Mallory stared at the page in front of her, reading over her earlier words before making notes about the current day. It didn’t take long to write a paragraph and Ryan joined her while she cleaned the pen nib with the calico cloth and packed away her notebook, being careful of the poppet. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” He sat beside her, his back against the wall, the whetstone in one hand, his sword in the other. “We need to head to the mainland and start making connections over there. Like we’re doing here. As soon as we have enough money to begin sorting out our own place.”
“Do you think we should take out a loan?” Undoing her plait, she used the hairbrush.
Ryan ran the whetstone along the blade of his sword. “Not unless we get desperate.”
“What about Danni joining us instead of going
