Damn him! His voice was soft again. Without a word, Annavieve went to the front of the wagon and took hold, climbing up. Kevin came up behind her and helped her most of the way, tucking her cloak into the wagon to make sure she was properly secured. When Annavieve gathered the reins from the wagon seat, he stopped her.
“Wait,” he said. “You do not have any gloves. I will see if I can locate some.”
Annavieve shook her head. “It is not necessary.”
Kevin cocked an eyebrow at her. “The leather will tear your hands to pieces.”
Annavieve turned to him then, stubbornly, and held up a hand to him, palm-first. “Look at my hand,” she said, indicating the heavy callouses on her palm. “I do not have fine and lady-like hands, my lord. They are calloused from years of work at the convent, so they are well-suited to this task. You should not worry.”
Kevin eyed her palm; it was indeed calloused and rough. But she quickly took her hand away and resumed gathering the reins, settling herself comfortably. Kevin watched her a moment, realizing that he didn’t like it when she was stiff and angry. He wasn’t sure why she was upset with him, but it was clear that she was. He very much wanted to find out what he had done to upset her so but, upon reflection, he supposed it didn’t matter. Maybe it was for the best. It was far easier for him to forget his feelings for her if she was behaving poorly. Aye, it helped him a great deal.
Without another word, as he was determined now not to speak to her unless it was absolutely essential, he turned for the corral where his frustrated horse was now chewing ferociously on the wooden fence. He whistled loudly, calling the horseover, and soon the beast was fully tacked and ready to depart. Securing his saddlebags was the last step and once those were tied up, he mounted the beast and spurred him from the corral.
Making sure Annavieve was following in the wagon, which she was quite deftly, Kevin led them out of Staines and into the countryside beyond.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Don’t look ather, he thought.Just don’t look at her!
One hour on the road and Kevin and Annavieve hadn’t said one word to each other. It was an obvious silence and an uncomfortable one, growing worse by the minute. He’d vowed not to speak with her unless absolutely necessary but that vow was in danger of crumbling. It had only been an hour, but still, he could feel her presence behind him like a great weight, dragging at him, demanding that he turn around and look at her. But he wouldn’t; she was angry with him and he didn’t care. At least, that’s what he kept telling himself.
The fall season was rich upon them, the grounds soaked from heavy rains and animals preparing their stores for the winter. Passing south on their way to Longcross, which was no more than a half-hour away at their present pace, the area they were traveling in was heavily wooded and spotted with hundreds of small lakes. Birds flew overhead, and frolicked in the trees, and they’d seen more than their share of rabbit families foraging in the fields.
Kevin even saw a family of white-spotted fallow deer which had been paralleling their path along the road, following curiously and being generally nosy. It was uncommon for deer tobe so friendly but Kevin made no comment about it. He was sure Annavieve saw them and he was equally sure she was delighted about it, but still, he said nothing. His thoughts were moving to Longcross up ahead and the tournament that was going on there. He hoped there was still opportunity for him to compete. But that was his last calm thought before the deer scattered and an arrow suddenly flew past his head.
Startled, he reined his horse up, whirling around in the direction the arrow had come from to see at least five or six men charging out of the trees. Furious at himself because he’d been caught up in thoughts of Annavieve rather than watching his surroundings, Kevin unsheathed the massive broadsword strapped against the left side of his saddle, up near the pommel. As he charged at the men, he thundered past the wagon and bellowed at Annavieve.
“Get the horse moving,” he shouted. “Run for Longcross!”
Terrified, Annavieve watched him as he rushed past her and into the field to the north side of the road. Men were there, two of them on horseback, and she cried out in fright as Kevin engaged the men on horseback. One man on horseback fell right away, nearly cut in half by Kevin’s mighty sword, but the second one was a bit more of a challenge. He was putting up a bit of a fight and Annavieve could see that two of men on foot were going after Kevin from behind, trying to grab at him.
Kevin caught one man trying to snatch the dagger on the rear left side of his saddle and he reached back with his left hand even as he did battle with his right, wresting the dagger away from the man and plunging the blade into the bandit’s neck. As the man screamed and fell away, the other man charged Kevin and was trying to latch on to his left arm and pull him off the horse. The last man of the group was running straight at Annavieve but her instinct wasn’t to flee; oddly enough, she wasn’t thinking ofherself at all. She was thinking to fight off her attacker and go help Kevin.
She couldn’t think of the consequences of her actions; all she could see was that Kevin was doing battle with three men and even though he was holding his own, the odds were stacked against him. His horse, unmuzzled, was snapping and kicking, but the bandits were staying clear of the flying hooves, rushing at Kevin when the horse was distracted. Annavieve was eventually forced to look away from Kevin’s fight because the bandit that was rushing towards her had finally reached the wagon.
The bandit smiled, toothless and dirty, and Annavieve remained outwardly calm. Inwardly, she was panicked, but she had to keep her head; it wasn’t in her nature to scream and run off. She had always been a level-headed woman as far as women went. She remained cool enough so that the man actually climbed onto the wheel of the wagon with the intention of getting to her on the bench. The moment he got close enough, she lifted a leg and, as hard as she could, kicked him squarely in the face.
The man fell off the wagon, backwards, and hit his head when he fell to the road below. Dazed, nearly unconscious, he wallowed in the dirt as Annavieve flew off the wagon bench, grabbed the nearest big rock she could find, and smashed him over the head with it, four times. By that time, the man was deeply unconscious and more than likely nearing death. Blood was already coming out of his ears.
Sickened, Annavieve stared at the man a moment, hardly believing what she had done. She had defended herself, shocked that she was capable of such a thing. She had no idea she possessed such courage. Oddly empowered now, she turned away from the man on the road and focused her attention on Kevin. He was still battling with the man on horseback as two other men, on their feet, tried to get to him. Kevin’s horse hadmanaged to bite one of the men so badly that his left arm was nearly torn off and that man was running, bleeding, back the way he had come. Now Kevin only had two men left and as Annavieve watched in horror, the man on the ground, with a clear shot at Kevin, plunged a dagger into the man’s left thigh.
It was a long dagger and it went deep. Horror-struck, Annavieve watched as Kevin continued to do battle with the man on horseback, never taking his eyes off of him in spite of a very big dagger in his leg. The horse, at this point, had swung its big head around and knocked the bandit who had stabbed Kevin off his feet. As the man fell back, Annavieve, with the big rock still in hand, rushed into the meadow.
By the time she reached the fight, the man who had been knocked down by the horse was just standing up. Annavieve rushed the man from behind and brained him, knocking him so hard on the head that she heard his skull crack. As he fell to the mashed grass, unconscious, she turned to the other man on the ground, the one with the massive neck wound, and smashed him on the head too. She didn’t want to chance any of them getting up again. Kevin’s dagger was still in the man’s neck and she yanked it free. Now, she had a proper weapon and she intended to use it.
There was one remaining bandit that Kevin was doing battle against but it was clear that Kevin was having some difficulty with the dagger in his leg. He wasn’t able to move easily, as if the dagger had somehow anchored him to the horse, like a stake, and the bandit on horseback was able to match him blow for blow, sometimes getting in behind him and trying to strike him from behind. Kevin, unable to easily move on the saddle, had made two attempts to remove the dagger but it seemed to be stuck. When the bandit tried to undercut him again from behind, Kevin switched the sword to his left hand and, with great skill, took a massive swipe at the man, catching him in the chest. Thebandit fell back and toppled off his horse, only to be set upon by Annavieve. With Kevin’s big dagger in her hand, she plunged it into the man’s chest to still him forever.
As quickly as the fight began, it was over. Kevin whirled his horse around in time to see Annavieve with her hands on the hilt of the dagger that was in his opponent’s chest. Everything was suddenly still around them with no more shouting or fighting, and even the birds and the animals had fled. It was simply still now, with still wind and still sky. Nothing was moving. Annavieve was staring at the man she had just killed when she heard Kevin’s soft voice.
“Annavieve,” he said. Failing to get her attention, he tried again. “Annavieve, my sweet, look at me. Look at me now.”
She didn’t respond for a moment but when she did finally look up at him, he could see that she was pale with shock. It was clear that she was stunned.
“Anna,” Kevin said, firmly. “Come here, now. I need your assistance.”
Stiffly, Annavieve moved in his direction and he directed her around to the left side of the horse. “I require your help with this dagger,” he said calmly. “It has gone all the way through my leg and has hooked on to something in my saddle. I cannot remove it and I need your help. You must try to free it as I pull.”
Annavieve looked at him, wide-eyed, before looking to the dagger in his leg; it had passed through the inner part of his thigh, missing bone and vital veins. Still, to see his leg impaled like that brought tears to her eyes. In fact, now that the situation was over, she was feeling strangely weak and dizzy. Closing her eyes tightly, her face crumpled and the tears came. She had to reach out to grab the saddle or she surely would have fallen.
