The Alpha King's Human Mate novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: The Gloves

"Grey gloves," Osmond said, when I told him in the cell corridor. "Half the women in the valley own grey gloves."

"Half the women in the valley didn't hand me a poisoned thermos."

"True."

"Where does a valley buy kid gloves?"

He thought about it, and then he grinned.

"The glove-maker on the market lane. She has been cutting leather for the Long Hall for fifty years."

The glove-maker's shop smelled of oil and hot wax, and the woman behind the counter had needle calluses on every finger.

She took one look at Osmond's face and put her order book on the counter without being asked.

"Lady Sunniva?" she said. "Every month, same as her mother before her."

She ran a finger down the page.

"Three pairs, pale grey, kid, unlined. Delivered on the first of the month."

I read the column of dates.

It went back two years, three pairs at a time, and never once a repair.

"Does she send them back to be mended?"

"Never. She wants new."

"Do the old ones come back at all?"

"She burns them." The glove-maker shrugged. "Rich girls."

Osmond and I looked at each other.

"I worked a ranch at nineteen," I said, outside, in the cold lane.

"Hands that work with monkshood go numb to the wrist."

"The leaf chews through cloth, too."

"So she changes her gloves because the gloves are eaten."

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