by Fiona Faris
She nodded her understanding, and he was not sure if it was worry or disappointment that clouded her features. Could he forfeit showing himself at the end? If he was going to do that, then there would be no reason to attend the final match at all. No, he could not leave his plan unfinished. He needed to see it through.
He grabbed her by the elbows gently, pulling her to him.
“I promise that after the tournament, once I have won and this plan is done, I will tell ye everythin’ I mean to say. Right now, the words are jumbled in me head, and I cannae find them to say. I have me matches which I need to prepare for, and I daenae want to rush this. Once everythin’ is settled, I want to talk about me and ye and the way forward,” he said. “I daenae want ye to think that all the time we spent together was nothin’ or that I am just going to move on without discussin’ what has happened between us.”
Lilia comforted him with a hug, wrapping her arms around his shoulders.
“I understand, Uielam. Now is nae the time. When it is all over, and we are settled, we can talk,” she said. He sighed in relief, she understood. He kissed her again, this time just as passionate as the first, and they took turns washing each other in the river until they squeaked.
They returned to the cottage together, and Uielam prepared to leave while Lilia changed and began to make breakfast.
“Will ye have some bread before ye leave? It is nae commoners bread, and ye should eat somethin’ first…” She said shyly as she stood by the kitchen door with the loaf on a plate. “Or, I mean, if Osgar will bring ye breakfast, then ye can leave this one.”
She added the last part nervously, and Uielam could not help the smile that spread over his face. She looked adorable, offering him food, and he knew better than to turn her down after his grave mistake with the roasted duck the last time. He went to take the plate from her and pressed his lips to hers for a quick kiss.
“Thank ye,” he said. She smiled, her face exploding in color like the sun, which was just rising. She looked so happy and bright he was tempted to kiss her again. Choosing to behave himself, he went to the table with his plate, sitting, and beginning to eat. She brought him a mug of mead to drink with the bread, and he thanked her again.
She disappeared after that, going into her room and not coming out again. He wondered if she was not having breakfast, or had she given him the last breakfast in the house? He paused, the bread hanging in his throat and forcing him to gulp down some mead to stop himself from choking. Was it honestly all that was in the house? Why did she not split it with him?
Would it be wrong if he did not eat all of it and left her some? Would she see it as a partial repeat of the roasted duck incident? He was still contemplating this when she came over with a piece of cloth squeezed in her hand and slid it over to him on the table.
“I ken that I am nae exactly a lady whose handkerchief would be a prize… but I wanted to give ye that… for good luck,” she said, her cheeks warm with embarrassment. He was caught between the adorableness of how shy she had suddenly become around him and refuting her statement about her handkerchief not being a prize.
He picked up the piece of cloth. It had freshly sewn embroidery on it, spelling out his initials. His eyes widened as he realized that she had probably just made it that morning. He held it against his face, feelings of love overflowing in his heart.
“Trust me, Lilia, to me this is worth more than the handkerchiefs and skirts of a thousand ladies,” he said, his heart thumping as he realized that he meant every word.
Chapter Eighteen
Shug crouched in the bushes with his heart thumping loudly in his chest as yet another group of soldiers passed his hiding spot. He was furious at himself and everything else and dug his fingernails into his palm to feel some respite. His situation at the moment was entirely his fault.
The more he thought about it, the more he remembered the reason why he usually did not stop to play with women while he was on a mission. He should have just waited and gone somewhere else to play after his mission was over. He still could not believe that he had broken his first rule.
Is this how ye got yer reputation? Ey, black night?
He mocked himself, feeling stupid in the bushes where he hid. He had been in the market the day before just after stealing some presentable clothes when he went to wash at a bathhouse. The man whose clothes he took would have to be stranded for a while, but it was his fault for not noticing as Shug robbed him.
He had been walking through the marketplace, thinking about how he would never take a mission right after another mission ever again, no matter how much gold was promised. He realized that his breaks were vital as they allowed him to blow off steam and return to the mission grounds ready for whatever was thrown at him.
He had underestimated this mission. It was supposed to be simple, never had he expected that it would take so long, or that The Younger would pull a disappearing act leaving him confused as to his location. You can not exactly kill someone when you don’t know where they are. He was an assassin, not a witch.
Uielam Younger was supposed to have been an easy mark. With his reputation, there were many ways to get to him. He had just been gearing up to attack when he heard that Uielam would be going out into the open, an even better opportunity to kill him. He had made his first mistake then, falling for that ruse. He had wasted so much time already.
Since his last mission, he had not had a single night of good sleep. Going from one mission ground to another was a hellish task enough, and now this stupid mission had him sleeping in trees for absolutely nothing. He had been contemplating these things when he had spotted Lilia. He had been surprised at the way she was dressed, so much that he wondered if he’d been wrong when he thought it was her.
However, upon closer look, he saw that he was not wrong. It certainly was the maid Lilia that he had met in the market the other day. Another thing was the fact that no noble would be caught walking through the commoners market. If she even visited the market for any reason, she would not be walking, and she would have servants.
He then wondered why she was dressed as a noble. He hated noblewomen, all of them overtly adorned in blinding colors and standing with their noses in the air, thinking that they were better than everyone else. He reveled in killing all nobles, but it was a particular joy to kill noblewomen. The maid shattered his fantasies of her as a delectably innocent woman whom he would wolf on.
He had been looking at her, completely fixated when he noticed what looked like a bite mark on her neck, right where he had imagined putting one. He looked again, but then the frivolous clothes obstructed him. He found himself moving before he knew it, following her as she turned down a path into the bushes. His excitement causing the blood to rush between his ears.
He told himself it would be short and simple. He would not be sacrificing anything. Instead, he would do himself a favor and take the edge off, relax a bit, and return to his mission refreshed. He was already getting frustrated, and he told himself that she was the perfect way to get rid of those frustrations.
It was not as though he could stop himself, what with how his body was reacting to seeing her marked. He was angry because he wanted to be the one who marked her. He decided that he would hurt her even more than he needed to just for the fact that she destroyed his ideals of her.
She had been sharper than he expected, seeing as she noticed him sooner than he thought she would, forcing him to come out in the open. It was not a problem, however, since they were in the woods already, and there was no one around. He had seen the fear in her eyes when she realized what was happening, and he relished it. She looked just as good as he expected her to look when afraid.
His perverse pleasure only increased when she tried to fight back. It was almost funny, did she think that she was the first one to fight. He grabbed her back easily and threw her down on the ground. Her hair had been silky in his hands, the length making it perfect to drag her with. She was the perfect prey.
/> Unfortunately, she had brought him trouble. He had been to distracted in feeding his perversion, so much that he did not notice that they had been discovered until the cloaked figure launched himself out of the bushes and attacked him. He had a few moments of shock and confusion as he as suddenly on the ground receiving heavy punches from a furious-looking man.
Did she have a husband? A lover? A brother? The way the man attacked him, it seemed too personal than just saving a random woman who was being attacked. His senses returned to him quickly, and he was able to kick off his assailant and stop the barrage of punches. He wanted a bit of fun, but he was not willing to risk everything just to get that.
He was getting ready to fend off another attack and make his escape when the man began to get to his feet, and he caught a glimpse of what he thought was blond hair right before another man jumped between them, stopping his assailant.
Shug’s mind worked quickly, staring at the man who lay on his struggling assailant. He knew that man, he was Osgar Abernathy, the right-hand man of The Younger. He did not stay and took off running to make his escape first. He ran back to the market and made his way into the woods on the other side as inconspicuously as he could.
He knew that he needed to disappear before he was chased down, and more importantly, he needed to think. He had learned everything he could about his mark, and as such, it was impossible for him not to know about Osgar Abernathy. It was said that where you found The Younger, the Abernathy heir was not far off. The two were close and stuck together even in mischief. He wondered why he did not think of that first.
If Uielam Younger was not at the Southern border where he was supposed to be, and he was not in the castle where he would be if the Laird had hidden him instead of allowing him to face enemies, the only other place where he would be, was with Osgar Abernathy.
He couldn’t be sure, but he thought the man who attacked him had blond hair. Unfortunately, he did not get a good enough look to tell. However, he clearly saw Osgar Abernathy, and that was enough information to go on. He waited till midnight before making his way out of the woods. The first thing he did was go to a house and steal their clothes off the line.
He knew that if Osgar Abernathy was there, he would probably be a wanted man by the time he came out into the open. He weighed the pros and cons of his decision to chase after the woman called Lilia. He was wanted because of her, but on the other hand, he’d found a lead on his mission. He knew it was too dangerous to try returning to the scene of his altercation, he could see the soldiers positioned at the entrance to the path. Osgar was very efficient, after all. He instead made his way in the dark to the Abernathy manor.
If he was right, then The Younger was probably hiding somewhere on the Abernathy manor, or Osgar Abernathy knew where he was. Either way, it was clear that Osgar was his lead to The Younger. It was ironic how he’d been wondering how he would find his mark, and the man just fell into his lap of his own accord.
He had thought that he was doing an excellent job until morning broke, and he realized that Osgar had his face sketched on wanted posters and was having it distributed to his men, so they all got a glimpse of what he looked like. He looked on in befuddlement from his hiding place. All he did was attack one measly maid, why was Osgar putting in so much effort? Was she his lover?
Now he could not show his face; otherwise, the soldiers scattered all around would find him. He was in a tight spot now, and more than ever, he regretted his decision to go after the maid. He would have figured out what was happening eventually, whether or not he stumbled across Osgar Abernathy, and the man he suspected was his mark.
His plan had been to check at the castle and then go after the man’s best friend if that did not work. It would have just taken a bit more time, but then he would not have to be a wanted man with his face known. He felt a grudging respect for Osgar Abernathy; however, the man had seen him once and committed his features to memory and knew enough to have it painted unto parchment. The man would be mighty in life.
He successfully found himself a cloak with a hood and walked with his head down, trying to look as unnoticeable as possible. In this way, he followed Osgar Abernathy’s carriage to the lists, but it was then that things went wrong as two soldiers spotted him and apparently found him suspicious. They walked behind him at first, attempting to call out to him. He did not stop or turn. Of course, they already knew his face, so if they saw him, they would capture him.
Instead, he sped up, mingling with the crowd and tossing his cloak away before he began to run. They were after him, he knew without looking back, and he found himself hiding in the bushes to avoid soldiers. He crouched in his hiding place, cursing beneath his breath. The soldiers stood right in front of his hiding place.
One of the new guards asked, “Are ye sure that ye saw him?”
“Aye, wearin’ a cloak, lookin’ awfully suspicious. He dumped the cloak, and we saw him, but he made it away in the crowd. He is around here somewhere, one of ye stay here, the rest of us will go search around,” another responded.
They decided quickly, and the rest of them left to go search for him. He peeped out from his hiding place, finding that he was looking directly at the soldier’s ankles. Knowing the soldier’s position, he sprang up quickly, acting before the soldier could even react to his jump scare and grabbing him in a chokehold, falling back to the ground with the soldier in tow, struggling.
The bush swallowed them and rustled as the soldier kicked about, trying to be free of him. Shug held on tightly until the man’s hands went lax, letting him know that he was unconscious. He considered putting in the extra effort to snap his neck, but every second counted. He rolled out of the bush and took off running.
Heading towards the back of the tents and blending in with the stable workers while he searched for Osgar Abernathy. He was still searching when he noticed a cloaked figure slinking out of the woods and hurrying towards the jousters' tents. His brow rose, and he moved closer, he was sure that the cloaked figure was the same one that had attacked him the day before.
I found ye, Uielam Younger
Chapter Nineteen
Lilia had never been more glad to be able to ride in Flora’s carriage than she was at that moment. Flora agreed to pick her up to go the lists, and it saved her from walking alone where she’d been attacked. She arrived not long after Uielam left for the lists, bustling with the energy of waves crashing into the sea.
“Lilia! Osgar told me that ye were attacked yesterday! Are ye alright?!” Lilia asked the instant she appeared, slamming open the door. She had been in the middle of her breakfast when Flora burst in, and she paused. She looked up at her and blinked, not having enough strength to respond.
Noting the quietness around her, Flora calmed down and stepped into the house, shutting the door behind her. She approached the table and sat.
"Are ye okay?" she asked, quieter this time. Lilia nodded.
"Aye, I am alright. Uielam saved me last night before anything bad happened. I was nae hurt… just rather scared,” she said, finishing her meal and pushing her plate away from her.
"I am glad to see that ye are alright. However, ye seem a bit… off…" Flora said.
Lilia looked away, she was indeed off. She was nervous, so much that it had taken all of her effort just to take in breakfast. She could not lie to her friend, mostly she did not have the patience for avoidance of the truth.
"I spent the night with Uielam," she said point-blank, causing Flora's jaw to drop. Her friend looked astonished, her eyes wide. Just as it looked like she was about to finally say something, Lilia continued.
"I am in love with him,” she added, causing Flora to go into another level of shock.
She took a sip of her mead, giving her friend all the time she needed to figure out how to react.
"Lilia…" Flora said, her voice worried. Lilia sighed and got to her feet, taking her plate and now empty cup to the kitchen. By the time she returned, Flora seemed to have her wits
about her again.
“I am nae goin’ to sugar coat this, I am worried. Ye are treadin’ dangerous waters right now, and I’m worried. Uielam has a lot of explainin’ to dae. He told me he will nae toy with ye,” Flora said.
Lilia sat back down with a sigh. She had expected that Flora would be worried.
“I daenae think he meant to toy with me, Flora. I came unto him. I asked him to be with me. He said that we have a lot to talk about, and I agree. I daenae ken what the outcome of that talk will be, but I am prepared for the worst,” she admitted.
Flora leaned back in her seat at that, heaving a heavy breath and crossing her hands on her chest.
“I just wanted ye to ken. Especially so that ye daenae kill Uielam if this ends up hurtin’ me. I did this to meself.,” she said.
Flora had pressed her lips together then, saying nothing else, and instead got up to give her a comforting hug. It was not until they got to the path that Lilia realized how scared she was to walk down the path alone. She had thought that she was fine, but as she walked behind Flora, her hands shook violently, causing her to grab on to her skirts in a bid to hide it.