A Bond Greater Than Family

An Unanticipated Proposition

Amicia had found a blanket to cover up in as the other two men came in. Tomas and Louis walked in and stood in the middle of the room looking around curiously.

"Welcome to Château D'Ombrage! I'm sorry it's not much!" Amicia said grimacing. "I have some dry clothes if you want to dry your clothes near the fire."

"Yes, that would be wonderful, M'Lady." Tomas said suavely, taking a nightgown from Amicia, winking at her.

Amicia saw Lucas become a little rigid as he closed the door, and she realized now why Lucas had been acting so coldly to Tomas. Turning to Tomas, "You can go change over there with Louis. I won't look."

"I wouldn't mind if you did..."

She tried not to roll her eyes. "Too bad for you I don't want to look."

Tomas glared at Lucas who was stifling a laugh a few feet away. She felt a little bad. It wasn't that Tomas wasn't attractive, but her heart belonged to another.

The two men went over to the corner to change, and Lucas looked towards the door as if she should exit. "Do you want to leave for a moment?"

Her eyebrow went up. "Are you jealous, Lucas?"

"I.... am not... trying to be. It's just the thought of you looking at anyone else currently..." he spoke low enough for the other men to not hear them.

"Oh, if I really wanted to, would you be able to stop me?" She asked, feeling mischievous.

He looked thoughtful with his hand rising to his chin. "That's true. I suppose I need to work out an answer to this problem..."

Ever the alchemist. She wanted to kiss him again, but she didn't want to give him the satisfaction. She wanted to tell Lucas he had absolutely nothing to worry about, but the feeling of competition was too strong. "What would you do to keep me?"

His eyebrow went up, but he smiled knowingly. "Hm, well, I thought I've already answered that question haven't I?"

Amicia knew he had, but words were just words. She leaned forward and whispered, "okay, prove it, Alchemist. Show me what you can do."

She walked past him brushing his shoulder with her hand flirtatiously and headed to her sleeping pad as she had seen the other men were done changing, leaving Lucas to ponder her challenge. Had she been a bit unfair? Maybe. Would she take it back? Probably not. She was too stubborn and she knew it. He knew it too.

"There's some jerky in the packs. We should head back early in the morning and let Sophia know our mission was successful." Amicia said looking around the room.

They all nodded in agreement. "First thing in the morning, we'll head out." Agreed Tomas.

After they had all had something to eat, they all collapsed onto their pads. It didn't take long for Amicia to pass out from the wonderful but emotionally exhausting day.

Amicia woke up the early morning hours to see Lucas' pad empty in the dwindling firelight. Where was he? It was way too early to be up. She grabbed her now dry clothes and found another room to change in. Tomas and Louis were still sound asleep, but she didn't feel like risking it. As much as she had given Lucas a hard time, she had no intention of giving any other man hope.

She went outside into the near dawn darkness and saw lamplight down below in the pit. It had stopped raining, and the lightening of the sky gave way that sunrise was almost here. She wasn't at all surprised to find Lucas bent over the disgusting rat secretions taking samples. After all, she had known the man for over ten years now. Lucas was always passionate about his work.