“I’m sorry, I really am. This was always a bad idea. I turned to you out of frustration, and it was unfair to you and my wi—husband.”
“But the Goddess . . .”
“I have a bad habit of disappointing major deities lately.”
She bit her lower lip and stared at the floor. “I see,” she whispered.
“I can’t do this.”
“Because I’m just a common—”
“No!” I snapped.
She looked up at me with shiny eyes.
“It’s not you. It was never you, or where you came from. It’s just . . .” I sighed and sat down next to her and hugged her shoulders in what I hoped was a sisterly manner. “I make bad decisions, and they hurt people I care about. I’m trying to stop doing that.”
“I was a bad decision?”
Damn it! “Trying a clandestine affair in my situation, my complicated married situation, was a bad decision. I just tried to make you an accomplice.”
She looked away from me and sniffed.
“You have every right to be angry at me.”
“I do,” she whispered. She stood up, dragging the bed sheets after her, covering herself. “I am.”
“Good.”
“What is the matter with you?” She spun around, knocking me stumbling off the bed as the sheets yanked from beneath me. “You drag me across a kingdom so a dragon can call me a whore? You defend me to that monster and disappear? Do you have any idea what I went through after that, after you played seductress, hero, and then abandon me?”
“I’m sorry,” I said as I got to my feet.
“I didn’t know whether to worship you or burn you in effigy.”
“I—”
“And then you send a goddess to fetch me just so you can say ‘bad decision’?”
“That wasn’t my idea.”
“You’re damn right this was a bad decision! After everything—”
To my relief the door to my chambers opened and Grace stepped in. “Your Highness?”
Took you long enough. “Grace, this is Evelyn. Evelyn, Grace.”
“What?”
“You’re still my guest,” I said. “You need a room, a meal—”
“And some clothes,” Grace added helpfully.
She looked from me to Grace and all the emotion seemed to leak out of her. “Y-yes.”
I asked Grace, “How long were you listening?”
“Your Highness? I just arrived.” Her grin told another story. At least someone found this all amusing.
“Grace will take care of you.” I gave my chief retainer a stern look. “She’ll get you everything you need.”
Evelyn nodded wordlessly and walked toward the door, providing me a completely unnecessary view of her uncovered backside. As drafty as it was for her, I felt the room become unaccountably warmer.
She looked over her shoulder as Grace took her arm. “Do you love him?”
“Him?” I asked.
“Your dragon.”
“Uh—”
Grace had enough mercy on me to lead Evelyn out of my chambers before I stammered something embarrassing.
Do I love him? Pronoun confusion, the bane of my existence.
Do I love her?
I had just kicked a willing lover out of my bed to avoid hurting Lucille. Did that make any objective sense at all? It’s not as if my prince was going to warm my bedchambers anytime soon—which was a good thing as that phrase had a wholly different connotation when dragons were involved.
But I didn’t want to hurt Lucille any more than I already had.
I threw myself down on my now-sheetless bed.
Do I love her?
“Good question,” I whispered.
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S. Andrew Swann, Dragon Thief
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