“May I see what you’re working with?” the man asked, holding out his hands to me.

My face flushed and I felt jittery, I didn’t think he was meaning what my brain was dead set on telling me what he meant. Surely men in the big city weren’t quite so forward.

“Your fiddle,” he clarified with a knowing smirk.

“Oh… ah…” I said with a long, awkward laugh.

Of course it hadn’t been what I thought and I blushed all over again since it had been the very first thing my mind gravitated to. I handed over the fiddle from under my arm while my face burned. He took the fiddle and then went back to staring at me, a knowing look on his face. I was being really obvious that I was flustered and he was eating it up like it was helping with his burning hangover. The pain was still present in his striking eyes, but he was certainly enjoying himself.

“May I ask your name?”

“Rose,” I answered, proud of myself for not stuttering through it.

“Rose,” he murmured, like saying it pleased him. “My name is Garret, it’s a true pleasure to meet you.”

“Um, uh, pleasure to meet you too.”

So much for not stuttering over my words.

His smile widened and he gave me a whisper of wink before turning his gaze down to my fiddle, running his hands over the instrument. Flipping it over, he gave it an appraising look, rubbing his thumb over a small ding that had been in the varnish since I had owned it. I knew it had to be someone’s old hand-me-down from long ago and probably wasn’t a very well made fiddle, but it had sounded decent and had been a cheap enough price to feel too guilty when it was bought for me. The kind woman who had taken me in with her family as one of her own children had pressed me to accept it as a gift with the idea that I would learn and play for her eldest daughter’s wedding, then take it and make a living. It had all panned out in the end and I had practiced hard to sound decent for the wedding. I was pretty successful and technically I had paid off my debt, but still looking at it gave me a pang of guilt from time to time. She should have spent the money on a professional who she knew she would get a good performance out of, not taking a chance on a naive girl who only theoretically would have been ready in time. The fact that it had worked out decently did not make me feel much better. I was very glad that it had not been ruined in the rain, it would have sent a spike through my heart to have to replace it, and not just from the sticker shock. Even if it wasn’t anything too fancy, it was sentimental and I had good memories associated with it after so long.

“Not a bad piece of craftsmanship,” Garret said with a nod, “could use a bit of cleaning up and a revarnish, maybe a bit of work to make the sound better. Whomever made it knew what they were doing.”

“Oh, I don’t think I can afford that right now,” I said quietly. I hated admitting to someone I was attracted to that I had to pinch every coin to make it stretch.

“I didn’t say I’d take payment for it,” he replied with glittering eyes. “I said earlier that fiddles are a personal favorite of mine. I don’t see them much in these lands and I miss hearing them at every party and working on them.”

“I don’t want you to just do things for me for free.” Why was I arguing against something that would probably mean my tips would be better and therefore life would be better? “I should pay you something, I wouldn’t feel right taking up your time you could be using for paying customers.”

“Mm well I think we might be able to work something out then, if you’re willing to do a bit of a barter.”

“A barter? I don’t really have much with me at all, I was here to play for the wedding. I assumed I would end up wandering back to where I normally live or somewhere else nearby. I pretty much just brought my fiddle and clothing.”

He let out a deep chuckle that raised goosebumps up my spine. It was a deep, rolling sound that cut straight through my senses. I wondered if he had this kind of effect on all women or if he was laying it on thick for me. Either way, I wasn’t sure I cared as long as he was still paying attention to me.

“More of a non-traditional barter then. If you would play for me I would figure we would be about half way to even,” he suggested.

“Play for you? Like for a party?” I asked.

“Nothing so fancy, just play for me here in the shop. I miss the sound and it is few and far between when I meet anyone anymore who is good at it. I am mediocre and it is just not the same to play versus sitting back and enjoying someone else. You will need to try it out for sound quality once I am done anyway.”

“I guess I could do that, but I don’t know if I am all that good…” I said with a soft laugh, my mind going back to the fact that I had a lesser seal on my contract than Mable. “I make a living, but I don’t think I’d ever become famous.”

Garret pushed the fiddle aside carefully and placed his hands on the counter in front of fim, palms up. “Give me your hands.”

“What?”

“Give me your hands,” he repeated. “I can tell those who will make good musicians who will not by their hands.”

It felt awkward, but I kind of felt inclined to do whatever he wanted. It was really nice to see that he wasn’t constantly looking over my shoulder to catch a glimpse of Mable behind me. I hadn’t felt like I had been seen since I had started traveling with her. Don’t get me wrong, I liked having a traveling partner and I really liked Mable, she was a good person, but she stole the show everywhere she went even when she tried her best not to. I was a bit in awe that he was so focused on me, it felt really special and made my heart pitter patter in my chest.

“You can trust me,” he encouraged with another sly wink.

I placed my hands in his and he gave them a gentle squeeze, his hands strong, yet surprisingly soft for a tradesman who needed to use them every day. A fresh flush rose up my body making my cheeks burn hotly. I was glad he had moved his attention from my face to my hands so he wouldn’t see the effect his touch was having on me. I briefly wondered if I might have the courage to make a move on him even though just the idea of doing so made me feel weak in the knees from nerves. Sure, I had seduced men before, but usually it was just a surface crush and usually only when I didn’t feel like being lonely for the evening, but this was a level of attraction that almost scared me to feel. It was a terrifying feeling to know that someone had this kind of pull over me, especially since we had just met.

“Hmm, I see…” he whispered as he gently flipped my hands over to look at my palms.

A shiver ran from my hands up to my neck as his thumbs lightly grazed over the skin of my palms. It felt more like a caress than it did a part of the investigation.

“You definitely have the hands of a great musician. They are strong, but soft and supple,” he explained, still caressing my hand with his thumbs. “You have calluses in the correct places, but they are still flexible. I think, just from your hands alone, you are way undervaluing your potential. If I had to guess, you also undersell yourself and miss out on opportunities because of it.”

“What do you mean by I undersell myself?” It was hard to focus and get the words out when my hands were still being held in his.

“You do not pursue higher quality performances out of the incorrect assumption you’re not good enough and you pass up opportunities even when they’re thrust in front of you out of maybe nerves or a low opinion of yourself.”

“You can tell all that from just my hands?”

“I can tell that last part from the fact you keep glancing over your shoulder at your friend like you expect me to suddenly put all my focus on her,” he answered with a soft half-smile. “Do not sell yourself short Rose, you are a diamond, you just haven’t accepted that yet.”

My mouth went dry and the flutter in my chest got more erratic. Couple his words with his deep guttural accent and I was a giggly mess in my head. I felt like I wanted to argue and be stubborn about how I was just some average musician and average woman overall, but I was too flustered to get the words in the right order for them to exit my mouth.

“Now, are you going to let me do some minor repairs on your fiddle?” he asked, withdrawing his hands from mine.

“I suppose,”I answered once I had pulled myself together enough to form a complete sentence, “though you did say it would only be half the cost.”

I pulled my hands back to me and held them together in front of me like I could hold in the feeling of his skin on mine. I hated that his hands were now gone from mine, it left me feeling empty and wanting.

“You’ve already agreed, so you’re stuck with whatever I say the other half is now,” he said with a mischievous grin. “I want to take you to dinner sometime, tonight would be preferable.”

He definitely was coming on to me. The idea of that made my head swim and I was sure there was a stupid, goofy grin on my face even though I was trying my hardest to seem relatively unaffected. I was about to eagerly agree, but the feeling that maybe he was just offering this to be nice so I didn’t have to pay needled at me. Did I look poor? Probably to him, especially in this part of town where nobles and merchants shopped. My outfit was just a blouse and trousers, not good for much more than travel, maybe he was just being extra nice and flirty to make me feel better about him giving me a hand out. The idea seemed likely enough to make my heart fall and I let out a long sigh.

“Don’t you dare,” Mable said from across the shop. “I know what you’re about to do and I won’t let you. Get out of your own head.”

I turned my head to argue with her, but her face was hard and stern.

“Nope, don’t argue,” she said as she tersely shook her head.

Sheepishly I turned back to Garret who was nodding along to Mable’s scolding. “I told you I could tell you undervalue yourself at every turn. Whatever you’re thinking, I am very much trying to take advantage of the situation here, the situation being I have a lovely young lady in front of me who just walked into my shop. I would love to ask you out without anything in return, but this just makes it more of a win-win situation for us both.”

“Wouldn’t you rather go out with-”

“Oh my gods,” Mable groaned from behind me.

I couldn’t believe myself that I was trying to talk myself out of this dream situation for some reason. I truly was my own worst enemy.

“No, I want to go out with you,” he confirmed. “I would like it very much if you would stop trying to talk your way out of it. That is unless you are not interested in going out with me and you just don’t know how to turn me down.”

“It’s not that, I want to go out with you,” I sighed.

I wanted to explain my whole deal with not wanting help from people, but it felt like too much personal information to spill to someone I literally just met. If this did go anywhere we could cross that bridge later.

“Then accept my barter, I promise to make sure you have a good time,” he pressed. “Your friend can even join us if it would make you feel more comfortable.”

“I already have a date, actually,” Mable chimed in, “this is perfect.”

“No Mable, can’t we combine dates? I thought you didn’t want to be left alone with Bleu.”

Garret’s face darkened and he leaned forward with a hard expression. “Someone is bothering you?”

“Not in that way,” Mable said with a light laugh, “he just is head over heels while I am just looking for a good time while I’m in town. I just don’t want him proposing to me less than twenty four hours from us meeting.”

His face lightened and the glitter returned to his eyes. “Immature, I think every young man goes through that stage, stumbling over their feet whenever a pretty girl passes in front of them. Have no worries for this evening, I will make sure he will stay in check.”

A stab of jealousy pierced my stomach the moment he implied that she was pretty. I know he wasn’t outright trying to flatter her in front of me and at any other point in time I would be the first person to point out she was gorgeous, but I wanted all his attention on me. I had it really, really bad.

“We’ll need to go back then and tell Bleu not to find someone else to bring,” I said with more of a sour note to my voice than I intended. “Sorry, frog in my throat,” I lied, probably badly.

“We’ll figure it out at the time, I really don’t want to go back and give him the idea that I’m dying to see him already.”

“Ah you already had a date Rose,” he said, sounding just a touch disappointed.

“Not really, Mable just didn’t want me to feel like a third wheel I think.” If he was going to back out now because I opened my big mouth I was going to be furious with myself for weeks. “I don’t even know who it would be, I don’t know anyone here yet, it was just a blind date thing.”

“I see, well you don’t have a blind date anymore, just a normal one,” he said with relief in his voice. “When were you planning on going out?”

“We didn’t set a time, but we agreed upon dinner, so sometime around then. We’re staying at the Ancient Cellars Inn.”

“I will be there with your brand new fiddle, case, and bow,” he said with a warm smile. “Take whatever reed you need as well for now, I have too much work to do than to worry about figuring out finances right now, we can discuss later.”

“Thanks…”

For once I didn’t want to argue with him about me feeling like I was taking advantage of anything. I was just too stunned to argue and too delighted to do anything but want to giggle like a little girl with her first crush.

“Thanks for everything!” Mable chirped. “We’ll see you tonight.”

She grabbed onto my arm and guided me towards the door, as I was seeming to have a hard time moving and not just staring at him with starry eyes and waving to him like it was the only thing I knew how to do. Once we were out the door and she had pulled me out of view of the shop window the spell was broken and my mouth dropped open in shock.

“Oh don’t look like that, you can’t be that surprised,” she laughed.

“I am,” I stammered, “he’s so… wonderful and he wants to take me out on a date. Like a date, date, not just buy me enough pints to loosen me up.”

“You are something else, Rose,” she laughed and continued to tug me down the street. “Let’s go check in at the castle and see if we can secure work really quick, we need to figure out a nice outfit for you for tonight.”

The castle, right. I had all but forgotten all of our problems while I was staring dreamily at the shopkeeper. Suddenly though, the idea of being out of a job for a bit didn’t scare me quite so much. Sure, I did need the money, but if this went anywhere he did already own a shop… no, no, that was not the right way to think. I felt a bit miffed at myself for bringing the idea that maybe I would just lean into the relationship if things got bad, that was a whole new level of using people that I just couldn’t stomach. If I did end up marrying someone with money, I wanted the marriage to still be for love and have the wealth as a perk. I didn’t think I could bring myself to be okay with waking up next to someone everyday knowing that I was only with them because of the comfortable life, no matter how much I joked about it.

It was late enough for people to start mulling around for the day, though instead of going around with their normal chores, there were lots of groups of people clumped up and gossiping about the big news of the king’s death. They all looked to be absorbed with the fact that the bride to be had been the killer, the idea of which seemed shocking. Why would you go to the trouble of going through with the relationship and being secured a spot as the wife of a monarch only to throw it away at the last moment? At least I assumed she had thrown it away, though by the way everyone seemed unconcerned with the fact the king had died still threw me for a loop. From what I knew of how the world should work I assumed that a noose or ax were not too far ahead in her future.

The castle was abuzz with guards standing around looking bored, many of them had even unstrapped their swords from their hips and were sitting in the grass, talking and laughing. It seemed unprofessional for what they should be doing, but then again who was going to be mad at them now? I assumed their captain was probably busy elsewhere and there wasn’t a king to throw them in a dungeon at the moment. Maybe it was the first bit of free time they had felt in a while. I wouldn’t fault them for it, it seemed like their individual presence didn’t even matter given the amount of them present, it looked like they were ready to fend off an invading army marching to the castle gates.

“Hello!” Mable said cheerily as we were waved over by a man set up at the entrance to the gate. He looked both harried and bored at the same time.

“Name and reason?” he said in a monotone voice.

“Mable Tarson and Rose Vinewood,” Malbe said, pointing to each of us in turn. “We were going to be musicians for the wedding, but since that might not happen now we were wondering if you might need music for the funeral.”

He raised his eyebrow and looked through the parchments in front of him. We might have been the very first people to ask about funeral music from the look of confusion on his face about what to tell us.

“We can wait if you need to send for someone,” I offered.

“I might need to,” he said with a nod and motioned to a guard standing at attention nearby. “Gilbert, go find the head maid, I think she’s the one trying to organize everything right now since the prince is indisposed and no one else has any clue what’s going on.”

“The prince is ill?” Mable asked. “I had not heard this yet.”

“I shouldn’t have said that,” the guard said with a deep sigh, “please don’t spread that around.”

“Oh mum’s the word on that one,” Mable promised, “but is he okay?”

“For now, the court wizard is personally attending him to reverse the effects of the poison.” The guard’s eyes went wide and he shook his head while slowly leaning forward and pressing his forehead to the table. “It has been too long of an evening,” he muttered against the wooden surface. “I’m going to end up in the stocks or the dungeon at this rate.”

“By who?” I asked.

He leaned back up and cocked his head to the side. “Good point. Well he is okay and will be well soon enough and I will say no more on the matter. By tomorrow morning, at the latest, details on the funeral arrangements and an official statement will be released as to the cause behind the death of the king.”

Arriving on time to prevent him from spilling more information he shouldn’t, the guard sent to fetch the head maid returned with a frumpy, middle aged woman with long, frazzled gray hair and dark, heavy bags under her eyes marching behind him. She looked displeased to have to be making the trek to the gates.

“Why are you pulling me away from my work?” she asked grumpily. “You’re very lucky I was popping my head out for a very much needed breath of fresh air or I would have told you where to shove those swords. I’m old and tired, I don’t need to be treking all the way out here when you lot are supposed to be the ones dealing with any and all inquiries. I’m busy enough holding down the fort even though this whole affair is way, way above my normal duties.”

“I’m sorry ma’am,” the guard at the table said, standing to offer his chair, “it’s just young these women have a question I have no idea how to answer. It’s not in my notes.”

The woman gratefully plopped into the chair and fanned herself with her hand like the walk from wherever she had been taking her break to the gate had been a great ask of her. She looked between the both of us and raised an aged eyebrow and motioned with her free hand to hurry up and spit out what we were there for.

“So sorry to disturb you.” I felt starting with an apology was the way to go to soothe her festing annoyance. “We were just wondering if we might offer our services as musicians for the funeral, we didn’t know if there had been any official decision on how that was going to be approached so we came to check.”

“Right, music,” she muttered, “I suppose that will be necessary. I don’t know yet, I’m not sure if I’m dealing with this whole thing or not or if the decisions I make now will just be made again by someone else later. I would hate to do all this work for nothing. This is nothing like when Queen Maria died.”

“We can always leave our names and where we’re staying and you can send word for us if you need us,” Mable suggested.

“Right, sure, and you couldn’t have figured that out yourself?” she asked the guardsman and stood up from the chair with a groan. “Do what part of your job you know how to do and get their info and don’t bother me anymore. What are all of you doing out here anyway? I don’t think I’ve seen so many of you in one place before, do you think we’re going to be invaded?” The look she gave the man spoke volumes about how idiotic she thought everyone around her was being.

“This is just what the captain of the guard said is standard procedure for the death of a monarch,” he answered with a shrug, “trust me, none of us want to be here.”

“Well that makes two of us,” she said before stomping off back towards the castle.

“Sorry about that,” the guard said, collapsing tiredly into his chair again, “we are all exhausted and were ready for bed hours ago. Here, write down your names and where you’re staying and I’ll be sure you’re at the top of the list for whatever is decided.”

Mable recorded us both on his parchment and we turned to leave, but the sound of one of the nearby guards cleared his throat as if to get our attention.

“Pardon me…”

I knew exactly where this was going and I rolled my eyes at the expectation before the words had even fully left the guard’s mouth. We turned and a young guard was staring straight at Mable, looking very nervous.

“I wondered if you might be opposed to me taking you out sometime… you know, show you the city or something.”

Mable considered his offer for a long moment, then smiled brightly. “Sure! In fact why don’t you come by the inn I just wrote down around dinner time, bring a friend if you want as well!”

I didn’t know what she had planned, but I was starting to think her bed back at the inn might not end up being big enough for her after all.