The Vampire & Her Witch

”Are you doing all this for me? Or are you going so far to help me for my sister’s sake?”

Jocelynn looked like she was on the verge of tears when she asked her question with her lips pursed together and her brows drooping low. She couldn’t quite meet Ollie’s gaze directly, and she clutched her hands tightly together while she waited for his reply.

Ollie sat for several moments, looking perplexed as he tried to find an answer for the question she’d asked. Once or twice, he opened his mouth only to close it again as he thought better about what he was going to say. Eventually, he found the words, or at least the place where those words began.

”Why does it have to be one or the other?” Ollie asked, rejecting the dichotomy that Jocelynn had placed before him. ”Can’t I just help you because it’s the right thing to do? Because you need someone to help you, and I can?”

”You say that like it’s simple,” Jocelynn said. ”But the things you did today... Having a dress made for me and paying several gold sovereigns for it, taking me to the Ancient Oak for its counsel, and then the dagger,” she said, glancing in the direction of the washroom where Crimson Promise currently sat waiting to be given a permanent home, or at least a sheath that would let her wear it on her belt.

”Ollie, that dagger isn’t any less of an artifact than a High Inquisitor’s Holy Flame Blade,” she said. ”You don’t just arrange for someone to get something like that...”

”That was all Master Erkembalt’s doing,” Ollie protested. ”I just brought you there to speak with Aspakos because you wanted his advice. You can’t give me credit for that...”

”But would it have happened without you taking me out today?” Jocelynn pressed. ”All of these things... How can I deserve them? Why would... why would anyone do this for me after I....”

”Because you need help right now,” Ollie said, reaching across the table to rest a hand on her shoulder. He met her tear-filled gaze directly, refusing to look away from the obvious hurt he saw reflected there and focused on the only thing that mattered. The truth.

”You’re important to Ashlynn, and part of her family, so of course I’m going to do what I can to help you,” Ollie said. ”But you’re also about to join our coven, which makes you part of my family, so... of course I’m going to help you.”

”And even if you were none of those things,” Ollie said. ”I’d still have reasons to help you. What kind of knight would I be if I watched you face a deadly trial alone and unprepared? Did you know, when I became a knight, that I took ’Hope’ as one of my virtues?” Ollie asked.

”Hope?” Jocelynn said, shaking her head in surprise. ”No, I never... Who takes ’Hope’ as a knightly virtue?” Jocelynn asked, taken genuinely off guard by the statement. ”Strength, Courage, Justice, Valor, Honor, Piety, Charity... I’ve heard so many from Father’s knights, and the Lothian knights too, but I’ve never heard a knight take Hope as one of their virtues.”

”Well, it was important to me,” Ollie said with a shrug. ”If I can give someone even a little bit of hope for tomorrow, for a chance to have a better life or live in a better world... Isn’t that worth fighting for?”

”And this isn’t even fighting,” Ollie said, letting go of her shoulder and gesturing at their meal. ”What I’ve done for you amounts to so little... A few meals, some company, a bit of advice... You’re about to face the most challenging trial of your life. You’re going to risk your life for a chance to have a better future with Ashlynn and all the rest of us.”

”You’re doing something that is very hard, and it takes more courage than most people possess. Next to that,” Ollie said. ”Am I really doing that much?”

”When you put it like that,” Jocelynn said as her cheeks turned a light shade of pink. ”It sounds like I’m the one doing something impressive, but you...”

”How about this,” Ollie said, holding his left hand to interrupt her while his right hand picked up a knife. ”How about we say that we’re both doing our best right now. And everything is hard and uncertain and scary, but we’re both going to do all that we can so that things turn out well in the end.”

”That... That still doesn’t answer everything for me,” Jocelynn said, biting her lip as she debated whether or not she should ask the question that had taken hold of a portion of her mind, and her heart, ever since she saw the dinner he’d laid out for them.

”Sir Ollie,” she said as she took a deep breath and plunged ahead. ”Is there a chance that you’re doing all this,” she said, gesturing to the roasted pheasant and the table set for two. ”And spending all this time with me, because you fancy me?”

”Huh?” Ollie said, staring at her with wide eyes and a jaw that momentarily went slack. ”Oh, I’m so, I mean, I didn’t think that, um, I,” he stammered as his face turned a bright shade of red. ”I wasn’t trying to make you think that I wanted to court you,” he said as his mind frantically replayed everything that Ashlynn had said when she lectured him on what it meant for noblewomen at Jocelynn’s age to pursue a match.

”I just,” Ollie said carefully, hoping he wouldn’t hurt Jocelynn’s feelings. ”I want to be your friend,” he said. ”Or your big brother in the coven. Or... whatever. I want to be someone you can trust and rely on,” he said. ”I think you need that right now.”

”And one day,” Ollie added. ”After you pass your trial, when I need advice about running my village or helping my villagers start businesses or... or any of the thousand and one things a nobleman should know that I don’t, I hope you’ll give me advice too. We can help each other. It’s just that right now, you’re the one who needs help, and when it’s my turn, I hope you can be there for me too.”

”Isn’t that enough?” Ollie asked.

”Sir Ollie,” Jocelynn said as she finally let go of the tension that had slowly been building within her heart. ”I think that’s all I could ever ask for and then some. Thank you,” she said, reaching across the table to rest a hand on his. ”For all that you’ve done for me. And I hope, when it’s my turn, I can do as much for you.”

”I’m sure you will,” Ollie said with a wide smile and a small sigh of relief at successfully navigating the moment of crisis.

”Now, if you don’t mind my help with one more thing,” he said as he picked up a fork to go with the knife he was already holding. ”I can carve the pheasant for you,” he offered. ”And then we can find out if the ones I cooked here are as good as the ones I helped make before...”

”I’m sure they will be,” Jocelynn said warmly as she gestured for him to go ahead. ”And I can’t wait to taste more of what you’ve made...” she added, though a very small voice in the back of her mind added the words ’for a long time to come.’