“I would like you and Brona to spend this summer with my cousin in Belfalas,” Paega announced.
Hild looked over at him, seated the other side of the fire from herself, part in shadow, part illuminated by the flames and the candle close by. She laughed.
“Good joke!”
“No, Hildy, I am serious.”
Hild almost spluttered her mouthful of Bancross Bold across the room. “Serious? I will tell you what is serious. Running the Dragon for the folk here, and providing them with decent food and drink, and giving them a place to relax and laugh away their hardships. I don’t even like your stuffy cousin!”
She put her tankard on the floor with quite a thump.
Paega shuffled forward on his chair, to be a bit closer to his wife. She shuffled a bit further away. He had been drinking ‘Wind in the Willows.’
“I am just trying to think of you, my dear. Always working, always putting yourself last. A season at the coast, with another seeing to your needs will do you the world of good.” the man tried to explain.
Hild was having none of it. “Come on then. Tell me the real reason before I get angry.”
With a deep sigh, Paega lowered his shoulders and slumped back into his chair. It was late. He had left speaking to his wife until evening because he hoped she would just listen, and sleep on the matter. But then again, when had she ever done that?
“It is the real reason, my dear. That, and I think it would do Brona good to get to see something other than Bancross. And then both of you will return in the early autumn refreshed.”
“And?” Hild’s expression was beginning to darken. Her lips were pursed into a thin line. “Maybe something about the club perhaps?” she hissed.
Getting to his feet, Paega crossed the room, Had he forgotten how stubborn she was? He took up his plate, lying on the large table they had earlier eaten their evening meal at, and speared another two slices of roasted moose meat with his knife.
“Alright. I would likely have more club meetings. The men are restless. There is something in the air, we all know that.”
Hild held her breath, and pushed her chair back even further.
“I would stick to your new rules, I give you my word on that. Drinking water, and the salves and bandages Yllfa made up. If anyone is badly injured then I stop the fight. My dear, you could do with a rest, and we could do with a little more coin in our coffer before next winter.”
“You would treble the entry fee. “
“Possibly. We cannot run a business as a charity. But I would do all I could to keep your good name unsullied.”
Not quite able to believe what she was hearing from the mouth of her recently returned husband, Hild also rose to her feet, and began clearing away the remains of her meal. “I don’t like the idea, one bit. This is where I belong. But I will think about it.”
And Paega made a silent cheer in his thoughts. Just maybe Hild would do as he wanted this time.
Hild’s thoughts were that he was still hiding something, and until she knew what, there was no chance at all of her leaving the Roaring Dragon. In fact even if she knew, the chances of her leaving were immensely slim.
