THE CONMAN AND THE MAID // Harry Styles

Tyrant, Martyr, Saviour

Let's see if you recognize the In Another Life and Flatmate references ;) 

Note: This AU has a connection with IAL but has nothing to do with the curse because TCTM took place way before that. You don't have to read IAL to understand the ending, but if you have read IAL, the ending will blow your mind. We have three chapters left.

Next chapter: May 27, 2020.

For Patrons: May 22, 2020.

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When Harry had come to talk to Kenny, her mother had been shocked to see that he wasn't dead. He must admit that it was satisfying to see Patricia Rowley's round face turn ashen as if she were staring at a ghost. If only the fun had lasted longer. Once Patricia was sure he was a real person, she had looked him up and down and said in a spiteful and condescending tone, "Her husband had come to take her home. It'll be for the best if you stay away from her, boy."

Then she'd given a dismissive wave and turned on him to make sure he knew he was still that same dirty poor boy who didn't deserve her daughter.

That day, he'd gone home feeling quite relieved that he wouldn't have to break Kenny's heart for good. Until the things left unsaid overtook him. They became a heavy burden that he would have to carry wherever he went. Would Kenny ever forgive him? He hated her mother, but that woman hadn't been wrong. He didn't deserve Kenny. Not even as a friend.

It'd been three weeks since the night at the tavern. He was finally healing. Or so he thought. He'd been keeping his hands and mind busy with hunting trips with Caleb. They sold the animals they'd hunted and earned some low income. It was fine. Not great. Just fine. Fine was enough for someone like him.

Gemma had advised him to reopen their father's blacksmith shop as it would be a steadier source of income. He was still considering it. He wasn't good at the job but he could learn. He might. Right now, he had no motivation.

He'd stopped stealing and cheating, but he wouldn't count it as accomplishment since he now slept with every attractive woman he came across. Hell, by the time he'd figured out what to do with his pathetic life, he might have already fucked this entire city. He didn't know what else to do in order to not feel so empty, because while he was inside someone or had someone's mouth or hands all over him, all he could think about was her.

He'd waited every day for the response from the sisters or news of the upcoming war, but there was none. For the first week, he'd been worried that the sisters had refused to help Reyna, or the letter hadn't got to them yet, or something bad had happened to them. But when that week had ended and there'd been no news of the letter, he'd decided to give up. He hadn't sold the ring as it was the only thing of her that he'd got left, but every time he looked at it, he was reminded of her, of what they could have been if they weren't who they were.

Every night, while lying next to a stranger and the stranger had fallen asleep, he would tell himself that in another life, they'd be together again. They'd have a normal life, had children, a dog called Whisker or a cat called...

He wasn't sure what he wanted to name their cat. But he wanted it to have white fur, like snow, like the land she'd come from, like the night they'd met, like the moment at the stable when he'd been struck by the way those white flakes danced their way down her clothes and her hair...

Before he'd drifted, he'd decided to call their white cat Treasure. After all, their adventure had begun with the treasure in her satchel, but all along she'd been the gold he'd been looking for. Now he was empty-handed. No gold. No lover.

True lovers always find their way back to each other, she had told him at the river where her parents had met. She'd believed her parents had met again in the afterlife and finally got a normal life, which had been taken from them since the day they'd been born. Just like her.