They Gave the Doomed Duke the Wrong Bride novel · Chapter 22 of 32
Chapter 22: Salt
I didn't stop walking.
Everard's hand brushed mine once. He'd seen it too.
The captain was a fat man in a sheepskin who met us at the door of his hut with his eyes on the ale.
"Who sent you?"
"Nobody sends me," I said. "I go where men are bored and thirsty. Your gate guard says you pay in salt."
"I pay in what I like."
"Then I'll sell what I like." I patted the barrel. "Two silver for the ale. One for the oil."
"That's robbery."
"It's a long way from anywhere," I said. "So's your next barrel."
He laughed, and we haggled, and I let him win on the oil so he'd feel clever.
All the while I took inventory.
The guardhouse by the gate, with a rack of crossbows I could see through the open door.
The gatehouse, with the great bar and the winch that lifted it.
The captain's hut behind us, with a ring of keys on a nail inside the door.
The iron grate in the ground. The ladder below it.
"Done," the captain said, and spat in his palm. "Unload by the kitchen."
I spat in mine and shook.
Behind him, the guard in Penhallow blue was walking across the yard toward us.
He was walking fast.
"Captain," he said. "That's the Count's girl. The bastard. I'd know her anywhere."
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–16 of They Gave the Doomed Duke the Wrong Bride are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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