Part 4 (2/2)
”I'm not a witch, you ignorant sc.u.m! Healing is an art and a respected profession, but I shouldn't expect you to have the intelligence to understand that.” Shea-Ann raised the wooden spoon she was using to stir the dinner cooking on the pot over the fire. Just before she flung it at Lock, Sparrow grasped her wrist.
”Do you realize you both fight constantly?”
”Not my fault,” Shea-Ann and Lock said in unison.
”Looks like you're strong enough to start pulling your weight around here.” Sparrow approached Lock, standing just shy of his reach.
He raised the chain in front of his face, his pale eyes staring at the links. ”Good. Anything is better than being locked up in here.”
”What do you think we should do with him?” Sparrow stood with Shea-Ann by the fire. She took a spoonful of the stew and swallowed.
”He's your property.”
”I'm sure I can think of something for him to do.”
”Hey! You can talk to me,” Lock snapped.
Shea-Ann continued speaking of the pirate as if he wasn't in the room. ”We can't let him out of this house, you know that. As soon as we try to unchain him, he'll be off.”
”Even if you gave him a sleeping potion, he's rather heavy to move,” Sparrow reflected. ”Not that I couldn't do it.”
”Either of you two b.i.t.c.hes tries to give me another sleeping potion and you'll regret it!”
”Such a strong man,” Shea-Ann said. ”Pity we can't use him for the farm work.”
”No, that's impossible. Too risky.”
”And he's not healed enough for it now,” Shea-Ann added. ”I know! He can do the was.h.i.+ng up.”
Lock stood, nearly yanking his chain from the wall. ”Not on your lives! I'm not doing the was.h.i.+ng up.”
”Oh,” Sparrow raised an eyebrow, ”not man enough for it?”
”Come over here, girl, and I'll show you what a man is.”
Sparrow swallowed and glanced back into the stew pot. His offer was almost too tempting. She said, ”It's settled then. From now on you'll do the dishes and the wash.”
”Nothing's settled!”
”You haven't got much of a choice, boy.” Shea-Ann looked down her nose at Lock.
”I'm n.o.body's boy!” he snarled, the mere annoyance in his eyes turning to pure rage.
”I was alive before you were a happy whistle on your father's lips!”
”Shea-Ann, that's enough,” Sparrow said softly. ”He's doing the was.h.i.+ng up and there's no more need to discuss it.”
”Over my dead body!”
Shea-Ann turned her spoon on Lock again. ”It would have been had it not been for My Lady!”
”Your lady? Your lady? I forget I'm in the presence of a princess.” Lock extended a long arm as far as his chains would allow. ”Come, Princess, and let me kiss the hem of your trousers.”
”You love to be hateful, don't you?” Sparrow shook her head at him. ”Why? Life is such a short gift, I can't imagine wasting so much time being miserable.”
”Life is the underside of a slimy rock, and we're the slugs who suck upon it.”
”Marvelous conversation for before dinner,” Shea-Ann said. ”Just get used to your place. I do the cooking and bring in what goods I can from healing, Sparrow does the wood cutting and farm work, and you do the was.h.i.+ng up.”
”If she does all that, she doesn't need a male slave.” Lock jerked his head in Sparrow's direction. ”And I can see why she's got no husband. She's got all the femininity of a he-goat.”
Sparrow's eyes hazed red with fury. She clenched her fists and stomped toward Lock. ”I have news for you, I had my share of proposals when my family was in power! I was engaged to a prince!”
”And where is he now that you're common?”
”I might be a commoner, but I'm not nearly as common as you!”
”Can't argue with that.” He s.n.a.t.c.hed her wrist before she realized what was happening. She tried pulling away, but he held her fast and placed a kiss on the back of her hand. ”I wonder, Princess, did you give him an early taste of the royal wedding night?”
”Let go of me!” She tugged harder.
Shea-Ann whacked him over the head with the s.h.a.ggy end of a broom. ”Unhand her, you murdering sc.u.m!”
Lock released her, smiling wickedly, his gaze still fixed on Sparrow's. ”No, Princess, I don't believe he did. I'm truly honored. I've never met an actual virgin before.”
”That's it! No supper for you!” Shea-Ann raised the broom again, but this time Lock caught it before it landed and jerked it from the older woman's hands as she shouted, ”Didn't your mother ever teach you any manners?”
Lock chuckled. He leaned back against the wall, a smile still lingering on his lips.
”And whether you eat or not, you're still doing the was.h.i.+ng up.” The healer shrugged.
Lock reverted to his own language as he flung a few choice words in Shea-Ann's direction.
”What did he say?” Shea-Ann glanced at Sparrow.
”You don't want to know.” Sparrow curled her lip, not having heard such language since the time she and her younger sister had run off to the docks on the outskirts of the royal city. ”Trust me.”
Chapter Six.
”This is absolutely disgusting!” Shea-Ann muttered, staring at the mound of filthy dishes and smelly laundry piled around Lock's corner of the room.
”I don't know how he can stand it.” Sparrow wrinkled her nose, glancing at the pirate who slept soundly, wrapped in a blanket on the floor amidst pots full of stagnant water, plates encrusted with meat sc.r.a.ps, Shea-Ann's b.l.o.o.d.y ap.r.o.ns from her rounds, and Sparrow's filthy woolen socks she used when chopping wood.
<script>