Abruptly I yanked the reins, halting the wagon. Ahead the road rose up a slight hill, and three riders were silhouetted against the night sky, stopped and apparently conferring. They could’ve just been ordinary locals on their way home-it wasn’t that late, after all-but I was taking no chances. We were at the bottom of the slope, in a pool of shadow beneath a tree; if they hadn’t heard our clattering approach and we didn’t give ourselves away, we should be invisible. To Jenny I whispered, “Be very still.”
The three riders had not moved. Their voices reached us, but not clearly enough to make out. Were they coming our way, or headed toward Astolat?
They finished their conversation and started down the hill at a fast trot. There was no time to jump from the wagon and hide, certainly no chance of turning around and outrunning them. So I did the only thing I could.
I pulled Jenny into my arms and kissed her.
Even at the time, part of me appreciated how rare this moment was. She was a beautiful woman, and when I held her close, I felt the shape of her slender, strong body against me. I was experiencing the same embrace as both Marcus Drake and Elliot Spears; that was some pretty rarefied company.
She strained against me at first, then amazingly began to relax. I felt her lips part slightly, and her arms went around my neck. It became less of a ruse than I intended.
Then one of the riders said from beside us, “What’ve we got here?”
I looked back at them. Shadowed by the tree, I couldn’t make out their faces, which meant they couldn’t see mine or notice how overdressed I was. I said, in what I hoped was a fair approximation of the local country accent, “Do you mind? We’d like a little privacy here.”
I felt a sword tap my cheek. “Don’t get smart, farm boy.”
I spread my hands. It was dark enough they couldn’t tell I was armed. “Hey, whoa, I’m not trying to start any trouble. We’re just out for a ride, you know?”
The next voice both raised my hackles and made my temper wind to the breaking point. It was the sneering, unmistakably broken-nosed whine of Dave Agravaine. “Forget it. We don’t have time. Come on.”
The sword did not move. Then it tapped my cheek playfully. “Too bad, or we’d share her with you. Maybe she’d like a couple of real men.”
“Come on!” Agravaine snarled. It came out Cub ah!
I watched until they disappeared in the distance, back toward Blithe Ward. I heard Jenny draw a breath to speak and quickly touched her lips with my finger. Still watching over my shoulder, I snapped the reins. The horses pulled us up over the hill and into the open, where at least we couldn’t easily be ambushed. I said, “Okay, but speak softly.”
“Elliot would have you gelded for that.”
“I’m sorry, it was all I could think of.”
“Your first impulse in a moment of danger is to kiss the nearest woman?”
“Yes.”
She was silent for a moment. Then she giggled. She choked it off at once, but there was no denying it. After a moment she added, “My experience with kisses has been limited to one man, but yours was not… unpleasant. I wouldn’t make it a habit, though.” She leaned close and gave me a small but deliberate peck on the cheek.
I might’ve blushed. “I wanted them to think we were just local folks out for a good time and completely uninterested in them. And since they were Knights of the Double Tarn, it was definitely the right call.”
“Knights of the Double Tarn?” she gasped.
“Yeah. One was Dave Agravaine, so I assume the others were Cador and Hoel.”
“Why would Knights of the Double Tarn be here?”
“If they don’t know about you, then those particular knights were probably out to ambush Elliot. If somehow they do know about you…”
“Then we have to get to Cameron’s place quickly. Hurry!” She reached across and tried to grab the reins from me.
“Stop that!” I said roughly, and pushed her back. “There’s no reason to panic.” I held her shoulders until she stopped struggling. “Nice to see you worry about your husband,” I snapped.
“Elliot doesn’t need my help,” she said, still shaking. “But if they catch me, if they hurt me, I can’t bear it-”
“Nobody is going to catch you. You may not believe it, but I know what I’m doing. They’re going the other way, and we’ve got a good head start. Now calm down.”
The wagon seat trembled, conveying her shudders. She was totally unlike the other Jennifer, and I realized that the long-ago decision to switch was right. But I also understood why Drake might see it as treasonous betrayal.
I stopped the wagon and took her in my arms again, not as a man takes a woman but as you’d hold a frightened child discovered far from home. I recalled Mary the servant girl trembling on her stool, face battered from Agravaine’s tender care. That made me even more aware of my responsibility. I kept one arm around Jenny’s shoulders and snapped the reins with the other. The sooner I got her to safety, the better. For everyone.
TWENTY
Luckily the turnoff was marked well enough that I spotted it in the dark. We left the stone-paved road for a more traditional worn path across the countryside. Here and there hearth fires shone through the windows of small farms, and we startled a group of young people skinny-dipping in a lake. The sound of their joyous panic was both sweet and, in its fragility, somehow ominous. If they knew what was going on at Nodlon Castle with their king, they might not be in such a hurry to run around so vulnerably.
We went around a bend, and out of the corner of my eye I saw a man on horseback just beyond a stand of trees. “Don’t move!” I hissed. I yanked the reins with one hand and reached for my sword with the other.
Jenny laughed. “That’s a statue, Mr. LaCrosse.”
By the time she said it, I’d figured it out myself. It was life-size, made of stone, and mounted on a low pedestal. The horse reared on its hind legs, and the knight riding it had his sword above his head.
I sighed in relief and embarrassment. “Who the hell puts a statue out in the middle of nowhere, anyway?” I snapped.
“You can find these all over Grand Bruan. There was a decisive battle in the wars of unification on this very spot. Old Pernil-that’s the knight’s name-came out of retirement to fight alongside Marcus and Elliot. He took a javelin meant for Marc and died.” She paused for a moment. “Pernil used to visit our castle when I was a little girl, long before Marcus came to power. He did little sleight-of-hand tricks to amuse me. I wanted to marry him when I grew up.”
Looking around at the countryside, I was again amazed at how quickly and thoroughly the citizens of Grand Bruan had put aside centuries of differences and united under one ruler. The battle she described left remarkably few scars on the landscape. I’d seen fields so salty from spilled blood that nothing ever grew there again.
Near midnight we left the open country and went back beneath the forest boughs. Owls and nighthawks called, and deer darted from cover ahead of us. The insect chorus expressed its contentment, countered by the barrumphing of frogs. Like those isolated stretches of the main road, this would be prime bandit cover anywhere but Grand Bruan.
“I saw you admiring my painting,” Jenny said. “Back at Blithe Ward. I apologize for spying, but you understand why now.”
I was glad she’d decided to talk, because I was losing the battle with my eyelids. “Was the model you or the queen?”
“That one was me. Elliot painted it himself.”
“I’m impressed. He’s a man of many talents.”
“No, only a few. But he excels at them.” She paused. “You thought it was Jennifer?”
“Well… yes. At the time I didn’t know you existed.”
“Then may I ask you something as a man?”
“I’m not sure I’m qualified to represent all men.”
“I think you’ll do, if that kiss was any indication. Who is more beautiful, the queen or me?”