Page 66 of Arrows and Gems
He gave a grim nod. “I don’t think Erwan will report that fact to General Valentin, but I can’t be certain. I may have just put a lot of people in danger.”
Helena felt her heart sink, remembering the trouble that rescuing her from her curse had caused Michael. “It would have been better if you’d left me.”
“No!” he said fiercely. “It was my fault for rushing in without thinking. I have no regrets about coming back for you.”
Wanted.
As she blinked back the tears, Helena thanked the heavens that sharing a horse gave her a valid excuse for not facing him. She took in a slow, quiet breath through her mouth, then rested a light hand on the arm that was still around her waist. “Thank you, Cap.” Her voice didn’t even waver, she noted proudly.
His cheek pressed against her temple, and his arm tightened for a moment before his hand moved back to the reins. “Always,” he whispered.
The loss of his arm was meaningless with that single quiet word. Years of feeling like an imposition, like an unfortunate necessity, melted away.
If anyone else had said it, she would have replied with a skeptical,Really?
But she was riding up the mountain on Cap’s horse. He’d just risked exposure to rescue her. He’d comforted her when he still believed she might be his enemy.
And he didn’t even know he was doing it for a princess.
Unwanted.
Cap and his friends wanted her. If they didn’t, he wouldn’t have come for someone who only slowed him down.
Abandoned.
When Cap discovered that she’d been left behind, he’d forgotten to raise his hood in his rush to find her.
Alone.
Tucker and Alanna made her feel like she belonged. And she felt very noticed with Cap’s warm breath fluttering her hair as they rode.
Sought out. Rescued. Welcome.
Unable to bear the overwhelming – and wonderful – reversal of her mental refrain, Helena turned her face to the side, tilted her head against Cap’s shoulder, and silently cried.
CHAPTER 24
Helena
They kept moving for the next week. Every night, they set up camp only to tear it down again the next morning. Helena could put up and pack her tent with her eyes closed.
The constant travel gave her shoulder plenty of rest, but Helena didn’t miss her archery too much. Since her ankle was still healing, she continued to ride Farrell. And she had no regrets about spending her days next to Cap.
She still had to make him laugh, after all. That single bark after he rescued her from Erwan didn’t count.
“He hadn’t taken his eyes off her all afternoon,” Helena said, continuing a tale from before the curse. Jean-haut grinned back at her, but Cap maintained his careful watch of their surroundings. “After listening to him sigh for several months, I knew he would lose the battle soon and try to kiss her.”
“And what did you do about it?” Jean-haut asked.
She batted her eyes and pasted on an innocent expression. “Me? What makes you think I did anything about it?”
“The fact that you decided to tell the story,” Cap calmly inserted. So hewaslistening. “I doubt you intend to regale us with your brother’s success.”
A broad grin stretched across her face. “Of course not; no one wants to hear a story about someone else kissing.”
She’d hoped to rile him up, but not even the tip of his earchanged color.
“Being a conscientious sister, I took steps to prevent it,” she admitted with false humility. “I dumped out the river stones they’d collected and used the bucket to scoop some water from the Felsig River.”
