Chapter 33 Kit
Kit
My grumbling stomach woke me. I didn’t remember falling asleep, and for several moments, I wasn’t sure where I was. My entire right side was warm and that arm was mostly numb, but my left hand hung off the edge of the bed and felt like ice out from under the covers.
As awareness slowly crept in, I turned my head to bury my cold nose in Penny’s hair.
He was sprawled beside me, draped halfway across my body with his head on my shoulder and one leg stretched over my own.
We barely fit on the mattress, taking up every inch of space even squeezed up against each other.
I didn’t mind the excuse to be so close, but eventually, we would need to find a better solution.
The room at the end of the hall beckoned in the back of my mind. It felt less ominous than it had when we first arrived, but still made me feel uneasy. Maybe a few more mornings waking up cramped and stiff in this tiny bed would change my mind.
Judging by the light peeking in beneath the curtains, it was either late evening or early morning.
Either way, I’d fallen asleep without meaning to, and slept longer than I had in days, finally too exhausted for nightmares.
That also meant I’d left Levitt waiting, but I couldn’t find it in myself to feel bad.
Penny needed me, and that was more important.
What I needed, though, was a bath. I hadn’t even had a chance to get my hair wet before my dip in the tub with Penny had been interrupted, and I was starting to itch. So, I spent several minutes carefully extricating myself from his grip without waking him, and slipped out of the room.
The rest of the house was frigid. I stopped in the bathroom to light the firebox and get the water heating, then moved on to the living room for some clean clothes.
A check out the window by the door revealed it to be not long after sunrise, which explained my hunger.
But breakfast would have to wait because getting clean took precedence, and we were overdue a trip to the market.
Before long, I was sinking below the surface of the steaming bathwater and scrubbing days’ worth of grime and sweat from my skin and hair.
Freshly shaven and mostly dry, I returned to Penny’s room and resisted the urge to crawl back into bed with him. I hated to wake him. I imagined he was as exhausted as I still was, but neither of us had eaten much since the third Oath, and I needed to keep him fed if I wanted him to recover.
I settled onto the edge of the bed to brush the hair back from his face and press a kiss to his forehead. “Time to wake up, sweetheart,” I murmured against his skin.
He grumbled in protest, groping for my hand and giving it a tug when he found it.
“Come back to bed,” he slurred.
“It’s morning, Pen. We slept a whole day away. I need to talk to Levitt, and one of us needs to get us something to eat.”
He blinked bleary green eyes at me, and a tired smile curled his lips. “You called me sweetheart again.”
Heat rose to my cheeks. I started to sit back, but Penny’s hand came up to cup my face and hold me in place.
“Should I stop?” I asked, and his grip slid around to the back of my head to pull me down so our lips barely touched.
“No. I like it. I like being your sweetheart.”
I leaned in to complete the kiss, and several more just like it. Penny's arms cinched around my shoulders, and I let him draw me closer until the temptation to get into bed became almost too much to resist.
“I have to go,” I said as his mouth traced kisses across my cheek and down my neck.
He smiled against my skin. “Levitt can wait.”
My resolve was crumbling. If I didn’t escape Penny’s grasp, neither of us would be leaving the house anytime soon. I eased his arms off my shoulders so I could sit up and move further down the bed, hopefully out of easy reach.
“He’s already waited a day.” I smoothed my mussed hair with shaking hands. “I shouldn’t make him wait another. It could be important.”
Penny huffed a sigh and propped himself up on his elbows. “More important than me?” he asked with an ornery smirk.
I pushed up to my feet and went to his dresser, desperate for a distraction. “Of course not. But you have an important task too.”
Buried under everything else, I found a pair of wool trousers and one of my heavy cotton button-ups and tugged them free. When I turned back, Penny was watching me with a sultry smile. I had half a mind to throw the garments in his face and flee before he could lure me in again.
“And what’s that?” he asked.
I dropped the clothes in his lap. “Breakfast.”
He looked ready to protest, then pressed his palm to his stomach. “I am starving…”
I offered him a hand up, which he reluctantly took. He shivered as the blanket fell away.
“I’ll walk you to the market, and we’ll meet back here for breakfast?”
The mention of the market sobered him, and he dropped his eyes. Considering the last time we’d been to the square it had been to witness something awful, I could assume his worry even if he didn’t voice it.
“They’ll have cleaned up,” I assured him. “There won’t be anything left to see. I promise.”
He nodded, and I squeezed his hand before leaving him to change.
I was ready to go by the time he emerged from his room. He stepped into his boots, let me swing his cloak around his shoulders, and even suffered through me pulling the hood up to keep his ears warm.
I lingered there with my fingers curled around the edges of his cloak and studied his face.
His eyes were bright, though there were deep shadows beneath them still even after a full day’s rest. The color was back in his cheeks, the growing blush there making his freckles look even darker, and a scruffy bit of peach fuzz lined the edges of his jaw.
I’d always thought him pretty, and he was even more so now, safely on the other side of the third Oath.
Alive. Recovering. I wanted nothing more than to tuck my hands into his hood and wind them in his hair, to pull him in for the kinds of kisses that made both our knees weak.
To remind myself that he was okay. To tell him that I loved him.
…I loved him.
How long had I loved him? I’d asked Penny the same thing when he said as much to me: when it started, when what I really wanted to know was why. But I knew why I loved Penny, even if I couldn’t point to the moment when things had changed for me.
He trusted me more than I trusted myself, willing to walk into damnation by my side fully believing I would lead him safely out the other end.
Welcomed me into his family like I had always been there.
Took care of me, even when I was too stubborn and proud to accept the help.
He loved me when I felt unlovable, and showed me that I was capable of it in return.
And somehow, despite knowing where I came from, he believed I was a good man.
I was almost starting to believe it, myself.
I didn’t realize how long I’d stood staring until Penny’s brow crinkled in concern.
“Kit?”
I wanted to tell him. I wanted to tell everyone, but the moment wasn’t right. Not yet.
I gave his hood one last tug and smiled. “I’m glad you’re all right.”
We stepped out into the icy morning, and I missed the excuse we’d had the day before to have Penny tucked under my arm. But we kept close, our shoulders nearly touching, as we headed for the town square.
We didn’t make it halfway down the lane before Levitt appeared around the corner further on, heading our way. He waved and picked up his pace to meet us in the middle.
“Morning, Levitt,” I said. “I was just on my way to see you.”
As he looked us both over, his worried expression eased into a smile. “I got concerned when you didn’t stop by yesterday. Is everything all right?”
“Fine, just tired. Didn’t expect to sleep so long, but we needed it.” I gestured at the road to the square. “I was going to walk Penny to the market on my way to the Ossuary, if you don’t mind.”
Levitt glanced between us, and then back at the house. “I thought maybe we could speak here. It’s a bit more private.”
“I can walk myself,” Penny offered. “I’ll make breakfast when I get back.”
I tucked my hands behind my back to keep myself from reaching for him, even just for a parting touch.
“Thanks, Pen. Don’t be long?”
I could practically see the urge to lean in and kiss me cross Penny’s mind when his eyes flicked to Levitt, but he stepped away instead. “I won’t be.”
Back at the house, I left Levitt in the entryway while I got a fire started in the hearth. Once it was built up enough to chase away the chill in the air, I settled on the couch and motioned for him to sit.
He tugged off his cloak and produced a slim, brown paper wrapped package from under his arm. “This came in the morning of the third Oath.” He held it out to me. “I’m sorry I didn’t have time to bring it by then.”
I took it from him almost reverently, testing its heft in my hands. “It’s heavier than I thought it would be.”
“Artisan quality from Stagcross, as you requested.”
He sank onto the cushion beside me, and I felt his eyes on me as I ran pinched fingers along the edges of the book hidden inside.
When I looked up, he was watching me with a gentle smile.
“Thank you,” I told him. “I couldn’t have managed this without your help.”
Ashpoint didn’t have access to much in the way of novelty.
The goods available for sale in the market were widely utilitarian, more about function than form, and often leaned heavily toward rustic.
So, when I’d gone on the hunt for something a bit more discerning and had lamented my poor luck at finding anything suitable, Levitt suggested I look outside of our isolated community.