Horland shook Bree. “Are you well?”
Bree fought to inhale but it hurt too much. “I... can’t... breathe.”
He lifted her off him and sitting up, sat her in front of him. “Breathe.”
She did and immediately began choking.
“Breathe,” Horland insisted.
She tried again and while the breath hurt, it found its way into her lungs. She drew in a deep breath and another and another until finally she was breathing without difficulty or pain.
She grinned. “Well that was interesting.”
Horland appeared to have had his mind elsewhere but when his eyes focused on her, he smiled. “Exceedingly interesting.”
She wasn’t sure they were talking about the same thing, but she was delighted they were out of the trap and able to continue. She had to find out if her father was responsible for the trap. Something told her no, but as Horland said, he wasthe only person who would have reason to keep people away. But Bree knew he’d only do so out of grief, not for the unsavory reasons Horland thought.
Horland stood up and held his hand out to her. “Are you well enough to walk?”
She contemplated his large, strong hand, and tingling shivers made the hairs stand up on her entire body. She couldn’t help but remember what those lips felt like against hers. She shook her head. She was there to find her father, not fall for a knight. Sure, she would stay for a while to get to know Garlain, but she had to return to her time, to Garrett and Laura and their little baby girl. She promised Garrett she would.
Bree didn’t think it was a good idea for any part of her to touch him again. She nodded and got up herself.
Why was she thinking about Horland like that anyway? He kissed her, that was it; a kiss, nothing more. In fact, he never even mentioned it. Just because he was attracted to her didn’t mean he wanted a serious relationship. Knights probably had the pick of women, and while she wasn’t ugly, she knew she wasn’t the fairest of maidens. She let out another snort. Not with her frizzy red hair and freckles.
“We’d better get going,” Bree said.
Horland repositioned his pack over his shoulder and watching where he placed his feet, walked down the path. He said over his shoulder, “Watch where you step, there could be more traps.”
Bree hurried up to walk alongside him. “You keep an eye on that side and I’ll take this one.”
They’d only gone about thirty paces before Horland threw his arm out and her upper chest slammed into his arm of steel.
“Ouch, you could have just said stop.”
He grinned. “I didn’t have time to go into a long explanation as to why I wanted you to stop.”
“Very funny. I would have understood and stopped immediately.”
He kinked his head to the side and raised his brow. “Is that right?”
He pushed her to the side of the path and pointed at some rope peeking out from under leaf mulch. He said, “I couldn’t take that chance.”
It looked like another snare that would have hoisted one or both back into the air. A shiver of excitement trailed along the place where she’d run into his arm. Being smashed against Horland in a trap again wasn’t the worst thing Bree could think of. She eyed him. His eyes twinkled with humor.
“Ooh,” Bree said. “Let’s just go, okay?”
They skirted the trap and continued, examining anything that may have looked manmade.
Walking in silence, both focused on examining the landscape, and although finding the little girl was foremost in Bree’s mind, she couldn’t remember when she enjoyed being with a man as much as she was enjoying being with Horland. He was funny, sometimes too funny for his own good, but he was great company. Maybe she should ignore all the mind-bending reasons for not getting involved with someone like him and just enjoy his company. After all, it wasn’t as if she had fallen in love him, not like her cousins all had with the people they met in the pasts. She just liked him. He was different and he was someone she trusted to walk through a scary dark forest with.
Bree paused in her thoughts. She realized she hadn’t seen any more threads.
“Have you seen any more threads?”
Horland rubbed his chin. “I have not.”
“Do you think whoever took the girl, caught her leaving atrail?”
