Free A Magic King by Jade Lee

belly laugh. Turning, she saw Daken, laughing for the first time since she'd known him.
    "What's so funny?" she asked, craning her neck around a very fat woman to see the yo-yo type toy her son played with.
    "You are, little fool. Your eyes are bigger than a full moon. Haven't you ever been to a market before?"
    "Not like this I haven't."
    She glanced back at him, as surprised by his happy, carefree expression as she was by anything in the market.
    He grabbed her hand, pulling her along with him as he started for an exit. "It is rather overwhelming, isn't it?" His voice softened with sympathy. "Come on. I'll find us some place a little quieter."
    The moment she realized he intended to leave, she dug in her heels, drawing him back to her and the fair. Then, she let a slow smile pull up her lips as a delightfully wicked thought sneaked past her prudish defenses. "Daken, didn't I just see the trader pay you for driving the wagon?"
    Daken nodded, his face growing more wary by the second.
    "Well," she said, her head tilting as she pretended to think of something. "It seems to me that some of the money belongs to me."
    "What?" He seemed more shocked than upset by her audacity.
    "I did help you drive the wagon."
    "You sat and complained about your backside."
    "I kept you from falling asleep."
    "On a buckboard?"
    "I helped unload the furs."
    "You carried one fur."
    "I watched the horses."
    He didn't argue that one, though his expression told her clearly that they hadn't needed her services there either.
    "So you want to be paid for your... work." He toyed with his purse, letting the coins clink and rub together. "Exactly how much do you think you're worth?"
    "More than you can afford, that's for sure," she shot back. Then she smiled. "Exactly how much did you get paid?"
    He grinned at her joke. "Tell me what you want to buy, Jane, and I'll get it for you."
    "No way. I want my share to spend as I will."
    The dark slash of his eyebrows suddenly lowered. "Do you really want to go into the fair?"
    "Of course, I do!" She laughed at his stunned expression. "I absolutely love shopping. It's almost more fun than paging through the Rumornet."
    "The what?"
    She started to answer but was distracted by a delicious scent wafting toward her from a large brown man carrying a tray of what looked like meat pies. "Mmmm. Can you smell that?" She turned around. "Come on, Daken. Give me my share and let me loose."
    He stared at her for a moment, his jaw slack with astonishment.
    "Please. I'm starved." Her gaze followed the man with the meatpies while she inhaled deeply, trying to hold onto the heavenly scent.
    Then Daken laughed, his face lit with amusement mixed with a wry self-mockery. "So much for you being overwhelmed. Very well."
    He dropped three large coins into her hand. They were perfect gold circles stamped with a tree on one side and something like a blunt-tipped maple leaf on the other. She glanced up at Daken, but his face betrayed nothing.
    "Are these doleens?"
    "Yes."
    "And how much were you paid by the trader?"
    "That's a fair share, little fool," he said, his voice dropping.
    "The hell it is." Jane glanced back at the trader who was bartering with a customer. "You didn't get any three doleens from that guy. I saw smaller coins—silver and copper. No gold."
    Suddenly, Daken grinned, even though his voice was serious. "You do learn fast. But perhaps you've forgotten the day you cared for me by the stream."
    "But—"
    "Consider that payment for protecting me from the pantar."
    "The panther? She didn't do anything."
    "But you didn't know that at the time, did you?"
    Jane didn't argue. For whatever reason, Daken wanted to give her money to spend at the fair, and she felt overwhelmed with gratitude. She couldn't understand any of the prices listed, but she was sure Daken had just been very, very generous.
    Jumping up, she planted a wet, loud kiss on his cheek. "Thank you." Then she started to run after the meat pie man.
    "Hold on," he said,