Chapter 36
A Hard Homecoming
T am leapt out of the hired hackney in front of Lord Guk’s home.
As with most houses and estates in Junya, Lord Guk’s home was directly off the street, its front steps leading to the doors of the outer wall of the estate where just beyond were the courtyard and gardens. Lord Guk’s home in particular had exceptionally large wooden doors at the entrance to the gardens and courtyard, and red pillars decorated with leaflike green designs outlined in glimmering gold paint stood on either side.
Music and chatter wafted over the white plaster wall to Tam as he approached two guards holding spears who stood in front of the doors.
The guards crossed their spears instantly, blocking his entrance.
“Hi there! My name is Mr. Joe Voll, I-I was invited to this event? My wife and her cousins are already inside.” Tam feigned a look of nervousness.
It was never a good idea to show your true self to anyone, no matter their station, when entering into a dangerous situation with a fake identity.
The guards glanced at each other, then back at Tam, not saying a word.
Their lack of verbal reaction reminded the future duke a little of the recordkeeper named Dongu he had had to deal with. The door behind the guards opened, and an older, hunched-over man dressed in an emerald-green coat with a black sash stepped out, clutching a board with parchment pinned on it. He must have heard Tam speaking from just inside the doors.
“Good evening, sir. Please repeat your name for me?” the servant asked in a high-pitched, creaking voice.
“Mr. Voll. Joe Voll. My wife Ellie is already here.”
At the mention of Eli’s alias, the man perked up. “Why, yes! She is an exquisite woman! She has been the talk of the party all night!”
Tam barely resisted a wince.
Eli must be having a Gods-awful time…
Thankfully, the servant saw no reason to bar Tam from entering the party, particularly when he was allegedly married to the star of the evening, and so the guards permitted him to proceed inside.
The night’s festivities were already well under way, so even though Tam should’ve stood out due to his height and pale skin, he was able to go unnoticed as he got his bearings and slipped to the side wall to study the surroundings.
Overall, everyone attending the party seemed… drunk.
Damn. If Eli and the others are still here, it means they weren’t able to drug Lord Guk while everyone was of sound mind… Then again, it could make it seem more of a natural descent into madness.
Tam sighed, nearly triggering a yawn.
While he hadn’t seemed to need sleep or food in the void for the three days he had been gone, he now felt like he’d been awake without food or water for at least half a day.
Tam refocused his attention on locating the host of such a debauched party, and found him talking to a woman in a stunning dress, even though it wasn’t quite the style that most Zinferan women wore. It combined Troivackian and Zinferan features with its dark brassy shimmer in a velour material that would help stave off any chill in the night air. It was a long plain sheath that rose to a halter at the back, exposing the woman’s shoulders and back.
Tam startled when he noticed the short hair of the wearer. Was that Eli?
His heart lurched almost painfully into his throat. He was glad no one was around to see his reaction; it gave him time to come back to his senses.
Which was good because he then noticed the way a young man wearing a bright-red coat was loitering just behind her, and the older man he had already identified as Lord Guk wearing lime green, stood in front of her.
Even though Tam had never met Lord Guk, the way he commanded the room left little room for mistaken identity.
However, the way Eli looked, pinned in between the two men, troubled Tam. He could tell by the tension in her spine that she was uncomfortable, and the unease on Jeong’s face told him that his friend wasn’t sure how best to get them out of the situation.
Then Lord Guk waved to someone Tam could see from his vantage point, a man talking with Bong, and he saw Eli take a step back.
Something was very, very wrong.
Tam moved.
He had to get Eli out of there.
As he passed by more and more of the guests, he could feel eyes and whispers following him as closely as his own shadow, but he didn’t care. He normally would’ve wanted to hide, but now knowing that such a sentiment would send him back to the void, he avoided the thought like a mouse avoided a hungry cat and made Eli his sole focus.
Tam moved quietly past the young man in the red coat, who jolted in surprise when he looked over at Tam and saw the sharp warning glare he was giving.
Then, in an act Tam knew was sparked by a possessive and protective urge, he reached up and gently grasped Eli’s arms.
Lord Guk’s eyes drifted upward in shock at the size of Tam, who for once wasn’t hunching his shoulders to make himself smaller in a crowd, but rather stared down the host.
“Sorry I’m late—Lord Guk? My name is Mr. Joe Voll. I’m this beautiful woman’s husband.”
Tam didn’t look down to see what kind of expression Eli was making, but he could see Jeong beaming while closing his eyes and letting out a blissful sigh of relief.
“Ah! Right! Of course! I was just now saying how odd it was that she should be left unattended at such an event.” Lord Guk took a few moments to recover, but he eventually reclaimed his charming smile. “I’ve been telling Mrs. Voll that you should speak with Lord Yangban over there—he lives in the capital and is very interested in anything related to dragons, what with the rumors flying all over the place. Pun unintended.”
Tam smiled, though there wasn’t any warmth in the expression. “I would greatly appreciate the opportunity to speak with Lord Yangban in the very near future. I’m sorry to say, however, that part of the reason I was late to the event tonight was that when I went home to change, I learned that our son is feeling unwell. You know how Luca is.” Tam said the last part while looking down at Eli, his eyes gentling the instant they locked with hers. “He won’t stop asking for you when he gets like that.”
Eli wasn’t able to speak as she stared up at her employer, and fresh pink warmed her cheeks.
“I’ll see you back at the house?” Tam looked at Jeong, who was now openly crying.
Jeong nodded, and when Lord Guk raised an eyebrow at his peculiar emotional display, he said, “I’m just so… distressed to hear about their son’s illness. I’m also a bit gassy. It’s the clams.”
Tam gingerly patted Jeong’s shoulder while subtly turning Eli away from Lord Guk and shielding her from both Lord Yangban, who was starting to turn in their direction, and the young man in red.
As they headed toward the entrance, he ushered her off the gravel path where they’d been standing and around a golden statue of a swan to avoid another group of party guests.
“We haven’t been able to cause a scene.” Eli’s voice cracked as she whispered to Tam.
“Are you alright?” he returned softly, ignoring her lament.
Once they passed a large three-tier burbling fountain and were completely alone, Eli pushed his arm off her shoulders and rounded on him, her eyes fixed on his face.
“No! We have a job to do! This is your plan, and we need to see it through!” The ferocity in her voice made Tam hesitate.
He had a hunch she was angry about more than just their plans for Lord Guk going awry, and so he folded his hands in front of himself and waited, all the while both marveling at how beautiful she was, but also how horribly exhausted she looked.
Guilt sank its relentless jaws into his gut.
“Since you’re here now,” she spat, “why don’t you go handle this with Bong and Jeong?”
Tam tilted his head and said nothing. But he also didn’t move an inch.
“What?”
Tam’s voice was low and even. “I’m sorry for worrying you, Eli.”
While he had apologized countless times before to his assistant, this time…?
This time tears sprang to her eyes despite the look of anger she shot him.
She gave a breathy laugh.
“I wasn’t worried about you!” she declared, though her words were coated with a rasp.
“I know you weren’t worried about me. You were worried about your job and how your well-being would be affected. As your employer, it was my shortcoming that led you to have such anxiety. When we return, I want you to take three days off. You’ll rest in our room, and you aren’t going to do any work. Understood?”
Tam watched as she opened and closed her mouth, three tears falling in quick succession.
“My lord, with all due respect, fuck you.”
The words hurt. A lot. But Tam knew he deserved them.
He’d put Eli through hell so far, and she’d only been under his employ for two months.
“Fair enough. If you’d like to return home without me, I will arrange your passage to Daxaria. I do have another way we can be successful this evening, but I think you have more than earned a night off, and I understand you don’t want to run into Lord Yangban, so—”
“You understand Godsdamn nothing ! Stop assuming you know me! You don’t know me! Stop apologizing and stop just guessing what I mean or want!”
Tam recoiled slightly, but he carefully avoided the thought of wanting the ground to swallow him up whole, even though it made a knot tighten in his chest.
“Then please tell me what you want. Whatever it is, you’ll get it.”
“Because you want to bed me?” Eli bit out viciously.
Horror filled Tam, and he didn’t hide it in his face for an instant. “No. Because it is the least I can do after everything you’ve had to put up with. I’d apologize again, but you’re a little terrifying right now.”
Eli’s nose began to run as she continued to fight against the tears that kept falling, reddening her eyes in the process. “Ha! That’s ridiculous! What could I do to you ?”
“Everything.”
The weight of Tam’s response turned her into living stone, but Tam didn’t shy away from the truth of it.
Nor did he elaborate.
He knew some of her unleashed anger must’ve come from her confusion, and another large amount from her bone-dead exhaustion, but in a way it was better she was letting it out.
She had a tendency to hold on to her anger.
“I want you to carry out your new plan, and then I want you to return to the house,” Eli ordered once she had regained a measure of composure.
Tam nodded, then turned and strode off toward a covered walkway of the house that lay in the shadows, as the nearest corner would most likely lead to the servants’ quarters.
Eli followed him after a moment’s hesitation, matching his quiet footfalls.
They reached the next corner of the house, the one that marked the largest part of the courtyard where everyone was mingling.
Tam stopped and reached down into his boot to procure…
A slingshot.
“Wh—”
Eli didn’t finish the words as Tam slipped a small, sharp pellet into the pad of the slingshot, lifted it, drew back the pad all the way to his ear, aimed… and released.
Tam watched as his target, Lord Guk, seized the back of his neck in confusion just as he was starting to say something to Lord Yangban. At first the Zinferan nobleman looked around himself curiously; then he pulled his fingers away and studied them. Noticing faint drops of blood, Lord Guk looked around the courtyard again as Tam flattened himself against the wall and waited.
Then after a count of ten breaths, he retreated.
“We should leave now.”
“But—”
“I dosed the missile. It would’ve just felt like a mosquito bite. He’s going to start acting quite unlike himself very soon.”
“How did you—”
“I had several backup plans for tonight. The slingshot was my last resort, as I knew even if I got searched, I could just say it was Luca’s.” Tam continued toward the doors without looking to his side, where Eli was struggling to keep up with him due to his longer legs. “I didn’t know if I’d have many vantage points to hide with this method, which is why we were going to rely on dosing his cup. This was much easier, though.”
“Easier for you, maybe. I can’t believe you used a slingshot … a child’s toy, no less. Not even a real one.” Eli laughed weakly in disbelief.
Tam shrugged as they freed themselves from the darkened walkway and crossed the gardens to the front door. “My nephews showed me long ago how effective they are.”
He stopped before the doors and bowed to Eli while gesturing her through.
She faltered at the move, but upon noticing the guards and servants hovering a little way down the path, she swallowed and exited the premises without commenting on his behavior.
As the couple descended the front steps, Tam waved to one of the hackneys that sat outside the house waiting expectantly for wealthy, inebriated guests to require their services. He didn’t look at Eli, until in grumbling tones she said, “At least this time you didn’t have to get set on fire to leave early.”
Caught by surprise, Tam burst out laughing.
Even if he knew there were far more horrible conversations and situations he was going to have to suffer through in the near future, in that moment, he was sincerely relieved to be back in the world where his assistant could knock him senseless just with a look, and her grumbling quips could make him laugh more easily than the most talented of jesters.
She may have been mad at him, but it was hard to feel down when she made him so happy.