Page 72 of Raven's Rise
She smiled. “Tell me more.”
Chapter 21
They pressed on the nextday, taking the road heading south, now with a boy in tow. Angelet was delighted to have Goswin with them, even if the circumstances of their meeting had been a little less than ideal. She recognized the boy’s frustration with the world, since she’d felt the same thing herself. Even if he only traveled with them for a while, perhaps she could help temper that anger into something more healthy. And it would be good for Goswin to understand that Rafe was a person, not a monster out to destroy his happiness. Goswin was speaking to him, at least. That was a hopeful sign.
Goswin’s pony needed to rest more frequently than the other mounts, so Rafe sometimes declared that he and the boy would walk, holding the leads of their horses, while Angelet continued to ride at a leisurely pace. Her own weight hardly inconvenienced the big white horse.
During one of those periods, in the late morning, Angelet overheard Goswin and Rafe talking up ahead.
“She’s so beautiful,” Goswin was saying. “She looks like one of the fair folk.”
“Her family hails from Anjou, not fairyland,” Rafe said, putting a quick end to Goswin’s speculations. She understood why—the last thing they needed was for someone to draw a connection between Angelet’s affliction and some fairy curse. She also hoped that they’d find a safe place for Goswin long before he might see her have a seizure, which would only frighten him.
In fact, if she regained Henry and reached Anjou, both Rafe and Goswin would leave her life soon after.It’s for the best, she told herself. Rafe had made it very clear that he intended to be gone the moment his obligation to Angelet was over. If only she could persuade him to stay. She’d already seen that he had the experience to lead others, however much he declared that he didn’t feel comfortable as a commander.
Her inner voice slyly pointed out that perhaps her real reason for wanting to keep Rafe near her was not his military skill, but rather the way he occupied her nights. Angelet fought off a rising sense of embarrassment as she recalled their last encounter. Rafe had wakened a part of her that even her late husband couldn’t. Maybe if Hubert had lived, their marriage would have grown, and they would have shared the sort of intimacies that she’d experienced with Rafe. But Hubert had been young, and preoccupied, and singularly focused on getting a child—for both his sake and hers.
Lost in her musings, Angelet let out a sigh. Both Rafe and Goswin looked back at her.
“Is something the matter, my lady?” Goswin asked immediately.
Rafe didn’t say anything, but gave her a searching look.
“Don’t concern yourselves,” she said. “I was just thinking.”
“About what?” asked Goswin, absently pushing his curly hair off his forehead.
“Nothing important. Merely pondering the future.”
The boy looked more interested. “Are you going to seek vengeance?”
“What is your obsession with vengeance?” Rafe said. “Why would she want vengeance?”
“Or retribution,” Goswin said. “For what happened to your party before, on the road. I’d want vengeance if I had all my goods stolen and my retinue attacked.”
“You know about that?” Angelet asked.
“Course. It’s how I was able to findhim,” Goswin explained, glaring at Rafe as though just remembering that he was a mortal enemy. “I was following about an hour or so behind the carriage, when I came across four men on horseback. Evil-looking men, too. They asked if I’d seen a man and a lady riding along the road, he on a black horse, she on a white one. They were looking for you, too.”
“So what did you say?”
“I told them yes! I said the couple rode right past me at a breakneck speed, aiming south along the road. The men spurred their mounts and sprang away. Didn’t even thank me.”
“Well, you did lie to them,” Rafe pointed out.
Goswin made a face. “But they didn’t know I lied. Anyway, I knew you hadn’t actually backtracked, so you must have taken a different turn. I keep traveling, going faster, and came across the broken carriage and cart, and a few dead bodies.”
She winced at the picture, remembering how young he still was. “Oh, how horrible for you to have seen that!”
“Not the first death I’ve seen, my lady,” Goswin said simply. “And it won’t be the last. Peaceful or violent, death is everyone’s lot.”
“What did you do next?” Rafe asked.
“I couldn’t do anything for the ones already dead, so I retraced my steps, looking for a path that turned off before the point where I met the four men. When I saw one with fresh tracks, I took it. Kept going, but my pony needed rest, so I moved much slower. I had to sleep in the woods two nights in a row. Then it rained the next day, and I thought I’d lose you for certain.”
“Why didn’t you give up?” Angelet asked, astounded at the boy’s tenacity.
Goswin looked sidelong at Rafe again. “Because I’ve got nothing to go back to. No one waiting for me. I kept on the roads, kept asking after a man and a woman riding black and white horses. When I met someone who had seen you, I just kept on.”
