“I thought so, too.”
“And she kept on spitting it straight in my face like honestly thinking that I’m stupid enough to buy it! And fuck did that get on my nerves. My gods do I wish that Cotiso would let me have her for an hour. Shit, not even an hour, just let me show her the whip and you’ll see how I’ll make that filthy mouth warble with truth.”
“Easy. Easy.” He kissed her head, calming her down. “Well, she is a runaway slave, you know. Obviously she didn’t want to give away anything that could make her go back.”
“Yes, I guess so. I guess you’re right. That could be all there is to it.”
She let out a moan and rolled to lie on Tati’s side again. Her palm snuck under his shirt, slowly toying with his chest hair.
“You know what else?” she said, “Maria had bathed her already. Yet when I came out to help I still had to scrub a stubborn layer of dirt off her skin.”
“So?”
“So, she told the guards that she’d been lost since this morning, but no one could’ve gotten that dirty in half a day. And that cloak she wore? Good gods! The leather had long been rotten! Its smell alone was─”