The Bristling Wood - Katharine Kerr [136]
Three days’ ride brought him to Gaddmyr, a large, prosperous town behind a double ring of stone walls. Although he would have preferred to avoid the town entirely, he was too low on provisions. Normally he hated being in towns, packed in with a lot of smelly, sweaty people, bound up in their petty human concerns like pigs in a sty, but that night he found it a certain comfort to sit in the tavern room of a shabby inn with human beings around him to distract him from his constant, aching longing for Jill. Out in the forest, he would have missed her constantly; there, he could drink down strong ale and try to forget her. When the tavernman came by to ask him if he’d be spending the night, on impulse he said that he would.
“But, er, ah, I don’t truly want to share a chamber with someone. Could I, oh, ah, sleep out in the hayloft?”
“No reason why not. Plenty of room out there.”
Perryn got himself another tankard of ale and found a seat in an out-of-the-way corner. Although he was planning on simply drinking himself so blind that he’d be unable to think, the tavern lass changed his mind. She was a round-faced little thing, with dark hair and knowing dark eyes, and a smile that promised a few interesting hours if not much more. Perryn decided that she was a much better way to distract himself from thoughts of Jill than a hangover would be. He chatted with her for a few minutes, asked her name, which was Alaidda, and found, as he’d expected, that she was utterly cold to him. When she turned to go, he gave her one of his smiles. Although he’d never understood what he was doing the smile worked as it always did. Alaidda stared at him, her lips half parted, her eyes stunned as she lingered beside him. When he smiled again, she cast a nervous glance at the tavernman, then came much closer.
“And is the innkeep going to mind if you talk a bit with a customer?”
“Oh, he won’t, as long as it’s just talk.”
“What are you, then? His daughter?”
“Hah! Far from it.”
“Indeed?” Perryn paused for another longing smile. “So—part of your hire is keeping his bed warm.”
Alaidda blushed, but she moved closer still, until her full breasts were brushing his arm. He smiled yet again and was rewarded by seeing her eyes go all dreamy as she smiled in return. When Perryn saw that the tavernman was engrossed in conversation with a pair of merchants, he risked laying his hand on her cheek.
“He doesn’t look like much of a man to me. A lass like you could use a little better company of a night. I’m sleeping out in the hayloft, you see. Out of … er, well … out of the way. I could go out there right now.”
“I could follow in a bit, but I can’t stay long.” She giggled in an oddly drunken way. “But then, it won’t take long.”
With another giggle, Alaidda hurried away to the kitchen. Perryn lingered long enough to finish his ale and allay the tavernman’s suspicions, then slipped out to the hayloft. Since the lass had something to hide, he didn’t take a candle lantern. He found his gear in his horse’s stall, hauled it up the ladder, and stumbled around in the dark until he got the blankets laid out and his boots off. As he sat waiting in the mounded hay, he began to wonder why he was even bothering with this seduction. No woman would ever match his Jill. The thought of her brought him close to tears, but in a few minutes he was distracted by the sound of Alaidda climbing the ladder. He went to meet her and kissed her before she got any thoughts of changing her mind.
“Oh ye gods!” She sounded honestly troubled. “I hardly know what’s wrong with me, running after you like this.”
“Naught’s wrong. Come lie down with me, and I’ll show you why you did.”
Meekly she let him take her to his blankets. At first she was shy in his arms, but with every kiss he gave her, he could feel not only a growing sexual tension, but a power, a strange dark feeling that rose from deep within and flooded him until it was almost more demanding than the sexual force. As the power grew, she responded to