Page 34 of Company of Thieves
“Yes, this is what I’m wearing, and when did you see Etienne that you almost gutted him?” He gave her a little shake.
“I don’t suppose you’d like to get an ear pierced or something? Maybe a tattoo on a visible spot ... hmm? Oh, last night, right before I found Jack. He was lurking in the shadows while the rest of you were fighting in the square, which you have to admit says a lot about the sort of man he is. I can’t imagine you ever lurking in the shadows while others fought for you.”
Alan’s blood went from its usually heated state when around Hallie to one that icebergs could have safely floated in. She had seen Etienne? Been close to him? His stomach tightened unpleasantly as he imagined what Etienne would have made of a woman wearing his colors. “Did he see you? No, he couldn’t have.” He shook his head. She wouldn’t be here now if Etienne had her in his grasp. “You should have told me this earlier this morning.”
“I didn’t think it was important. And he did see me. He tried to strangle me, but I kneed him in the noogies, and then whacked him on the head with the hilt of my sword. I thought of stabbing him with it, but it just seemed so bloody, and besides, smacking him on the head let me get away,” she said in a matter-of-fact voice, just like it was nothing.
Alan felt a distinct need to sit down and have a mild case of apoplexy. “He tried to strangle you?” he asked in a voice that sounded like he was gargling stones. “You hit him on the head?”
“Yup.” She smiled with obvious pride, and spread a hand on the open vee of his tunic, her fingers gently stroking the dip in his collarbone. “So you see, I’m not quite as inept as you make me out to be. Hey, have you ever thought of getting a distinctive haircut? Maybe have the sides shaved short?”
He turned around and walked away at that point. He had to, lest he yell at her, forbidding her to ever leave his tent again. That or have the fit of apoplexy that right now was looking pretty damned good. He went straight to Az and told him to double the amount of men that were to be assigned to Hallie.
If Etienne had seen her, known her to be a member of his company, he would show absolutely no mercy the next time he encountered her. And that, Alan swore to himself, would happen over his cold, dead body.
Two days later, he was still thinking darkly about the close call Hallie had had with Etienne. The only time he seemed to be able to put it aside was when she was in his arms, or writhing beneath him, or riding him like a well-lathered horse. Or, in the case of earlier that morning, sliding around on him in the lemon-oiled water of his large bath, her knuckle massage causing him to lose control once again, which left most of the water on the rug beneath the bath, and them both exhausted, lemon-scented, and sated almost beyond human ability.
“Is something worrying you?”
Alan stopped planning a sunken pool in the house that he’d been thinking of building, realizing with a start that for the last ten minutes he’d been standing next to where the horses were pastured. He glanced at Zand, standing beside him. “Why do you ask that?”
“Because for the last few days, you’ve been quiet. If you were another man, I’d say you were pensive. Or moody.”
Alan shot his friend a cold look. “I am not moody or pensive. If I’m quiet, it’s because teaching Hallie how to use a weapon without her managing to kill herself on it is taking all my ingenuity, attention, and effort. It’s exhausting. The woman has the most hair-raising ideas of ways to attack. It’s adding years to my life, if not decades.”
Zand laughed, and punched him in the arm. “I would think it was worth it just to have the nights you’ve obviously been having with her.”
“Yes, well, those are good,” he said, smiling at the thought of the bath, but that smile faded when he remembered her actions of two hours after that, his finger on his now-bare upper lip. “She leaves me feeling unbalanced, Zand. I never know what she’s going to say or do.”
“She is a bit odd, but she’s American. That might explain it.”
“Some, yes. But take a couple of hours ago. After I shaved, I went to find her so that we could work on her defensive moves, and she ignored me until I asked her what was wrong, and then she got mad at me because I shaved off my mustache.” He thought over the scene again. “She actually demanded that I grow it back, saying that no one else had one the exact shape and size. Most women want you to be clean-shaven, but not Hallie. What the hell is wrong with her?”
Zand shrugged and rubbed his own mustache. “She seems to be pretty fond of you. Maybe she liked it?”
“I don’t know. And then there’s her insistence that I teach her stealth moves, so she can be a rogue. A rogue what?”
Zand looked confused. “Should I know?”
“I sure as hell don’t. It would be nice if someone did.” He sighed. “It all just leaves me feeling ... bah. It doesn’t matter. What did you want?”
“Maybe,” Zand suggested, obviously ignoring the last question, “you are at odds with yourself because you’re no longer happy being Akbar.”
Alan stiffened. “Are you saying you wish to take over?”
“No, no,” Zand said with a laugh, holding his hands up in a gesture of peace. “I’m not so foolish as that. I simply mean that now that you have found Hallie, perhaps the time of Akbar is drawing to a close?”
Alan thought about that for a few minutes. “It is true that I have grown tired of juggling Alan’s and Akbar’s lives. If it were possible for me to give up my duty to the imperator ... but too many lives depend on me to buffer them from his wrath. No, Akbar will have to remain until such time as I can do no more to keep the imperator from wreaking havoc.”
“Have you told her about Alan?” Zand asked.
“Not yet,” Alan answered, ignoring the voice in his head that reminded him he should be acting far more like the arrogant Prince Akbar and less like the diplomatic Alan. So long as he could be his true self with Hallie, that would have to do. At least for the time being, until his father ... he stopped that thought, and turned away from the horses, his eyes automatically scanning the camp. People bustled hither and yon, tending animals, mending armor and equipment, hunting, cooking ... all the usual happenings of his camps, and yet there was something else in the air, something beyond his personal issues. It was an awareness that prickled along his skin. “Is there any word on my father’s movements?”
“Nothing since last night. Will he stay with you?”
“He’ll demand my bed, I’m sure. Make sure another tent is set up for me.”
“And Hallie?”
