Page 43 of Arrows and Gems
Giving her a wry grin, he said, “No offense, Margit, but I don’t think you have the patience to teach me.”
Alanna smothered a giggle while Helena stabbed the shirt she was mending. “Possibly,” she admitted with a huff. “Although it must be easier than teaching someone to read music,” she mused.
A half smile curved her mouth as she remembered Liesl relaying a secondhand account of Axel’s efforts to teach Katy how to read music. In front of them both, naturally. Her brother’s cheeks had borne a light pink color while he protested his obvious success, despite the ineffectiveness of his methods.
“Which you’ve done?” Tucker’s face wore a skeptical expression.
She laughed. “No, my brother did. But you’re right: he’s much more patient than I am.”
He smiled and stood. “Tucker,” Alanna said hesitantly. “Ifyou want to learn…I can teach you.”
“You’d do that?” His smile beamed. Helena suspected Alanna’s offer was enough to make him willing on its own. “I—yes, that would be great. I mean, thank you!”
Alanna smiled shyly. “Come back when you finish your chores, and we’ll get started.”
After he ran off, Helena turned to Alanna. “Why hasn’t anyone offered before now? I thought Le Capuchon was devoted to the care of his people.”
“He is,” the younger girl replied softly. She picked up another sock, running it through her hands in search of holes. “Tucker never said anything, so Cap may not have realized. He doesn’t have time to do everything; he keeps very busy with...”
“Being a bandit?” Helena supplied with a teasing smile.
“Something like that.” Grabbing her needle and thread, Alanna set to work again. “He doesn’t keep things for himself, you know.”
“So I’ve heard,” Helena snorted. “It doesn’t make it more pleasant to know my things were sold to support his crew.”
Alanna’s head shot up. “He didn’t sell your things. He gave them to the villagers.”
“He said you kept one of my dresses.”
“He does sometimes let us keep things if we need them,” Alanna admitted, a bit of red that wasn’t from the cold coloring her cheeks. “But otherwise, we trade for what we need. The men hunt, Papa and I perform. We don’t steal to live.”
Helena set the shirt on her lap. Narrowing her eyes at her companion, she asked, “Then why do you?”
Alanna kept her eyes focused on her needle. “If he wants you to know, he’ll tell you.” It wasn’t a satisfying answer, but Helena dropped the subject; Alanna clearly didn’t plan to tell her.
Fine. She would ask Le Capuchon himself.
...as soon as he showed his hooded face.
~
“Tomorrow’s bread won’t make itself, you know.”
Helena’s head jerked up. She’d been lost in thought and allowed her hands to stall. “Sorry, Rouge.” Picking up the bit she was working on, she turned it over a few more times and set it to the side to rise. She began the next batch, focusing on her work while she worked up the nerve to say something.
“I haven’t seen your brother all day,” she said as casually as she could. “Or your hooded leader. Are they out hunting?”
Rouge’s hands stilled. Helena kept her focus on her dough, monitoring her companion out of the corner of her eye.
“Why do you ask?”
Helena scowled at the suspicion in the other woman’s voice. “Can’t I be curious?” she asked, kneading the dough with a little too much force. “Neither one is here, and they’re both rather hard to miss.”
Rouge’s lips twitched. “My brother isn’t.”
“He’s short; it’s not the same thing,” Helena replied with a tiny grin of her own. “My point is, I haven’t seen them since last night.”And it’s almost dark.She focused on the dough like the answer wasn’t important to her. “So I was curious why they hadn’t shown up today. It was strange to not see them after spending all day with them yesterday.”
It was the wrong thing to say. Rouge’s eyes narrowed again. “Yes, you did.”
