Page 24 of Wolf's Redemption

“Come. We will find you some clothing so you can blend in.” His gaze dipped to her feet. “And boots that are more functional.”

Her stomach rumbled and his lip quirked, revealing a flash of white teeth. God, the man was gorgeous when he smiled.

“And food. But we must be gone from here before someone reports your presence to the lord of this village.”

The lord of the village? Was that the man in the yellow coat? Would he be more helpful than the villagers themselves? They’d turned their backs on her when she’d approached them, refusingto acknowledge her. Not a single good Samaritan amongst them. One had threatened her with a pitchfork. She’d never had the chance to approach anyone inside the village, but would they have been any different?

She met his stare, his eyes swirling with shadows. “Why are you doing this? You’d travel much faster without me. You could have just let me run and continued on your merry way. Why didn’t you?”

It seemed an awful lot of trouble, and risk, for a man to go to just to get into her knickers.

He shook his head. “You are not safe here on your own.”

She wasn’t necessarily safe with him, either. “But I’m not really your problem, am I? Why don’t you just ditch me? Let the count or the lord of this village deal with me?”

He stared at her, those strange swirls in his irises intensifying. Then he looked away, inhaling a deep breath and releasing it on a long sigh before meeting her gaze once more.

“In truth, Rebekah, helping you reminds me of the man I used to be.”

Oh. His words were a sucker punch to her lungs. She knew that sentiment. Felt it in the very marrow of her bones. Wanting to be the person you’d been, all bright and shiny, full of the promise of youth, before your choices had dragged you down and turned you into someone you no longer recognized. And didn’t that burrow deep down into her chest and make her heart wrench for him.

Regret and pain shimmered in his eyes. Is that what people saw when they looked at her? Did her sense of shame hang over her like his? This man, this knight, was chasing his redemption as much as she was chasing hers.

She pressed her tongue ring against the roof of her mouth, mulling over his words. What were her choices here? She had no money, nowhere to go and she didn’t speak the language.Other than him, she knew no one, and next to nothing about life in historical bloody France. She’d be lucky to last a day on her own. If the farmers she’d approached were any indication, the chances of her getting help from anyone else were slim. The only reason she’d made it this far was because of him.

Ulrik promised food and boots. Two items she desperately needed. Back in the forest, he’d had a fire going and food roasting over it. Pretty impressive since all he had was a sword, a dagger and his bare hands. The man knew how to survive, not only in this world but also in the forest. Bek was capable of neither.

He’d not hurt her. She squeezed her thighs together. No, that kiss hadn’t hurt. Not at all. And that was the crux of things. For her survival, he was her best option. For her morally corrupt and irresponsible libido, he was like pouring gasoline on a fire, but survival came up trumps. It had to. She’d just have to lock her lust down, hold tight to her vow to fix her life and keep him at arm’s length. No more carrying her, no more clinches against walls and absolutely no more kisses.

“Righto.” She looked down at her pink bunny slippers. “Let’s go get me some boots.”

His eyebrow quirked, and a glimmer of confusion flashed in his beautiful eyes.

“I’m so hungry I could eat a horse.” Bek pushed herself away from the wall. “Wait. You guys don’tactuallyeat horse, do you? That’s an urban myth, right?”

He looked offended by her question. “I would not eat my horse unless I were starving and had no other option.”

“Phew. Good. Because if I had to eat Black Beauty, I think I might have to become a vegetarian.”

He stared at her for a moment, and she swore she could see the cogs turning in his brain. “Black Beauty is a horse, yes?”

“Yeah.”

“And by vegetarian, you mean you would abstain from eating the flesh of animals?”

“Yep.”

“Hmm. I think I am beginning to grasp your use of your language, strange as it is. No horse flesh, I promise. Even if they wanted to, these villagers could not afford to buy a horse. Come.”

His hand firmly on her elbow, Bek let him lead her from building to building. At each little hut, he paused and listened. Some he passed by, others he opened the single wooden shutter and peered in before moving on. Finally, he stopped at one of the little mud-brick huts, satisfied with what he had seen inside. He climbed in and offered her his arms to help her through. She brushed his hands away.Nope. No more touching. She climbed through the window under her own steam.

If the keep hadn’t convinced her she was no longer in the twenty-first century, this would have. Standing in a one-room hut with a thatched roof and straw strewn across the dirt floor, she was as far from her London flat as she could get. In one corner sat a rough-hewn worn table with bench seats. In another, a collection of mattresses that looked like they were stuffed with straw, and storage chests stacked side by side. Rough-looking shelves held an assortment of bowls and cooking pots, with baskets of vegetables stored neatly beneath them. Near the door, a pen made from tree branches sectioned off a space. For a dog? A pet? Or did they bring their livestock inside at night?

In the middle of the hut, drawing her in, was a pot hung over a lit fire, its contents bubbling away. The smell of stewing meat filled the room. God, she was so hungry. Whatever it was, it smelled divine. She grabbed the ladle and scooped up the thick stew. Steam rose from the full ladle and her stomach rumbled. She blew on it, then tasted it.

“Mmm. S’good.” She held the ladle out to Ulrik. “You want some?”

Ulrik shook his head. He moved about the hut with purpose, rifling through the chests and grabbing items. He thrust an item of clothing at her. “Take your clothes off and put this on.”

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