3

"Dmitri the hunter is in town," Vladimir told his daughter, "according to Artur, he came through the gate this morning."
"I'd better heat some water then," she replied, "Unless you want him to jump into the lake again."
"That was three years ago!" he complained, "Will you not let it lie?"
"Four," Ileska informed him, curtly, "And no." She strode off, purposefully.
As soon as she was out of her father's sight, she stopped. Her heart was beating faster, and not because of her strides. She always got excited when Dmitri came to the inn. On that spring day, when she put the tablecloths around those strong shoulders, she felt a shiver.
When she sat him before the fire she was about to tell him to take his wet clothes off, but when her heart gave a flutter she knew she could not trust herself. For the rest of that night she found herself watching him, and she constantly made excuses to go and speak to him, like apologising for her half-witted father.
When he left, she'd thought he'd never come back, that her idiot father had chased him off, or worse, that she herself had scared him off. As the days passed, she cursed her bad luck, deciding never again to act so desperate. After two weeks, she had all but pushed Dmitri from her mind, when she heard her father say
"Oh no. You're not bringing that carcass in here." He was blocking the doorway, so she couldn't see who he was talking to. She wanted desperately to believe that it was him though.
"I thought you'd like some free meat," It was him "by way of apology for last time." She was about to run to the door, but suddenly remembered her vow. She didn't want to look like a busybody, so she waited.
"Sorry, hunter." Vladimir responded, shaking his head, "We buy all of our meat from Gleb the Butcher. If he were to stop selling us meat, we'd go broke."
"Gleb's a cheat," Dmitri warned "He doesn't pay a fair price for his meat, and I bet you pay over the odds, too"
"He's the only butcher in town. I can still turn a profit even with his cheating. Go sell it to him. You'll not make anything by giving it away, anyway."
"Your loss, innkeeper." Dmitri shrugged. As he turned to walk away, Iluska's heart sank once again, thinking that her fool of a father had chased him off for good. Then Dmitri called over his shoulder, "I'll be back within the hour. I could use a warm bed for tonight." Vladimir watched his daughter's eyes light up, and her shoulders straighten. He looked down at his ledger, before she spotted him looking and said "You'd better heat some water, he'll have to bathe or he'll stink up the whole place."