Tiffany Cotton was not who she said she was.
The peculiar woman had shown up in Ravensfield one night, wielding a pistol with a familiarity that odd, run-of-the-mill spinsters shouldn't know how to do. She was bizarrely intelligent, wore gowns that...
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Thirty-Four
-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ-
"Must you go?" Izzy pouted, feigning petulance when Kaede hopped into a pair of trousers. She sat up in the bed, clutching the quilt to her chest, and offered him the most suggestively promiscuous 'come hither' look she could muster.
For a moment, she thought it may very well work.
The young Beastkeeper hesitated, his hands pausing at the placards over the front of his dark trousers, as he considered her, but then he was shaking his head. "The larder is emptying," he mumbled, tipping his head to frown at his crotch that appeared to be fighting through the bindings of his trousers. "You tempt me too much, Iz."
"Then stay," she urged. "We won't starve if you leave it for tomorrow, surely."
At that, he offered her a dry look and scoured the floor for his shirt that she had torn from his shoulders some time ago. "I have to pick up a few items from the tailor as well, considering I didn't venture here with the intent to stay. He won't hold my trousers for much longer."
"Pah, so wasteful- clothes."
Kaede's lips twitched as he bent to retrieve the shirt at the foot of the bed. Straightening, he tossed it over his shoulders and worked his wrists through the cuffs, eyeing her thoughtfully as he did so. "I won't be long- you needn't worry."
"Let me come with you, then."
He snorted. "No."
"It's been a sennight, surely-"
"No, Iz."
He strode to her side, coming to sit at the edge of the bed so that he could drop a kiss to the top of her disgruntled mien. "Don't give me that look," he murmured against the tousled mop of burgundy curls.
"I'll give you whatever look I like," she groused. "I'm cooped up in this townhouse like a damn hen day in and day out. The only people who leave it are you and my sister. I'm starting to think I'm a prisoner."
"You're not," he told her gently. "I leave because I can navigate the seedier parts of town with more ease than you would, and you know Grant wouldn't bother himself to look for us there. Besides, just a few more days longer- since it has been so quiet, it seems unlikely that he intends to drag this debacle out any longer."
Izzy huffed a breath. If she were honest with herself, she was just being petulant considering she didn't want him to leave her- for however long. Unreasonable, she knew, but there it was. And it made her quite vulnerable; that knowledge, that the male before her had needled under her skin and latched onto her heart so effectively.
"Grant still poses a problem for you," she pointed out, feeling his tail curl around her waist. With no preamble, Kaede lifted her from the mattress and draped her over her lap, quilt and all.
