"Which one is Erikson?"
"The redhead."
She turned in the direction he was pointing. The redhead was currently wringing out his sleeve, his mouth pulled down at the corners, eyes on the sky.
"He looks miserable."
"He's fine," he stated drily. "He makes that face in good weather too."
A laugh pulled at her before she could stop it. Small, but real.
Beside her, she saw a ghost of a smile appear, and it was somehow more distracting for the restraint of it.
The rain hammered down harder. Wind curled beneath the shelter and shoved at them both, nudging the last inch from between them until her shoulder brushed his arm.
She should move. She did not.
Neither did he.
The contact was slight, almost nothing, but the heat there was immediate and out of all proportion to how little of him was actually touching her.
She tried to keep her eyes averted, but they continued to return to him.
Rain had darkened the strands of hair at his temple. A thin line of water ran from his jaw to his throat and disappeared beneath his collar. He made no move to wipe it away. He stood still, looking out into the storm with that same quiet attention he gave everything, as if even weather deserved to be studied before it was judged.
"Daes it bother ye?"
"What?"
"The rain," she raised her voice to be heard above the storm.
He considered that with more seriousness than the question deserved. "Nay."
She kept her eyes fixed on him. "Naething bothers ye, daes it?"
He turned his head slightly to look at her. There was some amusement just behind it.
"One or two things," he said.
"Such as?"
He looked back at the rain. "I'll let ye ken."
She stared at the side of his face.
Her shoulder was against his arm, and the wind was still howling. She couldn't tell anymore if she was warm because of the cloak or something else entirely.
She looked back at the storm.
Neither of them moved.
Then it passed the way it had arrived, all at once.
His men stirred and shook themselves.
One of them, a sour-faced man she'd noticed earlier because he was impossible not to notice, looked at his wet clothes with deep displeasure.
"I've been drier fallin' into the sea," he said.