by Siri Paulson
Read Part 1 first!
Two days after the visit from the airship pirate, Marius was engrossed in the tiny stitches of a buttonhole when the shop door darkened. There was Niko again, frowning at the vest Marius was holding as if it had personally offended him. Today he wore a blue damask justacorps coat, snug enough through the torso to hint at his muscular shape, then flaring over the hips to end at the knee and show his finely turned legs in their white breeches to best effect. The fabric and cut of the coat were high-quality, Marcus saw, but the gold trim and other finishing details were not nearly as fine as on the coat he had left for mending.
“What is that?” the pirate demanded, gesturing elegantly towards the vest.
Marius realized he’d been staring. He set his needle hand moving again. “It’s a commission. Something for a party, I understand.” He’d been lucky to get such a complex job. Maybe, just maybe it would lead to more, extravagant outfits with details like cuffs and pleats and lots of fiddly little braids, or even a mantua for a lady, where he could really shine…
“And what of my coat?”
Marius looked up, blinking as his concentration fell away. Niko looked as imposing as he had the first time they had met, and he moved with an ease that implied that Marius’s stitches on his injury were doing their work well. But something about the way Niko held his body…was he anxious?
“The agreement was for three days,” Marius ventured with some hesitation. “I’ve been working on it, but it’s not finished yet.”
Niko took a step forward, using his height to loom most effectively. “I need it by midday. Today.”
The slant of the light outside the shop told Marius that midday was close at hand. He grimaced. “My apologies, good sir, but this commission—”
A silver coin flashed in Niko’s hand. “I will double your payment.”
Marius felt his eyes widen. The amount of fine cloth he could buy with that…but his business rested upon his hard-won reputation for reliability. “Yours is not the only agreement I have made. I cannot disappoint my customer. Perhaps you would not understand, but it is a matter of professional pride.”
“So is the coat,” Niko growled. “A man such as myself has a certain image to uphold. It is difficult to project this image without one’s finery.”
Marius wondered whether Niko had only one coat sufficient for this duty, but decided not to ask. “I do understand the importance of the coat, good sir. I can have it finished by sunset. Not before.”
“Not good enough.” Niko paced across the shop, while Marius took the opportunity to finish the buttonhole. After all, every moment counted, now.
The pirate turned on his heel, regarding Marius from across the room, his face sunk in shadow. “We cast off this evening. If you are not finished, you will have no choice but to come along on the voyage and finish the coat at your leisure.”
“Excuse me? Are you planning to kidnap me?” Marius kept his tone indignant, but his traitorous heart beat faster at the thought.
Niko’s eyebrows arched. “Against your will? What sort of man do you think I am?”
Marius eyed Niko’s tricorn hat pointedly. “Well…” Tightly curled black hair showed just beneath the brim, and Marius allowed himself to wonder what it would feel like under his hands.
“I wouldn’t dream of forcing you. Your autonomy remains safe.” Niko took a step closer, trailing his gaze down Marius’s body like a caress. “Come with me.”
Marius took a deep breath and jerked his mind away from where it had been drifting. “What? I can’t!”
“I want my coat mended,” Niko said, “and I want you to do it. I understand that a craftsman such as yourself cannot leave his other customers unsatisfied. You’ve made it clear that your business is important to you, and I respect that. The solution is simple.”
“That’s all very well, but I can’t just up and leave.”
“Oh—have you other commissions waiting?”
“No,” Marius admitted, “but…” It was the principle of the thing. He had to stay with the store. Just in case.
Niko leaned casually against Marius’s sewing table. “Did I mention we’ll be looking for silk traders? At this time of year they’ll be returning with holds full of watered silk. Would you fancy some?”
Marius smiled. If this was a bribe, it was ill thought out, and therefore easy to decline. “I wish, but I could never afford it.”
Niko gave Marius the half-smile he remembered so well from their first meeting. “Who said anything about affording?”
Marius drew himself up to his full height, which still put him half a head shorter than Niko. He tried not to think about exactly how much he would need to tip his head back to meet Niko’s lips. “You may be a pirate, but I’m not. I can’t accept stolen goods, thank you very much.”
“You accepted my silver for mending the coat, did you not?”
“That’s, ah, different,” Marius said sheepishly.
“Very well. I’m sure we can work out another arrangement to make the time aboard professionally worthwhile. Perhaps you would rather have a chance to meet the weavers of spider silk.”
Marius felt his jaw drop. “That’s…just an elders’ tale.”
Niko watched him carefully. “Oh, you think so, do you? Have you considered that perhaps you simply haven’t seen enough of the world yet? I assure you, I have seen them with my own eyes. Their art is rare and growing rarer, and they are eager to share the knowledge so that it does not die.” He paused. “I have not the skill to understand what they wish to share. But you do.”
Anyone in the garment industry would pay a fortune for such knowledge. Niko surely knew that. “Damn you,” Marius said, shaking his head helplessly.
Niko’s eyes lit with satisfaction, and underlying that, an eagerness that made Marius’s pulse quicken again. “I’ll see you at the airship docks this evening. We cast off at sunset. Don’t be late.”
To be continued…