37. Thirty-Seven - Joining the Village
Thirty-Seven - Joining the Village
Viggo
Ana was pensive after her conversation with my sister and I bit my tongue to bleeding so that I wouldn’t try to push her to tell us what was said.
But she didn’t leave us to spend the night in her own bed. She loved us the way she always does... like we are hers and she is ours.
Tonight, we’ll take one step closer to making that true in all ways.
Despite her objections to Ana, Kirra waits for us in the lobby, saying goodbye to her owls as Blicks watches on, stoic as ever.
She looks up at me as I descend. “A quick tour of the town, and then a visit to the temple, I think.”
“Not the other way around?” Penny asks from behind me.
“I imagine we’ll draw a crowd and I’d like to have as few of them as possible while you show me all the little shops and what not. They can come gawk at us afterward.”
She adjusts her hat and then looks at Penny’s naked hair with a grimace, but she doesn’t tell him to put one on. Me on the other hand... Blicks hands me mine with an apologetic smile and I thank him.
I was going to wear it anyway.
She doesn’t ask any more of me as we walk the small distance to town.
I take her arm and Penny moves to her other side as we step onto the first cobbles of the path that leads into the square and the village beyond it.
“Oh, it’s absolutely lovely.”
Kirra smiles up at the temple with her fangs showing and lets her gaze trail around the village.
“Take me to Ana’s shop first,” she says with a bright smile. “I want to see where your little lover works.”
I am grateful that she’s asked it. It is the only place I want to visit, and I imagine she knows it.
But when we get inside, there’s a gnome woman sitting on the counter, swinging her little legs. She glares at Penny, but her gaze softens when she looks at me and it turns absolutely incandescent when it lands on Kirra.
“Ana,” she calls over her shoulder. “Your lover is here. And he brought some friends.”
Ana comes out from the back, wiping her hands and smiles at all of us. “My lovers,” she corrects the gnome. “Leaf, you know Edric. This is Viggo and his sister Kirra.”
Leaf hasn’t looked back at us. She’s still glaring at Ana. “You have been gallivanting with three people and you didn’t tell me?”
Ana looks at me in a way that makes me want to leap over the counter and says, “Only two. Kirra is just visiting.”
Leaf takes a breath that puffs her up and when she exhales, she deflates again. “You and I are going to talk about that later,” she says before turning back to us, her gaze fixed on Edric. “But at least that makes your interest in her a little more palatable.”
“What does that mean?” I ask.
Leaf hops off the counter and all three of our heads drop with her.
“It means, that a single elf, especially one at his age... is a problem.” She walks straight up to me, leaning back and glaring up. “How long?”
“Leave them alone, Leaf,” Ana says, rolling her eyes and screwing the lid on a jar.
But the little gnome woman shows no sign she’ll back down.
“Twenty years,” Penny says from beside me and the woman relaxes immediately.
“Good.” She tips her head to both of us and then looks at Kirra. “It was very nice meeting you. If you want some company while the three of them are occupied... let me know. I’d be happy to entertain you... or find someone who would be a better fit.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” Kirra turns to watch Leaf leave, but I don’t.
I look around this place Ana spends the larger portion of her daylight hours in.
It’s tidy and... I assume bright. There are far too many windows.
“I like it.”
“Thank you,” Ana says, finally coming out from behind her counter as she unties her apron. “I hadn’t expected to see you so early.”
“Where else would we come first,” Kirra says from behind me. “Edric would introduce us to the woman he’s courting immediately.”
Ana smiles at her. “I guess I didn’t think of it that way. I keep forgetting that there’s an order to this particular game the world is forcing us to play.”
“It’s one you will have to learn to play well if you endeavor to court a vampire in a quaint little town.”
“Should I also wear a sword around town from now on?”
Penny and I both look down at the blade Ana noticed while we somehow missed.
“I have come to know its need at my own cost.” She glances out the window. “You are loved here, Anastacia Eventide... My brother and I hold no such safety yet.”
Penny and I share a look, but Ana’s smile hasn’t dimmed. “I am confident you will find it here. Even if it takes a little bit of time to get used to us.”
Kirra smiles and dips her head in a nod. “Your shop is sweet. I am glad Petalfall has you.”
I don’t like the way it feels like she meant to add that she’ll be sorry if they lose her.
“Come with us.” Kirra says, adjusting the diamond buttons on her gloves. “It will help if you’re seen with him from the start.”
“I’m going to look out of place.”
She looks at each of us in turn, but before either Penny or I can argue, Kirra says, “Nonsense. I doubt there is a single thing you could wear that would make you unfit to be seen with us.”
Ana casts a glance my way, but I don’t want to give her an excuse to leave us.
In the end, she smiles and agrees.
Small groups have gathered around the square, watching as we come out of Ana’s shop. Kirra was right and word travels fast here.
Kirra was also right to have Ana escort us. We’ll seem safer if she proves it simply by choosing to be with us.
Ana takes Kirra on a meandering path, showing her the tea shop and the haberdashery, the oddities shop and the tavern. Pausing to mention that her sister lives with the weavers and that her friend is their newly minted school teacher, back from the city.
She offers to stop in at the inn to give Leaf a little of her own medicine, but Kirra laughs and lets her lead her away to the bathhouse.
No one follows us... well, no one but a handful of small children who don’t know better than to try to hide their amusement.
But a familiar young woman does join us when we return to the square.
I stay back while Ana introduces Mina to my sister. I stay back when Penny is called to join the conversation too.
The way she recoiled still pricks at my skin.
I watch as Ana explains something to Kirra and almost don’t notice the older woman who sidles up to me.
“You look at our Ana like you’ve got plans for her.”
I look down at the woman and she stares right back at me. “I’m sorry, we haven’t met. I am Viggo, one of Edric’s oldest friends.”
Her eyes narrow. “I see.”
“And you are.”
“Misses Scoggins.” She doesn’t take my offered hand.
“You do beautiful work,” I say, telling the truth, even though I don’t think it will win me any points. “And you have nothing to fear from me when it comes to Ana... I like her exactly how she is, right where she is.”
“Do you?” She watches me for another long moment. “How long do you plan to stay?”
“Now that I’ve seen Petalfall, I don’t know why anyone would wish to leave it.”
She watches me carefully, pursing her lips and the lines that form there. “If you do... see that you don’t take anything with you that doesn’t belong to you.”
“And what might I take?”
She gives me a withering look.
“Would it help?” I ask, “If I could assure you that Edric and I are of one mind when it comes to Ana.”
“It would.” Her brows fly high, and her smile is wry. “I’m overjoyed to hear it.”
Penny told me she would be an ally worth having. I can see why now.