Rat & Will Chapter 5: Soap & Suspicions
Upstairs, they settled into a room that like the rest of the inn had seen better days. “Clean at least.” Offered Will, looking at the bright side, as ever.
“Sure.” Rat shrugged and pulled off gore crusted gear. “No one with the silver to mess it up.” She dropped into the tub, sighing at the hot water.
Will raised an eyebrow. “I’m not likely to fit in that tub.”
“You don’t fit in any tub.” Rat tossed a wet sponge at him. “But you could stand to clean up.”
He grinned and tossed the sponge back before pulling off his shirt. “Sure.”
They bathed in silence before Will spoke up again. “You all right with this job?”
“Nope.” Rat poured rapidly cooling water over her head, working the last bit of soap from her hair. “Milla’s lying.”
“Hoped I was imagining that.” Will toweled off his hair with a cleanish shirt.
“You saw it too?” Rat squeezed water from her hair. “Shit. She’s not even a good liar then.”
“She wasn’t as upset about her man as she wanted us to think.” Will started pulling dirty clothes from packs.
Rat stepped out of the tub and accepted another cleanish shirt from Will. “Yeah, she doesn’t miss that one.”
“Maybe he was a bastard. Still doesn’t mean he deserved to decorate the road.” Will suggested as he tossed a load of clothing into the tub.
“True.” Rat tossed the clothes she’d taken off into the tub and began working on the snarls in her hair. When it wasn’t braided, it ran more than the length of her back and tangled easily.
“But there was more to the story than she told us. How’d this guy Tremant just show up one day and take over a whole town? And she only now decided to get revenge?”
Will shrugged, up to his elbows in soapy water. “Maybe she was happy enough to be rid of the husband at first. But this Tremant went too far.”
“I guess.” Rat finished braiding her still wet hair and pulled a line of rope from her pack. She rigged a clothes line and began taking items from Will and hanging them up. “Just all seems a bit odd to me.”
“We taking the job?” Will glanced over, curious.
“If she signs the contract, I guess.” Rat frowned. “She seemed pretty sure that she had the right to sign for the whole town. Wonder why?”