Briana placed her hand on Horland’s forearm. Just like earlier, his heart jolted, and tingles shot up his arm. He gazed at her long fingers and noted her short nails. She was not apampered woman—she worked with her hands. He kept still in case she took her hand away. “Maybe something happened to Patricia while they were away, maybe something terrible, not something he did, but something he couldn’t stop.”
Horland set his jaw. Could that be true? An accident, perhaps? A sickness? But what of the child? Wouldn’t Garlain have returned with her? It didn’t make sense to Horland why Garlain would leave the castle, leave his friends and family, leave his duties. He was not the man to do so before he met Patricia. Had he changed so much in such a short time?
Horland pulled his legs under him, ready to stand up. “It is time to go.”
Briana stretched, her eyes squeezed shut and her arms high in the air. Horland couldn’t help but stare at her lengthened frame. The darkness of her emerald-green dress accentuated her red hair, and that in turn highlighted her creamy neck.
She opened her eyes and their gazes met. A pink blush filled her cheeks and his heart lurched at her beauty. The fact that she blushed told him she had seen him eyeing her like a drunken knight fresh from the latest battle.
Something about her look drew him in like an ant to sugar. But he couldn’t take his eyes off her, he couldn’t turn away, and he didn’t want to. The amber flecks in her eyes darkened as her gaze flicked to his mouth. She sucked her bottom lip, and he could stand it no longer. He leaned forward and caught her lips into his. They were as sweet as they appeared. He placed his hands gently on her shoulders and pressed his mouth harder against hers. She made a small noise deep in her throat at his move and then pulled away immediately.
She jumped up. “You’re right, it’s time to go, I’ll wake the girl.”
Horland sat there, unable to move. What had just happened? How could he have lost control? He’d dishonored his knight’s title. He studied her jittery movements. Had he scared her?
He’d thought earlier how glad he was that she accompanied him, but now that he was seeing her as the wondrous woman she was, he worried about becoming too close to her. He also worried his confused brain might put them all in danger.
He swallowed. He had to keep his distance from her, he had to focus on his objective, and that was to find Garlain, Patricia, and their baby.
Briana woke the child and helped her put on her cloak.
Horland squatted to let the child climb on his back and walked in silence to his destination. They weren’t far from the ruins, and if Princess Morla was there, she was another person he wanted answers from.
He quickened his pace—they only had just over an hour’s light left in the day, and he wanted to make as much progress as he could within that time.
Briana matched his steps and asked questions about the environment as she was wont to do. He liked her curiosity but decided to ignore her. He had to keep his wits about him; he had to know what happened to his friends.
Whether in his heart or mind, he didn’t know, but a feeling, a notion had filled his being that Patricia was indeed not safe, that something dreadful had happened to her. He mashed his lips together in a tight line. He didn’t want to think it, but the thought that Garlain had done something to her wouldn’t leave his mind.
Garlain had a temper, a fire that matched his flaming red hair. If he saw anyone hurting someone, he would be the first knight to rush in and make the offender rethink their actions.Horland gave his head a shake. His heart said Garlain would never hurt a woman, but his head argued that Horland didn’t know what a man might do when confronted with something that could make them go insane.
He glanced at Briana and shook his head. The right woman could indeed send a man mad.
Chapter 12
Bree was glad of the silence when they first continued their journey. She had a lot to think about. Not the kiss, she would think about that later. She didn’t have time to spend flirting with the handsome knight—she had to understand what Horland had told her. She glanced at Horland and little shivers ran over her body at the memory of the kiss.He was so gentle and oh help me, he tasted wonderful.She gave her head a small shake.Stop it.
She reined in her emotions and set about contemplating Horland’s story. From everything he had said, Bree realized she had had travelled back to the past only about a year after her father left her in the care of her grandmother.
How could Uncle Mark and Aunt Di let her go back to her father as a young man? There was no way he would believe she, a twenty-seven-year-old woman, was his daughter. As far as he was concerned, he’d left a six-year-old child a little more than a year ago. He would believe she was seven years old, not twenty-seven.
She examined Horland’s coat. Maybe she could steal the orb back, return to the future and reset both orbs so shecould arrive twenty-one years later into Horland and Garlain’s futures. She smiled inwardly.That could work.
She peeked at Horland again and bit her bottom lip. That would make him nearly as old as her father and whatever that kiss, the kiss she didn’t want to think about, meant would be gone. He wouldn’t know her as she was now; he would probably be married with a tribe of kids of his own.
Bree silently smacked herself.Why would that matter? It wasn’t as if I should care. I was going to go back to Garrett and Laura anyway. No. Horland means nothing to me.
Once she’d decided to get the orb back, Bree’s head cleared and the ache in her temples dissipated. She tried chatting to Horland, hoping to keep him amenable until she got her chance to grab the orb and go back to the future.
She thought she and Horland were finally getting along while he told her about her mother and father but no matter what she talked about, what questions she asked, he all but ignored her. Oh, sometimes he deigned to grunt an affirmative or negative to one of her questions, but there had to be a reason he gave her the cold shoulder.
She sucked in her bottom lip. And that reason had to be the kiss.He must be regretting kissing me. Maybe he didn’t feel what I felt; maybe his chest didn’t explode in passion like mine did.She shrugged.Maybe he just wasn’t into me.
She snorted. Why did she want him to act differently? No, it was better that they both just ignored the kiss and everything it might have meant in another time and place. Bree had to leave him and when she returned, he wouldn’t remember her or the kiss. The last thing she wanted was for him to have feelings for her when she came back. She sighed.Or me having feelings for him.
Because of his keenness to get to the ruins, they walked longer than Briana thought they would.
The night had fallen so quickly, and if there was a moon inthe sky above the canopy it must have been enshrouded in clouds, because not one moonbeam penetrated the forest roof.
