He gave a tilt of his head designed to look nonchalant, but his heart hammered. Giving her a nickname was meant to help her relax and prevent him having to call her by such a ridiculous word. But now he’d said it and she was looking at him like that, it felt … intimate. “I told you I wasn’t going to call you Vice and since you won’t tell me your actual name, this will have to do. Unless you’ve changed your mind on revealing your real—”

She stopped and raised her hand. “Never going to happen. Vee works fine. Now”—she gestured at the grocer’s they’d stopped by—“here’s our first stop.”

They ducked into that store and several more over the next few hours, making arrangements to take on food, water, canvas, timber, gunpowder, and shot. Every shopkeeper greeted Vee warmly with smiles and hugs. They kissed her cheeks as if she were a beloved niece, and it looked genuine. They didn’t have the stiff manner of someone who needed to keep an enemy happy or who was working under the weight of threats.

Their smiles, just as welcoming, even extended to Knigh. “A friend of Vice’s is a friend of mine,” one said, clapping him on the shoulder.

And it was a good thing he was used to schooling his expression because the deals she got were startlingly good. Fae charm did indeed get excellent prices.

He wasn’t the only one to think so. It turned out the paper she’d slipped in her pocket was a list of personal purchases for the crew that she agreed to pick up in order to get them the best deals. Those store visits took up as much time as the ones for The Morrigan.

As the afternoon wore on, Knigh raised his eyebrows and tapped the slip of paper in her hand. “And you always run these errands?”

She shrugged, mouthing ‘done’ repeatedly as she read down the list. “When we stop in a port long enough. Why?”

“It takes up a lot of your time—aren’t the rest of the crew on shore leave, enjoying themselves?”

She blinked at him, a frown on her face followed by a slow smile. “I can help them get more for their money. Why wouldn’t I?” She shook her head as if genuinely confused. “And it’s only time. I have however much of it the gods have given me—either I’ll still be alive to go drinking tonight or I won’t. Nothing I can do about it. Doesn’t hurt to help my crew in the meantime.”