As I weave through the crowded streets with Hector, my heart soars with joy. He defended me just like he did before. Everything in me wants to slide a little closer to him, to feel him against me, to stare up at him and see adoration in his eyes.
But that’s just a dream. Not my reality. At least, not anymore. Even if I were in the present day and not stuck in the past, Hector wouldn’t adore me. He would hate me for what I have done.
No, he does hate me for what I have done. There’s no way he doesn’t.
Iwould hate me.
When we stop outside a boarding house, Hector turns to me. “We can talk in here.”
I follow him inside. A few patrons sit at tables in the common room. As I walk further into the boarding house, the thin, rickety boards groan beneath my feet. A dusty fireplace, with barely any embers left, occupies the far wall. From the main room, a narrow hall leads to a stairway at the back of the building.
Hector guides me upstairs, then opens a door to a tiny room with a bed, table, and washing stand.
“Sit,” he says, gesturing to the bed.
Nerves coil and tighten inside me as I do as he requests.
He stands in front of me with his arms crossed, his eyes stern, his shoulders stiff, yet I still think he looks handsome.
“Why are you really here?” he asks after a while. “Is it coin you’re after?”
I raise a hand to my flushed cheeks and scrub them, as if the gesture can erase everything that has happened the last few weeks. Following Everly through the portal. Living this desperate, lonely existence. Confronting Hector while disguised as an old woman.
“I told you already. I need people to help me look for Everly, and I need provisions for traveling.”
Hector frowns. “To where?”
“To a pool deep in Kyanite land.”
“I see.”
“Will you help me?” Desperation lingers from my words. Surely, he hears it, sees it. After all, only a desperate woman would approach a stranger in this manner.
Sadly, he doesn’t hear or see anything as he moves to the door and pulls it open. The moment he closes it behind him, the sound of a lock clicking rings through my ears.
Frustration assaults me as I race to the door and, even though I know it will not open for me, I yank on the handle several times anyway. I pound on the wood. Maybe someone will hear and let me out.
“They know me here, Kyanite,” Hector’s deep voice carries through the barrier between us. “No one will open this door for you except me.”
Has he always been this arrogant?
Yes, yes he has.
“You promised me food and a bath, Bloodstone!” I scream at him, hoping he heard me.
I was looking forward to a delicious, hot meal to fill my empty belly and an even hotter tub.
Disappointed, I say to the closed door. “Typical man. Gets a woman all worked up with the promise of something good…and hot…and filling. And then he doesn’t deliver.”
Hector’s laughter echoes to where I stand with my forehead pressed against that damn door. Then, his footsteps trail away, leaving me, abandoning me.
I back away and sink to the lumpy mattress, my hope deflated.
Approaching Hector for help wasn’t the right move.
Why didn’t I remember how cold and indifferent he was when I first met him?
Dimwitted?
