Something Wilder (Child of the Winter Moon Book 2)

17: Unfinished Business

Jaskier glanced up as the door opened.

"Juray!" he greeted. "You look terrible."

"Tough Contract."

"Looks it." He came around the bar. "Your room's ready if you need it."

"I could use a bath after sludging through a swamp."

Jaskier laughed. "You just sounded like Geralt."

"At least it wasn't a trash heap," Juray said with a laugh. "But I think that swamp might have been as bad as one." She then frowned, noticing someone was missing. "Where's Gwen?"

"She... left."

"Left? Where'd she go?"

"Believe it or not, with Fiona."

The worry that Gwen's family had come for her melted at the news. "Well, I did tell Fiona I would visit. After a bath and a nap. In that order."

Juray ignored the stares from Novigrad's nobility as she walked through the streets in the high-end district. She soon found the house she was looking for and knocked. A servant opened it.

"How may I help you, Witcher?" he asked, looking her up and down as if she were a flea-bitten beggar that was beneath him to talk to. Juray suspected he was new, as she didn't recognize him from when she hid here as she recovered from the injuries she sustained due to Junior's betrayal.

"I'm looking for Fiona. Is she available?"

"And you are?"

The Witcher decided to pull rank just to knock him down a peg or two. "Juray de Côté."

The servant blinked in surprise, no doubt recognizing the name of the Kenwendi noble family, and stepped aside. "Follow me, please."

Juray managed to keep her smirk to herself as she was led into a parlor. "I'll let Mistress Fiona know you're here."

Not a few minutes after the servant left then Juray heard a shriek.

"Juray!"

The Witcher turned in time to brace herself from the onslaught of a hug.

"Dandelion told me you left the inn with Fiona." Juray held her at arm's length after they'd hugged. "You look every part the young noblewoman."

Gwen was wearing a beautiful blue dress, her hair pinned up with curls falling perfectly. The girl smiled. "You came back!"

"Luckily," Juray said with a smile. "I take it you're doing well."

"Lady Fiona thought it would be better if I waited for you here. That it would be safer for me here than at the inn because of the type of people that frequent the place and I needed to learn how to be a lady anyway because you knowing how to be a lady even though you're a Witcher throws people off and..."

"Take a breath," Juray laughed. "I didn't think I was gone that long."

Gwen smiled. "Sorry."

"Miss Gwen!"

Gwen turned and looked at the middle-aged woman with her fists on her hips. "Oops."

"You might want to get back to your lessons. Because she's making me feel like I need to go to my lessons."

Gwen gave a giggle before returning to her tutor. Juray gave a small laugh as she turned to see Fiona smiling.