The Last One

twenty-three

The walls. The fucking walls.

The massive walls of Winchester could strangle me in a way that I never expected to experience. I hated it there. I hated the castle. I hated the town square. I hated the entrance to the town. The way the shadows of the walls cast down at the ground as one approached them from the road strangled the air in my lungs in a new and damaging way.

The reprieve I would usually get from the crowded inns and taverns was swallowed up by the fucking walls of the damned town where I didn't even want to be.

I sighed heavily and put my head in my hands as I leaned my elbows on the table. I looked down at my bowl of swiftly cooling oatmeal.

"So you and Sihtric? Really?" Finan swooped in with his cheerful personality and endearing little accent and made me giggle despite my unease.

He sat across from me with his own bowl of oats and looked at me seriously, his forehead wrinkled in that endearing little way it always did. "And you just didn't think to mention it?" He took a bite of the oats, never taking his eyes off of me.

"Well.. I.." I didn't know what to say. We had been having a secret sex relationship that grew into more, and now we were like in a real relationship. It felt strange to be in the open with this now. People looked at me and knew I was with him, and I wasn't sure how that made me feel yet. My face flushed as I tried to come up with an answer.

"I would not have guessed it," he stated, "but I guess it makes sense. You are both young, both Danes, and the tension between the two of you, sheesh."

I laughed and then took a sip of my tea. "It was not planned.. it just happened."

He nodded. "Aye, that's what Uhtred said."

I flushed again. Uhtred was telling people? I looked at Finan in horror before he spoke up. "He just told me! It was only me that he told."

"Why?" I squeaked. Why, Gods, were they sitting around talking about my love life? I felt myself shrinking inwardly at the thought of being in the hot seat.

"Because he thought that I knew about it, but I didn't," he reassured me.

I sighed. I was still not pleased with this information, but at least it wasn't a gossip fueled chat between my friend and my Lord, so there was that.

"Is he mad?" I almost whispered.

Finan snorted. "Little late for that, innit?" He took a big bite of oats and then spoke around them. "But he wasn't mad. Surprised, maybe."

That was a relief, at least. Now, two people had told me that Uhtred wasn't angry, yet he still hadn't spoke to me on the subject.

"I can't believe I didn't even notice.. all the way from Rumcofa to Winchester, and you two were just keeping it a secret that is not a secret anymore." He chuckled.

"It's not a secret.. it just didn't come up."

He chuckled. "Where is he anyway?"

"Who?"

Finan laughed. "Your man!"

"Oh!" I blushed at my insolence. "I don't know. He was really drunk last night. Probably asleep? You and I are the early birds, Finan."

He chuckled. "True enough." He took a sip of his drink and silence settled between us.

"So what about the woman that you were courting?" I played in my oatmeal with my spoon, trying to convince myself to take more bites of it.

He shook his head. "Not gonna work."

"What do you mean it's not going to work?" My eyes widened as I looked up at him from my oatmeal.