‘I would never leave you, Sylvia.’
Reaching down, she stroked him and said, ‘I know.’