8
Hawke had somehow gotten the coin together, and would be leaving for the Deep Roads in the morning. Isabela was pissed off. Ten months of tense flirting, combined with their incessant arguing, and she'd never even managed to get between those legs.
Not to mention the ridiculous waste of perfectly good gold. Isabela could live like a queen on 50 gold sovereigns, and instead, Hawke was handing it over to that thief, Bartrand.
In the morning, Hawke would leave for the expedition that would likely get her killed, and it all would've been for naught.
Isabela had already refused to accompany Hawke on her fool's errand, which had, surprise surprise, led to an argument. She wished she could go back and re-do that day at the Wounded Coast. Isabela remembered the sensation of Hawke's breasts heaving beneath her, her blue eyes afire with fear and excitement. She should have at least kissed her.
Isabela sat at the bar, fuming. It was a waste of time, money, and the greatest piece of arse that Isabela had ever seen.
Hawke and Varric's Deep Road expedition had taken them away from Kirkwall for just over two months. When they finally got back, they were very rich, and very angry.
Bartrand's betrayal had been no surprise to Isabela, and she had been the first to say "I told you so" upon Hawke and Varric's return. That did not endear her to either of them, particularly Hawke, who had still been reeling from her own brother's betrayal.
In the time that she'd known them, Isabela had watched the antagonistic relationship between the Hawke siblings go from a simple family rivalry, to something much darker. Even still, Carver joining the Templars, of all things, had been a particularly cruel cut for the oldest Hawke child.
The Deep Roads expedition had been a turning point for Hawke. She'd reclaimed her mother's estate and family title. Overnight, she moved from Lowtown to Hightown, going from the young Blight refugee that Isabela had met the year earlier, to Lady Hawke, the new scion of the Amell family.
The little that Isabela and Hawke did have in common had disappeared, and they had less and less to talk about. When they did talk, it almost always ended in an argument, and the dizzying flirtations that they'd once shared became few and far between.
The one positive that was to be found in Hawke's new social status was the quality of work that came their way. Isabela's lock picking skills were almost always needed, so while she wasn't getting the satisfaction that she really craved from Hawke, she was at least content with the amount of coin that was coming in.