by Sharon Green
“But what if we have to go into the city after all?” Elissia asked before she remembered about keeping quiet. “You can’t just ride or walk in without doing something to disguise yourself, or they’ll have you two heartbeats after you’re recognized. But as far as a disguise goes, I can’t imagine what you might do. False whiskers won’t quite handle it.”
“They will if they’re applied properly,” he responded enigmatically with a grin. “But before we start to apply them, let’s wait to see if we do need to go into the city. If we have any luck at all, we’ll find Gardal on a farm.”
“I’ve found that relying on luck is too chancy for my nature,” Elissia muttered, wondering if she’d ever
learn when to keep quiet. “I prefer to use plans with lots of thought behind them, but if you’ve done well with luck I hope the trend continues.”
“Actually, I agree with your way of looking at things,” he said with amusement, again surprising her. “If I don’t have solid planning behind what I’m about to do, I’m usually not very happy. But sometimes luck shows up even if I’m not counting on it, and when it does I thank the gods and then take advantage of
it. If it happens this time, I’ll do the same.”
There wasn’t much to say to that, and for some reason Elissia felt very uncomfortable. She had nothing to do with her hands and nothing to look at, so she reached again for the tea. Once she had her drink and had recapped the skin and put it down, she discovered she was being studied in a very odd way.
“Is something wrong?” she asked warily, having no idea why the beast would be looking at her like that with a smile on his face. If he had something else in mind to bedevil her with, she might well end up having hysterics.
“The only thing wrong is that I haven’t yet thanked you for what we shared last night,” he answered, immediately making her wish she’d kept her mouth shut. “It was your efforts which made the time so memorable, and I was very impressed. It isn’t every day you find someone with so little experience doing so well.”
By that time he’d taken her hand to kiss, and all Elissia wanted to do was drop through a hole in the floor. She could feel the burning red in her cheeks, making her yearn for the chance to run and hide. She didn’t want to remember what had gone on between them last night, and the least she could do was put the time in the proper perspective.
“If you want to thank somebody, you’ll have to thank yourself,” she said, trying to free her hand as she looked away from the man. “What happened between us was neither my choice nor really my doing, and I would appreciate it if you would not refer to the time again. The memory isn’t quite as pleasant from my own point of view.”
“It isn’t?” he asked, sounding disappointed as he finally released her hand. “Then what the situation calls for is an apology instead. I apologize for being so clumsy that you weren’t satisfied, and give you my word that I’ll try not to do as badly again tonight. And now, I think, it’s time we were on our way.”
“What about putting the cabin back the way it was?” she asked before she could stop herself. “Aren’t we supposed to do things?”
“Some of my men will take care of it,” he answered, rising and offering her his hand. “If you’d been the kind of female who whined and complained I would have had you see to it, but as it is there’s no reason to put my queen through something like that. And you are my queen, you know.”
For the moment, Elissia qualified to herself as she stood without accepting his help. For as long as you still want something from me. She half expected the beast to make a fuss over the way she’d refused to take his hand, but all he did was turn and walk to the two sets of saddlebags standing ready near the door.
“Some time today I promise to see about getting you a bath,” he said instead as he picked up both sets of saddlebags. “Since you’ve brought two changes of clothes, you deserve to be given the chance to use at least one of them. Don’t forget to bring the cushion.”
Elissia almost had forgotten, and the fluster she felt nearly covered the quick annoyance touching her. The beast had gone pawing through her things without the least hesitation, considering it his right because they happened to be married. To her way of thinking it was pure intrusion, and the sooner that marriage was over the better she’d like it. She picked up the cushion and followed the beast out of the cabin, wondering if it would be possible to get even with him without his noticing
Her horse and another stood saddled and bridled just outside the cabin, their reins looped around a short hitching post. Elissia looked around to see where the beast’s men were, but apparently she was to be spared the embarrassment of carrying a cushion past them. As far as she could see, she and the beast were alone.
“My men are under orders to stay far enough away that we can’t tell they’re around,” the beast supplied, obviously knowing what she’d been thinking. “This is a time for us to get to know one another, and we can’t do that if we’re constantly tripping over my bodyguards. They’ve been trained to be invisible, so I’m just putting their training to use.”
So the men were there, it just wasn’t possible to see them. Elissia found that comforting only to a very small degree. She didn’t know whether or not they could see her, but chances were excellent that they could. What was the sense in having bodyguards, if they weren’t allowed to watch the body they were guarding? And they probably knew exactly what the beast had done to her, and were snickering somewhere behind her back. She should have expected nothing else from this man, so why in the world did she feel disappointed?
Elissia couldn’t answer that question, not even after the beast helped her mount and they went on their way. The cushion did its job of protecting her tender bottom from the hardness of the saddle, so she was able to let her mind wander. She didn’t even have to watch where they were going, not when she no longer rode alone. A beast who pretended to care about her rode next to her, and his large flock of bodyguards was around somewhere to keep them safe. Elissia’s thoughts drifted to what she would do once Gardal was free and safely home, general plans sketching themselves in as she pictured one possibility after another. It wouldn’t be hard to –
Elissia’s mount reared as it screamed, a reaction shared by the beast’s mount an instant later. The beast’s mount was a stallion, but even so its scream sounded more like fear than challenge. Elissia would have been unseated if she hadn’t had her feet firmly in the stirrups, but the possibility of falling off was only a small problem. The much larger difficulty was a huge hunting cat, which stood not far away frightening the horses half to death. Its tail flicked back and forth as it showed its fangs in a grin of delight. It had clearly been looking for a meal, and now it thought it had found four of them.
“Stay back with the horses!” the beast ordered as he quickly dismounted before drawing his sword. “If that thing gets past me, just pick a direction and ride away as fast as you can. If you stay in the forest, my men will find you after a while.”
And then he moved toward the big cat carefully, obviously intent on facing it all alone with nothing but his sword! For an instant Elissia couldn’t believe that, not when his men ought to be there at any moment, but there was clearly no confusion about his actions. Facing a hunting cat that size with nothing but a sword
The beast’s stallion stood trembling, but with his reins hanging loose to the ground he had no choice but to stay where he was. Elissia’s horse was trained in the same way, but when she dismounted she wasn’t certain her horse wouldn’t end up bolting. Whether it did or not was beside the point, however, as she’d already taken the bow and quiver of arrows that she needed with her. A sword wasn’t at all the right weapon to use in the present situation, and she felt really put out that the beast would think she didn’t know that.
It took only a moment to string the bow, but by then the beast and the cat he faced had already had one clash. The cat had roared out its intent to destroy the puny man daring to stand before it and t
hen had charged, but the puny man wasn’t a fool. He stood his ground only until the cat was almost on top of him, and then he’d jumped aside and slashed with his sword as the cat went by. The cat had also twisted aside at the last instant, so the sword only grazed it in passing. Even so, the cat screamed in fury and hatred, and whirled about before setting itself to launch another attack.
No more than heartbeats went by before the cat leaped again, but that was just long enough. Elissia had an arrow in her string and the nock drawn back to her ear, and as the cat went up into the air she loosed the arrow. She’d been taught to wait the extra seconds to be certain her target was committed to its line of attack, and the lesson proved its worth. The arrow caught the big cat right in the heart, and when it hit the ground it was already dead despite the thrashing of its body.
Elissia had put a second arrow in her string, but it was a lucky thing there was no need for it. Her hands had suddenly begun to tremble as her knees grew weak, reactions she’d been refusing to feel until now. As soon as it was absolutely certain that the big cat was dead, she began to look around for a place to sit down.
“Here, let me help you,” the beast said, suddenly right beside her. He took the bow and the still-nocked arrow, then helped her to one side of the small clearing they stood in. He then eased her to sitting in front of a tree, and as soon as he’d replaced the arrow in its quiver he folded to the ground beside her.
“I didn’t think there was time to string the bow, but I’m glad I was wrong,” he said after a moment of just holding her to him. His arms were tight around her, but she still felt like shivering violently. “You’re as pale as milk, Seea. Are you sure you’re all right?”
“I’d be quite a bit better if all those men of your bodyguard had come out of hiding to help us,” Elissia finally managed to say in an embarrassingly weak voice. “If I were the one paying them, I’d definitely be rather annoyed.”
“But I told you that they have orders to keep out of sight,” the beast protested, faint confusion in his voice. “That means out of hearing as well, so they have no idea what almost happened to us. We’re ‘protectively surrounded’ in this forest, but that only goes for any human forces that may attack. For things like that cat, we’re on our own.”
Elissia was tempted to voice a small “Oh,” but kept it instead on the inside. So all those men she’d pictured watching her and snickering weren’t there after all, and she owed the beast an apology. But he didn’t know she owed it to him, so she wasn’t about to jump right in and offer it. Possibly later, at a more convenient time, she might change her mind about that, but for the moment
“Let me know as soon as you feel you can ride again,” the beast said after a brief period of silence.
“There might be more hunting cats around, and I think I’ve met all of them I care to today.”
“And I think I’ve just become able to ride again,” Elissia said at once, leaning away from the beast to sit alone. “I’ve never actually killed something like that before, and I’d really like to wait a while before I try to do it again.”
“Are you saying that that incredible shot was nothing but luck?” the beast asked as he got to his feet and reached down to help her. “If so, you now know why I greet the appearance of luck with lots of welcome.”
“Oh, no, it wasn’t luck,” Elissia said as she let him help her to stand. “I’ve been using a bow for many years and have even hunted regularly with it. I’ve just never killed anything like that before. It isn’t quite the same as taking down a deer or an elk.”
“No, taking down a predator like yourself is never the same as taking prey,” the beast agreed. “I’ll keep the bow and quiver until we get to the cabin, when I’ll be able to get my own bow from among the things my men are in charge of. After that you can have them back.”
Elissia decided it was a good thing she was still in no condition to make serious comments on things. Part of her wanted to protest his taking over the bow even if she was still shaky, but the rest wanted to ask why he wasn’t in the midst of lecturing her about doing things that weren’t considered womanly. And not only not lecturing her, but also clearly prepared to let her go on doing those things. It wasn’t the first time she found herself not understanding the man who walked beside her, and it wasn’t a comfortable feeling.
The cushion had fallen from her saddle, of course, but instead of replacing it she stuffed it into one of her saddlebags before remounting. Just like yesterday she no longer needed it, and it was a relief to get it out of the way. While waiting for the beast to remount she gave her horse a pat to thank it for not running off, and then they continued along the trail.
A little while later they heard a rider coming through the trees, and it turned out to be one of the beast’s men. The beast rode over to meet the man, spoke to him briefly, then accepted a package from him. After that the rider turned and rode off again, and the beast returned to where Elissia waited.
“Our lunch,” he announced, holding up the package. “I’m sure you know there are inns and roadhouses along the main road, and it would have been foolish not to take advantage of their presence even if we don’t want to stop at any of them. Are you hungry enough to eat now, or would you rather wait a short while?”
“It seems to be past noon, so we might as well eat now,” Elissia replied, hating the confusion that touched her again. Why had it suddenly become her decision when they ate? Why wasn’t he still ordering her around and telling her when she was allowed to breathe?
“I’m really glad you said that,” the beast told her with a grin as he dismounted. “My mother has always been firmly in charge of when mealtimes happen, and sometimes my father and brothers and I felt like skeletons before we got to table. But we were never allowed to argue her decisions, because we were taught that a wise man never takes over something that’s a woman’s to do.”
He then started over to help Elissia dismount, but stopped when he saw that she’d already done it on her own. Instead he turned back to his horse, and led it over to where it could graze. Elissia moved her own horse over to the patch of sweet grass, and then it was time to join the beast at their own meal.
Elissia accepted the bread, meat, and cheese without comment after sitting down, then ate it in the same way. The beast chattered on around mouthfuls about the way his parents had always divided up the chores in their palace, stressing the things his mother had been in charge of. The list was the usual one, of course, with the woman in charge of all the menial things any idiot could see to. If the beast had been trying to ruin her appetite, he came close to doing it. She didn’t need to have the uselessness of women underlined, not when she knew the fact so very well.
But why he was doing it was another question. It wasn’t as if she’d been insisting that women were capable of doing much more than they were allowed to. They hadn’t been arguing about anything at all, so why was he rubbing her nose in the pointlessness of her existence? Because she’d dared to save his life with a man’s weapon? Could he really be that small?
After finishing the food and washing it down with drinks of the tea the beast still had, they continued on. He’d kept the bow close to hand while they ate and looked around constantly as they rode, but they reached the cabin in the late afternoon without coming across anything more dangerous than rabbits and birds. This second cabin looked just like the first, with a stable-shed standing to the left, but the shutters on the cabin had been opened.
“Don’t worry, my men opened those shutters,” the beast told her as they stopped near the shed. “I thought we’d enjoy having the place aired out a little before we got here, even though it’s too late in the day to take advantage of the stream that’s just a short way into the woods. But you can have that bath
I promised you in the morning, once the sun is up and warm.”
“The sun doesn’t get warm enough for bathing until much too late in the morning,” Elissia pointed out as she dismounted. “We can’t be very fa
r from Ramsond now, so a delay of any sort doesn’t make much sense. I can stand washing in a basin until I get to my friend’s house.”
“Whether or not you use the stream is your decision,” the beast said with a shrug as he got ready to lead his horse into the shed. “What time we leave tomorrow happens to be mine. The two men I sent to Ramsond haven’t gotten back yet, otherwise I would have been told. What doesn’t make sense is leaving here before we hear their report.”
“But we don’t have to wait here,” Elissia protested, then realized that the beast hadn’t heard her. He was already inside the shed, so she led her own mount inside then repeated what she’d said before adding, “If we wait at my friend’s farmhouse, we’ll be right there to do whatever has to be done.”
“What if Waysten somehow found out about your friend?” the beast countered without looking away from unsaddling and unbridling his horse. “Then going straight there would be riding into a trap, something I thought we wanted to avoid. My men will also look around at some of the farms in the area, to see if anything unusual is going on in their vicinity.”
“How can they tell if anything unusual is going on at my friend’s place when they don’t know who my friend is?” Elissia pointed out, fighting not to lose her temper. “I think you’re delaying our departure for another reason, one you don’t care to share with me.”
“If I am, then there’s no sense in you asking me what my reason is,” the beast countered, faint amusement in his tone. “If I don’t want you to know, asking me won’t cause me to tell you.”
“How about putting a knife to your throat?” Elissia suggested sourly. “Even if that doesn’t make you tell me, at least it would be more satisfying than just asking.”