“Oh dear,” the female cried. “Are you both all right?”
I glared into her smug little eyes and shoved at Armand.
Whatever she saw in my face sent her scurrying off without her basket or her fruit.
He ignored her and leaned into me. “I’m feeling better all the time.”
“You can move.” I pushed his chest again. “We’re in no danger of falling now.”
His eyes were locked on my mouth. “Speak for yourself.”
I tensed when his head lowered. “This isn’t happening.”
He nuzzled my cheek. “I assure you it is.”
Breathless, I gasped when his teeth slid over my jaw. He was too close, his touch too familiar.
I had to break his spell. I blinked dazedly up at him.
Drawing back, he cupped my face in his hands. “Did you hit your head when we fell?”
I touched the side of my head. “Yes?”
“Gods damn it all. We lost our physician several months ago. My brother Henri is seeing to the needs of the nest in the meantime. If you’re willing to be seen by a herbologist, I can take you to—”
“That’s all right,” I was quick to assure him. “I brought white willow bark tea I can brew.”
I kept a full store of herbs for all occasions. A female traveling alone couldn’t afford not to.
“Here, hold still.” He wrapped his arm around my waist. “Let me help you to your room.”
“If it’s all the same to you,” I said, leaning into him, “I’d rather get something to eat.”
He traced the waist of my skirt. “Are you asking me to dine with you?”
“I’m saying half my headache is hunger.” I popped his hand. “Sweet rolls only last for so long.”
“Careful there.” He caught my elbow and tucked me against his side. “I’ll play nice, I swear.”
I gasped at the strength of his hold. “No offense, but something tells me you’re a liar.”
“None taken.” He grinned. “Something tells me you might be right.”
While Armand shepherded me, I marveled that he remained so unchanged. His devious sense of humor was intact, and his sensuality still made females swoon. Leaving Erania had carved my life into an unrecognizable shape. Yet the passage of time had only honed those most attractive traits in him, though he wasted them on me.
He led me to a cushioned seating area in the nest’s heart. “Can I trust you to wait for me?”
I weighed how close I had come to letting him kiss me against how much I needed information.
The cost of one might be too steep for the other.
“I’ll be here.” I sank onto the bench and settled in to wait.
He hesitated, clearly undecided whether he could believe me. Trust issues, we had them.
“Go on.” I shooed him. “Keep me waiting much longer and I might decide that a nap trumps food.”
Seeming to decide I was serious about staying put, he headed off to secure us a hot meal.
While I was waiting, turning questions over in my mind, I loosed a silken thread from my fingertip. I had lost Tiah’s tether in the snow on our way here. It would take no time for me to weave a new one, and the repetition calmed me.
Once I had made a few strands the same length, I began to braid them together. After I had three such strands, I braided those again until I had a thin tether that was intricate in design and functional. Though my father had been Araneidae, I took after my Salticidae mother. If I had been able to produce the Araneidae’s unbreakable silk, my life could have been a fairy tale. Though I would never know, the brittle image lingered. What if I had wed Armand and raised Maisy with every advantage?
I wouldn’t be here now with a little glass vial stuffed down my shirt. That much was certain.
But my silk was as common as my origins. I could never perform the tasks required of the heir’s wife. The Araneidae were renowned artisans who loved inventing new uses for their remarkable silk, but their wealth came not from baubles but from their ability to weave their unbreakable silk into impenetrable armor. In turn, that armor was sold to mercenary clans at prices that boggled my mind.
In hindsight, I understood that if Lourdes had been poisoned alongside her parents, Armand and his wife would have had to shoulder the responsibility of maintaining the spinners, something only a female could do. Without Armand wed to an Araneidae female, one receptive to the hormone that he secreted, one that she could then apply to the spinnerets of the spinners, their production would have dropped perilously low. Orders would have backlogged until their pristine reputation grew tarnished.
“How do you feel about lepus?”
Armand’s voice startled me. I said the first thing that came to mind. “They’re very soft.”
“They’re also delicious.” He offered me a paper cone. “Go on. Try it.”
I picked at the fried dough cushioning the lepus. “Since when are flatbreads served in Erania?”
“Since Lourdes’s marriage, our ties to the Salticidae clan are stronger than ever. We’ve acquired a new clan member by marriage. A cousin of mine married a girl from Beltania just three weeks ago. She grew bored quickly, so Henri gave her a garden plot inside his laboratory and Jérôme bought her a stall to sell her Salticidae delicacies.” He dropped to the bench. “I don’t think you ever said last night. Have you been to Erania before?”
I choked on my wrap. “Why do you ask?”
He patted my back. “You asked since when have we had flatbread here, not how long has it been here.” When the worst of my coughing fit subsided, he admitted, “I forgot our drinks. I worried—”
I laughed, or tried to. “That I would be gone when you arrived?”
He shrugged. “Can you honestly say the thought of slipping away didn’t cross your mind?”
“Honestly, the answer isn’t polite. I would rather plea relationship rule number one: tell no lies.”
His lips twitched. “So you admit it?”
I found myself smiling back at him. “What?”
“We’re in a relationship.”
“No.” I started coughing again. “That isn’t what I meant at all.”
Pushing to his feet, he pointed at me. “Don’t move. I’ll pick up our tea and be right back.”
I kept my head down, prolonging the fit. I waved him on and gave him a two-minute head start. By the time I glanced up, he was gone. Having lost my appetite, I covered the wrap and stuffed it in my bag in case I was hungry later. I had done as promised. If Lourdes asked, I could say with a clear conscience that I had seen Armand. Extracting information from him wasn’t working as well as I had hoped. It was too difficult forming cohesive thought around him. Perhaps I ought to begin with an obvious target, one more familiar with the nest’s underbelly.
Servants might not be privy to council meetings, but in my experience they kept their fingers on the nest’s pulse. If there was juicy gossip to be had, then they would know the tenderest bits of it.
Hurrying to my room, I hoped I hadn’t been gone so long I missed my prime opportunity.
A guilty twinge made me regret leaving Armand without as much as a wave goodbye.
More than anything, that flash of longing to stay with him told me vanishing was the right decision.
I had a job to do. When it was done, Armand would hate me.
Pity since we were getting along so well.
Chapter Three
Lost in thought, I bumped into someone at the start of the hallway leading to my room. I reached out to steady her, noted her simple but immaculate gold livery and thanked the gods for providence.
This girl might be just the font of information I was looking for, if I could coax her into sharing her observations with me.
I kept my hand on her shoulder and cast her a dazzling smile. “You wouldn’t think this far belowground I could have my head stuck in the clouds.” I moved to block her exit. “I couldn’t help but notice your colors. Were you coming from my room by any c
hance?”
“If you’re Lady Nicolette, and I don’t see who else you could be, then yes.” Her face got redder. “I meant to say, yes, miss.” Any darker and her face would be purple. “It’s just— You’re so— And I—”
“What’s your name?”
Her gaze darted past me, down the hall. “H-Holly,” she stammered.
“How long have you worn Araneidae colors, Holly?”
“Three weeks,” she said miserably. “My father is one of the Mimetidae guards. There’s only me and him. He didn’t want to leave me in Cathis all alone, so he saved up the coin to have me sent for. He said it wasn’t right for a girl my age to be on her own. Fifteen is plenty old enough if you ask me.”
I held my tongue. In six years Maisy would be her age. I was saving my argument for then.
“I picked up a bite to eat while I was at the market. Would you mind keeping me company? My sister usually takes her meals with me, but she’s out, and there’s plenty to share if you enjoy lepus.” Three weeks wasn’t long, but I needed information and she seemed eager for a sympathetic ear. “It would mean a great deal to me if you stayed.”
“Might as well.” She sighed. “Told Da this wouldn’t last long, it’s too bloody complicated.”
While I led her into my room, I patted her arm. “I understand, believe me.”
I guided her to a chair and poured us each a drink before sitting and halving the wrap with her.
“People here are so nice, at least to your face.” She took a bite. “I don’t like it. It’s strange.”
“Are thing so different in Cathis?” I was genuinely curious. I had never worked up the nerve to go.
“The Araneidae are soft.” She snorted. “They wouldn’t last five minutes where I come from.”
I agreed with her there. “What brought your father here?”
Her eyes darted toward the door. Leaning forward, she whispered, “The old maven and paladin, they died sudden-like. Next thing we know Maven Isolde, our old maven, was gathering all the best guards for a special detail. Da was chosen, of course, and he wrote to me once he was stationed here and realized he wasn’t returning to Cathis any time soon, if ever. See, one of Isolde’s sons, Rhys, he married Maven Lourdes, though I guess she wasn’t the maven then. Her clan was too weak to protect itself, so she asked us for help.” Her shoulders went back. “All the guards in Erania are Mimetidae.”
“Huh.” I sounded thoughtful. “Did they ever discover what killed the maven and paladin?”
“Poison,” she said with a sneer. “It’s the coward’s way.”
I didn’t contradict her. She was too young to know sometimes it was the only way.
She talked around a bite of food. “Them Theridiidae bastards did it. Always thought they were better than us, working up here for the Araneidae, and what did they go and do? Broke their oaths. They sacked the city—” she pointed up, “—the one up there, killed tons of people before my kin arrived to stop them. Now here we are.”
After assuring her I shared her admiration for Mimetidae prowess, I clicked my tongue. “It’s a pity they never found the poisoner.” I added, “With the riots, it could have been anyone.”
Throwing back her drink, my guest swallowed the last of her wrap and began eyeing mine.
I offered it to her, waiting until she got the first mouthful down before clearing my throat.
“Oh, they found them. It was Maven Lourdes’s sister and a Theridiidae guard she was fu—” Her cheeks glowed. “I mean to say they were in a relationship, a secret one. I guess he thought by killing the old maven, his girl would become the new one. Or maybe he was after Lourdes for himself.” She shrugged. “Don’t know, and I guess it doesn’t matter. He’s dead and Pascale’s, well, no one knows.”
I laced my voice with a dollop of curiosity, careful to arrange my features just so. It wouldn’t do to seem too curious about Pascale. “If she helped kill her parents, wouldn’t she have been punished?”
Gods knew she would be once I found her.
“Araneidae are soft,” she said again, slowly, as if I hadn’t understood her the first time. “I never saw her. She was gone before I got here. All I know is what I’ve heard, and that’s the weirdest part. I heard they locked her in her room, like the spoiled brat she must have been. One day there’s an order not to enter the west end under any circumstances. Guards were posted there and everything. A week later, there’s an order for the west end to be tidied.” She dusted her hands. “No guards, no Pascale.”
I stood to pace, biting my thumbnail. “She can’t have vanished.”
She went to her feet. “I’ll tell you what I think.”
I waited.
“I think they killed her.” She straightened her clothes. “There’s plenty who have heard the weird noises down in the west end. I think it’s her spirit and that she’s haunting this bloody nest for revenge.”
Suppressing the urge to laugh, I covered my smile with a hand. “That would be terrible.”
“Nah.” Her shoulders slumped when she glanced at the door. “Losing my job, that’s terrible.”
“You haven’t lost it yet. I won’t say anything about what we talked about today, I swear it.”
“I appreciate it, I do.” She sighed. “If not you today, then it will be someone else tomorrow.”
I circled around to get between her and the door. “Can I ask one more question before you go?”
Another careless roll of her shoulders. “Don’t see why not.”
“How did you earn money in Cathis?”
“I raised fowl.” She grinned. “Harvested the eggs and sold them. That was my favorite part.”
“Why didn’t you bring them with you?” I leaned against the door. “Surely there’s room here.”
“The plague killed the lot of them.” Her smile slipped. “If I had stayed…”
She would have died too. There was no cure for the yellow death, at least not as far as I knew.
“I’ve kept you long enough.” I showed her into the hall. “Thank you for keeping me company.”
“It was nice having someone to talk to.” She gestured around. “Someone who isn’t part of all this.”
I leaned against the doorframe, watching her go.
“So you aren’t adverse to company after all.” Armand stepped from the shadows. “Just mine.”
“You followed me.” I don’t know why I was surprised.
“You weren’t feeling well.” He came closer. “Then you vanished. Call me concerned.”
“You could have your pick of females.” They were putty in his very capable hands. “Why me?”
“If I knew that,” he said, “I wouldn’t be humiliating myself chasing after you to get the answer.”
“Humility has to be a new sensation for someone with so many admirers.”
He cocked his head. “Jealous?”
I scoffed. “Those females line up and pay for the privilege of speaking to you.”
“No.” His voice lowered by degrees. “They pay gold for the right to gawk at me.”
I pushed from the frame. “Doesn’t that bother you?”
“What if it does? What can I do about it?” He spread his hands. “Marriage or priesthood. Those are my options, because as long as I’m single, that same line will form every evening. Are you as willing to slide on my gold band as they are? Because I’m no saint.”
I retreated behind the safety of my threshold. “You’re being dramatic.”
“Dramatic is one female tripping another because I dared speak to her in particular.”
“Ah.” I touched the sore spot on my skull. “So you did notice.”
“I did.” He frowned while I rubbed the tender area. “But at the time her interference suited me.”
I laughed at him and folded my arms over my chest. “You are too used to getting what you want.”
“Perhaps I am.” His lips curved. “Yet the one thing I want now doesn’t want to be gotten.”
&
nbsp; “Is that it?” I genuinely wondered if I had figured out this new Armand. “I told you no when we met and your pride can’t handle it. Will you hound me until I surrender?”
He came one step nearer. “You were right to tell me no, you were right to shut your door in my face this morning and you would be well within your rights to slam it in my face now.”
“But?”
“I don’t think you will.” He braced his palm to one side of my door. “Whatever this is, I think you feel it too.”
I gestured between us. “This is nothing.”
He took my hand. “This is everything.”
I yanked it back. “Sex is not everything.”
“True,” he agreed, “but it’s not nothing either.”
“Are you listening to what you’re saying?” I tapped the side of his head. “Do you hear yourself?”
His cocky grin stretched his cheeks. “I like the sound of my voice if that’s what you’re asking.”
He kept closing the distance, heading toward my room as if invited.
I put my hand on his chest. “I’m not in the habit of inviting strange males into my bedroom.”
“I distinctly remember introducing myself.” He bent down to me. “That means it’s safe to invite me in.”
Tempting. Gods, his offer was tempting. To have him just once more, to see how my memory of him compared. What would be the harm? My leads on Pascale were exhausted. The only person who I wielded any influence over stood in the hall facing me, wanting me, and he held all of the answers.
I kept him still. “Why did you make me that necklace?”
He shrugged. “You inspired me.”
I rolled my eyes. “Just how often are you inspired?”
“I could hardly be an artist if I lacked vision.” He cupped my cheek. “But you are the first female who has tempted my muse.”
I wet my lips. “My sister…”
“Lourdes has plans for her tonight. She won’t return until after dark.” His mouth brushed mine. “We have hours. Spend them with me. Let me discover what it is about you that drives me mad.”
He made it sound so simple. Perhaps it was. I couldn’t have Armand, but Nicolette could. She could sample the pleasures of a handsome male’s attention as I had never allowed her to.
A Kiss of Venom (An Araneae Nation Novella) Page 4