Without so much as an apology or a good night, he pushed back from the table, snatched up the bottle of wine, and stalked across her room.
She flinched as he shut her door with a slam, his footsteps in the hallway audible even over the wind and rain.
Not wanting him to find her still staring at the door in case he decided to apologise for his behaviour, Hadley picked up her fork and prodded at the meal Jack had made.
Despite the delicious meat, her stomach was tied in knots, her forehead scrunched and her shoulders tense. “I needn’t have worried. I could have been wearing a sack for all he noticed,” she muttered to the empty room.
Kade pressed his back into the wall of the hallway, his breath ragged, and his thoughts crowding in on top of each other until he couldn’t think past the images assaulting him. Get it together. Just a minor snag. That’s all.
He groaned and crossed the hall to his own room, closing the door before he did something stupid. Something that he would regret and Hadley would most definitely not welcome. Damn Jack for playing mischievous matchmaker. It wasn’t funny. It was probably the least funny thing he’d ever seen.
Ten minutes ago, he’d been happy enough to humour the old man even though he’d known what he was doing. All had been fine and dandy until he’d opened the door to yet another reminder of why this was a rotten idea.
Kade slunk across the room, carefully placing the bottle of wine, he knew Jack couldn’t afford, down on the solitary chair in the cold room.
With a sigh, he stalked to the bed and sank into the lumpy mattress, lying on his back, he stared at the water-stained ceiling as he listened to the rain trickle down the pane.
The sooner she put her usual clothes on the better. Thanks to Cester making her eat more over the last few weeks, she’d filled out and given the way the dress was straining, she’d need the binding even more. Which took his thoughts in a direction he couldn’t afford to let them go.
Kade slapped a hand to his face, trying to snap himself out of it. Why now? Why did she have to turn up now?
He’d kept away from girls, partially because what he did was dangerous, but mostly because making sure Meg was safe took priority over any of his needs.
But Meg was older now, and at some point she wouldn’t need him anymore. Carl would run off to marry his sweetheart, the daughter of the baker in Renhold, and he would be on his own.
Just like Hadley is.
Heat flowed through his body, stirring ideas and problems he didn’t want to deal with. He needed to push down idle thoughts that had nothing to do with why they were here. He could do this. He could deal with working with a girl.
As long as she stayed dressed like a boy, and he treated her like one, everything would be fine.
Kade pulled himself to sitting and swung his legs so his feet were planted on the floor. He stared at his dusty boots and vaguely wondered why she’d seemed annoyed with him. What was he supposed to have said? Told her she looked nice? Poured her a glass of wine and sit there in the candlelight and then what?
Kade groaned and shook it off. What difference did it make? They had to work together, not complicate things any more than they were by being nice to each other. First thing tomorrow she would just be plain old boyish, pain in the backside, scrawny Hadley again.
And if they had any chance of getting this job done, she’d have to get used to the tough love they showed all newbies.
Hadley’s muscles seized as she gingerly pulled herself out of the warm cocoon of her bed. The air frigid inside her room, she shivered and made her way to the window, yawning as she peered outside.
The rain had ceased to fall sometime in the night when she’d fallen into a fevered sleep, plagued by dreams of marriage to a faceless man. Inside her dream state, she’d screamed for Thomas, searching everywhere inside the crumbling ruins of Jack’s tavern while Kade looked on, a smirk on his face as he taunted her.
Hadley pulled her boots on and glanced out the streaky window again. Her stomach flipped as she caught sight of Kade standing outside. She eased back so he couldn’t see her, watching him in the middle of a muddy garden plot, a bucket in his hand, he walked away from a skinny goat and made his way back to the tavern. She lost sight of him but heard the vaguest hint of a door slamming below her.
What if he leaves me here?
The thought prompting her to move quickly, she hurried out the door and took the steps downstairs at a run. She was breathless when a grinning Jack met her. “Apologies for interfering and trying to get him to smile. Copped a bit of flak, I did.” Get him to smile?
Hadley’s brow knotted as she caught her breath. “Oh? Kade didn’t seem too bothered.”
Jack tilted his head, and he gave her a kind smile, that only served to induce more confusion. “He was more than bothered lass.”
Kade’s arrival and the sharp look he sent her enough to cause her heart to jolt to her throat. “We’re leaving. We have to walk since you lost the horses.”
His tone was less harsh as he shook Jack’s hand and paid him more coins than Hadley had seen her entire life.
Jack caught her hand as she followed behind a glowering Kade. “Look after him.”
She almost laughed, but at the seriousness on his face, she forced a smile. “Thank you for taking such good care of me.”
He winked at her and at Kade’s call, he motioned out the door where Kade stood staring at them. “Saddlebags were still in my room. Carry one. Maybe with any luck we’ll find mounts.”
Though every muscle protested at the weight, she hefted the bag and awkwardly hung it over her shoulder.
Kade sent her a curious look but pointed to where the grass met a muddy pathway. “Don’t slow me down.”
He set the pace and she increased her strides to match his. The saddlebags were already digging into her bruised body as they walked through the deserted village.
Momentarily distracted from the pain by the sight of long-abandoned shops boarded up, she plodded on, unwilling to let him know she was struggling already and reluctant to give him reason to abandon her.
They walked at his fast pace until the dilapidated buildings vanished, and all that lay in front of them was green grass covered in a fine mist.
“You need to bind yourself up again.”
Her hands flew instinctively to her chest, and she nodded. “I didn’t think, I’m sorry.”
He didn’t look at her as he answered. His jaw as tight as his voice. “We’ll have to find something to make do in Arrowford.”
Kade glanced at her, and his eyes moved to her hair. “I’m not taking you across the river with your hair like that either, you’ll need the boot polish again, I’ll get some of that too.”
He picked up his pace, and Hadley gritted her teeth and matched him as best as she could. For ten tediously silent kilometres, skin chafing on both her shoulders, they carried on in silence.
Her legs were burning, and her stomach growling when they approached a small outcropping of buildings. He barely grunted at her as he told her to wait outside as he entered a broken-down haberdashery shop.
She dropped the saddle bag alongside his, hot tears stinging her eyes at his treatment towards her. The silence was almost worse than the exhaustion overtaking her. Two sleepless nights along with the injuries she’d sustained from her falls were slowly draining away every last reserve she had.
She sagged against the wall of the closest shop and eased her aching body to the ground, so she could at least rest a few minutes.
The streets were almost deserted in the tiny village. The buildings looked in even more dire need of repair than Jack’s. There was an air of depression she was familiar with. The one person she could see was hunched over, bone thin, and wore a dejected posture that didn’t invite conversation.
Conversation she was too tired to give anyway. Probably just as well Kade wasn’t speaking to her. She’d likely make no sense anyway.
His voice startled her. “Rest time’s over
newbie. Time to move.”
Hadley clamoured to her feet, backing away from him as he glared at her. Newbie?
He held out a brown paper wrapped package and shoved it into her chest. “For binding yourself.”
She hugged the package tighter and reached down for the saddle bag she was beginning to loathe.
What did it matter if he was rude to her anyway? She was just using him to find her brother, that was all it was. If he didn’t want to speak with her, she didn’t care to speak to him either.
Lost in her thoughts, she shrieked when he gripped her arm and pulled her closer to him. If possible, his glower seemed to deepen. “Go bind yourself. And quit screaming like a sodding girl.”
He jerked a thumb to his right, where a shed stood. “Hurry up.”
Too tired to do anything but as he asked, she dropped the saddlebags again with a relieved sigh and opened the flimsy door to peer inside.
Light filtered through the broken walls and the roof was almost caved in, but it would be private enough. She unravelled the package and removed the black polish he’d purchased.
She shot a look at the door, it was hanging off its hinges, but still provided coverage. Not that Kade would bother to invade her space. After all her fears he’d try to take advantage of her, he wasn’t even vaguely interested.
She frowned at her idle thoughts, and removed her jacket and shirt, stepping closer to the wall, in case he changed his mind. Her fingers were trembling as she unwound the fabric, her forehead creased in concentration as she grappled with it. She squinted closer at it in the dim light. Testing it. The fabric wasn’t like anything she’d seen before, it was almost pliable, with a little give to it. Mum would have loved this.
Hadley ran a finger over the curious fabric, trying to figure out what it was made from, trying not to cry from tiredness, from worry, from pain and fear Kade would abandon her in this village.
She cursed herself for being so ridiculous before unravelling the roll of fabric and beginning the arduous task of rebinding herself. She was sweating and flustered when he asked how much longer she’d be. With a scowl of her own at the impatience in his voice, she hurried to secure the binding. Unlike her previous attempt, she was relieved to find the fabric gave a little more.
She hurried to redress, tucking her shirt back into her trousers before remembering the final part. She chewed on her lip for a moment, realising she needed either a mirror or his help to guide the polish through her hair.
She pulled the shed door open with a creak and faced him. “I need your help.”
He turned to face her, his eyes wide, the slightest hint of a flush catching at his cheeks. “You can’t be serious?”
Hadley frowned before realising what he meant. Her own cheeks heated as she hastily shook her head. “No, I mean I can’t see where to put the polish.”
Relief flooded his face, then the scowl returned. “You can wait till we get to the river, that way I can wash my hands.”
She pocketed the polish, and without waiting for her, he started walking again. Could he be any more unpleasant?
With another sigh, she reached for the bag, ready to put it over her shoulder. Strangely, the saddle bag didn’t seem as heavy. Confounded, she picked up her pace and tried to meet his eye.
He ignored her but shifted his own saddle bag to the opposite shoulder. The one he’d not injured recently.
Her lips quirked as she realised he’d lightened her load somehow. His eyes met hers and narrowed. “What are you looking at, newbie?”
She pressed her lips together to keep from showing the smile that was trying to break through. “I was just wondering what this fabric was made from?”
His eyes flicked to her chest for the briefest of moments before he answered. “The Stormers use it to bandage sprains. It’s got some kind of stretchy plant woven into the cotton. I’d hoped it might make it easier for you to breathe.”
Hadley’s eyebrows rose in surprise. Maybe he wasn’t all bad?
His tone was cold as he increased his speed, leaving her to double her own. “The last thing we need is for you nearly to pass out again. It gets hot in Amaria.”
Any smile she’d had for him disappeared as they carried on, the silence only broken as he peppered her with so many instructions she wouldn’t have been able to keep track of them, even if she hadn’t been almost sleepwalking beside him.
By the time the day was almost over, the river was near, and a sullen Kade directed her to sit under a tree, laden with apples.
He dropped his saddlebags with a thump and winced as he flexed his shoulders. “We can stop here for a few hours rest. We’ll take what we can carry only. We’re going to have to ditch the saddlebags. They’ll probably get pinched while we’re gone, but there isn’t much inside anyway.”
A groan slid from her lips as she dropped the saddle bag to the ground, too fatigued to care about anything but napping till his mood changed.
He rolled his shoulders then held out his hand. “Polish first. It’ll take time to set. Long as you keep your head above the water it should be fine.”
Her face scrunched as she tried to decipher the meaning behind his words. Too spent to care, she held back her sigh as she pulled out the horrid black gunk and dropped so she could sit with her back against the tree.
Kade crouched alongside her, his daggers catching the sunlight as he unscrewed the flat tin. She held still as he dragged his fingers through her hair and tried not to flinch at his touch.
His eyes never met hers as he worked, his jaw tight, his forehead wrinkled in concentration. When he was done, he eased back and peered at her, taking her focus from the cold stinging her scalp.
Her heart began to thud as he examined her, moving so close she could see a vein pulsing in his neck.
A flicker of something unreadable crossed over his face before he dropped the boot polish tin and pulled himself to standing.
He shot her a hard look. “I’ll go fill our water skins. You get dirt on your face, and under your nails.”
Without another word, he disappeared down the bank. Her head already beginning to itch, she ran her nails through her hair and spat on her palms until she had more of the vile paste she’d used before.
She was still smearing her face when he stalked back up the riverbank. He dropped her bloated water skin at her feet, the slightest of smiles on his face. “That’s better, now you look like you again.”
This is not what I look like.
The yawn escaped before she could stop it, her breath caught, expecting another reprimand, but he wasn’t even looking in her direction, his eyes on the branches above them. “Get some rest while you can. Got a long trek ahead of us.”
As if they’d finally been given permission, Hadley’s eyelids drooped, her neck relaxed, and to the sound of Kade crunching into an apple, she slipped into an exhausted doze.
His eyes on Hadley as he finished the apple, Kade’s scowl lessened as he backed up and threw the core away. The movement provoking the tender spot where the saddle bag had rubbed against his still healing scar. Stupid Kade. Real stupid.
He’d never have taken extra weight for one of the other lads, even if they’d been as weedy as Hadley was. A newbie was basically a pack horse until they received their tattoo and entry into the brotherhood. But unlike most new arrivals, Hadley hadn’t once complained, not even a whimper, though he knew for a fact she was struggling.
A wild thought spun as he watched her nap, her neck at an odd shape, her dirty cheek pressed into the bark of the tree she was propped up against. Maybe she can actually make it as a Stormer. She had the determination, the pig-headedness and if she’d survived this long without anyone watching her back, at the very least, she was tough enough.
Kade’s brow furrowed as he scanned the river for signs of trouble. He shouldn’t be thinking about her future. He didn’t care anyway. As long as she told Cester he’d played by the rules and had done his job well, that’s all he cared about. Kee
p telling yourself that.
He shook his head, growling at his lack of focus. They were close enough to Numachi territory that the wind brought with it snatches of the lemony herbs that spouted on the opposite side of the river. All of which meant his thoughts should be about completing the retrieval with minimal errors. Storming was getting riskier, over the last couple of seasons, something had changed.
When he’d first crossed the river, as newbies, he and Carl had hardly seen the Numachi warriors. Now they seemed to follow their every move with an uncanny knack, almost as they knew when Stormers crossed.
He cast a glance back the way they’d come. Checking no one was sneaking up on them. Thieves, slave traders, and low life’s always populated places like Arrowford.
Where once it had been a prosperous village, filled with shops, solidly constructed homes and livestock, all built on the gold that had been panned over the last few generations, now famine and sickness had laid waste to everyone, families had left in droves, and now there was no one left to pan, or to carry on with the construction of the half-built mine.
His eyes settled on a large trench that had been dug. Timber, shovels and tools abandoned, rotting and rusting like everything else in the village.
Like so many parts of Azetaria, there was money in the area, and Kade figured if he could stay with the Stormers, it would be worthwhile buying a plot of land here and trying his luck. Maybe, in a few years when I want to settle down.
He frowned heavily as he watched the sun disappear behind the clouds, a shiver ran down his spine as the heat dissipated. In an hour or so, they’d slip across the border, with Hadley in tow and before the sun rose tomorrow, they’d be in Amaria.
Kade reached up and plucked another ripe green apple and dropped to his haunches to assess how long the sun would take to set.
They were still on schedule. Despite the setback of the weather. Despite Hadley losing the horses. But setbacks could be remedied. As long as she could keep up, and not get in the way, they’d still make reasonable time.
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