Chapter 12

Helena watched in a daze as Demeus spoke to the woman in hushed tones. Her palms grew wet and clammy and she could swear that sweat was pouring from her forehead causing her hair to plaster itself against her skin. The innkeeper glanced in her direction once and nodded then turned back to Demeus. She watched as the innkeeper pocketed the coins Demeus had dropped on the table and took a key from the board behind her. She handed the key to Demeus and tilted her head in the direction of the stairs leading to the rooms.

“The rooms are up there,” she said in Eyrotian language.

Helena feared that her heartbeat would be heard because it was so loud she could practically hear the beat of blood in her ears. How was she to quietly tell him that she could not share a room with him, not just because she was married and had a child but because she couldn’t trust herself not to act on the strange attraction she felt towards this man. But he was a fisherman and fishermen were not wealthy people, maybe he only had enough money to pay for one room. If that were the case then it meant she had to restrain herself from thinking too much about him and what she felt from him.

“Helena?”

She suddenly realized that he had been calling her name and there was a crease on his brow as he gazed at her with concern. How long had she been lost in her thoughts for him to be so concerned? She plastered a smile on her lips.

“Yes?”

“I said we should find the room.”

“Certainly,” she responded with a forced laugh. She stepped back and let him lead the way. She could barely think as thoughts of the both of them sharing one room occupied her mind. She swallowed hard as they came to the floor that held the rooms. She watched as he checked each door they passed until they stopped at one in which he slipped the key the innkeeper had given him. There was a click and he pushed the door open to reveal a small dark room with worn but beat curtains, a small bed (how were they to sleep on that?), a washbasin, and a small corner that was supposed to serve as a dressing room.

Demeus held the door open and stepped back. “In you go.”

Helena nodded and stretched her lips into a smile before stepping past him into the room. Was he going to come behind her to strip her clothes off of her now? Kiss her neck and cup her breasts from behind?

The door creaked and she turned around sharply to protest but stopped short when she saw that he hadn’t entered the room, instead he was closing the door behind her.

“Are…are you not coming in?” she asked before she could stop herself.

“No, I figured you would want your privacy. I don’t suppose your father would be happy to know you spent the night with a strange man.” All the while they spoke in the Eyrotian language.

Helena didn’t know whether to be relieved by his concern and integrity or to be disappointed that he wasn’t ravishing her at the moment. She supposed that she was glad to know he hadn’t thought about renting a room for them to stay together but why did some part of her feel strangely unhappy? And where would he sleep since she had seen him collect just one key?

“What about you?” she asked.

“I have a place to stay in the village.”

Oh right! How had she forgotten he was from Eyrotia and therefore would have a home here since this was his homeland? She felt embarrassed at her forgetfulness but covered it up with a nonchalant shrug.

“Okay.”

“I will leave instructions for the innkeeper downstairs to cater to your needs. If you need anything, anything at all tell her, okay?”

She tried not to get drowned inside the strength of the gray storm of his eyes and nodded.

Demeus almost did not want to turn around and leave but he did. He closed the door and walked down the steps. If he didn’t know better he would have thought he saw disappointment in Helena’s eyes when she realized they would not be using the room together. Had she been hoping that they would sleep there together? Had she wanted that? Why was the woman so damn difficult to understand? He had told her he had a place to stay but that had been a lie, he was going to Banjo’s home to stay and if Likia so much as mentioned Helena he would take his god form and to his throne in Eyrotian pantheon to escape the woman’s shenanigans.

He sighed inwardly. Well, he had done the right thing by renting the room for her. It had been necessary for both of them, he didn’t want her father charging at him with a dagger because he could not keep his hands off his daughter so this was the best way to ensure that they never happened. And he would make sure that throughout her stay at Eyrotia, however long she needed to enjoy seeing the kingdom, he would keep his hands away from her.

That night while Helena was nursing a dinner of roasted bird, vegetables, a yellowish stuff that the maid had called cornmeal which had turned out to be surprisingly delicious, with bitter wine, she received some clothes from the innkeeper who said the clothes were a present from Likia, Banjo’s wife. No doubt Banjo must have told his wife about her arrival. But the clothes the woman send left nothing to the imagination if she could even fit into them after her huge dinner.

Helena thanked the innkeeper and folded the clothes on a small table she found in the small dressing room.

Early the next after skillfully escaping Likia’s questions about Helena, Demeus made his way towards the inn hoping Helena was well rested and ready for their first day of sightseeing Eyrotia.