Page 73 of Arrows and Gems
“Only yours.”
“Such a charmer.” Reaching up, she grasped the belt below his hand. He released it, trailing his fingers across hers before dropping his hand back to his side.
She resisted the blush that wanted to rise to her cheeks. He wasn’t “trailing his fingers;” her hand was simply too close for the angle.
They walked past Rouge, who was packing the rest of the dishes. The redhead looked up. “Are the arrows for your journeyback to Marielle?”
Helena frowned. “What do you mean? I’m not planning to go anywhere.”
Raising an eyebrow, Rouge glanced down at Helena’s ankle. “But weren’t you only staying until you could make the trip? You look fit as a fiddle now. Your cane is gone, and Cap gave you your own quiver.”
He wouldn’t send her away, would he? Not when she finally had a safe place?
Helena buried her unease under a smirk. Setting one hand on her hip, she replied, “Don’t let Adrien hear that. He doesn’t like the term ‘fiddle,’ no matter how much his country playing sounds like he’s using one.”
Rouge rolled her eyes and fastened her pack. “You know what I mean.”
“We’re too far south for Marielle’s estate, if I understand the geography correctly,” Helena lightly said. “I don’t fancy making the trip alone, as I have no funds for a coach. And by foot, I would lose my way within a day.”
“You wouldn’t have to travel alone,” Cap slowly said. Helena kept her self-assured expression, but she felt her heart sinking. “The messages I exchanged with the Cheval family only addressed stabling the horses, but I am sure they would accept you as well, if I asked.”
She peeked over at him. In typical Cap fashion, he looked neither upset nor pleased. But his right hand drifted over the fletching of his arrows.
“Eager to be rid of me before I can beat you at archery?” she teased.
His mouth twitched before resuming its stoic lines. “Hardly. But a life on the run is no place for a lovely lady, and Marielle will surely worry.”
“A lady? Ha!” Pulling an arrow from her quiver, Helenasent it into a tree at the edge of their clearing with only a swift glance. “I believe we’ve established that I’mnota lady.”
“Cap, don’t we have a strict ‘no shooting in camp except in an emergency’ rule?” Rouge grumbled, glaring at the arrow. “She could have hurt someone!”
“I wouldn’t, and you know it.” Helena spared Rouge a brief glance before turning to Cap. “And I won’t do it again.”
His eyes stayed on the arrow. “You may feel as if you do not meet the definition of a lady, but you still have a title. And Mariellewillworry. She worries about me. She’ll worry about you as long as you’re with me.”
If he was going to play dirty, then so would she.
She gulped. Except her motivation was personal, and she didn’t want it spread further than she could help.
Wrapping a hand around Cap’s arm, she tugged him gently away from Rouge and the others. He raised a quizzical eyebrow, but he followed without question.
Once they were out of earshot, Helena turned to him and lowered her voice. “Please don’t send me back to Marielle, Cap. I told her that she could try talking me into going home once my shoulder had healed.”
“Is that truly such a bad thing, Margit?” he asked gently. “You speak of your brother, his wife, and her younger sister as if you’re fond of them.”
She hesitated. In the weeks since Cap rescued her from Erwan, she had settled into his little family. And she had realized that she may have developed a misperception where her own family was concerned. “You’re right. And I am sure that they would like me to come home.” She paused, gathering her courage for what she needed to say. “But I didn’t leave home because of them. I thought they would be happier without me, but I would have stayed if it were no more than that.”
For a moment, she thought he would take her hand. Buthis hand settled on his arrows instead. “Then why did you?”
She rubbed her hands together and faced the forest. “Ralnor has some interesting laws. One of them gives our council the right to require my marriage by a certain date.” She trusted an Amitian guard wouldn’t know why that was. “They gave me until the end of the year. If I don’t pick a suitable husband on my return, they’ll choose one for me.”
She heard Cap’s boots shift on the loose leaves, but he didn’t comment.
“None of their choices are desirable. I decided to endure the courting, but I had hoped they would see sense before I...” She trailed off. She didn’t know what she would have done. The law didn’t state the consequences if the heir flatly refused to follow their dictate.
“So if you return home, they will force you to marry?” There was a strange note in his voice. She hoped that it upset him as much as it did her and her family. Even if he could do nothing to prevent it but let her stay.
“Yes.” She took a deep breath and pushed through the rest of it, determined to seal her place in his camp. “The man I expect the council to choose for me is in love with someone else.”
