He looked at the young woman standing before him holding a ceramic container across her chest.
"What is that?"
Grainn smiled sweetly. "Oh! I brought you some lunch." She opened the lid and showed him a sumptuous serving of warm roast pork loin stuffed with black pudding in apple sauce. "I was told to look after you and I thought you must be hungry since it's almost lunchtime that's why I drop by again to see you and oh my…" She stroked his arm with the back of her hand. "You seem really sick, aren't you?"
He irritatingly stepped back and quickly distanced himself from her.
"I just ate breakfast." He shoved her to the kitchen.
She went in and gawked at the messy table where the empty soup pan and surprisingly clean plate were left at. Grainn shook the teapot and was surprised it was out of coffee too.
"You must be very hungry." She looked at him with so much amusement in her eyes. "Anyway, I brought another dish for you, dig on it later if you get hungry. I can bring in some neeps and tatties too if you like."
She kept batting her lashes at him and it started to creep the hell out of his wits.
"A-Are you sick? W-What's with your eyes?"
She did it once more. This time, she simultaneously tucked her hair behind her ears and flirtatiously bat those lashes again. "You mean, this?"
He rolled his eyes and turned his back on her. He was not feeling good about it.
He found the sofa and sat there. Away from this shady country lass.
Her actions called for some precautionary measures that he need to do on his end.
"I must say that Sophie wasn't lying after all."
"What do you mean?"
Grainn put aside the dish on her hands to the kitchen counter and started cleaning up.
"At first, I didn't believe her that she got a man staying at her house. I mean, this never happened before. Well, aside from Mr. Finn who owns this place and who seldom comes to fix the pipes, I never heard she let any man stay with her until you."
"And does it bother you?"
She gathered the plates and utensils on the table and brought them to the sink.
"Not really. Personally, I wouldn't mind if you're gonna stay at my home too. Oh! Sophie must be one hell of a lucky girl!"
What the hell is she saying, anyway?
"I don't get you."
"Sophie told me you lost your memories. Is that true?" She asked him instead.
"I wouldn't be here if it wasn't."
"Well. I'm guessing that you must be some kin of a wealthy clan or some distant member of the royal family from the city."
"How can you tell?"
"I know all. I've been spending some time in the city so I've got some experience." She rubbed her chin as she was deep in her own thought. "I wonder, have we met before?"
He dismissed her exasperatingly.
"Where is she anyway?"
"How did you end up in this small village anyway?"
He looked at her with bored glance.
"Sophie? Oh, working."
"Where?"
"Thistle Inn. Or maybe running some errands at the port or busy with some deliveries. I'm not quite sure, really. She can be everywhere at this time of the day, you know?"
"I need to see her. We have something serious to talk about."
"By that you mean?"
"This." He showed her his blackish jaw.
Grainn frowned. She sat beside him in the sofa. "Oh! That's pretty ugly." She tried to check his jaw but he dodged her. "But Sophie told me that was entirely your fault."
"That witch! She punched me!" Then he revealed his bruised arms, legs and back. "What about these?"
Her gaze didn't leave wandering his body.
He saw her swallowed for a couple of times.
"Wow!"
His thick eyebrows furrowed deep in the center of his temple.
"Can't you see? She almost killed me!"
"I wouldn't be talking to you right now if she really did, right?"
"I got injuries all over my body!"
"And she took care of them. Look, you were totally knocked out last night and got over 40 degrees of fever. If she really intended to kill you, she would just leave you outside her house and let you die there, don't you think?"
He didn't back down. "Still, I need some compensation for these. These were not what was agreed upon."
"You should wait then. She won't be home until midnight tonight, though."
"What the hell is she doing, anyway?"
"I told you. Work."
He stood up. She followed him.
"Where are you going?"
"I'm going to find her."
Grainn stood before him, stretched her arms wide as if blocking his way to the door.
"If I were you, I would rather stay here and rest."
"I won't listen to just anybody."
"I'm telling you. You should listen to me."
"No. I won't."
…
"Leave it there. I'll take care of it. Thanks!" She quickly tipped the boy from the bakeshop and rushed back inside the inn.
Sophie climbed up the stairs and delivered the errands from room 201. Once the door closed, she looked at the five-pound notes tip she got and beamed a smile.
"Sophie! There's another request from room 207." Madame Boyle yelled from the reception downstairs.
"I'm on it!"
It was a busier day, indeed.
After she delivered the black jellies she made this morning to Mr. Finn, she went straight to the inn and do her cleaning job. She was right. The rooms were all devastated and she needed to mop all morning to clean all the mess in and out of the inn caused by last night's storm.
The guests started to come in after 7 AM and she was up and about in running errands for them. She first talked to her tour guide friends and booked some day tours for the inn's guests. In between, Mr. Finn asked her to deliver some orders from his shop to his patron costumers living by the riverbanks.
She just got back from a shopping errand when another request came in.
Oh! What is life without money? She grabbed her little notebook from her back pocket and crossed out some items in there.
Now that she thought about it, the heavy rainstorm last night seemed a blessing to her.
The tourists stranded from the other islands already docked in their port and started coming in since the storm stopped. More guests arriving mean more running errands to do, means only one thing, clean cold brass for Sophie Adams!
"Sophie, is Room 104 ready yet? I have two guests arriving in the port for pick up in ten minutes." Madame Boyle asked without even glancing at her. Her eyes were glued at the PC screen while her ears were hitched on the phone talking to someone on the other side.
She left her like that half an hour ago and she was still on the phone for whatever reason she didn't care about.
"Yeah! I'll have it prep now."
She went inside the storage room and grabbed her most reliable cleaning cart.
"Let's clean and mop you Thistle Inn!"