There wasn’t much salt, so I left that be, grabbing the clay container of sugar and a tin of flour. Oh! Lard.Brilliant.
Aveen offered to help, but I assured her there was no need.
I set all three on the butcherblock table and told her to give me her hand. Once again, she did so without so much as a word. Part of me felt bad for breaking her trust like this, but it wasn’t a large enough part to convince me to stop. Blind trust could very well be her downfall.
A cloud of white dust lifted when I thrust her hand into the flour. “Know what this is?” I asked in Eava’s weathered voice.
“Flour?”
“Very good.” I moved her hand to the next container. “And this?”
“Sugar.”
My smile grew. “And this one?”
Her fingers sank into the lard, and the twisted look on her face nearly made me lose my composure. “That feels disgusting.”
“But what is it?”
“Rían Joseph O’Cleriegh!” Eava shouted from the doorway, her face flushed and black eyes narrowed on me. “What’d I tell ye about messin’ in my feckin’ kitchens?”
Aveen dragged at her blindfold until it fell around her neck. The way her beautiful eyes bulged and mouth dropped open would be worth the dessert Eava would undoubtedly deny me tonight. I laughed so hard, I nearly evanesced straight into Oscar.
He gave me a doe-eyed look I’d never seen directed at me before. “Mornin’. Yer lookin’ well today,” he said, his cheeks turning as red as his hair.
What the hell was he on about? It wasn’t until my hand brushed my skirts that I remembered I looked like Eava. Good heavens. The gardener had a crush on our feckin’ cook.
When my glamour dropped, the old grogoch stumbled back. “Prince Rían . . . I . . . um . . .”
“I am looking well,” I said with a smirk. “Thank you for noticing.” And then I left the man blushing like a fool and started for the courtyard. There were things I could’ve been doing today, but I didn’t feel like doing any of them. As soon as Aveen finished her cooking lesson, I was going to plague her. With the sun shining overhead and not a cloud in the sky, it felt like a sin to stay inside the wards where there was no breeze.
Maybe we could leave. Just this once. Just for today. I’d be with her—not as myself. That would never work. But I could be someone else, couldn’t I? Someone no one would expect. Someone like . . . the pooka climbing the castle stairs.
I hurried through the courtyard, the idea of escaping with Aveen making my stomach do that strange fluttery thing. A strange fluttery thing that died when my gaze met Muireann’s. She perched on the fountain’s edge, a smile playing around her blue lips.
“Ye haven’t been to see me,” she called when I passed.
My steps slowed. I could’ve offered an excuse, but the truth was, I didn’t owe her anything.
“I’ve missed ye,” she added.
I probably should’ve returned the sentiment to help maintain the ruse that I cared for her. That’s what the Queen would’ve told me to do. Which is precisely why I decided not to. “Have you heard of any more ships arriving in the east?” With my days filled with executions and nights filled with Aveen, I hadn’t been to check in ages.
Her lips flattened. “We’ve stopped keepin’ track.”
“Why?”
“There’s naught in it fer us anymore, now, is there?”
The merrow had their own rules and laws to follow. I wasn’t her prince and couldn’t order her to do anything. All I could do was persuade. And the sort of persuasion Muireann enjoyed was no longer something I was willing to provide. “Then I suppose there’s no longer a reason for you to linger in my fountain, now, is there?”
Her bulbous eyes narrowed. “Ye can’t kick me out. The waters belong to no man.”
I dipped my fingers into the frigid liquid, watching ripples spread across the glassy surface. “I never said I would kick you out,” I murmured. “You can stay as long as you’d like. Although I can imagine you’d find conditions less than favorable when I start boiling the water for my tea.”
Muireann lifted herself from the ledge of the fountain, dropping into the dark water with a splash. “My father will hear of this,” she hissed before sinking below the surface and disappearing out of sight.
I turned and started for where Ruairi still waited on the steps, ready to escape with my hostage.