Chapter 90: The Bracelet Came With a Warning

Dove read the note twice, then looked at the young man waiting beyond her counter. He said he was one of Saffra’s followers, not a mate. He wanted paid work and a room where somebody wasn’t deciding whether he had smiled at the wrong woman.

"Then ask the keeper for those things," she said. "You don’t need to swap one woman for another before you can leave. I’m not collecting people who owe me."

He looked relieved and embarrassed at once. Edrik walked him as far as the office, where the keeper accepted his request for work. The man went toward the loading crew afterward, carrying his own bag rather than anyone else’s gifts. Dove had answered a question, not acquired another admirer or another mouth to feed.

Day Thirty-Eight began with her pool wash behind the bedroom curtain. Thorne stood at the basin brushing his teeth when she came out, and forgot what he was doing long enough for toothpaste to slip onto his chin.

"Very handsome. Slightly rabid," she told him, handing over the cloth. He rinsed before catching her for a kiss, and she allowed it until he tried another. "Breakfast first. Your wife has needs, and currently they’re mostly food."

Sprout delivered nine boxes, each holding six large barbecue buns filled with shredded meat. Selling six boxes paid sixteen normal coins. Six fresh Favor unlocked a thirty-coin insulated serving chest. She needed one new stored trade, plus the daily exercise. Her husband’s amused affection helped finish the Favor target, and the mate extra took her to eight hundred thirty-seven.

She kept three boxes for twelve Favor, leaving eight hundred twenty-five. Each man got a full box, while she ate from hers slowly and added fruit to their breakfast. Nobody had to pretend one lonely bun would feed a polar bear through training and a watch shift.

Edrik had set her chair where the counter blocked the wind. When she told him he could sit, he pulled his chair close enough for their knees to touch. Thorne took her other side, stealing a bite only after she held it up for him.

"I have six of these," she told her husband. "You could ask instead of looking abandoned."

"You keep feeding him when he does that," Edrik said. Dove handed the bear a cloth and told him to clean the sauce from his own mouth before he started taking notes. His smile made it clear he already had.

Before Dove finished opening the shutters, a familiar workman was already holding out a bag of coffee. "For you," he said, ignoring the food. Thorne’s low growl carried under the counter. Dove pointed at the buns. "For those, and we have a deal. For my attention, you’re going to be disappointed." Men followed the warm smell, then lingered over the sweeter scent clinging to Dove’s skin. She directed them toward the meal boxes whenever their eyes wandered too long, while Thorne kept the doorway clear.

Six boxes traded for coffee, canned tomatoes, wrapping cloth, and kitchen tools. The sixteen-coin reward raised her normal purse to eighty-seven. She stored the cloth, settled the stock count, and refused an order for tomorrow’s buns because she couldn’t guarantee tomorrow’s delivery.

"You can ask what I have when you get here," she told the disappointed buyer. "I’m not taking your coffee and hoping the universe develops good manners overnight."

Sprout offered other options in her paid Personal Shop. Sealed condoms cost twelve Favor a pack, whiskey forty a bottle, cards eight a deck, and sweet-and-salty snack boxes ten. They were personal purchases she could use or trade, separate from the fixed daily batch and its fees.

"A whole shelf of things people might actually want," she told it. "Do that more often and talk about my love life less." She bought the cards for eight Favor, leaving eight hundred seventeen, and kept the other goods on the screen. The nine-hundred-coin training manual remained out of reach.

After lunch, Edrik cleared the working space for their second lesson while Thorne watched customers. He asked Dove to step out of a slow reach without leaning backward. She argued once, got caught immediately, and accused him of enjoying that far too much.

"I like you alive," he said, letting her reset. "You can be angry with me while you practice. Move your foot first."

She did. On the next attempt, she cleared his hand without grabbing his shirt, and her grin arrived before she could hide it. He looked down at her as though she had done something much harder than take one decent step.

Fifteen minutes completed the exercise task, bringing her normal coins to ninety. Sprout privately recorded session two. Edrik knew only that she wanted another lesson tomorrow, which he promised without asking why she had glanced past his shoulder at something he couldn’t see.

A man arrived near closing with a silver bracelet and an offer to show her his private room. She declined both. He kept talking until she interrupted, telling him that saying the same thing louder would not make it a better offer.

Thorne stepped beside her, and the visitor finally backed away. Edrik watched him disappear around the shed, then looked at the scarf she had left near his cot. He lifted it, breathed in once, and asked Thorne to watch the counter while he cooled down.

Dove found him outside several minutes later, coming from the narrow space behind the guest rooms. The bracelet hung from his clean fingers, but something dark marked its clasp. Beyond him, the visitor crouched against the wall with his face swollen and one hand shaking over his mouth.

"Good trade," Edrik said, offering her the bracelet. Thorne raised an eyebrow from the doorway. The bear looked calmer than he had before his walk, which explained absolutely nothing reassuring.

"Sure," Dove said. "Why is there blood on it?"

"He thought your answer was an invitation to try again after dark. I disagreed. He’ll live." Edrik’s gaze stayed steady when she asked how close that had been. "I stopped before he stopped breathing."

Dove looked at the clasp, then back at him. She felt no urge to apologize to a man who had been planning another attempt. "Thank you. Wash it first, and don’t drip on my counter." Edrik’s pleased reaction earned six Favor, bringing her to eight hundred twenty-three, while Sprout sounded far too delighted by how easily she had accepted the gift.