Shades of Truth (The Summerlynn Secrets)

by C. L. Stockton

  Abruptly, Colton straightened at my entrance, eyes sweeping down my body.

  “Good morning,” he greeted, pulling the chair beside him out for me. To avoid an argument this early in the morning, I mumbled a greeting and subsided into the offered chair.

  Once seated, he pushed the bread and meat toward me. His chivalry stopped at actually making my sandwich for me. Thankfully. I‘d hate to skewer him with the scissors from last night.

  To the best of my ability, I ignored the man beside me. He, too, was dressed in trousers and a light grey cotton shirt that stretched across his shoulders. I couldn’t tell if the shirt was naturally grey, or had simply lived a very full live. Whichever it was, the thin cotton only emphasized the strength in his arms and shoulders.

  My eyes focused on the length of his fingers as they gripped his sandwich. Though long and slender, they bore their fair share of calluses. I noticed he ate very properly, his elbows off the table. Whoever Colton was, he had impeccable manners. At least when he remembered them.

  The sound of chewing filled our next few minutes. I was deciding what to engage him over this time, when he spoke first, “Did you sleep well?”

  “Yes, thank you.” It would have been polite to ask about his own night but I didn’t want to think of him lying in bed. At all.

  I risked a look at him, wondering if he’d comment on my rudeness. He wasn’t looking at me, meaning I received a fine view of his profile. The straight nose, curving lips, and flat forehead looked vaguely familiar, but I wasn’t quite sure why.

  “Any chance you’ll take me to Currington? If we hurry, I can—”

  “Cadrian.” He cut me off with a word, turning his head to fix those intense blue eyes on me. Again, I realized how forceful a personality this man was.

  “What? It makes perfect sense. I go home to Bolien while you get on with doing whatever it is you do.”

  “No. You stay with me.”

  “Quit being so stubborn. If I am in Bolien, you will have the time you need to investigate my father without me underfoot. It makes perfect sense.”

  “Except I promised to keep you safe. I can’t do that if you’re not with me.”

  “What could possibly happen to me in Bolien?” I scoffed.

  “You’ll never find out because you’re coming with me.” He lifted a hand when I would have vocally protested his arrogance in thinking I would do anything he wanted.

  I took a moment to compose myself so I wouldn’t shriek at him like a fishwife. “And that’s it?”

  “Yes.”

  “We shall see about that.” I engaged in a staring contest with him for all of ten seconds before I threw my napkin over my plate. I would have surged to my feet in a fit of anger, but his hand grabbed my wrist and kept me in my chair.

  An uneasy silence settled over the table. I hated to be such an ill-tempered guest, but really, Colton brought out the worst in me. He was unreasonable, arrogant, and exasperating. If he would just see reason, he’d understand what I’d suggested was the perfect solution. I’d be safe, and he’d be free to continue his search without an annoying companion.

  “If you are finished, I suggest you pack. We will leave shortly.” Colton finally released my wrist, and I found myself momentarily missing its warmth.

  “I am packed.” My dress was in such bad condition, it was fit only for the rag pile. I was wearing all I possessed in the world at the moment, much of it borrowed.

  “Excellent. Then we will leave.” Colton arched an eyebrow when I immediately stood, eager to regain my independence.

  “I will wait outside.” I couldn’t leave the kitchen quickly enough. I found myself again in the foyer, idly scuffing my toe against the wood floor.

  I was not looking forward to the second leg of our journey. If he would treat me as if I possessed a modicum of sense, things would go much easier. But no, why do that when it was so much easier to keep me completely in the dark?

  “You’ll give yourself a headache, frowning like that.” Colton’s voice, close at my elbow, startled me. He was barely an arm’s length away.

  “I wasn’t frowning.” Unconsciously, I raised a hand to my forehead to check if I was frowning.

  I was.

  Laughing, he said, “Wait here. I’ll bring Brutus around.” His silhouette lingered in the doorway longer than he did.

  My hopes of having a horse of my own quickly faded when I saw Colton standing at Brutus’s head. So I was to look forward to an entire day of rocking against Colton’s too attractive body. Splendid.

  On the verge of asking whether he had an extra horse, I stopped. I was already beholden to him enough. Horses weren’t cheap, and my father’s purse (which Colton still had) would only stretch so far. If I intended to buy passage home to Bolien, I would need to be frugal.

  “Will you lock up? “ I did as he asked, surprised he trusted me with such a simple task. Replacing the key, I walked to his side, perhaps a little too eagerly

  Colton turned to me. “Anxious to feel my arms around you again?”

  I rolled my eyes. “Anxious to be gone.”

  “Keep telling yourself that.” Winking, he offered his looped together hands to give me a leg up.

  I snorted my disdain for that comment before placing my foot in Colton’s hands and mounting. I thought briefly of kicking the horse into a gallop and leaving him behind, but that would probably only infuriate him when he eventually caught me, as he inevitably would.

  In a smooth movement, he mounted behind me. After a few seconds of arranging the reins—and my body—to his satisfaction, we were back on the road. I didn’t bother fighting the arrangement, allowing my shoulders to sink into his chest, my legs to curve against his. I only protested when his hands held the reins a little deeply against my thighs.

  “Is it really necessary for you to hold the reins so loosely?” I groused. Barely five minutes in and I was already tired of riding.

  “My, aren’t we in a pleasant mood this morning?” I could hear his smile. But he did adjust his hold on the reins so his hands now rested half way down my thighs.

  I didn’t dignify the comment with a response. Instead, I changed the subject. “Did you sleep at all last night?”

  “Yes.” His breath wafted against my ear, causing me to shiver ever so slightly. He was all concern, saying, “I have a jacket in my pack, if you’re cold.”

  “I’m not cold.” I cursed my tongue the instant I said it. I could have blamed my shiver on the weather and not his touch.

  “Oh.” Again his breath blew against my ear, but I fought off my shudder of reaction. I don’t think he was fooled, however.

  “Don’t ‘oh’ me!”

  “Why not? You have such delightful reactions to me.”

  “I do not.” This saddle was feeling very crowded.

  “Acceptance is the first step toward getting help.” Noticing my tenseness, he blew a sigh out against my neck. “Relax. We have a long trip ahead of us.”

  “It grows ever longer with your attempts at seduction.” There, I’d said it. I’d dragged out that unspoken thing between us.

  “Even my talents do not extend to seduction in the saddle.”

  “Don’t they?” I was feeling utterly overwhelmed by Colton’s physical presence at the moment. Every time I moved, I encountered more of him. If I stretched my calf muscles, my toes touched the top of his feet. If I turned my head to the left, I was presented with a view of his face. If I attempted to scratch my back, I found his hard chest instead.

  “Either I am better than I thought, or you are overreacting, sweetheart.”

  “You’re doing it again!”

  “What?” He sounded genuinely bewildered.

  “Men should never call strange women sweetheart. It puts entirely wrong connotations on the relationship.” I was young, and attractive enough to be interesting, and added to the mystery surrounding my father, I became a challenge. How close could he get and still maintain his objectivity?

&nb
sp; Sensing my sudden withdrawal, he said, “If I apologize, will you stop arguing at the drop of a hat?”

  “I do not argue,” I denied, purely to be provoking. Part of me wanted to be at odds with Colton. I was afraid if we weren’t arguing, my heart would quickly leave. And that would be a nightmare. Before he could challenge my statement, I asked, “Where are we going?”

  “Muckford.” Colton bit off the syllables sharply, betraying his annoyance.

  “What’s in Muckford?” I lifted my chin in an attempt to see through the heavy woods to the sky. It was up there somewhere, but the thickness of the trees reduced visibility to barely half a mile. We followed a deeply rutted wagon trail and Colton kept Brutus to a walk to avoid injury to the horse’s legs.

  “People.”

  “If they handed out prizes for conversational skills, you’d take home the one for most informative.” I rolled my eyes.

  “Is there one for nosiness?”

  “I am not nosey. I simply want to be informed.” I shook my head, missing the weight of my long hair. It would take months for it to grow back.

  “You are more informed than you should be.”

  “I don’t believe that.” I snorted. “All I know is you are intent on dragging me across the country and will not let me return to Bolien or even Lisbon because you are convinced my father’s a spy.”

  “Your father is a spy. Your letter alone proves that.”

  “That letter proves nothing. It could be a letter to a lover, or a close friend.”

  “Does it trouble you that your father might have a lover stashed away somewhere?” His voice softened.

  “Of course it does,” I snapped. I didn’t want to think about the possibility my father had a lover and exactly when said lover has appeared in his life. Before mother’s death? “More marriages have been ruined by infidelity than any other sin in the book.”

  “Infidelity is normally a sign of an otherwise unwise pairing.”

  “Meaning?”

  “The couple never should have married in the first place.” He continued after a pause, “I have always been told to be extremely wise in my choice of a wife. If I chose poorly, not much else will go right in my life.”

  “Is that why you have not married?” I wiggled a little in the saddle, attempting to loosen the grip his arms had on me.

  “Who says I‘m not?” Idly, his thumb stroked the top of my thigh. I attempted to move my leg from his touch, but only succeeded in forcing my upper body harder into his chest.

  “You do not act married.” I gave up trying to adjust my position so I had some semblance of private space. It wasn’t possible.

  “Neither do most married people I know.” His chest muscles tightened against my back. “Why haven‘t you married?”

  “I do not intend to marry.” I was perfectly happy without a husband, and from what I’d seen, men brought only trouble. Colton was a case in point.

  “The last time I heard that, a woman spent the rest of the evening pressed against me.” His tone was skeptical.

  Looking like that, I hardly blamed the woman for being so shameless. “Perhaps she thought she’d never marry and then saw you.”

  “And fell in love?” He snorted.

  “People do.”

  “I never picked you for a romantic. I thought you had more sense than that.”

  “I do. I am only worried about you with your common sense in short supply.” I jabbed him in the side. “May I walk for a while?”

  “Do you promise not to run if I let you down?” He was already pulling Brutus to a stop.

  “Where’s the fun in that?” I tapped his arms, indicating he should release me.

  His answer was lost as he dismounted. Probably a good thing, as I didn’t think it was complimentary. He allowed himself a stretch, arcing his back and reaching toward the sky, and I trailed my eyes over his strong body before dismounting.

  Once on the ground, I took a moment to appreciate our surroundings. To my untrained eyes, the trees appeared to have thinned a little. Sunlight filtered down, lending a green haziness to my vision. My stomach rumbled, meaning it must be close to noon.

  I looked appraisingly at Colton. “Yes?” He wanted to know.

  “Do you have anything for lunch?” This last I said to his back, as he’d begun leading Brutus down the road. I allowed myself a moment to appreciate his backside, before jogging to his side.

  “It’s too early for lunch.” Colton paused in the act of raising a hand to pat Brutus’ neck. He cut off my reply by making a shushing motion with his hand. Looking back the way we’d come, he stared intently into the trees.

  I, too, turned my attention to the forest. Where before, I’d heard birds and squirrels and other woodland animals, the woods suddenly silenced. Judging from Colton’s reaction, I deduced this was not a good thing.

  “We should get off the road.” Giving my shoulder a sharp push, Colton led Brutus off the road and deeper into the trees.

  Rubbing at my shoulder, I grudgingly followed the swish of Brutus’s tail. Off the road, the trees were tightly packed, not leaving much room for a horse, a man, and myself. Branches bit my hair and arms, but by ducking, I managed to avoid any direct scratches to my face. I’d hate to lose an eye in the forest.

  Not really paying attention, I walked into Brutus’ hindquarters when the horse stopped. Thankfully, the horse was not of the nervous sort, and I didn’t get kicked. I shouldered my way to Colton’s side. He, of course, managed to look handsome even with tree branches stuck in his clothes, beard and hair. His eyes focused past me to the road we’d recently vacated.

  Still close enough to monitor the road, but far enough to somewhat blend in, we were in a thicket of sorts. Thankfully, Brutus was a bay, meaning his coat nicely blended with our surroundings. Not so with my bright blue shirt, or Colton’s grey one. I wondered if I should squat down or maybe rub dirt on my shirt to make it less noticeable.

  Catching his attention, I arched my eyebrows at him. He only shook his head, holding a finger in front of his mouth. With the forest so silent, I began hearing the approach of a few horses along the main road. What did he know about the horses that I did not? Was he simply being careful?

  “Stay here,” he mouthed. Here? Where was he going?

  Leading the horse, his body skimmed mine as he forced his way past me and back toward the road. Intent on getting an explanation, I reached for his arm, but he was already gone.

  Now that I was finally alone, it wasn’t nearly as exciting or satisfying as I thought it would be. Colton may be annoying, but as long as I had him, I wasn’t alone and I sorely needed company so I wouldn’t have to decide what my father’s actions meant.

  The man from Lisbon still disturbed me. What had my father been thinking, sending me alone to see that man? Unless he’d intended I bring Colton along for protection. No. That couldn’t be it. If I was supposed to work with Colton, why try to slip the pouch of money to me without drawing attention?

  While I’d been thinking, the riders had nearly reached the area we’d been minutes before. I only distantly heard their voices, but the jangle of their stirrups came through clearly. There didn’t appear to be more than a handful of them, judging from the noise, but I couldn’t be sure without seeing them.

  Inching forward for a better view, I ducked behind a half hidden log. There were four men, the silver and blue of their uniforms betraying their allegiance to Goran as well as the fact they were soldiers. Having the Goran army in the area was incredibly suspicious and I began to wonder if perhaps relations with Bolien were deteriorating.

  Wonderful.

  So intent on the soldiers was I that I completely missed Colton leading Brutus from the woods to the area directly behind the men, making enough noise they’d have to be deaf to miss him. His shoulders were relaxed, his stride confident as he caught up to the soldiers, who’d drawn their guns at his approach.

  He was twenty paces away when it happened. The guns dropped a
nd the men saluted, remaining at attention until Colton waved their salutes away.

  What on earth?

  A red faced man took half a step toward him. “Forgive us, sir. We had no idea it was you.”

  “Of course you didn’t. What message do you bring?” Colton ran his hand down Brutus’s face.

  The soldier’s already perfectly straight posture straightened even more. “Your father wishes to know if you have found the girl.”

  My heartbeat paused. Me. I was the girl. Any second now, I would be handed over to these strange men.

  “As you can see, I have not.” He gestured at the surrounding area.

  “There have been reports you were traveling with her as recently as yesterday.” From the tightness of the soldier’s face, I knew he was extremely uncomfortable contradicting Colton.

  From the slight lift of his eyebrow, I knew this information was news to Colton. “Would these same reports say anything about Summerlynn?”

  “No, sir. There is no word on him.”

  “Keep looking. You may inform my father I will continue the search for the girl and return once I have her.” He checked the slant of the sun in the sky. “Now, if there is nothing else, I must be off.”

  “We know you have the girl. Bring her to us when you‘re through.” The other soldiers approached, forming a half circle around Brutus and Colton. “She’ll enjoy herself.” The men guffawed, as if what they suggested was funny.

  I felt my own nerves still. I knew what the soldier was suggesting. I would not be sick. Not here, not now. Colton was the only thing standing between me and certain rape and I prayed he would not relinquish me.

  “I do not have her.” His voice was slow, unhurried but I saw the way the muscles of his shoulders had bunched.

  The soldier shrugged. “It does not matter. I am to bring you both in.”

  “Then I ask you to remember who I am.” Colton’s voice radiated authority. “Stop me and I cannot help the consequences.”