Harem System novel · Chapter 16 of 24
Chapter 16: The Step
Veyra sat on the Ward's front step at midnight with her back against the door.
It was the same position Nils had held outside her room for ninety nights.
She had not planned it that way.
She had only wanted to be between the street and the man asleep on the back cot.
Through the shutter slit she could see him, flat on his back, one arm flung over his eyes.
Liriel had ordered his two hours, and he was taking them, finally.
Her hands closed on the step's edge.
She noticed the ache in them.
She noticed also that she was thinking about the weight of his hand in hers in the supply closet, and the way it had not pulled away.
It was a warm hand, calloused across the palm.
She had held it for the length of a few breaths, and she could still feel it.
The hunger came up under her ribs, hard and sudden.
She breathed it down, as she had breathed it down for ninety nights.
Boots sounded at the end of the street.
Veyra did not turn her head.
"You have always sat very well," Ardith said. "Even as a girl."
She stopped at the bottom of the steps.
She wore the gold-trimmed coat and carried a covered basket, and she looked at Veyra with the soft concern of someone's favorite aunt.
"I brought you fruit."
"Take it away."
"You haven't eaten since last night. Liriel told my women so herself."
"I can't eat it, Ardith. You know what I'm hungry for."
"I do." Ardith set the basket on the step. "And I know there's a man in that building who could end it in a night."
Veyra said nothing.
"I have been very patient with you, my dear," Ardith said gently. "I let you refuse him for three months. I thought you would come to your senses, and you came to a sickbed."
"You gave me his file."
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