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The rest of the evening was spent in cheerful conversation with Emma, who had been born and raised in Barnstaple, and had lots to say about everything.It was with reluctance that Jed finally left the warmth and cheer of the Boar to walk back to his lodging house alone, through cold and lonely streets.He comforted himself with the thought that, soon, he would be able to write a letter to Carrie, and that would be the first step on the road back to his old life.

Chapter Twelve

“Here’s your sixpence back,” the lodging-house landlady said, handing Jed the coin that he’d paid in advance for the rest of the week.

Jed accepted it silently and put it in his pocket.Over his shoulder, he carried his haversack with his spare shirt and stockings done up in a bundle.

The landlady had taken him aside as soon as he came downstairs that morning.“I’m afraid I’ll have to ask you to leave,” she’d said.“The other lodgers have been complaining about you talking in your sleep.Shouting and sobbing and suchlike.”

It was the truth, and there was no use denying it.Jed left the house with his head held high, ignoring the gazes of the other men, variously curious, sympathetic and judgemental.They didn’t matter.Indeed, they seemed very far away.A sort of exhausted numbness had settled over him.

At Drake’s yard, Solomon was loading crates onto a cart.He saw Jed and came to join him, eying the haversack slung over Jed’s shoulder.“What happened?”

“I’ve been thrown out of my lodgings.”

“Ah.”Solomon’s lip twisted in sympathy.“Well, you should come to the Boar.There’s a bed or two free.I’ll speak to Mrs Steele about it, if you like.”There was something warm like hope in his eyes, and it was the first thing that had made Jed feel alive all morning.It was tempting to agree immediately, but he forced himself to be honest.

“I should tell you that the landlady threw me out acause I…” He didn’t want to say he was still having the same nightmares that had plagued him when they were first travelling together.“…talk in my sleep.”

Solomon’s expression softened.No doubt he had guessed the truth.But he only said, “I wouldn’t worry about that.If you turn out to be a bother, there’s even a little room up in the attic that Mrs Steele might give you to yourself.”

Jed hesitated.He didn’t want to reflect badly on Solomon by being a troublesome lodger.But he was so tired, and the thought of being closer to Solomon was so tempting.“All right,” he said.“Thank ‘ee.”

That evening, Solomon led him through the alley behind the Boar and up the back stairs.The inn’s upper floors were a maze of narrow, low-ceilinged corridors and odd corners.

“Mrs Steele has put you in here,” Solomon said, showing him to a room with two beds up under the eaves.“There are two wainwrights in the other bed.They’re only in town for a few days, I think.”

One of the beds had a shirt draped over the cast iron frame.Jed put his haversack down on the other.

“Me and Wallace are directly below you,” Solomon added.“We, ah, thought it better not to draw attention to ourselves by having you take Wallace’s place, and him to go elsewhere.”

Indeed, that was probably wisest.Jed couldn’t complain.Even just to be here was already wonderful: this small, quiet room, a world away from the crowded lodging house with its long line of beds.And Solomon close by, day and night—Solomon, who had done this thing for him, and was now looking at Jed with hope in his eyes that it would be of help to him.Something warm uncurled inside Jed’s chest.

He couldn’t kiss Solomon, not here with the door to the corridor open, but he laid a hand on his arm and leaned closer to murmur in his ear.“Wallace en’t in your room all the time, I take it?”

Their eyes met, and Solomon’s lip curved in a slow smile.“He en’t there just now, as it happens.”

There were decided advantages to being at the Boar, Jed decided some time later, with warm skin under his fingers, and Solomon’s prick heavy in his mouth.

He loved this.Loved knowing what Solomon liked, what made him gasp and moan, pliant and eager under Jed’s hands.Before this, he’d not often bedded the same man more than once, and this growing familiarity with Solomon’s body was a heady pleasure.

Afterwards, they lay curled together in the sheets.Jed basked in a feeling of loose-limbed, comfortable satisfaction.They’d put a chair under the door handle, and the only person who might come knocking was Wallace, who, it seemed, knew everything already.

He didn’t want to spoil the mood by thinking about why he left his lodgings, or Carrie, or the letter he planned to send her.Instead, he said, “Your friend Wallace seems to have settled into town all right.”

“Yes, and glad I am to see it.He had a miserable time of it in London, these last few months.”

Jed turned over to face Solomon.“You’re a good friend to him.Always thinking of him.”

Something tightened in Solomon’s face.“I en’t always been a good friend to him in the past, but I mean to do right by him now.”

“You don’t give yourself enough credit, I’m sure.If he were here to be asked, I’ve no doubt he’d tell me a different story.”

“Maybe.”

Jed lifted a hand to tangle it in Solomon’s hair.He tugged gently.“Come here, you,” he said, and the kiss they came together for was long and achingly fond.

The following morning, Mrs Drake’s clerk, Toby, intercepted Jed as soon as he and Solomon entered the yard.