The Duchess Hoax (World of Jordinia)

Chapter 8: Hugo

HUGO KNOCKED HARDER. "YMELDA, my love! Please, open up!"

The door swung open again. Like a hurricane, the woman harangued him in a gale of unintelligible Janoan, until her cheeks burned as red as the carefully applied rouge on her lips. She paused for breath, pushing a curl off her brow. "You'd better have a very good reason for showing your sorry face back here, Hugo Vogel."

Good God, he'd almost forgotten the thickness of her accent, the music of it.

"I do." He swallowed. "Darren's after us. We need a safe haven."

"Darren?" Her dark eyes widened. "No, no." She began to close the door. "Leave me out of this. I want no part in it."

Hugo blocked the door with his foot. "Please, Ymelda, we're desperate. Do you think we would've come here if we weren't?"

She glowered at him. Her gaze then slid to his companions behind him. "Solas," she greeted warily. "And, who is she? Some little nightwalker you plucked off the streets?"

Elsi gasped. "I am no such—!"

"There's no shame in it, dear." Ymelda smirked.

"I said I'm not—"

"Ymelda," Sol broke in. "I know we're not welcome here, and probably the last people you wanted to see. But we wouldn't have come had we any other choice."

The woman bit her lip, squinting hard between the three of them. At last, she held the door open wide. "Fine," she snapped. "Fine! Come in and find some fresh way to make me regret you!"

Hugo was the last in, and barely, before she slammed the door at his back. The doorframe rattled. He and Sol removed their hats apologetically.

"Oh, stop looking so contrite and go make yourselves useful." Ymelda patted her hair. "Close the drapes. Light some candles. And turn my shingle on the door. Clearly, I won't be reading any more fortunes this evening."

In a single movement, Sol brought a pair of curtains together, casting the dingy parlor in deeper darkness. Hugo struck a match and lit the candelabra.

"Girl!"

Elsi jumped.

"You can cook?"

"Well, I..."

"Make us meat pies. Kitchen's that way." Ymelda shoved Elsi rather unceremoniously down the narrow hallway toward the hearth. With a bang, she shut the kitchen door, closing her in.

Ymelda dusted her hands on her skirts. "All right, spill," she demanded under her voice, eyeing the men. "Who is she, and why is she here?"

Hugo tugged his collar, half-glancing at Sol for deliverance. The man, as usual, kept mum. "She's..." He tried on an easy smile. "She's no one."

"Is she with you?"

"Well, yes, but not like that."

Ymelda turned to Sol, who also shook his head.

"So?" She dropped onto a chaise, crossing her ankles and folding her arms behind her neck. Candlelight glimmered off her generous bosom, but Hugo knew better than to ogle. "How do you know her? Any relation to one of you?"

When neither man would reply, Ymelda rose her voice again. "Well, come out with it! What's she to you?"

"She's nothing," contended Hugo. "To either of us."

"Well then, good." She grinned dangerously. "If she's nothing to you, then that means I can keep her."

Hugo couldn't tell if she was bluffing. "What would you possibly want with her?"