A Necessary Evil (Book 1)

Chapter 23

Andreas had grown quiet within the next few days. Much to my relief, there were no more girls coming over; at least not to the room across from mine. He was giving me space, I realized. If what he told me was the truth it still didn’t mean I would forgive him so easily, or even at all. For weeks he had made me feel like trash, and for what? His own confused feelings? I was not in a forgiving mood.

I had taken to joining him for dinner again, but I still sat far away from him. He needed to understand that winning back my trust was not going to be easy. He would have to work for it. He was used to getting everything so easily – he even got me easily, but he wasn’t going to again.

The winter chill had gotten worse; we were approaching mid-winter and I suspected there would be another blizzard any day now. Seeing Andreas still made my blood roil, but the emotions were too conflicted to say whether I was leaning to forgiveness or not. I pulled my coat closer around me as I excited my room and headed to the kitchen to make some tea and cake for breakfast. I almost fell over when Andreas suddenly appeared before me. My heart about jumped out of my chest from the shock and I took a few moments to compose myself.

“You should warn a girl when you just suddenly appear out of nowhere,” I told him breathlessly.

Andreas smirked and I narrowed my eyes. “I apologize for startling you, but it would be really difficult for me to warn when I want to ‘suddenly appear’ as you put it.”

“Very well, I’ll just die young of heart failure then,” I commented dryly and pushed past him.

“I came for a reason, little witch. Aren’t you the least bit curious?” he called after me as I continued to walk.

I shrugged. “Not really, but I have a feeling you will inform me anyway.”

He caught up with me quickly. “You are right. I will indeed, as this information is actually quite important. We will be having a house guest for a couple of weeks, or months, depending.”

“This guest didn’t give you a specific time period?” I asked, eyebrows raised as we began to descend the stairs.

“I don’t recall you telling me how long you plan to stay, yet I let you live here,” Andreas replied with a hint of amusement.

I opened my mouth to reply, but had nothing. I closed it promptly and continued walking to the kitchen in silence. The tea pot was sitting ready on the kitchen counter and I filled it with water.

“You want some too?” I inquired.

Andreas nodded. “You aren’t the least bit curious as to who our house guest will be?”

I shrugged. “I bet she’s a really nice girl,” I commented nonchalantly as I put the kettle on the fire.

Andreas chuckled. “You think our guest will be a woman?”

I headed over to the storage area and gathered some flour. “Can you make some eggs appear?” Andreas nodded and handed me four eggs – the exact requirement for my recipe. I narrowed my eyes. He must’ve been spying on me when I was baking cake before. “It’s not a girl then?” I asked as I started the mix.

“No. It’s an old friend of mine. He has business around this area and needs a place to stay for a time. And if he stays here, I can keep an eye on him,” he replied, his tone growing slightly more serious.

“If he’s your friend, why would you need to keep an eye on him?” I had started beating the eggs and as a result I wasn’t really focused on his words. A hint in the back of my mind said that there was something I was supposed to take note of.