Iiro led us through camp. Even at the late hour, the people wandered over to greet him and to question him on why he called the Summit.
His responses were a variation of the same thing, a return of their greetings and a promise that they would find out when everyone else did. He was more congenial than I had ever seen him, but Theo’s body was taut with tension.
They kept me in the center of our small group, where it was easy for me to go unnoticed surrounded by their much larger guards, which was just as well. I wasn’t ready to face anyone else yet.
All I wanted was a warm bed, or some approximation of that.
My knees weakened when I caught sight of a large navy flag with embroidered elk antlers in the middle. An enormous tent, easily big enough for ten people, stretched out before us.
Inside, there were three sections cordoned off by extra fabric to create rooms just behind the main open space. I peeked through to find what looked like a makeshift privy in one of the side rooms. The other two held bedrolls, a double in one and two singles in the other.
I sighed, mentally preparing myself to ask Theo to help me with my dress where others could hear us, which was the only thing worse than having to ask him at all, when Inessa surprised me by approaching.
“I could help, if you would like.” She had spoken so little in front of me, I was surprised to hear that her voice was light and chiming, like a bell, with the same melodic accent that the woman at the Viper estate had.
Her delicate features were softer when she didn’t look angry or offended, and her large blue eyes were unsure.
“Thank you.” I nodded.
She led us into the room with two bedrolls and gestured for me to turn around, then set to efficiently unlacing my corset.
“When you showed up,” she said abruptly from her place at my back, “I didn’t trust you. Your presence. Your motives. You were disrespectful and improper.” She made a noise in the back of her throat, something between a scoff and a laugh. “You still are, for that matter. But today, that impropriety saved my life. I won’t forget that. Neither will Iiro.”
I was too stunned by her words to respond, but she wasn’t finished. She continued speaking as her fingers went to the pins in my hair, gently removing them one by one. “I know my husband seems brusque, but he will fight for you against the other clans. Neither of us wants another war with Lochlann.”
Grief seeped through her tone. I wondered if she had lost someone personally to that war, or perhaps the famine since, or both.
She walked away before I could respond, leaving me with the weight of everything our people had done to each other.
By the time Theo came in, I had taken advantage of the bowl of soapy water to clean up and shimmied into my bedroll before he could see me in only my shift. In spite of my crushing exhaustion, restlessness had my feet twitching and my body shifting irritably.
All I wanted was to reach out to Theo, to bury myself in his arms and let him chase away every thought from my head with his lips against mine. But he had stressed how important it was to keep our distance, so I did.
Theo climbed into his pallet, and we laid there for a few minutes, saying nothing, just listening to the faraway voices of the clansmen still catching up or telling stories.
Then there was a whisper of skin against fabric, and his hand nudged at the side of my covers, a silent question. Slowly I edged my hand out, placing it in his much larger, warmer one.
We still didn’t speak. The only movement was his thumb running up and down my hand in a soothing pattern, until I finally drifted off to a fitful sleep.
