Page 26 of The Agent and the Outlaw
“But there’s a bounty on your head, and a group of your father’s vampire soldiers after you,” she mused. “It must be a particularly compelling family squabble for your father to seek you out with such industrious measures.”
“It’s complicated,” I grumbled. I was already regretting my resolution to tell her some of my truths—an impulse that had struck when I’d seen the look of disappointed betrayal in her eyes after I’d kissed her and stolen her letter.Trust a woman to twist the knife of guilt.
“I’m sure it is,” she replied, an edge of frustration creeping into her tone. “There’s much I’d like to know about your relationship with your father, his motives in creating a superior soldier, his reasons for hiding those actions from the king, and why you feel the need to share this information with me now, but I suppose there are more pertinent questions first. Are there just the five of them? How skilled are these men? What will they do with you when they find you? Is the bounty for your capture or your death?”
The more she spoke, the more agitated she became, eventually abandoning her food and standing to pace in front of me. I tossed my apple core into the woods behind us.
“Yes, as far as I know, there are only five of them. They are a kind of…experiment, I suppose. They have been given more training than an average soldier, but they are newly turned and lack the experience of both seasoned vampires and seasoned soldiers. That makes them half as predictable and twice as dangerous as normal vampires and normal soldiers, which is why I cannot say for certain what they will do when they find us. My father would not have ordered my death, so I suspect he merely wants me to return to him, but whether or not thebêteswill obey that order isquestionable, at best.”
Charlotte paused her pacing and stared at me with those penetrating brown eyes.Dieu, she was beautiful. The early winter chill made her cheeks rosy in the same way that she blushed when she was flustered. I caught myself fantasizing about chasing that blush across her naked body but shook myself out of the vision. She was a spy. She probably used her beauty and charm to manipulate men with the detached precision of a clockmaker tending his cogs.Do not fall for her, Antoine.
She pursed her lips and nodded decisively, wrapping the food back up and putting it in her pocket.
“We shouldn’t delay any further then,” she said crisply. “You can tell me about the rest on our way to Gévaudan.”
Her posture was stiff as she mounted Tartuffe, sliding forward on the saddle to allow me to heave myself up behind her.
“You’re angry with me,” I observed. “Is it because I got the better of you earlier or because of the danger I put you in?” I was unable to resist the temptation to tease her a little, though I kept my expression stoic as I guided us back to the southern road.
“You didn’t get the better of me! And I’m not angry,” she bit out.
I chuckled at the ironic denial.
“I’mnotangry,” she repeated. “I amannoyed.And it has nothing to do with the danger we are in. I can handle myself, thank you very much.”
Of that, I had no doubt.
“Why are you annoyed with me then?” I prodded.
“It doesn’t matter,” she said curtly.
“It certainly seems to,” I argued. “Whatever it is, I’m sorry. There, now. I’ve apologized. You can cease your petulance.”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake! You aresuch a man!” she cried in exasperation. She turned halfway to glare at me from one eye, then opened her mouth to launch into what I could only assume would be a scathing, seething tirade, when she stopped and froze, as if she’d been struck. She craned her neck to squint behind us, coming up out of the saddle.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Hush!” she hissed. “Don’t look now, but there is someone behind us on the road, traveling at quite a clip.”
“On foot or horseback?”
“Horseback,” she said warily. “It’s a man on a lovely bay mare. He’s dressed in dark green—looks bourgeois to me. I can’t quite make out his face yet because his hat is pulled down rather low.”
I made to turn but she stopped me with a firm hand on my arm.
“If you look now, it will be too obvious. Let’s just continue on our way as the newlyweds we are and be prepared if it’s trouble,” she said, facing forward again.
I watched her slide her hand into one of her pockets and heard the sound of a pistol cocking.So, she’s kept the soldier’s weapon this whole time!I’d nearly forgotten about it. Reflexively, I felt for my own dual pistols and my short swords at my side. My crossbow hung from the saddle, though it would be useless in a roadside fray.
We were silent for the next several minutes, tensely waiting for the approaching man to either address us or ride on. As we listened to his horse trot up behind us, I felt the active tension gather in Charlotte’s muscles, like a coiled snake ready to strike at a moment’s notice.Magnifique.
“Âllo!”the man called.“Bonjour, mes amis!What fine weather we are having today! I only hope it doesn’t rain later. Nothing worse than getting caught out in the rain, eh?”
I felt Charlotte relax a fraction, but I wasn’t sure why. Looking up at the sky that almost certainly promised rain, I started to respond to the stranger, but Charlotte stopped me.
She didn’t take her hand from her pocket. “It’s worse to be caught out in the snow. Where are you headed,mon ami?”
“I go only where my masters send me,” he said cryptically.
